Royal in 64-run win over Trinity

By Jatila KARAWITA

Royal College, Colombo warmed up for their 130th Battle of the Blues cricket encounter against S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia in a fortnight, with a facile 64-run win over Trinity College, Kandy in their annual inter-school cricket fixture ended at Reid Avenue last evening.

Set a victory target of 181 off a maximum 54 overs Trinity were shot out for 117 in 34.5 overs, with skipper and left-arm pacer Yasitha Abeykoon being the destroyer with excellent figures of 5 for 15. Royal, thus posted their ninth win for the season, in the process gaining a big psychological advantage over their traditional big-match rivals.

Royal: 153 and (20 for 1 wicket cont) 157 all out (C. Bogoda 34, L. de Silva 22, R. Rambukwella 28, R. Jaleel 9 for 90).

Trinity: 129 and 117 all out in 34.5 overs (S. Wijesuriya 34, K. Athugoda 18 n.o., Yasitha Abeykoon 5 for 15, M. Thanthirigoda 3 for 51).

Ananda-Joes ends in exciting draw

Set a victory target of 144 runs off 38 overs St. Joseph's College were so near and yet so far when they closed their second innings at 128 for 7 in their drawn inter-school cricket match against Ananda at Ananda Mawatha yesterday. Ananda who gained a first-innings lead of 24 runs were restricted to 119 all out in their second innings giving them an overall lead of 143 in what proved to be a thrilling chase in the end by the Joes.

Ananda: 169 and 119 all out (Matheesha Rashwan 26, Sameera Wijesuriya 26, Prashan Rajasuriya 7 for 21).

St. Joseph's: 138 for 8 wkts cont. 145 all out (H. Silva 20, Chathuranga Kumara 20, Salindra Perera 42, Ruvinda Sheman 4 for 43, Ruchira Herath 3 for 29, Sachithra Perera 2 for 15) and 128 for 7 wkts in 38 overs at close (Sameera Weerasinghe 44, H. Silva 32, Matheesha Rashwan 4 for 35).

Drawn match

The annual cricket encounter between S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa ended in a draw at Mount Lavinia last evening.

S. Thomas' College: 177 & 106 for 6 wkts at close (Ashen Fernando 41, Faheem Saleem 25, D. Chandimal 4 for 25, P. Dilshan 2 for 19)

Prince of Wales: (35 for 3 wkts cont.) 202 all out (B. Chandima 98, F. Fernando 22, F. Dhamalage 21, Dinesh Walpita 4 for 52, Faheem Saleem 2 for 19, Chamal Fonseka 2 for 64).