Easy for Kingswood

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

Kingswood College, Kandy scored a thrilling eight wicket win over Ibbagamuwa Central College in their schools under-19 cricket tournament match concluded at Ibbagamuwa yesterday. The Kingswoodian were set a victory target of 21 in 6 overs and they won with 2.4 overs to spare. This is the Kingswood's maiden win over Ibbagamuwa Central College.

Ibbagamuwa Central's dismal performance in the first innings when they were shot out for 84 was one of the contributory factors for their defeat.

Trailing behind on first innings by 108 runs with nearly 70 overs of the playing time left they defended well to score 129 in 65 overs. But here they made the mistake of only keeping their wickets intact and getting runs in snicks and pushing the ball but never made any attempt to give the loose balls the treatment it deserved.

This left the Kingswoodians the simple task of scoring 21 runs to win in 6 overs. Had they scored another 20 runs or more the Kingswoodians would have found it difficult. Match winner for Kingswood College was B. Weerakoon who had a match haul of 8 for 30 taking 5 for 14 and 3 for 16. Off spinner Tharindu Liyanage too had a good match returning a match haul of 7 for 66.

Ibbagamuwa Central College: 84 all out in 43 overs (Yasith Basnayake 27, Thenuka Liyanage 14, Thasitha Dilranga 14, T.B. Weerakoon 5 for 14, Tharindu Liyanage 3 for 14) and 129 all out in 65.2 overs (Niranjan Karunaratne 37, Yasitha Basnayake 24, Shehan Dharmapriya 11, Thasitha Dilranga 11, Tharindu Liyanage 4 for 52, T.B. Weerakoon 3 for 16, C. Bandara 3 for 16).

Kingswood College: 192 for 9 decl. in 61.2 overs (Shaluka Walisundera 49, Champika Aluwihara 47, Supun Bandara 11, Kanishka Ekanayake 5 for 57, Shehan Dharmapriya 3 for 56) and 22 for 2 in 3.2 overs (Champika Aluwihara 17, C. Chandrasiri 1 for 8, K. Ekanayake.