Salgado increases his lead further

None of other schoolboy cricketers in the competition have failed to counter Sajeewa Salgado, the Thurstan College skipper from leading at the Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2012 for the sixth consecutive week. Salgado has further lengthened his lead by 1715 votes. However Angelo Jayasinghe of Maris Stella made a sudden spurt to the second slot pushing down Charith Ruchiranga of Royal Panadura to third place. Last week Jayasinghe was just 19 votes behind Ruchiranga. But this week Jayasinghe gained a massive lead by 594 votes from Ruchiranga while receiving most number of votes during the past week.

Madhawa Perera of Royal Panadura too gained momentum this week by jumping two places to No.4 while Lakshan Edirisinghe of Zahira and Kavindu Ashan of Royal Panadura dropped one place. As it stands the competition has all the potential to be a showdown among Ruchiranga, Madhawa, Edirisinghe and Ashan in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile Dishan Dissanayake of St. Joseph’s, S. Thomas’ skipper Sachin Peiris, Maris Stella all-rounder Shehan Dilasri, St. Benedict’s skipper Jason Perera and Peterite Thanusha Jayawardane is in a heated battle within the competition.

In the Emerging Schools competition Sasindu Perera of St. John’s Panadura is clearly ahead of the rest. Shenal Deelaka of Piliyandala Central is in second place. The International Schools category, turning out to be the most exciting of all three categories as the battle seems to be intensifying among the top three competitors. However Lakshan Kodagoda of Gateway Inter- national still managed to maintain a clear lead from his two possible rivals Nishan Perera of Lyceum Nugegoda and Shehan Hettiarachchi of Royal Institute.

The gap among Kodagoda, Perera and Hettiarachchi is not so huge considering the amount of votes they receive each week. In the coming weeks, possibly the battle could gather momentum.

Readers can send in as many coupons as they wish until May 23.