The individual brilliance of Dunith Wellalage highlighted the annual Inter-Schools Under-19 traditional cricket encounter between St. Joseph’s College and Royal College, which ended in a draw at Darley Road during the weekend.
The promising all-rounder and the captain of St. Joseph’s produced his best performance for the current season while stroking a match-saving knock of 71 in the first innings followed by a superb five-wicket haul.
The manner in which he handled the pressure situation with the bat was quite outstanding as he played his natural game while flaying the Royal bowlers to all parts of the ground quite effortlessly.
In fact, the aggressive left-hander cleared the ropes on five occasions and also scored the same number of boundaries during his 76-ball stay at the crease.
Wellalage walked in to the middle at a crucial stage when St. Joseph’s had lost three early wickets and soon they collapsed to 74 for five after they had elected to bat first.
But instead of trying to rebuild the innings with a defensive approach, Wellalage decided to attack, which turned out to be a wise move at that point as runs began to flow quite thick and fast.
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| Royal College fielders celebrate a dismissal |
Even then, the Josephian first innings total of 210 was certainly just above average but Wellalage made it look quite a daunting task for the opposition with a controlled spell of bowling.
His five-wicket haul completely shattered Royal’s hopes of piling up another big score as the visitors batted safely before declaring their first innings at 209 for eight.
The turning point in the Royal innings of course, was the dismissal of inform batsman and Skipper Ahan Wickremasinghe who was trapped leg-before by Wellalage for a 13-ball 18.
However, opener Isiwara Dissanayake held the Royal innings together with a determined batting performance as he carried his bat with an unbeaten 102.
Ananda vs St. Peter’s
Ananda College and St. Peter’s College played out a tame draw in their annual fixture where only one innings was completed at Ananda Mawatha.
It was very clear from the start that both teams were not prepared to take a risk as they figured in a run-crawl with the Anandians continuing to occupy the crease even on the second day.
But Ananda’s decision to prolong their batting was quite understandable because they were very much short of runs in the first innings after having suffered a batting collapse early in the innings.
That they eventually reached a healthy score of 268 was mainly due to a fighting knock of 81 from Skipper Saviru Bandara who played a lone hand in pulling his side out of real trouble.
The right-hander batting at number eight produced his best batting performance for the current season as he single handedly carried the Anandians towards a position of authority.
This clash altogether turned out to be a battle between the two rival captains as the final session was dominated by the Peterite Skipper Nipunaka Fonseka who played a similar role for his team.
The elegant left-hander who has been in excellent form this season put his head down once again to construct a fighting half-century that helped his team reach a modest 234 for eight in their first innings.
St. Sebastian’s vs Dharmasoka
St. Sebastian’s College continued their good form this season as they went on to dominate their fixture against Dharmasoka College which ended in a draw at Moratuwa.
The Sebastianites produced a centurion in the form of Sanesh Fernando who played the sheet anchor role with the back up support coming from Bihanga Mendis.
Dharmasoka’s hopes of getting close to the St. Sebastian’s score of 241 never materialised as they collapsed to 136 runs against the spin of Shenith Fernando and Mehen Silva.
St. Sebastian’s then batted for 48 overs in the second innings before declaring with half centuries from Chakila Perera and Avishka Fernando.
Richmond vs Wesley
Richmond College displayed their batting prowess as they hit up over 300 runs in their drawn game against Wesley College at the Galle Stadium.
The Richmond innings was built around three splendid half centuries from Kavindu Nirmana, Janith Kaushalya and Bhanuka Manohara.
All three batsmen performed with a great deal of confidence and authority even though they were maintaining a run-rate of just over three runs per over.
The Wesleyites were left with just two sessions of batting and they lost six wickets during that period for less than 150 runs. Thenuka Perera’s unbeaten half century was of great value for Wesley who were at the receiving end for most of the time in this encounter.
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