Trinity continue winning trend
The matches completed during the week saw Trinity keeping up their winning trend when they chalked up their fifth outright for the season with a crushing innings win over St Servatius Matara which was played at Matara.
Another team to put up a sterling performance was Maliyadeva Kurunegala who in fact is the only school team from Kurunegala playing in the top division.
Maliyadeva recorded back to back outright wins. They first recorded a four wicket win over the high riding St Benedict’s at Kurunegala and three days later they completely outclassed Dharmapala by an innings at Pannipitiya.
S de S. Jayasinghe MMV Dehiwela though playing in the Division II could be deemed as the most successful inter-school cricket team this season and they are going great guns.
S de S. Jayasinghe MMV have so far recorded nine outright wins from the 14 matches that they have played so far. Their last success which was on Thursday was against Kingswood Kandy and prior to that the other outright wins were against Tissa MMV Kalutara, Taxila Central Horana, Piliyandala Central, Wayamba Royal, CWW Kannangara MMV Colombo, St John’s Nugegoda, and President’s College Kotte.
The other schools to record outright wins were St Peter’s, St Sebastian’s, DSS, Sri Sumangala Hikkaduwa, Carey, De La Salle Modera, President’s Kotte, Devapathiraja MMV Rathgama, Kingswood, D.S. Senanayake MMV Tholangamuwa, Pannala National School, St Sebastian’s Katuneriya, Revatha MMV, Moratu MV and Kegalu MV.
In the other matches completed saw Richmond, Maris Stella Negombo, Holy Cross Kalutara, Isipathana, Dharmasoka MV Ambalangoda and Mahanama Colombo registering first inning wins.
Dharmasoka MV are also having a successful season as they got the better of the formidable Trinity with a first inning win. Trinity two days prior to this recorded an outright victory over St Servatius Matara. So Dharmasoka MV is the side to keep an eye on this season.
In the outright wins that were recorded Trinity was too good for the hapless Servatians who got drubbed by an innings and 61 runs. St Sebastian’s recorded their third win for the season while inflicting the second defeat for Royal.
Royal playing with a depleted side sans their seven senior players was no match for the Sebs who posted a formidable score of 286 in reply to Royals 176. Royals’ weakness in their batting was visible as they folded up for a meager 118 leaving the Sebs a simple target of nine runs.
St Peter’s win against Wesley was their second for the season. They were lucky as the Wesleyites threw the match away when they were on the brink of victory. The first inning of both the sides was a low scoring affair with St Peter’s making 148 and Wesley being restricted to 94. In the second innings too St Peter’s did not make any impression as again they were shot out for 149.
Wesley chasing a gettable target of 204 runs was wrecked by left arm spinner Julian de Zylwa who did the damage in the first inning too capturing six wickets as he again repeated the feat to bowl out the Wesleyites for a score of 185. Julian ended with impressive match figures of 12 for 78.
Maliyadeva victory over St Benedict’s was a great achievement due to the fact that the Bens came into the game with two outright wins over Ananda whom they were defeating after a lapse of four decades and Wesley.
It was a closely contested game with the pendulum swinging either way. Maliyadeva after restricting the Bens for 150 made 177 to hold on to a slender 27 runs lead. But they fought back to bundle out their opponents for 110 in the second innings.
The victory target of 84 runs for Maliyadeva looked easy on paper but they underwent some anxious moments before pulling off a well deserved four wicket victory. In contrast Maliyadeva’s second win three days later against Dharmapala Pannipitiya was a cake walk. The hero of their victory was Rasanjana Jayaratne who made an unbeaten 167 which laid the foundation for the win. Rasanajan’s knock saw the Devans make a massive 346 for 6 and their bowlers rallied together to skittle out the Palians to low scores of 131 and 135.
S de S. Jayasinghe MMV Dehiwela the team that was highlighted last week with seven wins recorded two more and the best of the two was four wicket win over Kingswood.
Hashan Hewanayake who had the honour of being first to take 100 wickets this season was the architect of their victory. He had a five wicket haul in demolishing Kingswood to a score of 95 in the first inning after they had made 178. Kingswood chasing a target of 218 runs for victory had to little to offer in the second innings too as they failed miserably being shot out for 98. Incidentally this is the first time S de S. Jayasinghe MMV is confronting Kingswood.finally the officials of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association should make note of the sub standard umpiring as fingers are being pointed towards the umpires by prominent players who have played the game at the highest level who are spectators in some of the important games that is being contested between top cricket playing schools.