Vidyartha slides to 22 run defeat

Poor finish towards the end by Vidyartha College batsmen saw them slide to defeat by 22 runs to their traditional rivals St. Sylvester’s College in their 24th limited over clash for the M.B.W. Mediwaka trophy at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

St. Sylvester’s College batting first did not find things their own as their early batsmen failed to come up with good scorers except for Waruna Wijesinghe who made 35. The score at this stage read 115 for 6 and Vidyartha College were in a position to overrun their opponents. But that was not to be.

A defiant stand of 49 for the seventh wicket between skipper Ruwantha Ekanayake who made 66 not out with 9 fours and Dhanuja Hettiarachchi 26 saw them make a partial recovery before they completed their 50 overs with the score at 197 for 9.

Vidyartha College like their opponents ran into difficulties early and were struggling at 75 for 4 before a fifth wicket stand of 40 between Kasun Nawaratne 55 (117 balls, 4 fours) and skip- per Niluksha Galapitige (23) saw them move towards a possible victory. With six overs to go the total was 167 for 6 and Vidyartha needed only 30 runs with 4 wickets in hand. However the batsmen who followed failed to respond and the next four wickets yielded only 8 runs before they were all out for 175.

Left arm spinner Sumedha Dissanayake did well to tie up the batsmen in taking 3 for 16.

St. Sylvester’s College skipper Ruwantha Ekanayake was adjudged Man of the match.

St. Sylvester’s College have now won 18 matches against 04 by Vidyartha while 3 matches have ended without a result.

St. Sylvester’s College 197 for 9 in 50 overs (Waruna Wijesinghe 35, Indunil Samarananda 14, Hansamal Perera 18, Harsha Madushan 10, Ruwantha Ekanayake 66 not out, Dhanuja Hettiarachchi 26, Tharindu Ranaweera 2 for 21, Keshan Gamage 3 for 31)

Vidyartha College 175 all out in 48.5 overs (Kasun Nawaratne 55, Ruwan Bandara 10, Niluksha Galapitige 23, Tilina Rupasena 16, Sherad Buddhika 19, Sumedha Dissanayake 3 for 16, Dhanuja Hettiarachchi 3 for 35.