The Josephian spinners destroyed the Maris Stella batting twice within 60s as St. Joseph’s College recorded their first win for the season when they beat the hosts by an innings and 77 runs in their under 19 division 1 fixture ended on Wednesday at Kadirana.
The Josephian skipper Pathum Madusanka won the toss and elected to bat first on a slow and low surface. The visiting openers, Shewon Fonseka and Sandaruwan Rodrigo put on 52 runs before a slight batting collapse halted them of getting to a massive score but the revival came from two 15-year old players, Jehan Daniel and Nipun Sumanasinghe as both of them got to half-centuries as St. Joseph’s posted 206 runs. Srimath Jeewana and Pasindu Madawa captured 3 wickets apiece.
The boys from Negombo struggled drastically at the hands of the Josephian leg-spinner Aravinda Akurugoda who tormented the hosts with a superb spell of 17 overs and captured 6 wickets for only 6 runs. Left-arm spinner Harin Cooray took 2 scalps while Krishan Dushmantha top-scored with 19 runs as Maris Stella were bowled out for a mere 66 runs.
Joes enforced the follow on and their spinners were all over the Maris Stella batsmen once again as they ripped through their batting lineup to register a convincing win. Off-spinner and Vice-Captain Hashindra Perera captured 4 scalps while Harin Cooray chipped in with 3 wickets as the hosts were bundled out for 63 runs. Krishan Dushmantha once again scored the most runs with 28.
Chief Scores:
St. Joseph’s – 206 all out in 59.2 overs: Shewon Fonseka 32, Sandaruwan Rodrigo 24, Nipun Sumanasinghe 50, Jehan Daniel 58, Srimath Jeewana 3/35, Pasindu Madawa 3/27, Ravindu Fernando 2/38.
Maris Stella (1st inn) – 66 all out in 43 overs: Krishan Dushmantha 19, Arvinda Akurugoda 6/6, Harin Cooray 2/6.
Maris Stella (2nd inn) – 63 all out in 38.1 overs: Krishan Dushmantha 28, Harin Cooray 3/15, Hashindra Perera 4/6.
