Wesley end 43-year wait by beating Royal
by Ranjan ANANDAPPA
Wesley College with a superior team effort beat Royal College by 10
wickets after 43 years to regain the Sir Frank Gunasekera Trophy in
their 119th school cricket encounter ended at Campbell Park
yesterday.Wesley last beat Royal in 1969 under the captaincy of Amaresh
Rajaratnam and lost to Royal in the following year (1970) also under
Amaresh Rajaratnam.
The two oldest cricket playing schools have played 119 matches where
Royal had won 53 and Wesley 21 with 48 ending as draws.The main cause
for Royal's defeat was their paltry 89 runs scored in the first innings.
Credit should go to the Wesley medium pacer Sadeem Thawfeeq who
restricted the Royalist in their first innings taking 5 for 17 in a
sustained spell of medium pace bowling. Left arm spinner Sachin
Jayawardena too played a pivotal role in the Wesleyite win taking three
wickets in the first innings and 6 for 51 in the second innings.In reply
to Royal's 89 in the first innings ,Wesley were 214 for 7 overnight with
skipper Ashen Fonseka unbeaten on 79. Fonseka after adding 9 runs was
dismissed for 88 after facing 113 deliveries and striking 13 fours and
two sixes.
Devin Pathmanatha had the startling figures of 7 for 77 for
Royal.Royal in their second essay fared better through two good innings
by Sampath Silva 35 and Milan Abeysekera 44 , left arm spinner Sachin
Jayawardena (6 for 51) and Ashail Kariyawasam ( 2 for 35) made inroads
into the Royal innings to restrict them to 168 leaving the Wesleyites to
get 19 runs to win which they did before tea.
Royal: 89 in 44.5 overs (Anup Tillekeratne 25, Sadeem Thawfeeq 5 for
17, Sachin Jayawardena 3 for 20 ) and 168 in 60.3 overs ( Sampath de
Silva 35, Milan Abeysekera 44, Imal Liyanage 18,Sachin Jayawardena 6 for
51, Ashail Kariyawasam 2 for 35) Wesley: (214 for 7 overnight) 239 in
53.3 overs ( Ashail Kariyawasam 70, Sadeem Thawfeeq 16, Ashen Fonseka
88, Devin Pathmanathan 7 for 77) and 19 for no loss (Sadeem Thawfeeq 10
n.o)
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