Ranga Dissanayake a promising cricketer

L. B. Dissanayake, Senkadagala sports correspondent

Wednesday 06, May 1998


Eighteen-year-old Ranga Dissanayake of St. Sylvester's College, Kandy, has shown tremendous potential as an all-rounder with his brilliant all-round performances during the recently concluded inter-school cricket season in which he excelled with the ball, bat and as a fielder for his school in the Division one league tournament.

Bowling right-arm medium pace and opening the bowling for his team he has captured 86 wickets in 14 matches. He has bagged a match bag of over 10 wickets on two occasions and his 11 wickets for 82 in their big match against Vidyartha College Kandy brought his team victory in the match. He has also captured 10 wickets against Mahinda College, Galle for 86 runs and his best analysis was 8 for 42 runs against St. Aloysius College, Galle. He has also taken five wickets or more in an innings on seven occasions.

Apart from his bowling feat he opened the batting for his team and scored over 525 runs during the season - with four half centuries. His highest score was 78 against Trinity College, Kandy.

In fielding too he excelled and held 15 catches. His agility on the field and accurate throwing has brought about many runouts for his team.

Roland Perera the St. Sylvester's College cricket coach predicts that this dedicated youngster will go to the highest level in local cricket if he continues to perform like this on the cricket field.

Dulip, Erik fail to impress

Sri Lanka represented by Dulip Samaraweera and Erik Upashantha failed to create an impression in the Pepsi International Double Wicket tournament conducted at Lahore last week.

Sri Lanka drawn in Group 'A' of the competition lost all three matches against group leaders Pakistan, Australia and India to finish at the bottom.

The Sri Lanka pair lost to India by eight runs (India 62, Sri Lanka 54), Pakistan by 105 runs (Pakistan 109, Sri Lanka 4) and Australia by 44 runs (Australia 49, Sri Lanka -5).

Pakistan represented by Shahid Afridi and Azhar Mahmood went on to win the final beating New Zealand by six runs.

New Zealand totalled 94 with Nathan Astle contributing 26 and Chris Harris 63. Both players are due in Sri Lanka shortly for a Test tour. Pakistan replied with 100 with Afridi scoring 77 and Mahmood 23.

In the semi-finals, Pakistan beat South Africa (represented by Adrian Kuiper and Fannie de Villiers) by 92 runs, and New Zealand scored a 20-run win over Australia, who had Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist.

India (Rajesh Chauhan, Atul Wassan), Zimbabwe (Alistair Campbell, Heath Streak), and Kenya (Thomas Odoyo,Steve Tikolo) were the other countries that took part in the four-day competition.


Source: The Daily News

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Date-stamped : 07 Oct1998 - 04:17