Extramundane Dhananjaya Lakshan carries Richmond to final showdown

2165
Richmond College captain Dhananjaya Lakshan opens the batting and bowling for his alma mater
The second semi-final of the Singer Schools U19 Division 1 Limited Over Tournament  concluded today at St. Peter’s College grounds in Bambalapitiya. 

It looked a belter of a track for batting and Richmond skipper Dhananjaya Lakshan won the toss and elected to field first to make use of the early start and whatever moisture available on the pitch.

Read: Kanishka Maduwantha stars for St. Peter’s in a thriller

It was he himself who ripped through the Thomian top order with an excellent opening spell of seam and swing bowling as he captured the first five wickets to fall to leave the boys from Mount Lavinia reeling at 64/5.

“I think restricting them to 221 on this pitch was a brilliant effort from my bowlers. We were always confident of getting this target at the innings break” said Dhananjaya Lakshan, the captain of Richmond College, Galle.

It looked like the Thomians were all at sea against the pace of Lakshan before skipper Dellon Pieris joined Shalin De Mel, to show why the Thomians came this far in the tournament. The duo put on 81 runs for the sixth before De Mel fell for a dodged half century while another quick wicket left the Thomians in a spot of bother once again at 145/7.

Skipper Pieris, who made an unbeaten half century continued to take the fight to the Richmond bowlers, but it was Maneesha Rupasinghe who added the much needed impetus to the Thomian innings with an unbeaten 45* which came off just 34 balls, as they reached 221/7 in their allotted 50 overs. 

Read : Four balanced teams vie for final glory

Richmond lost two quick wickets including the prized scalp of Kamindu Mendis at the start of their run chase as the Thomians’ fight back in to the game continued. Just about when you thought Dhananjaya Lakshan was done for the day, he put up a grand show with the bat stroking the ball to all parts of the ground in Bambalapitiya.

His initial partnership of 109 with Thaveesha Abishek(36) for the third wicket laid the foundation for the run chase, before he put on another useful partnership of 65 runs with Dilum Sudeera.

Brother of Kamindu, Sandun Mendis came and went but nothing stopped the confident man from down south Dhananjaya Lakshan as he went on his merry way to eventually remain unbeaten on 130* and guide his team to an emphatic five wicket win and a place in the final against St. Peter’s.

“I am extremely happy with my all-round performance but the credit must be given to the whole team as without their support I could not achieve such feats. This was just a dream performance -probably my best all round effort in my schooling career – for me and my focus is now on the final against the Peterites and we’ll definitely play our hearts out and give them a stiff challenge” said a jubilant Lakshan.

The Peterites came from no where to beat Mahinda College in the first semi-final played a couple of days back by a slender margin of ten runs.









Title





Full Scorecard

Richmond College

222/5

(43.2 overs)

Result

S. Thomas' College

221/7

(50 overs)

richmond won by 5 wickets

Richmond College’s Innings

Batting R B
Dhananjaya Lakshan not out 130 138
Adithya Siriwardena c Manthila Wijerathna b Shalin De Mel 0 4
Kamindu Mendis c Shanon Fernando b Kalana Perera 0 5
Thaveesha Abishek c Thevin Eriyagama b Kishan Munasinghe 36 55
Dilum Sudeera c Manthila Wijerathna b Shanon Fernando 19 40
Sandun Mendis c Sithara Happuhinna b Shanon Fernando 1 7
Avindu Theekshana not out 17 10
Extras
19
Total
222/5 (43.2 overs)
Fall of Wickets:
1-15 , 2-16, 3-125, 4-190, 5-198
Bowling O M R W E
K.Perera 10 0 25 1 2.50
S.De.Mel 4 0 21 1 5.25
S.Fernando 10 2 43 2 4.30
K.Munasinghe 3 0 17 1 5.67
T.Eriyagama 5 1 14 0 2.80
D Rathnayaka 3 0 35 0 11.67
D.Gunarathna 2 0 13 0 6.50
D.Peiris 6 0 47 0 7.83
M.Rupasinghe 0.2 0 6 0 30.00

S. Thomas' College’s Innings

Batting R B
S.Hapuhinna c Sammu Vimud Sapnaka b Dhananjaya Lakshan 5 13
D.Gunarathna c Kamindu Mendis b Dhananjaya Lakshan 11 19
K.Munasinghe c Avindu Theekshana b Dhananjaya Lakshan 1 17
S.De.Mel c Avindu Theekshana b Sandun Mendis 52 92
D Rathnayaka b Dhananjaya Lakshan 0 3
M.Wijeyrathna lbw by Dhananjaya Lakshan 15 23
D.Peiris not out 55 101
K.Perera lbw by Avindu Theekshana 0 2
M.Rupasinghe not out 45 34
T.Eriyagama not out 5 2
Extras
30
Total
221/7 (50 overs)
Fall of Wickets:
1-21, 2-24, 3-29, 4-29, 5-63, 6-144 , 7-145
Bowling O M R W E
Dhananjaya Lakshan 9 2 36 5 4.00
Amshi de Silva 6 1 23 0 3.83
Adithya Siriwardena 2 1 6 0 3.00
Avindu Theekshana 10 1 43 1 4.30
Sandun Mendis 8 0 29 1 3.63
Kamindu Mendis 10 0 44 0 4.40
Dilum Sudeera 5 0 27 0 5.40