Kalutara MV regain Elephant Lemonade Trophy

Chris DHAMBARAGE

CRICKET: Kalutara Maha Vidyalaya regained the Elephant Lemonade Trophy with a thrilling two wicket victory over De Mazenod College Kandana in the Old Wesleyite Sports Club inter school invitation six a side cricket tournament final worked off at the Wesley College grounds in Campbell Park yesterday.

Kalutara MV's success in this tournament had great significance because the previous occasion they lifted the title was way back in 1994. This time they restricted their opponents to 70 for 2 from their allotted five overs and then reached their target in the last delivery of the innings.

Kalutara MV's run chase was spearheaded by opener Chanaka Milinda who smashed 30 runs from 11 balls to set the pace. He also put on an opening stand of 34 runs along with K. R. Silva who contributed 17 runs from 11 balls.

De Mazenod College however came back into the game by capturing two wickets during an eventful third over bowled by Terrence Levangama. Kalutara MV needed 17 runs from the last over and they did it in style with Waduge and Sameera batting extremely well under tremendous pressure.

Earlier De Mazenod College reached 70 for 2 with useful contributions from Nilushan Nonis (29 n.o) and Denuwan Fernando (25).

Kalutara MV also created a major upset by defeating St. Peter's College in the semifinals. The Peterites managed to score only 53 for 4 with Mevan Samarasekera compiling 27 from 14 balls and Sumanga Rodrigo scoring 26 runs with three fours and one six.

But Kalutara MV reached their target quite convincingly thanks to an opening stand of 55 runs in just three overs from Chanaka Milinda (28) and S. R. Silva (14).

In fact Chanaka Milinda was later named as the man of the final. Amila Eranda of De Mazenod College was selected as the most valuable player of the tournament.

De Mazenod College entered the final with an easy five wicket victory over President's College Rajagiriya who had earlier knocked out the more fancied St. Joseph's College team in the quarterfinals.

In another major upset the defending champions Nalanda College also bowed out from the quarterfinals following a heavy defeat at the hands of St. Peter's College.

The individual awards picked by the adjudicator Jayantha Seneviratne went to Gayath Mendis of Prince of Wales College (best fielder), Rajiv Weerasinghe of St. Joseph's College (best bowler), Isuru Udana of D. S. Senanayake College (best batsman) and Amith Eranda of De Mazenod College (best all rounder.)