Rajans retain Woodward Trophy

By S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports corr.

CRICKET: Dharmaraja retained the Henry Woodward memorial trophy for yet another year by virtue of their first innings win over Mahinda (Galle) in their schools cricket match at police grounds, Kandy.

Rajans one their first inning win to a fire opening stand of 115 between Buwaneka Ekanayake 83/14 fours, 1 six 73 balls) and Kumara Ambagaspitiya 52 (7 fours, 71 balls), later Sameera Ranatunga hit an aggressive 52 with 8 fours, 1 six off 85 balls. For the Malinda off-spinner Romesh Buddhika bowling to a tidy length captured 7 for 80. Mahinda chasing a total of 284 fell short by 51 runs despite a stubborn knock of 94 with 14 fours of 234 balls.

Dharmaraja: 284 all out (Buwaneka Ekanayake 83, Kumara Ambagaspitiya 52 Sameera Ranatunga 52, Chandimal Ratnayake 25, T. N. Battangola 11, T. D. Balasuriya 22 not out, R. B. Weerasooriya 15, Romesh Buddhika 7 for 80, Caral Wesman 2 for 58) and 164 for 8 wickets (B. M. B. Ekanayake 14, J. Chandimal Ratnayake 65, P. R. Amarakoon 27 not out, Chamika Mahesh 3 for 37, Lashitha Lahiru 3 for 20).

Mahinda: 231 all out (Prabodha Srimal 94, R. Buddhika 22, N. Lahiru 30, D. Rajakaruna 11, Gayan Sameera 32, R. B. Weerasuriya 3 for 54, R. Y. Suriyarachchi 3 for 52).