Sachin, Malinga and Sahan still in the lead
Nothing seems to bother Sachin Dalpethado as the leader of the 36th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015. With just two weekends remaining before the end of the competition, Sachin has expanded his lead further by 2509, taking his tally to 18607 in the All-Island Schools segment. He leads second seed Malinga Amarasinghe of Nalanda College by 4769 votes, relatively low deficit than of last week’s 5312.
Malinga added 3052 to his account, pushing the tally further to 13838 to keep his hopes intact as the end of the competition closes in. Others in the list, beginning fromAravindaAkurugoda of St. Joseph’s College – the third in line – Himesha Ranganath of Royal College Panadura, St. Joseph’s College skipper Pathum Madushanka, last year’s winner Randev Pathirana of Royal College Colombo, Lakshina Rodrigo of St. Peter’s College, Charith Asalanka of Richmond College and Shehan Weerasinghe of Zahira College remain at their respective slots from third to ninth.
The notable progress was made by Thurstan College skipper Thimira Jayasinghe, who jumped three places up into the top ten. Last week’s addition of 180 votes was enough to dislodge Harith Samarasinghe of Royal College from the tenth slot. Harith, Ravin Sayer of Trinity College, Sachindu Kolambage of Maris Stella College, Wanindu Hasaranga of Richmond College and Dineth Navodya of St. Peter’s College are in from 11th to 15th.
As Sachin in theAll-Island Schools, Nipun Malinga of Vidyaloka College Galle continues to hold forte in the Emerging Schools contest. He relaxes with ease as Udith Dilsara of St. Peter’s College Negombo still has failed to provide at least a little extra pressure. However, the gap between the two has now expanded to 1571, a margin that can be achieved within a matter of a week or so.
Sahan Thennakoon of Lyceum International Panadura still holds the lead of the International Schools segment but Shimraz Shahill of Alethea Interantional School is still very much on the pursuit and seems not ready to give up that easy. The deficit between the two sole contenders of the International Schools segment is 804 and it makes the competition more interesting with just 11 days to go.
Coupons of the 36th Batathe Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015 will appear on Wijeya Newspaper’s dailies, the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa and also its weekend English issue, the Sunday Times and the Sinhala weekly Deshaya. Readers will be able to send in as much as coupons in favour of their favourite schoolboy cricketer until June 11. The competition ends on June 7 but coupons will be received till 12.00 noon June 11.