Joes and Mahinda get to semis with ease

Two dominant performances by St Joseph’s College and Mahinda College in their respective quarterfinals, sealed their spot in the top of the Singer U17 Division I Cricket Tournament.

St Joseph’s College v Royal College

The high riding Josephians won the toss and elected to bat first. Just like how they’ve shown the strength in their batting line up, this time too their long tail wagged and got their team to a challenging total. At the beginning however, Johann De Silva got them off to brisk start but after his dismissal they lost their wicket keeper batsman Shevan Rasool and the experienced Dineth Jayakody cheaply. Their innings needed some saving and they found it through a century stand between Yesith Rupasinghe and young Dunith Wellalage.

Dunith top scored with 67 runs as the Josephians posted 247 for their 50 overs. For the Royalists it was Kavidu Pathiratna who was the pick of the bowlers with 2 as the much fancied Kamil Mishara could only manage a solitary wicket giving away 42 runs for his 7 overs.

In reply, Royal College had a horrid start losing 2 wickets for just 24 runs inside the first ten overs. Wicket keeper batsman Ahan Wickramasinghe and Kamil Mishara steadied the ship for the Royalists with a consolidating partnership. Royal College were in a challenging position at 102 for 3 in the 30th over but a cluster of 5 wickets fell in a space of just 43 balls. Royal went from being 102 for 3 to 109 for 8.

Dunith Wellalage was chief destroyer as Ashan Daniel and Miranga Wickramaga provided some good tight bowling from the other end. Royal College were ultimately bowled out for 119 which gave St Joseph’s a comfortable victory by 128 runs.

St. Josephs College, Colombo 247/7 (50), Dunith Wellalage 67, Yesith Rupasinghe 61, Johanne de Zilva 31,Kavindu Pathirathne 2/44

Royal College, Colombo 119 (39), Kamil Mishara 34, Ahan Wickramasinghe 28, Kavindu Pathirana 28, Dunith Wellalage 5/25, Miranga Wickramage 2/14, Lakshan Gamage 2/10

Mahinda College vs St Anthony’s College, Kandy

The boys from down south won the toss and elected to bowl first. From the first delivery batsmen just walked in and walked out. The Anthonians struggled to get going as the bowlers took control of the game. Their innings only lasted 34.3 overs where they managed to score 88 runs. Only four of their players managed to get into double figures which tells the story of their innings.

Kaveesha Maliyawadu did the damage with the new ball and Chethiya Gunasekara and Subanu Rajpaksha cleaned up the tail sooner than they would have ever imagined.

Mahinda College were way more clinical with their run chase. Their openers came out with intent and took only 9 overs to reach the target. Navod Paranavithana blasted a 26-ball half century which included 4 sixes and 5 boundaries. His partner Kashuika Sanketh was unbeaten on 35 as they reached the target with all wickets in hand.

St. Anthonys College, Kandy 88 (34.3), Sasith Hirudika 15, Kaveesha Malliyawadu 3/29, Chethiya Gunasekara 2/04, Subanu Rajapaksha 2/15

Mahinda College, Galle 91/0 (8), Navod Paranavithana 50*, Kaushika Sanketh 36*