St. Anthony’s Wattala the big surprise to enter quarters
The Under-17 Inter-School Cricket Tournament is nearing the final stages with the pre-quarter finals coming to an end early this week with eight teams making it to the quarter finals which are now slotted to be played from this week onwards.
There were surprises since the tournament got underway in early May which saw 74 teams divided into ten groups battling in the round robin to be among the 32 teams that will qualify to the second round.
The surprise package began from the first round onwards as the defending champions St. Servatius Matara failed to make any impression and thus bowed out of contention and was unable to make it to the second round.
The second round saw the 32 teams that qualified being divided into eight groups of four in each and more surprise were seen from there on as fancied teams Richmond, St. Aloysius Galle and Trinity bowing out of contention.
The biggest surprise came in the pre-quarter final stage with more fancied teams in the likes of St. Peter’s who underwent a shocking defeat to lesser known St. Anthony’s Wattala and this followed by Ananda, Thurstan, Prince of Wales being knocked out of the tournament.
Now it’s going to be the battle for the semi final berths with eight teams, Nalanda last year’s runner-up, St. Joseph’, Royal Colombo, St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa, S. Thomas’, Mahinda, St. Anthony’s Katugastota and St. Anthony’s Wattala being the contenders.
The outcome of the pre-quarter finals were Nalanda beat Maliyadeva by 38 runs, S. Thomas’ beat Dharmaraja by seven wickets, St. Anthony’s Wattala beat St.Peter’s by two wickets, St. Sebastian’s beat Thurstan by six runs, St. Anthony’s Katugastota beat Ananda by two wickets, Mahinda beat Prince of Wales by one wicket, Royal beat Gurukula MV Kelaniya by 113 runs and St Joseph’s beat Isipathana by two wickets.
The dates for the quarter finals to be played are scheduled to be finalised today.
The quarter finals line up:
QF 1: Nalanda vs S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia.
QF 2: St. Anthony’s Wattala vs St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa.
QF 3: St. Joseph’s vs Royal Colombo.
QF 4: St. Anthony’s Katugastota vs Mahinda Galle.