Nimesha bowls Antonians to victory

S.M. Jiffry ABDEEN - Kandy Sport Corres

A tantalizing spell of spin bowling by 16 year old Nimesha Gunasinghe who took 5 for 27 bowled St. Anthony's College, Kandy to a Six wicket win over Dharmaraja College in their inter-school cricket match concluded at Katugastota on Saturday. The Antonans won with five balls to spare.

Young Nimesha Gunasinghe bowled to a tidy length to have the Rajans batsmen in all sorts of trouble.

He had the prized wickets of junior national player and Rajans skipper Sadun Weerakkody, and junior national poolists Sasith Gunasekera which put the Rajans in a spot from which they never recovered Sadun Weerakkody has been very consistent this season and in fact it was his batting which saved the Rajans from certain defeat last week in the hands of Trinity College.

When the Rajans were struggling at 86 for 8 and it was same big hitting by tail-ender Nuwan Karunaratne who made 37 not out with 3 sixes and a four which helped them to go past the 130 mark.

Two of his sixes were off Nimesh Gunasinghe who would have otherwise had a more impressive figures.

In the morning session the Antontians continuing from their overnight total of 120 for 4 added 108 more runs which helped them to gain a substantial first innings bad of 74. Skipper Kanishka Ranaraja top scored with a neat 49 with 6 fours Having dismissed the Rajans for 136, the Antontians were set a victory target of 62 in 12 overs.

They ran into little problems before winning Madhushan Pusslla made 25 while junior national player Saranga Rajaguru in a brief knock made 13 with two massive sixes.

Dharmaraja College 154 all out and 136 all out in 42.5 overs (Viraj Karaputugala 29, Sadun Weerakkody 27, Sasith Gunasekara 12, Nuwan Karunaratne 37, K. Dissanayake 10. Buwaneka Wijetunga 2 for 25, Saranga Rajaguru 2 for 26, Nimesha Gunasinghe 5 for 27.

St Anthony's College 228 all out in 73.4 overs (Kanishka Ranaraja 49, Nimesha Gunasinghe 19, Saranga Rajaguru 13, Sadun Bulathsinghala 35, Romesh Macwin 25 not out Arvinda Withanarachchi 4 for 48, Nuwan Karunaratne 4 for 98) and 64 for 4 in 11.1 overs (Madushan Pussella 25, Saranga Rajaguru 13, Kanishka Ranaraja 17 not out).