St. Peter’s College dominated their drawn Singer trophy inter school cricket encounter against St. Benedict’s College as left arm paceman Vinudu Liyanage bagged a hat-trick at Bambalapitiya yesterday.
The Peterites were comfortable right throughout the match after posting 266 for 9 declared and then bundling out the Benedictines for just 142 in the first innings while Liyanage went on the rampage to pick up five wickets.
Peterite opening batsman Rishika Santhush also made merry for a match aggregate of 148 runs that brought him a half century in both innings.
Accordingly, Santhush laid the foundation for his side to post a competitive 266, with an instrumental 68 and following it up with an 80 in the second-essay.
The duo were ably assisted by the team in the second-innings as Kanishka Maduwantha registered his first half-ton (79) while his partner Niman Umesh followed-suit with 67.
It was an ideal match practice for the home side with their most-important cricket carnival, the Joe-Pete big match around-the-corner as the Peterites peaked at the right time with individuals undertaking responsibility and delivering.
While Santhush was brutal over the Bens with the bat, Liyanage did the talking with his balls some of which were unplayable.
St. Benedict’s winning the toss and electing to field first lost the plot. It was a battle of the batsmen with Peterite Santhush scoring 68 and Benedictine Ashen De Soyza counterattacking with an excellent 88. Soyza, went head-on taking the bowlers by the horn scoring 88 off only 66 balls inclusive of five maximums. However, the clear-cut pathetic part was the manner in which his team mates helped.
It was a poor response with the scorecard reading as many as five ducks. Adding insult to injury- it was only a solitary batsman from the rest who managed to enter double-figures as Vihanga Ruwanara chipped in with 30. Liyanage, furiously sent four batsmen packing to the pavilion without scoring as Bens skipper Shannon Fernando also fell prey to the killer spell.
The surrendered show from the Benedictines gave them plenty to ponder about the sorry state of affairs unable to come up with a formula to counter the venom of Vinuda Liyanage who secured the Peterites a handy 124 first innings lead.
The in-form Santhush picked up from where he left in the first innings to pile up the agony on the hapless Benedictines with a license to further frustrate the bowlers.
Brief scores:
St. Peter’s 266-9 dec (Rishika Santhush 68) and 264 for 7 (Rishika Santhush 80, Kanishka Maduwantha 79, Niman Umesh 67, Isuru 2-34, Malinda 2-53)
St. Benedict’s 142 all-out (Ashen de Soyza 88, Vinuda Liyanage 5-50)