The Inter school under 19 cricket tournament is currently halted due to the Covid -19 pandemic. Before the tournament was halted seven batsmen gave a remarkable performance with the willow. It is doubtful whether the tournament will resume this year. This week the Youth Observer looks back at performances.
Pawan Ratnayake of Mahanama College, Colombo has become the highest century scorer during the past season. He scored two centuries in one match with one double century.
In the first innings of this match he completed his first double century of this tournament and scored a hundred runs in his second innings. The opponents in this match was Prince of Wales College.
Pawan has played twenty innings in thirteen matches during this school cricket season. During these matches he scored 1,227 runs at an average of 87.64.
A thousand runs
The first player who earned a thousand runs this season hails from the Kurunegala district. He is Muditha Premadasa, the captain of Maliyadeva College. The highest scorer in one innings is the captain of Mahinda College in Galle, Navod Paranavithana. His inning is considered to be the highest recorded innings in Sri Lankan school cricket history. He completed four hundred runs in one innings and it was the first time a player amassed this number of runs in one innings in match. During this innings, he faced 327 balls and his score included thirty-nine fours and nineteen sixes. Ambalangoda’s Dharmashoka Vidyalaya was the opponent in this match.
Muditha Premadasa, (Maliyadeva College), Avishka Perera, (Nalanda College), Dunith Jayathunga, (St.Sebastian’s College), Muditha Lakshan, (D.S. Senanayake College), Sheran Fonseka, (St. Joseph’s Vidyalaya), Avishka Tharindu (St. Anthony’s College, Wattala) are the players who have completed thousand runs.
Avishka Perera and Muditha Lakshan completed a thousand runs twice in two sessions between them.
Leading wicket takers
Sineth Sithara of St. Thomas’ College. Matara is leading the bowlers with 95 wickets. He has played twenty-eight innings in fifteen matches to take these wickets with a bowling average 9.98.
Lohan Aroshana de Soysa (Dharmashoka Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda), Nimnaka Jayathilaka (St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota), Mohammed Imtiyaz (Zahira Colleg,e Colombo) and Abishek Anandakumar (Trinity College, Kandy) are the other leading bowlers this season.
The best all-rounder of this season is the Captain of Dharmashoka Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda. He collected 848 runs and took 87 wickets. Mohammed Imtiyaz (Zahira College), Abhishek Anand Kumar (Trinity College, Kandy) and Muditha Lakshan (D.S. Senanayake College, Colombo) are other leading all- rounders this season.
Sports lovers are waiting for the continuation of this school cricket season. However, due to the pandemic schools have been affected and it may be decided to close this year’ cricket season. Given such a situation, these talented players prowess is likely to become the record of the tournament this year. The Observer - Mobitel Most Popular Cricketer Competition will be held next month and among the leading players are Lohan De Soyza, Navod Paranavithana and Abhishek Anand Kumar.