Joes savour Under-19 Tier ‘A’ cricket title-by Reemus Fernando

Source:Island

St. Joseph’s College clinched the Under-19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs Cricket title as Shevon Daniel with an unbeaten century and Lahiru Amarasekara with a four wicket haul excelled in the final played at NCC ground on Saturday.

The Darley Road team ended the unbeaten run of Royal when they contained the latter to 190 runs. Royal were chasing a target of 288 runs.

Royal’s formidable batting line up suffered early blows when Mithira Thenura and Deshan Seneviratne took the first three wickets for just nine runs. Seneviratne accounted for Isiwara Dissanayake and Sadisha Rajapaksha in the same over. Skipper and Sri Lanka Under-19 batsman Ahan Wickramasinghe joined Sineth Jayawardena to steady the innings, adding 71 runs for the fourth wicket. But both fell in quick succession when Lahiru Amarasekara jolted the middle order with a four wicket haul. Amarasekara took the crucial wickets of tournament’s highest scorer Wickramsinghe, Jayawardena and Dasis Manchanayake.

Kavindu Pathirathna taught his colleagues a lesson waging a loan battle. He scored almost a run a ball 59 before Joes’ skipper Dunith Wellalage and Shenuka de Silva mopped up the tail to seal the victory in the 41st over.

Deciding to bat, the Joes’ top order batted patiently before accelerating towards the end. Openers Sadeesh Jayawardena and Sheran Fonseka who remained unbeaten in their ten wicket win in the semi final against Trinity, added 50 runs for the first wicket. Jayawardena was run out for 25 and Fonseka was dismissed for 38 runs by Prashan Kalhara who caught him off his own bowling.

Then followed a valuable 136-run partnership between Mithira Thenura and Shevon Daniel. The fourth wicket stand was dominated by Daniel who remained unbeaten to guide Joes to their eventual total. Daniel scored 146 runs in 133 balls and hammered six fours and nine sixes in his knock.

With Daniel accelerating towards the end of the innings Joes accumulated almost 100 runs in the last ten overs.

It was a remarkable achievement for Joes who overcame early setbacks in the tournament with clinical victories in the quarter-final, semi-final and the final. They were the third placed team in their group during the league stage, but during the knockout phase they were in a league of their own. In contrast Royal were an unbeaten team and was considered by many as favourites.