Isipathana making steady progress

Thushan JAYASURIYA

Isipathana College Colombo , with their new line up of talented young cricketers is making steady progress in the inter-school under 19 cricket tourney. They are aiming to get maximum out of this season which will provide plenty of experience to their budding players.

This year of course they became stronger with their victories while competing in the inter-school under 19 Division I tourney, organized by Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association.

They have already had some experiences playing against the giants in the field of school cricket last year. The team is captained by Harith Wanigaarachchi who has had reasonable success in both batting and bowling in Inter-school matches. Last season , he scored around 680 in 13 matches. He has scored a total of above 600 runs in the inter-school tournaments this season. His highest individual score is 117 against Dharmapala Pannipitiya. He helped Isipathana with his superb bowling by bagging 30 wickets in 13 matches in the last season and this year he came up with more than 20 wickets in 11 matches. He steers up the team with the well support of other players. Second year coloursman, Deshan Jayakumar who is another senior player is the Vice Captain of the side. Last season he scored more than 300 runs. This year he has scored around 260 runs.

Charith Rajapakse, Gihan Ravishan and Sidath Vimukthi are some of the top players in the team. Right arm fast bowler Gihan Ravishan has taken 27 wickets from 11 matches played so far.

Second year player, right hander batsman Pawan Anjana has become stronger with more than 300 runs.

This season he collected more than 250runs in 11 matches.

The under 19 Cricket team of Isipathana College has shown tremendous performances without a proper ground of their own for cricket practices and hosting of their home matches during season.

Third year player Sidath Vimukthi , is the next star player of the team, having taken 40 wickets in 13 matches in this season. His best bowling display is five wickets for 52 against President's College, Rajagiriya.This year he bagged six wickets for 48 against Nalanda College,Colombo.

Bradman Ediriweera, the coach of the Isipathana under 19 team , said that the team is improving day by day and he is happy about the current situation of the team. And he said that the team will go ahead in the coming tournament with their superb performances. Apart from that he mentioned that team gets full support of Principal A.C. Perera ,Old Boys Association, Cricket Committee and Prefect of Games Gamini Sarathchandra.

The rest of the players in the team are Matheesha Ranaweera, Chenutha Wickramasinghe, Charith Rajapakse, Ramitha Sandaruwan, Malin Dias, Kaminda Dhananjaya, Vimukthi Dhananjaya, Dilan Punchihewa, Kelum Bastiansz , Sandeep Himasha, Ushan Perera and Pasindu Gayan.