Former Peterite all-rounder Malin Silva produced a superb all-round performance as he led his Old Peterites outfit to win the 47th Saints Quadrangular cricket tournament beating the Old Josephians convincingly by 89 runs in the final played at St. Peter’s grounds on Sunday.
Persistent rain marred the semi-finals on Saturday and duly the Old Josephians qualified for the finals after winning the toss of coin against the Old Anthonians while the Old Peterites won a 10-over contest against the Old Benedictines.
The wet outfield delayed the commencement of the final and the game started at 1.00pm and it was a 25-over affair. Many past Josephian and Peterite cricket captains took the field in an epic battle for supremacy among the Saints in Sri Lanka. Old Peterite skipper Malin Silva won the toss and elected to bat first on a newly laid turf wicket at Bambalapitiya.
The Old Peterites lost few early wickets as the Old Josephian medium fast bowlers made inroads into the strong batting lineup which comprised national players such as Malinda Warnapura and Angelo Perera while the Josephian lineup had former Test player Micheal Vandort. After being 31/3, 2009 Peterite skipper Angelo Perera and Lahiru Milantha guided the Peterite innings with an excellent 61 run partnership before Ranesh Perera and off-spinner Rajeewa Weerasinghe removed both the set batsmen for 35 and 28 respectively.
The Old Peterite innings was in tatters as they were 110 for 7 with only little less than 40 balls remaining as the Old Josephian spinners tightened the screws on their arch-rivals. 8th wicket partnership of Malin Silva and Chathura Peiris blossomed for the hosts as they counter-attacked the Old Josephian lineup to muster an unbroken 71-run partnership to take their total to 181/7 in 25 overs. Chathura remained unbeaten on 32 while his senior partner Malin made 38 in 21 balls with 3 sixes. 2007 Josephian Captain Rajeewa Weerasinghe captured 1 wicket and bowled impressively while 2010 and 2011 Josephian Captains, Dinal Dhambarage and Roscoe Thatil scalped a wicket each.
Chasing a daunting target of 182, the Old Josephians lost their star opener Micheal Vandort early on and from their onwards, the Josephian batting looked out of sorts against quality spin bowling of left-arm spinner Sohan Boralessa and medium pace of Malin Silva as they ripped through the Josephian batting unit. Left hander Tharindu Ariyawansa made 19 runs at the top of the innings while Rajeewa Weerasinghe injected some impetus to the Old Josephian innings as he made 26 valuable runs before being dismissed as the final batsman. Sohan captured 3 wickets while Malin took 2 scalps for the Old Peterites as they bowled out their big-match rivals, Old Josephians for a mere 92 runs.
Chief Scores:
Old Peterites – 181/7 in 25 overs: Angelo Perera 35, Hans Fernando 20, Lahiru Milantha 28, Malin Silva 38*, Chathura Peiris 32*, Rajeewa Weerasinghe 1/35, Roscoe Thatil 1/21, Umesh Ruberu 1/14, Dinal Dhambarage 1/29.
Old Josephians – 92 all out in 23.3 overs: Tharindu Ariyawansa 19, Rajeewa Weerasinghe 26, Sohan Boralessa 3/19, Malin Silva 2/24, Crishantha Peiris 1/11.
Individual Awards:
Best Batsman – Chathura Peiris
Best Fielder – Lahiru Milantha
Best Bowler – Sohan Boralessa
Man of the Match – Malin Silva
