Jason Bultjans and skipper Julian de Zilwa shone with bat and ball respectively to help St. Peter’s College beat Royal College by four wickets in the finals of the inter-school under 15 Division 1 cricket tournament at CCC Grounds yesterday.

Left hander Bultjans scored an unbeaten 67 runs and put on a vital 63 run partnership for the fifth wicket with Ranitha Liyanarachchi after skipper De Zilva impressed with a five wicket haul to restrict Royal College to 139 runs.

Chasing 140 runs to win, Petes lost three quick wickets within the space of seven runs to be precariously placed at 61 for four wickets at one stage. Royal applied pressure with spinner Poorna Aluthge accounting for opener Kavind de Thissera, bowled for 16 runs, and also claiming the wicket of St. Peter’s highest scorer of the season, Lahiru Milantha, who fell lbw for naught in successive deliveries (in the sixteenth over). Leg spinner Harith Samarasinghe had Dushan Hemantha lbw for naught (in the nineteenth over) to put a temporary halt to what seemed an easy chase.

But left handers Bultjans and Liyanarachchi combined for a 63 run partnership, to help the Petes cruise to their third consecutive title. Spinners Samarasinghe and Devin Pathmanathan removed Bultjans’ companions later but found it hard to change the result of the match result as the southpaw remained cool-headed to see Petes win with four overs to spare. Bultjans scored 12 fours in his unbeaten knock. He stayed at the wicket for 149 minutes and faced 116 balls.

Earlier, deciding to bat first, Royal were heading for a commanding total as opener Imal Liyanage held the top order batting together to place them comfortably at 80 for two wickets at one stage. But when De Zilva introduced himself as the seventh bowler, he managed to trigger a sudden late order collapse. He had opener Liyanage caught by Thissera for 32 runs to remove the anchor in his second over. Later he wrapped up the tail picking up four wickets including three wickets in his fifth over (34th over). Royal collapsed from being 90 for 4 wickets at one stage to 111 for nine before Gihan Lakhara got them to their final score with an unbeaten 20 runs (3x4s). While de Zilva bowled at a stretch, he was amply supported by off spinner Shasheen Fernando and leg spinner Dushan Hemantha who too bowled their ten over spells nonstop. Petes too were helped by two run outs early including a direct hit caused by Ranitha Liyanarachchi to get opener Ronaka Ahangama out for 16 runs.

De Zilva was adjudged the man of the match.

It was St. Peter’s third consecutive Under-15 Division I Final victory following victories in the year 2007 and 2008.

Royal 139 all out in 43.5 overs (Imal Liyanage 32, Ronaka Ahangama 16, Hashen Ramanayake 19, Gaurav Deva 11, Gihan Kalhara 20 n.o, Extras 23; Dushan Hemantha 2/32, Julian de Zilva 5/21)