Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

Pradyun completes 1,000 runs in U-17 cricket

- (SP)

Teenage batting sensation Pradyun Saikia of The British School in Colombo had the unique distinctio­n of completing 1,000 runs during the Inter-schools Under-17 Division Three Cricket Tournament.

The Indian-born elegant left-hander finished with an aggregate of 1,442 runs from 14 innings while becoming the first batsman to achieve this feat in the current Under-17 Cricket Tournament.

Saikia joined the British School at the age of 10 and since then he has turned out be a prolific run-getter in junior and senior cricket tournament­s under the guidance of Coach Aruna Batapolaar­achchi.

Saikia started his campaign in the most spectacula­r manner as he smashed an unbeaten 300 in the opening fixture against Science College, Mount Lavinia. He followed this up with backto-back centuries against Hindu College (120) and President’s College Maharagama (102 n.o) respective­ly. He then completed the first-round stage of the tournament in grand style by compiling an unbeaten 228 in the match against Rajasinghe Central College, Hanwella.

He of course started the second-round of the tournament with a duck but made amends with contributi­ons of 48, 58 and 84 in the next three innings. He then came into his own while scoring two successive hundreds against Subarathi MMV

(188) and Raddoluwa

Central College (109) respective­ly.

He continued his outstandin­g form with useful contributi­ons of

28 not out against Tzu Chi National School, Hambantota, 35 against Dudley Senanayake Mv,tholangamu­wa and 84 against Lyceum Internatio­nal School.

Saikia eventually reached his milestone by scoring a solid 58 runs in their last match of the tournament against Kadawatha Central College.

Saikia joined the British School at the age of 10 and since then he has turned out be a prolific run-getter in junior and senior cricket tournament­s under the guidance of Coach Aruna Batapolaar­achchi

 ??  ?? Pradyun Saikia
Pradyun Saikia

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