Sri Lanka Schools: Lumbini seem set for final round berth (19 February 1999)

19 February 1999

Sri Lanka Schools: Lumbini seem set for final round berth

Chris Dhambarage

Lumbini Maha Vidyalaya with a total of five victories to their credit have put themselves in contention for a place in the final round of the Elephant Lemonade Cup inter school cricket tournament.

They have registered the most number of wins in the 'A' Division League and are currently placed third in the points table with an unbeaten record. They have certainly overshadowed some of the more fancied teams and are even making a strong claim to clinch the League title.

However St.Joseph's College and Ananda are favoured to win the title considering their present form in the tournament. Both teams have recorded four victories but the Anandians seem to have the advantage of having played a lesser number of games than their closest rivals.

The Anandians further boosted their chances of regaining the title by scoring over 300 runs in their drawn fixture against Mahinda worked off at Ananda Mawatha. The feature in their batting was the two opening stands between Lakshan Fernando and Dinusha Bandara. The pair put on 131 runs in the first innings and then produced a similar performance in the second innings too with a stand of 111 runs.

But the Anandians would be somewhat disappointed that they failed to produce a result after having completely dominated the game. They struggled to dismiss the opposition in the first innings with the Mahinda late order batsmen putting up a determined performance. The visitors who were badly placed at one stage recovered well and more importantly they averted the follow on mark before declaring at 212 for 9.

Meanwhile Wesley College who are placed fifth in the points table had to be content with a draw in their 106th annual fixture against Royal played at Campbell Park.

However the Wesleyites did make a fine attempt to force a result while setting their opponents a victory target of 161 runs from 22 overs. Royal too responded well but soon they lost half their side for 87 runs and eventually put up their shutters and settled down for a draw.

St. Peter's College took major honours in their drawn fixture against St.Benedict's College at Kotahena. The Peterites continued with their excellent batting form and reached the two hundred run mark quite convincingly while losing just four wickets. Suranga Pinto was in good form and completed another half century with the support coming from S.Gunasekera and D.Rupasinghe.

The Benedictines however fought back well in their second innings through the individual brilliance of Channa Devabandu who completed twin fifties in the match. But his knock of 85 in the second innings was more important as they were up against some penetrative bowling and were making a desperate attempt to force a draw.

Rashan Peiris of Prince of Wales College reached a personal milestone and completed one thousand runs for the season in their drawn encounter against Richmond worked off at Moratuwa yesterday. Peiris achieved this feat during his knock of 68 in the second innings and the Cambrians also won the Major A.P.M. Peiris trophy after gaining first innings points over their opponents.

Nalanda probably came out with their best batting performance for the season scoring 327 runs in their drawn game against Dharmapala MV at Pannipitiya. The entire top order clicked well with S. Peiris and M. Porage compiling two good half centuries.

P W L D Runs Wkts Pts Pty Ave D.S. Senanayake 5 1 0 4 1227 74 34.650 0 6.930 St. Joseph's 12 4 0 8 2954 188 81.963 0 6.830 Lumbini MV 8 5 0 3 2266 136 54.001 0 6.750 Wesley 5 1 0 4 1108 58 33.243 0 6.649 President's Col 6 0 0 6 2021 80 38.737 0 6.456 Ananda 10 4 0 6 2528 169 63.668 0 6.367 S.Thomas' 12 2 0 10 3019 140 71.878 0 5.990 Raddoluwa MV 10 3 0 7 2779 154 59.885 0 5.989 St.Sylvester's 4 0 0 4 944 46 23.747 0 5.937 St.Sebastian's 13 1 1 11 3711 145 76.266 0 5.867 Maris Stella 8 1 0 7 2336 104 46.457 0 5.809 Isipatana 6 0 0 6 1870 65 35.687 0.30 5.565 Kalutara MV 8 1 1 6 2226 110 43.131 0 5.391 Trinity 6 1 0 5 1085 60 27.824 0 4.637 Dharmasoka 6 0 1 5 1258 62 27.314 2.00 4.219 Dharmapala 10 0 3 7 2885 75 37.855 0 3.736 St. Aloysius 7 0 3 4 1377 92 26.551 0.10 3.779

P W L D Runs Wkts Pts Pty Ave St. Anne's 6 2 1 3 1251 81 64.931 0 10.522 Vidyartha 3 1 0 2 698 42 29.957 0 9.986 Joseph Vaz 3 0 0 3 716 29 29.134 0 9.711 SJPMV 8 0 1 7 2201 93 70.143 0 8.769 St.Anthony's (K) 9 0 0 9 2098 88 75.262 0 8.302 Mahinda 9 1 0 8 1565 104 75.020 0 8.336 Mahanama 5 1 1 3 1124 84 38.881 0 7.776 St.John's (P) 7 2 0 5 1592 86 53.907 0 7.701 Zahira 4 0 0 4 1322 45 30.777 0 7.644 Maliyadeva 6 0 2 4 1103 41 41.878 0 6.950 Moratu MV 8 2 1 5 1718 109 54.071 0 6.754 Sri Rahula 3 0 0 3 728 36 18.026 0 6.009 Sri Piyaratne MV 2 0 0 2 544 16 11.413 0 5.707 Kingswood 5 0 3 2 1001 50 27.767 0 5.553 Taxila MMV 9 3 1 5 2527 153 43.495 0 4.883 Gurukula MV 8 0 4 4 2064 66 31.298 0 3.912 S.Thomas' Matale 4 2 1 1 869 69 12.632 0 3.158

Note: Tabulated under played, won, lost, drawn, runs, wickets, total points, penalties and average.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)