Three games of the ongoing Schools first-XI Cricket tournament were worked off across the two tiers today (10) around the island.
The standout performer of the day was Pulidu Perera of Dharmaraja College, Kandy, who struck a flamboyant century against the visiting Zahira College team in a tier B encounter. His wonderful innings saw the Rajans post 267 runs for the first innings. What impressed the most about Pulidu’s knock was that the left-handed opener scored at an explosive strike rate of over 150.
He was so unstoppable at the centre that the Zahirians ended up using 8 bowlers in the innings.
At the end it was a simple victory for the hosts who restricted the Zahirian batters for 169 runs.
Kandy was a busy town today for schools Cricket as another exciting fixture was worked off at a few kilometres descend from the Lake View grounds, at the Asgiriya Stadium where the Trinitians locked horns with the Royalists.
The Southpaw Theeraka Ranathunga’s all-round blitz helped the Kandy school to hold their fort, as Royal College suffered a 45-run defeat.
Coming in late at a time when his team needed someone to put up their hand and bring them out of danger, Ranathunga stepped up with the bat, scoring a fighting 47 runs and remained unbeaten. He took his team from 127 for 7 to 191 runs at the end of their quota of overs.
He was also excellent with the ball in hand, which is his strong suit. The left-arm spinner picked up 4 wickets for just 15 runs in his 6 overs.
The Thomians too engaged in a tournament fixture against Gurukula College today. The game was played at the school by the sea in Mount Lavinia.
The visiting Gurukula team pulled off a 5-wicket victory as the Thomians managed only 142 runs in the first innings of the game.
Senior player, Romesh Mendis, was the only decent performer with the bat as the right-hander scored 46 runs walking in at No. 4.
Hiruna Nimsara was the major wrecker for Gurukula College as he returned figures of 3 for 15, while Janitha Shehan joined him in the assault picking up 3 for 21.
It was a rather convincing chase from the Kelaniya boys as Denura Demansith led the batting with 44 runs to see his team go past the line with ease.
Although Gurukula College was painstakingly slow in that chase, they managed to reach the target with over 2 overs to spare.
Brief Scores
Dharmaraja College, Kandy vs Zahira College, Colombo
Dharmaraja College 267 (48.4)
Pulidu Perera 137, Isuru Pannala 47, Nisala Abeyrathnae 29, Mohamed Retai Salman 4/70, Mohamed Saker Abdul Azeez 3/40
Zahira College 169 (42.1)
Baba Raeed Roshan 53, Mohamed Umar 45, Nisala Abeyrathne 2/23, Thisaru Wanninayaka 2/36
DHARMARAJA COLLEGE WON BY 98 RUNS
Trinity College, Kandy vs Royal College, Colombo
Trinity College 191/7 (50)
Theeraka Ranathunga 47*, Manula Kularathne 37, Jayavi Liyanagama 36, Dinusha Pieris 28*, Dasis Manchanayake 3/28, Sineth Jayawardena 2/30
Royal College 146 (40.1)
Sineth Jayawardena 41, Dasis Manchanayake 39, Sanvidu Senaratharachchi 31, Theeraka Ranathunga 4/15, Tharana Wimaladharma 3/21
TRINITY COLLEGE WON BY 45 RUNS
S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia vs Gurukula College, Kelaniya
S. Thomas’ College 142 (46.2)
Romesh Mendis 46, Akash Fernando 26, Hiruna Nimsara 3/15, Janitha Shehan 3/21, Poorna Kalhara 2/14
Gurukula College 146/5 (47.3)
Denura Demansith 44, Janitha Shehan 28, Janith Mihiranga 20*, Charuka Peiris 2/17, Akash Fernando 2/24
GURUKULA COLLEGE WON BY 5 WICKETS
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