The contest has gathered a hectic pace as end nears

While S. Thomas' College skipper and leg- spinner Dellon Peiris continues his stronghold in the All- Island Schools category of the Dialog 4G- the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy / Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018, Vihan Gunasekara of D. S. Senanayake College is showing rapid progress as the contest completes the 23rd week.

Vihan indicated that he is on a mission two weeks ago and since then he has accelerated at great speed to come within sights of beating second placed Sachin Silva of St. Peter's College. Last week the deficit between Sachin and Vihan was 5117, and by this week it has come down to 1017, showing that by next week more surprises could be expected.

Meanwhile Dellon continues to lead the list by taking his tally to 30068, after adding 1368 combined votes, while maintaining a healthy lead of 11271 from ahead of Sachin. Sachin on the other hand makes his usual journey by adding 921 combined votes to reach 18797. The gap between Dellon and Vihan reads as 12288 and with three more counts remaining, the race promises to be very exciting. The rest of the lineup in the category remains unchanged.

Denuwan Perera of Carey College continues to lead the Emerging Schools category with a tally of 16961, with the addition of 1217 votes. But he seems to be in a bit of a trouble with the progress of Kenula Gunaratne of St. Aloysius College, Ratnapura. Kenula has been making a gradual improvement during the past couple of weeks with his progress and by the end of this weekend he closes in to Denuwan by a gap of 1829 votes. Last week the deficit was 3147.

Sonara Karunathunga and Thimira Malshan, both of Ananda Sasthralaya are at third and fourth positions respect ively. Kavindu Shilpage of Siri Piyarathana Padukka emerges with a good collection of combined votes to push away Heshan Madushanka of Piliyandala Central to claim the fifth spot this week.

Harshitha of Anula Vidyalaya, continues to lead the Girls' Schools category and she continues to impress with a handsome addition of 3670 combined votes, which would easily secure her stronghold. Harshitha's tally reaches 17889 and she stands 9788 votes ahead of Pabasara Ranabahu of Rathnavali Girls' School Gampaha. Pabasara takes her tally to 8101. Kaveesha Dilhani of Devapathiraja MV, Rathgama and Ruwini Nandasena of St. Joseph's Girls' School are the other two contenders in the list.