TENWINTRINITY CONTINUES CRICKETING DOMINANCE
Trinity College Cricket team with ten outright wins for the season are virtually assured of the schools under 19 cricket title and will now look forward to winning the limited over title which eluded them last year when they finished runners up to St. Joseph’s College.
Trinity College has scored ten outright wins this season, the most by any school and this also equalled their record of wins which they achieved last season. Last year they scored 8 wins in a row and this year they would have registered more wins if not for the fact that two matches were interrupted due to rain. Last year the Trinitians won the schools twenty 20 cricket tournament with ease.
This season skipper Niroshan Dickwella has scored 1090 runs despite missing four matches due to junior national team’s tour of India. Off spinner Janishka Premasinghe has borne the brunt of the bowling to capture 100 wickets. Premasinghe bagged his 100th wicket for the season in the game against Prince of Wales a couple of days back. The other top run getters are Dinuk Wickremanayake 850 (3 centuries), Janishka Premasinghe 550 runs, Akila Jayasundera 600 runs, Ron Chandragupta 500 runs while Arjuna Jayasinghe and Bhagya Palihawadana have each scored over 350 runs.
Lakshan Jayasinghe 50 wickets, Akila Jayasundera 60 wickets, Alvin Fernando 60 wickets and Amrith Srimahan 45 wickets make their attack a very formidable one.
Their cricket coach Sampath Perera has done an excellent job in getting the best out of his charges. His keenness and dedication to the challenge has paid dividends
Sylvester’s spinners to the fore
Two sixteen year old left arm spinners Sumedha Dissanayake 5 for 45 and Nimesha Mendis 3 for 76 bowled with guile and venom for St. Sylvester’s to dismiss Sri Sumangala College, Panadura for 208 in the opening day of their schools under 19 cricket tournament match which commenced at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday. The match will be resumed today at 9.30 a.m.
Sumedha Dissanayake has now captured 60 wickets while the younger of the two Nimesha Mendis has a season haul of 87 wickets. The Sylvestrians had replied with 3 for no loss when bad light stopped play at around 4 p.m.
Sri Sumangala College 208 all out in 76 overs (Anutha Tharaka 44, Lahiru Vimukthi 19, Madhawa Sakuranga 45, Geeth Sanjaya 14, Sumedha Dissanayake 5 for 49, Nimesha Mendis 3 for 76) St. Sylvester’s College 3 for no loss in 2 overs.
Saliya Kumara back in action
Kandy Sports Club’s last season’s captain elect and full back Saliya Kumara is now free to attend practices and play for the club as he has now completed serving the one year suspension clamped on him for consuming a performance enhancing drug during the Five Nations Rugby match between Sri Lanka and the Arabian Gulf played in Colombo last year.
Saliya Kumara was found guilty of the offence along with another Kandy Sports Club player Keith Gurusinghe and Swarnatillake from the Navy. This was on a random test carried out by the authorities.
Saliya Kumara is now attending practices along with Keith Gurusinghe and is strongly tipped to captain Kandy Sports Club this season when the club meets on March 10th for the election of the captain. Also attending practices are No. 8 Sean Wijesinghe, full back and stand off Nuwan Hettiarachchi and Buddhi Talagampola who missed playing last season due to injuries and for other reasons. The return of the five top players – all national players along with the two foreign players expected to don Kandy jersey will make the hill capital’s team a formidable one.
Last season Kandy Sports Club did not have a specialist player to man the last line of defence and to do the spot kicking following the suspension of Saliya Kumara and Nuwan Hettiarachchi being made not available. But with makeshift arrangements Kandy Sports performed remarkably well to win both the Caltex League title and the Clifford Cup knock tournament.
Kandy Sports Club’s South African born rugby coach Yohan Taylor is expected to return to the island today (Monday) and will resume the coaching sessions this week.