Three wickets apiece by Hashendra Perera and Shammi Seneviratne put St. Joseph’s in a strong position against St. Sylvester’s on day one of their rain-affected U-19 school cricket fixture at Darley Road today.
Off-spinner Hashendra and left arm medium pacer Shammi shared six wickets among them while Priyamal Perera took two scalps to reduce visitors for painstaking 166 for nine at close on day one.
Hashendra returned figures of 3 for 27 runs while Shammi had three for 46. Priyamal captured two for 12. The visitors showed little resistance in the face of some tight bowling by the Josephians. For visitors Hansamal Perera put on a creditable effort making 54 runs while Sumedha Dissanayake chipped in with a valuable 45 to put some decently to an inning which would otherwise looked pretty ordinary. The bowlers did not allow the batsmen to brake free as they bowled to a consistent line and length, making it extremely tough to score.
The overnight heavy rains cut short the innings for 61 overs. On day two, hosts will looked to finish off the innings as early as possible as they would attempt to score first innings point with draw looks inevitable.
Match will be continued tomorrow
St. Sylvester’s: 166/9 in 61 overs (Hansamal Perera 54, Sumedha Dissanayake 45, Mohommed Rifaz 19, Hashendra Perera 3/27, Shammi Seneviratne 3/46, Priyamal Perera 2/12) vs St. Jospeh’s
