St. Joseph’s, Royal advance to final

By M. Shamil Amit

St. Joseph’s College and Royal College Colombo advanced to the final of the Under 19 Division One Tier A inter-school limited over cricket tournament when they recorded easy wins over Trinity College and Mahanama Colombo respectively yesterday.

At Maggona, unbeaten knocks of 93 in 116 balls inclusive of ten boundaries by Sheran Fonseka and 62 in 98 balls with five boundaries by Sadeesha Jayawardena paved the way for St. Joseph’s to coast to an easy ten-wicket win over Trinity.

Trinity taking first lease of the wicket, despite two good knocks by Pawan Pathiraja and Akram Muthalib, were restricted to a score of 160.  St. Joseph’s in their run chase reached the target with ease in the 36th over.
An unbeaten 85 by Sadisha Rajapakse and 62 by Sehan Herath paved the way for Royal College to record a comfortable six-wicket win over Mahanama at Moratuwa.

Rajapakse was the hero of the Royal side as, apart from his match winning knock, he was involved in two fruitful partnerships, first of 116 runs for the third wicket with Herath and the other of 45 runs for the fourth wicket with skipper Ahan Wickramasinghe for Royal chasing 210 runs for victory to race to the target in the 47th over.
Earlier in the day Mahanama’s prolific batsman Pavan Ratnayake made a top score of 114 runs to help his side, taking first lease of the wicket, make a modest score of 209 runs which in the end proved to be in vain.
St. Joseph’s and Royal will clash in the final on May 1 scheduled to be played at the NCC ground.

Results:

At Maggona – St. Joseph’s won by ten wickets
Trinity 160 in 49.4 overs (Pawan Pathiraja 61, Akram Muthalib 49, Vibawith Ehelapola 15: Mithira Thenura 3 for 26, Dunith Wellalage 3 for 32, Shenuka de Silva 2 for 30)
St. Joseph’s 161 for 0 in 35.4 overs (Sheran Fonseka 93 n.o., Sadeesh Jayawardena 62 n.o.)
At Moratuwa – Royal won by six wickets
Mahanama 209 for 8 in 50 overs (Pavan Ratnayake 114, Vinuka Rubasinghe 33, Sadishan Chamodya 16: Sonal Amarasekera 3 for 29)
Royal 210 for 4 in 47 overs (Sehan Herath 62, Ahan Wickramasinghe 27, Sadisha Rajapakse 85 n.o.)