Dhananjaya and Miflal head rankings once again
Peterite Ameen Miflal leads the bowling rankings for the second week running - File pic
Nipun Dhananjaya and Ameen Miflal are still faring to their potential after the third round of the Sunday Times-Batsman.com schoolboy cricket rankings.
Dhananjaya, the in-form left-hander from St. Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa continued his good hand with the bat to accumulate 838 runs from 10 matches. However Dhananjaya will have to keep watch. His numbers a weaning. Last month it was 72.80 and now it has come down 55.87.
Udara Ravindu of Gurukula Vidyalaya has moved to the second slot from seventh after his tally of runs sums up to 775 in 10 matches. The right-hand opener averages 51.67 and looks in good shape ahead of Pathum Nissanka of Isipathana College. Nissanka, the right-hand opener led the batting rankings for some time but by this week he slid to third, after losing a rank. His average however, remains impressively at 72.80.
Lasith Croospulle of Maris Stella College Negombo makes an impressive leap from tenth to fourth after taking his run-tally to 634 from nine matches. Croospulle, a right-hand top order bat, has the potential of gaining more in rankings, and his average reads 52.83. Thurstan College opener Charana Nanayakkara has reached the top ten for the first time and is on the fifth place. The right-hander has made 626 runs in 11 matches and averages 48.15.
Sasidi Adikari of Bandaranayaka College Gampaha is another addition to the Top 10. The right-hand opener settles himself at sixth place after accumulating 611 runs in 12 games but what could come as his disadvantage in the long run is his average, which reads at 25.46.
Nishan Madushka of Moratu Vidyalaya drops down to seventh place from third and he is not the only one to move down in ranks rapidly. Thishara Fernando, the right-hand opener of St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa is another who lost his resolve. He drops down from fourth to eighth place. Dulaj Ranatunga, the right-handed opener of Maliyadeva College too drops four slots, from fifth to ninth as well as Sanogeeth Shanmuganathan, the Trinity College allrounder, who drops from sixth to tenth.
Miflal, the left-arm leg-spinner of St. Peter’s College who toppled Hareen Buddhila from the top position last week in bowling rankings remains at the top. His tally too remains at 59 wickets while Buddhila, of St. Aloysius’ College Galle also remains at second position with a tally of 55 wickets.
Dyan Vimukthi, the left-arm spinner from Lumbini College moves up two places to third after adding 13 wickets to his tally, which now reads as 53. Dhananjaya, who is also in the batting rankings at third, gained a slot from the previous reading to move up to fourth. Dhananjaya claimed a total of 48 wickets.
Chathura Obersekara, another Peterite, drops down two slots to fifth and his wicket tally remains unchanged at 47. The remaining five names in the Top 10 of bowling ranks are all newcomers to the grid. They are Naveen Gunawardena, the left-arm spinner from Thurstan College, Dileepa Jayalath, the right-arm leg-spinner from Ananda College, Pasindu Ushetti, the left-arm spinner from Maris Stella College, Umeksha Dilshan, the left-arm spinner from Nalanda College and Thanuka Dabare, the right-arm off-spinner from Lumbini College.
The most interesting point in this exercise is that all ten bowlers in the list are spinners and out of that six are left-arm spinners. Three are off spinners and the other is a right arm leg spinner.
The ranking is an initiative of the Sunday Times in collaboration with Batsman.com to publish the Top 10 ranked players in batting and bowling in the ongoing Singer Inter-School Under-19 Division I Cricket Tournament. The rankings, totally based on statistics released by the Sri Lanka School Cricket Association (SLSCA) to its official stats provider Batsman.com, will be published in the Sunday Times every fortnight. These rankings have the highest possibility of changing places before the next rankings come out in two weeks, as the official stats provider Batsman.com is updating its base with the up-to-date scorecards, coming in from schools.
