School cricket season ends in hill capital

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

Another inter-school cricket season in the hill capital has come to an end which was overlapped by the schools rugby season which began in mid March while the big matches were still on. Looking back at the cricket season just concluded Trinity College though fiddling a side which was minus several of last year's top performers did well to remain unbeaten in the league. But they could not win the titles which they won last year.

They were the toast of Kandy last year winning the League title, the Limited over Championship and the Twenty20 to complete the triple which no school had done before. Dinuk Weerasinghe, Bhaghya Palihawadana, Rajith Jayatunga and Lakshitha Dassanayake and Ron Chandragupta did well with the bat.

The bowling honours went to Lakshan Jayasinghe, Ravin Sayers, Amrith Srimohan and Charith Sudaraka.

The Lions did well in the big match and also won the limited over clash against St. Anthony's College for the Sir Richard Aluwihare Trophy.

St. Anthony's College led by all-rounder Sachin Bulathsinghala had a season of mixed fortunes, fielding a fresher laden side and others who were in and out of the team last. One could not have expected more from them. They won 1 and lost 2.

Sachin Bulathsinghala was the mainstay of the side capturing 75 wickets and scoring 700 runs. Nimesha Gunasinghe scored over 650 runs but did not play to his potential.

Dharmarajah College perhaps fielding the best team in the hill capital could have performed much better. Consistency was lacking in them. When one top batsman strikes form the others failed. It was the same case with the bowlers.

Players like Nuwan Karunaratne, Aravinda Withanarachchi, Deneth Lanka, Kavindu Dissanayake, Chandimal de Silva, Lakshan Silva had the potential to perform better.

The big match against the weak Kingswood College was saved due to courageous knock of 35 not out by young Tharusha Weragoda followed by the rains. The Rajans won the limited over clash against Kingswood.

Kingswood College did reasonably well fielding a young side winning two and losing two. The available talent was raw and they were compelled to experiment with over 20 players according to their Master In Charge Captain Sunil Herath. St. Sylvester's College plagued by injuries and poor form their key players had moderate success and will remain in the schools ‘A’ division next year. They did well to win the limited over clash against Vidyartha but their Twnety20 match ended in a tie.

Vidyartha College could boast that they had the highest number of outright wins among the Kandy Schools numbering 5 perhaps the highest in their history.

Sri Sumangala College following internal administrative problems started the season late played just 2 matches and Ahamed Muaaz re-wrote history by scoring twin hundreds in a match.