Halambage spins Petes to title

Under 19 Division I Tier ‘B’ cricket

St. Peter’s registered a dominant six wickets win over Thurstan after restricting the latter to 114 runs to clinch the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘B’ cricket tournament title for the second consecutive time at the Colts Cricket Ground on Sunday.

Vishen Halambage who had featured prominently for Petes during this tournament produced notable all-round performances once again for the school from Bambalapitiya to conclude the tournament as an unbeaten team.

Put to bat Thurstan openers defied Petes for 14 overs before Sean Roberts got them their first breakthrough. That triggered a collapse from which Thurstan never recovered.Lakindu Sachin and Sean Roberts who shared the new ball did well to restrict Thurstan openers to a low score. Skipper Nimuthu Gunawardhana and Shennan Rodrigo then joined to build further pressure before Vishen Halambage combined with Lashmika Perera to rattle Thurstan for 114 runs.

Halambage took four wickets for 33 runs while Perera took three wickets. In their essay, the Petes openers Ovin Salgado and Halambage got them off to a strong start crossing the 50 runs mark without being parted. While Salgado made 39 runs, Halambage added 25 runs. After they were dismissed in quick succession skipper Gunawardena scored an unbeaten 31 runs to seal the victory with many overs to spare.

Scores:

Thurstan 114 all out in 41.2 overs (Ramika Sonal 20, Thenuka Dewapriya 27; Vishen Helambage 4/33, Lashmika Perera 3/19)

St. Peter’s 115 for 4 in 21.3 overs (Ovin Salgado 39, Vishen Helambage 25, Nimuthu Gunawardhana 31n.o.; Thanuga Palihawadana 2/24)