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)