Sri Lanka in sight of victory

LEICESTER, England, July 26 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka ended the third day’s play of their four-day cricket encounter against Leicestershire in sight of a possible victory on Sunday.

The home side in their second innings were 234 for 5 at the end of the third day, still in need of 30 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

Leicestershire first innings 245 (J.Dakin 79)

Sri Lanka first innings (overnight 442-7)

S.Jayasuriya c Nixon b Dakin 36
R.Arnold lbw b Dakin 33
D.Jayawardene c Nixon b Williamson 48
P.de Silva c Nixon b Dakin 1
A.Ranatunga c Maddy b Brimson 110
H.Tillekeratne lbw b Williamson 120
U.Hathurusinghe lbw b Dakin 60
P.Jayawardene b Williamson 25
G.Wickramasinghe c Nixon b Brimson 6
S.Perera c Williamson b Crowe 26
M.Muralitharan not out 7

Extras (w-1 nb-12 lb-19 b-5) 37
Total 509
Fall of wickets: 1-70 2-83 3-89 4-226 5-267 6-386 7-426 8-499 9-501

Bowling:
Dakin 38-6-110-4, Millns 1-0-14-0, Williamson
28-6-110-3, Crowe 33.4-3-120-1, Brimson 22-3-84-2,
Maddy10-2-47-0.

Leicestershire second innings

D.Maddy c D.Jayawardene b Muralitharan 29
J.Sutcliffe b Muralitharan 15
D.Stevens b Muralitharan 2
B.Smith c Arnold b de Silva 75
A.Habib lbw b Muralitharan 23
P.Nixon not out 24
J.Dakin not out 19

Extras (w-4 nb-24 lb-17 b-2) 47
Total (for five wickets) 234
Fall of wickets: 1-53 2-59 3-64

Bowling (to date):
Wickramasinghe 15-3-63-0, Perera
14-4-35-0, Hathurusinghe 8-3-14-0, Muralitharan 32-8-77-4,
Jayasuriya 4-1-6-0, Arnold 3-0-11-0, de Silva 7-2-9-1.

Madras beat Colombo 22-20 in Centennial Regatta

The calm waters of the Beira lake were ruffled by the mighty blades of the rowers from Madras Boat Club and Colombo Rowing Club at the 64th Regatta between these two great rowing clubs. This year's regatta was a special event as it was one hundred years ago in 1898 that the two clubs first rowed against each other.

The day started with the Madras 'A' pair of Shanmugaraj and Karthik beating the fancied Colombo pair of D. Aluwhihara and R. Wanigathunga. In the second event for the day Colombo's B Sculler S. Ganegoda easily out rowed the Madras sculler N. Billimoria. The talented young Madras 'A' sculler. Dushyanth had his own way against the Colombo 'A' sculler D. Sri Lanka Chandrasekera to win his event rather comfortably. At this stage with Madras leading by 14 points to 4 the regatta seemed all but over. However Colombo came fighting back through its experienced B pair of C. Talpahewa and D. Maurice. They beat the fancied Madras B pair of Balaji and R. Sayeed with an excellent finish after been behind for three quarters of the race. This great effort by Colombo's B pair made the score 14-10 in favour of Madas. The Madras B four of Karthik, Billimoria, Ravindran and Shanmugaraj coxed by Lakmi made sure of the Deepam Trophy for the overall winners by beating Colombo's B four of Chandrasekera, Jayasinghe. De Neise and Mendis coxed by Tennakoon. Colombo Rowing Club's A four of D. Maurice, C. Talpahewa, R. Wanigatunge, D. Aluwihara coxed by S. Edirisinghe won the main event for the day when they beat the Madras A four to win the boat race trophy. The final points tally was 22 - 20 in favour of Madras Boat Club which meant that it was the first time since the revival of this regatta in 1993 that Colombo lost to Madras on their home waters.

This year's regatta was rather special for Madras's Boat Clubs Shanmugaraj and Karthik and Colombo Rowing Clubs Maurice and Talpahewa who were winners of double events.

In the ladies category too Madras came out superior winning two out of the three events for an overall tally of 18 points to Colombo's 6 points.

The High Commissioner for India was the Chief Guest and the regatta concluded with the traditional social that went on till the early hours of the next morning. (AN)

Ranga shines

Ranga Dias with a fine allround performance helped Old Maristonians to an easy win over Old Marians in their annual fixture played at Maris Stella grounds. Old Marians were bowled out for 118 runs. Lal Perera top scored with 24. Ranga Dias ran through the front line to capture 3/13. Vinod Fernando chipped in with 3/10.

Old Maristonians knocked off the required runs in 11 overs with Ranga Dias scoring a hurricane 44 to shore an opening stand of 86 runs with Dinuka de Silva who scored an aggressive 39. Ranga had five fours and 2 sixes while Silva had 3 sixes and four boundaries.

Old Marians: 118 (29.3 overs) (Lal Perera 2/4, M. Riyas 22, Ranga Dias 3.13, Vinod Fernando 3/10, Dinuka de Silva 2/0).

Old Maristonians 120/2 (Ranga Dias 44 not out, Dinuka de Silva 39, Wendall Labrooy 27 not out, Ravi Kumarasinghe 2/26).

U-15 Div I Semis from Aug 5

The under-15 Division I inter-school cricket semi final commence with the first game between St. Peter's, Bambalapitiya and Dharmaraja, Kandy on August 5-6 at Bambalapitiya. The other match between Isipatana and Maliyadeva, Kurunegala will be staged at Ibbagamuwa Central Grounds, on August 7 and 8.

This tournament is conducted by Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) is played for Horlicks Trophy is sponsored by Smithkline Beecham Mackwoods Limited. - (AN)
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