Inter-school cricket:

Trinity beat Thurstan by nine wickets

by S.M. Jiffry Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr.

Kavinda Jayasuriya stroked a brilliant 100 while left arm spinner Aamil Anas took 6 for 42 to spearhead Trinity College to a thrilling nine wicket win over Thurstan College in their inter-school cricket match, with just one ball to spare at the Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy yesterday.

Trinity College were set a victory target of 25 runs in just two overs and they achieved victory with one ball to spare. This was Trinity’s fifth successive victory in five matches which is a record for the school. They beat St. Sylvester’s College, Kingswood College, Nalanda College and Vidyartha College outright. Their match against Vidyartha and Kingswood were over shortly after lunch, giving some indication as to how the lions went on a rampage this season.

When Trinity College batted they were 118 for 8 at one stage but a stubborn ninth wicket stand of 107 between Kavinda Jayasuriya 100/10 fours, 146 balls) and Janishka Premasinghe 59 not out (5 fours 91 balls) pulled them out of the woods and helped them to gain a valuable 137 run lead.

Off Spinner Prabodha Arthavidu bowled well to capture 6 for 67.

Facing a deficit of 137 Thurstan’s batting once again flopped, struggling at 98 for 6 at one stage. But the tail held on and almost stopped the Lions. Had they scored a few more runs?, Trinity would have found the target difficult. Thurstan batted for 89.5 overs to score 161 runs though the rear guard action was strong, but runs did not come freely against left-arm spinner Aamil Anas whose final figures read 26.5-10-42-6.

At one point Thurstan appeared to have saved the match with scoreboard reading 148 for 7, but they lost their last 3 wickets for 13 runs which somewhat tilted the game in Lions favour.

Thurstan College: 106 all out and 161 all out in 89.5 overs (S. Nawaratne 29, S. Salgado 18, T. Madurapperuma 23, I. Wijewickrema 20, Sachin Dias 25, Aamil Anas 6 for 42, Tissa Sanjeewa 1 for 26, Janishka Premasinghe 1 for 12, Kavinda Jayasuriya 1 for 13., Heshan Wanniarachchi 1 for 13)

Trinity College: 158 for 7 overnight continued 243 all out in 57.2 overs (Kavinda Jayasuriya 100, Janishka Premasinghe 59 not out, Prabodha Arthavidu 6 for 67, Sachin Dias 2 for 25 and 26 for 1 in 1.5 overs (Niroshan Dickwella 15).