Lahiru closes in on Randev as competition hots up
As the 35th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2014 reaches its tenth week, Lahiru Wickramasinghe of De Mazenod College Kandana has closed the gap with incumbent leader Randev Pathirana of Royal College Colombo.
Randev, who took charge of the competition added 2466 votes during the ended week, but Lahiru has raced his way by adding 3715 votes in the same period. This will bring down the gap between the top two contenders to a meager count of 395, favouring much on Lahiru. Randev will have to push harder and add more power to his journey if he aims to keep Lahiru at bay. But it is evident that Lahiru is not ready to give in that easy.
The third slot has turned out to be a guaranteed resting place for Akila Lakshan of Royal College Panadura. He managed to add 453 votes during the ended week but is a massive 12284 votes behind Lahiru if Akila is interested in catching up to his one-time top position. Trinity College’s Ravin Sayer continues to hold on to the fourth place while Priyamal Perera of St. Joseph’s College, A.K. Tyronne of Richmond College Galle, Ninesh Gunasinghe of St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, Kusal Mendis of Prince of Wales’ College and St. Joseph’s College team mates Sadeera Samarawickrama and Yashan Samarasinghe remain unchanged in their respective positions in the top ten. But Madushan Chameera of Isipathana College shows good improvement as he moves up two slots to 11.
Danushka Lahiru of Vidyaloka Vidyalaya Galle goes on to lead the Emerging Schools category for the tenth consecutive week while Lahiru Vimukthi of Sri Sumangala College Panadura follows him closely. The deficit between the two has expanded to 271 votes. For the third successive week Romesh Madushan of Leighton Park has cemented his position as the leader of the International Schools category. Romesh rocketed to take up his deficit against close rival Rasanjana Mallikarachchi of Lyceum Nugegoda by 4750 votes by this week. While Romesh added 1243 votes to his tally Rasanjana has managed to add 134 votes during the closed week. Still the competition stands wide open for both Romesh and Rasanjana.