Under-19 Inter Schools Cricket By Ishani Upatharitha

A bowler, Ashen Daniel, and a batsman, Yesith Rupasinge, guide Colombo’s Darley Road side to win against their northern rivals.

St. Joseph’s College, Colombo emerged champions of Rector’s Trophy when they beat St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna in one of their annual cricket fixtures played in Jaffna on Saturday, 8 September. St. Joseph’s won comfortably by an innings and 25 runs. For the winners, Ashen Daniel took a mach-bag of 10 wickets for 111 runs while Yesith Rupasinghe scored 105 runs. History – St. Patrick’s in Gurunagar, Jaffna, was established in 1850 by Italian Roman Catholic Missionary and was renamed St. Patrick’s College in 1881. St. Joseph’s was established in 1896 by French missionaries led by Rev. Christophe-Etienne Bonjean. The two catholic schools with a remarkable cricket tradition thus cherish a history of over 100 years. The two schools met for the first time in their Rector’s Cup rivalry in 2016 as St. Patrick’s was gradually reviving their annual inter-school cricket fixtures with schools from the southern part of the island following the end of the brutal north-east civil war in 2009. BRIEF SCORES: St. Patrick’s, Jaffna 161 in 46.4 overs (Poiter Castro 65 n.o., Anthonypillai Bernardson 35, Antony Deswin 21; Lakshan Gamage 5/51, Ashen Daniel 4/58) and 127 in 45.1 overs (Ivan Roshanthan 30, Derick Bertrick 26, Antonypillai Bernardson 24; Ashen Daniel 6/53, Miranga Wickramage 3/28) St. Joseph’s, Colombo 313 in 69.2 overs (Yesith Rupasinghe 105, Dilesh Perera 46, Shevan Rasool 42, Sachintha Ravindu 36, Dineth Jayakody 29; Poiter Castro 4/64, Edward Dilaxsan 2/31, Douglas Danisius 2/75).

• The above photo shows St. Joseph’s lifting the inaugural Rector's Cup in 2016 after winning the match by an innings and 19a runs. The Rector's Cup was initiated by Rector of St Patrick’s, Rev. Fr. Jero Selvanayagam and Rector of St Joseph’s, Rev. Fr. Travis Gabriel.