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St.Joseph's College came up with a magnificent performance as they defeated Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa by ten wickets to register their fourth win in the Elephant Lemonade Cup inter-school cricket tournament.

The Joes completed their task without any difficulty and were always in control of the game. Their batsmen however did not enjoy a good game and were dismissed for 222 runs. The reliable Johannes Jayasuriya and Ian Daniels both completed half centuries while maintaining their consistency.

The Josephian bowlers then delivered the final blow as they bundled out the opposition for just 92 runs in the second innings. Joseph Vaz never looked like saving the game and were always in danger after been asked to follow on. S.Rupasinghe with a haul of five wickets turned out to be the real matchwinner with back up support coming from Roshan de Silva, I.Hettiarachchi and A.de S.Wijeratne.

Successful weekend

D.S. Senanayake College also had a successful weekend as they trounced Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda by six wickets at Wijerama Mawatha. They rallied around through their excellent team work and had the satisfaction of dismissing the visitors for a total of under 125 runs in both innings.

All their regular bowlers performed their role quite effectively and the batsmen responded well with some useful contributions. The most significant contribution came from the experienced Muditha Maduwantha who compiled another fine half century that helped his team build up a good first innings lead.

The Sokians collapsed in their second innings too despite a stubborn knock of 48 by C.Sanjeewa. D.S.Senanayake who were left with a victory target of 58 runs did panic at one stage but still cruised to a comfortable win at the end.

Best performance

Meanwhile Trinity College came out with their best performance for the season as they defeated their home town rivals Kingswood College by eight wickets at the Asgiriya Stadium.

The Trinitians achieved their victory mainly due to the individual brilliance of skipper Kaushalya Weeraratne. The all rounder lived upto expectations as their most senior player by capturing a matchbag of nine wickets. In addition he also played a dominant role with the bat with two useful contributions, both at vital stages of the game.

The defending champions St.Peter's College threw away a good chance of pulling off a victory by indulging in some undiscipline batting in their game against Nalanda at NCC grounds, Maitland Place.

Their victory target was less then one hundred runs but they made a complete mess of it with their top order putting up a disappointing performance. They were completely disorganised and eventually ended up at a dismal 66 for 8. This was however a great fight back by the Nalandians who almost turned a certain defeat into a famous victory.

Nalanda comeback

The Nalandians were shot out for just 58 runs in their second innings and their reputation and the unbeaten record in the current season was in real danger. But they came back into the game in a remarkable manner with their fielders putting up a splendid performance. In fact at one stage they even had a chance of pulling off a victory but ran out of overs at the end.

Raddoluwa MV continued with their run of success in the current season by defeating Sri Sumangala MV by ten wickets in another fixture played at Raddoluwa.

Their success was always there from the moment they built up a first innings lead of 59 runs over their opponents. Their two main strike bowlers Pannilavithanage and Nisal Gunatilleke again came out with an excellent performance and helped their team complete a comfortable victory. In addition Dinesh Perera and D.A.Marage too contributed well towards their success by scoring two half centuries in the first innings.

Batsmen dominate

Meanwhile the arch rivals Royal and Ananda settled down for a draw with the batsmen of both teams dominating the scene at Reid Avenue. The Anandians of course had the satisfaction of taking a first innings lead by scoring a formidable 257 for 6. This was mainly due to some superb batting by Jithendra Perera, Thilina Kandambi and Eshan Abeysinghe with all scoring half centuries.

But the Anandians with a weak bowling attack always struggled to dismiss the opposition for the second time in the game. The Royalists did lose nine wickets in their second assay but at that stage they were completely out of danger with an overall lead of nearly two hundred runs.

The key match between S.Thomas' and Wesley College too ended in a draw at Mount Lavinia with the honours been shared. Both teams did make a desperate attempt to force a result and were involved in two sporting declarations.

First it were the Thomians who did not mind declaring their first innings 45 runs behind their opponents total. The Wesleyites too responded while setting the home side a reasonable victory target during the final session. But the Thomians just did not want to take a chance and put up their shutters very early in the innings.