St. Joseph’s College and Thurstan College tied their ‘Singer’ under 19 all island limited overs semi-final encounter when both teams finished deadlock on 218 at Bloomfield grounds on Wednesday.
Thurstan skipper Kavindu Kulasekara won the toss and elected to bat first in a crucial semi-final game. Thurstan lost few quick wickets early on and due to the impressive bowling effort by the Josephian bowlers they battled hard to score runs according to their plan. Right handed opening batsman Sajith Gunathilake provided the base for the Thurstanites as he scored 67 runs in 92 balls stroking 8 elegant boundaries. Thimira Jayasinghe chipped in with 20 runs for to help out the early crisis as Thimira and Sajith produced a 52 runs partnership for the 3rd wicket.
Skipper Kavindu Kulasekara was the best batsman for Thurstan in the middle overs as he played a valuable anchor role knock of 70 runs in 85 balls with 8 fours and a massive six. Youngster Charana Nanayakkara scored quick blitz inning of 31 runs in 19 balls to propel the Thurstan score to 218/8 in 50 overs. Right arm leg spinner Aravinda Akurugoda scalped 3 wickets for 39 runs while Right arm medium fast bowler Duran De Alwis took 2 early wickets.
Chasing 219 runs to seal their place in the finals, St. Joseph’s College lost their opening batsman Duran De Alwis early on when he was clean bowled by Achintha Kalpan. Seasoned campaigners in Dylan Fernandopulle and Sadeera Samarawickrama continued to steer the Josephian ship to victory as the 2nd wicket pair put on 50 runs. After Dylan’s dismissal Sadeera found a supporting partner in Pathum Madusanka. Sadeera and Pathum were involved in a 72 runs partnership for the 3rd wicket.
Josephians were in a terrific position to bag the game when they were 207 for 5 wickets but the loss of set batsman Yashan Samarasinghe for 33 triggered a minor setback and Thurstan pounced on the chance to come back into the game. Josephians needed 2 runs off the final over with 2 wickets in hand to win the game but Thurstan skipper Kavindu Kulasekara bowled a match saving last over with Josephian No.11 Malshan Rodrigo being only able to score a single run in the last over. Arjun Goonawardene, Kavindu Kulasekara and Ayesh Weeraratne were the pick of the bowlers as all three bowlers took 2 wickets apiece.
Match will be replayed again according to the Match Referee. New date and venue for the re-match will be notified soon.
