U-17 Cricket – Thomians fight to the end but Trinity emerges victorious

The U-17 Cricket team of S.Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia took on Trinity College Kandy in the semi-final of the U-17 Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Tournament at the Surrey Cricket Ground in Maggona on the 17th of September 2022. S.Thomas’ College won the toss and elected to bat first on the Beruwala surface.

Thomian opening batsman Sadev Soysa got off to a flying start as he was able to put up 21 runs in less than three overs. However, his innings was cut short as Kavindu Jayaratne dismissed him. Thomian Batsmen, Arith Adikaram and Avinesh Fernando then anchored the innings for the Thomians as they were able to get a partnership of 71 runs for the 2nd wicket. Unfortunately, Fernando was run out on 33 runs by Kavindu Jayaratne. Adikaram soon followed as he was dismissed on 46 by Malith Ratnayake. 1st XI Coloursman Dineth Goonewardena walked in to bat and looked to get some runs on the board for S.Thomas’ but he could not find a consistent partner as the Thomians began to lose wickets at regular intervals due to some fantastic bowling by Trintian skipper Malith Ratnayake and Lakvin Abeysinghe. Goonewardena was also dismissed on 46 by some prolific bowling by Wathilu Udara. The Thomians ended their innings at 211/9 after their 50 overs.

Trinity began their response quite slowly as the run rate after 12 overs was 3.83, but they did have wickets in hand. Trinity lost their first wicket at 46 as Pulisha Tilakaratne found Dineth Goonewardena in the field. Lakvin Abeysinghe walked in to bat and joined Dimantha Mahavithana as they built the Trinitian innings. Abeysinghe and Mahavithana were able to increase the Trinitian run rate and were able to bring Trinity into the game in a steady manner. Mahavithana went on to get his fifty and it looked like the match was slipping from the hands of the Thomians. However, the Thomian’s persistence paid off as Mahavithana was run out on 63 and Abeysinghe was trapped in front by Dineth Goonewardena . This triggered the momentum to shift towards S.Thomas’ as Trinity started losing wickets and the run rate steadily started to decline. This resulted in the match going down to the wire and both sides yearning for victory. However, cameos from Jayavi Liyanagamage, Wathilu Udara and Oshana Lokuge were able to get Trinity over the line.

Lakvin Abeysinghe was awarded the man of the match award for his impressive display with both bat and ball.

Match Result
STC – 211/9 ( 50 Overs )
TCK – 213/6 ( 49. 4 Overs )


TCK won by 4 wickets