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| Sunday, 10 November 2002 |
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Dimitri youngest Royalist to score 155 by Pelham Juriansz Fifteen-year-old Dimitri Siriwardene of Royal College could well lay claims to be a record holder at that age. His elegant 155 against Richmond last Tuesday makes the Royalist the youngest to do so in a first eleven cricket match for Royal. His achievement had statisticians reaching for their record books. And former Royalist and Cricket Board statistician, S.S. Perera when contacted by the 'Sunday Observer' said that in fact Dimitri's feat makes him the only Royalist to have done so as a 15-year old. For the record, Dimitri scored a century and a half in his fifth match. And Dimitri says he hopes to achieve greater heights in the future with age ahead of him. The youngster can play for his 'alma mater' for five years which would put him in an elite category indeed. Dimitri says his idols are Indian master batsman, Sachin Tendulkar and our own exciting national asset, Mahela Jayawardene. Being a right handed opening batsman, who has bowled medium pacies in the past for his junior teams, he can be called upon to bowl too but he has been advised to stick to basics and concentrate on his batting. Dimitri was Royal's Under 15 skipper this year and has had an outstanding career for his school at Junior Level (Under-13 and 15). In the Under 13 season two years back he notched up a quickfire 74 complete with 4 sixes and 8 fours in a swashbuckling innings that saw Royal A clinch a victory on a faster run rate against St. Anne's, Kurunegala in an under-13 division I inter-school match played at the Royal Junior grounds. This innings put Royal in the semi-final against the winners of the St. Peter's - Nalanda game. Dimitri was involved in an entertaining partnership of 100 runs for the third wicket in double quick time with U. Muzammil who made 35. He also scored a 96 against St. Sebastians and ended the season with a string of good scores. Last year he played for the under-15 and had a good average of 35, scoring about 300 runs but this year even though he was the skipper his average dropped to about 20, ending up with about 160 runs. Being the son of an old Thomian, Sampath, he is the second contribution that S. Thomas' has made to the Royal team along with S.P.F. Sunil Wijeratne's son, Rochana skippering the team. Dimitri pays tribute to his coaches W.A.N. Silva, "Charlie Warnakulasuriya at NCC, and Sumitra Warnakulasuriya and U.S.C. Perera of Royal together with Hemal Mendis and Roger Wijesuriya of Royal who fine tuned his batting skills. But it is by a quirk of fate that Dimitri is on to a cricket career. He was initially drawn to the bustling, fast moving game of rugby. But his father was eager that Dimitri take a greater interest in cricket. Incidentally, he represented his college under-15 team in rugby this year. And having the ability at such a tender age to play such a long innings in scoring 11 fours and one six, And Dimitri says that now he is bitten by the cricket bug. The ability to play such a long innings at such a young age hitting 11 fours and one six is a motivation. Indeed, it is a great leap forward for this youngster who had a top score of 39 against Isipathana to notch up a century in only his fifth game. Having another eleven games with the all important "Battle of the Blues" next March, the youngster could well look forward to an exciting season with the bat. |
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