Skipper Dasun Senevirathne made a stunning knock of 80 as Nalanda College defeated Thurstan College by 4 wickets in their under 19 all-island limited overs tournament pre-quarter final clash played at the Thurstan grounds on Tuesday.
Nalanda College will now meet the winners of the match between Richmond and St. Aloysius’ in the quarter-finals.
Thurstan skipper Charana Nanayakkara won the toss and elected to bat first. Vice-captain Sajith Gunathilake top-scored for the hosts’ with a fluent 80 while Charana and Big-Match centurion, Kasun Abeyrathne chipped in with 30s to carry Thurstan to a respectable 234 in their allotted 50 overs.
Chasing 235 runs to win, Nalanda skipper led from the front to score 80 in no time while last year’s captain and Sri Lanka U19 representative, Malinga Amarasinghe made a noteworthy contribution of 55. Nalandians reached the target with 2 overs to spare.
Thurstan – 234/9 in 50 overs: Kasun Abeyratne 39, Sajith Gunathilake 80, Charana Nanayakkara 38, Isitha Wijesundara 23, Navod Samarakoon 18*; Umeksha Dilshan 2/23, Dilan Suraweera 2/32.
Nalanda – 235/6 in 48 overs: Dasun Seneviratne 80, Malinga Amarasinghe 55, Dasun Sandaruwan 46, Thushal Madusanka 2/64.
