Shennon steers St. Peter’s to semi final

By M. Shamil Amit  

An impressive bowling figure of 6 for 39 by left arm paceman Shennon Rodrigo paved the way for St. Peter’s to record a 31 run win over Dharmaraja in the quarter final encounter of the Division One Tier ‘B’ limited over tournament concluded at Reid Avenue yesterday.  
Rodrigo in Dharmaraja’s modest run chase of 180 ran through the top and late order batting as he sent them reeling to 21 for 4 and had them struggling on 97 for 6 in the 30th over before bagging three more scalps in the latter stages of the innings.  
Despite stiff resistance put in by Lakvin Abeysinghe who made a top score of 80 consisting of 11 boundaries and a six and associating in a valuable 74 runs for the fifth wicket with Irusha Jayawardena, the Rajans were able to muster a score of only 148 runs which ensured the semi final berth for St. Peter’s.  
Earlier St. Peter’s invited to take first lease of the wicket was given a sound start by openers Oween Salgado and Dilan Damsara who together put on 59, but they lost two more wickets at the same score before skipper Vishen Halambage and Asadisa de Silva shared a 47 runs stand for the fourth wicket.  
The separation of the pair saw them lose two quick wickets and at the halfway stage of the innings they were struggling on 120 for 6 before recovering to end with a score of 179 runs.  
Result:
At Reid Avenue - St. Peter’s won by 31 runs 
St. Peter’s 179 in 41.4 overs (Vishen Halambage 33, Oween Salgado 32, Dilan Damsara 25, Shennon Rodrigo 24, Lashmika Perera 23: Dulara Bandulasena 3/20, Nisala Abeyratne 2/18, Dhakshika Manukalpa 2/34)  
Dharmaraja 148 in 46.1 overs (Lakvin Abeysinghe 80, Irusha Jayawardena 27: Shennon Rodrigo 6/39, Lashmika Perera 2/23)