No change in the top positions 

S. Thomas’ College leg spinner Dillon Peiris continues his domination for yet another week in the All-Island Schools while Denuwan Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama go on with their strongholds in the Emerging and Girls’ schools categories as the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy/Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition completes the 18th week. 

Dellon as usual continued receiving the most number of combined votes during the ended week, with 1630, which took his total to 22,159. This is a clear lead of 8,482 from Sachin Silva of St. Peter›s College, far better than what it was last week. Sachin added 1,172 combined votes and took his tally to 13,677. 

Both top contenders stand far ahead of the rest, as Vihan Gunasekara of D.S. Senanayake College, Ananda College skipper Asel Sigera and Kavin Peiris of Lumbini College follow in down the order. 

In the Emerging Schools category, leader Denuwan of Carey College added 757 combined votes to take his total to 11,371. He leads second placed Kenula Gunaratne of St. Aloysius College Ratnapura, by 3,794 votes, which is lower than last week. Kenula›s total reached 7,577 with the addition of 1,004 combined votes. 

Sonara Karunathunga and Thimira Malshan, both of Ananda Sasthralaya and Heshan Madushanka of Piliyandala Central follow in down the order for yet another week unchanged. 

Harshitha Samarawickrama of Anula Vidyalaya, continues to lead the Girls› Schools category but it looks like she will face a stiff challenge from Pabasara Ranabahu of Rathnavali Girls› School Gampaha in time to come. The gap between the two is beginning to narrow down a bit and by this week it reads as 1,213. 

Harshitha added 508 combined votes, and her total moved to 6,752 while Pabasara›s tally reached 5,539 with the addition of 560. Kaveesha Dilhani of Devapathiraja MV, Rathgama and Ruwini Nandasena of St. Joseph›s Girls School are the other two contenders in the list. 

Coupons and online votes 

Coupons will be published in the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and Daily FT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada and Sinhala Weekend, Deshaya with the deadline set in 11 more weekends. Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy or schoolgirl cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period. 

Dialog Axiata›s online voting system through their official Online Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www.dialog.lk/cricket). Online voting will be open until 5 April. Both coupon votes and online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results published from every Sunday in the five newspapers and its websites. 

The deadline for coupons and online votes will be every Thursday noon. Online votes received after the weekly cutoff time will be counted for the next week, while for coupons, only those numbered for the particular week will be taken into count. This week’s digital voting count was monitored and approved by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

Results: Week 18 

All-Island Schools 

Dellon Peiris S. Thomas’ College 22,159 

Sachin Silva St. Peter’s College 13,677 

Vihan Gunasekara D.S. Senanayake College 4,667 

Asel Sigera Ananda College 3,058 

Kavin Peiris Lumbini College 1,265 

Dulaj Bandara Dharmaraja College 1,051 

Mahesh Theekshana St. Benedict’s College 617 

Kalana Perera S. Thomas’ College 615 

Dinidu Wijewardene Nalanda College 441 

Ravindu Fernando Maris Stella College 356 

Emerging Schools 

Denuwan Perera Carey College 11,371 

Kenula Gunaratne St. Aloysius Ratnapura 7,577 

Sonara Karunathunga Ananda Sasthralaya 4,687 

Thimira Malshan Ananda Sasthralaya 2,724 

Heshan Madushanka Piliyandala Central 2,107 

Saliya Jeewantha Eheliyagoda Central 418 

Pulitha Yasas Sri Sumangala Panadura 255 

Girls’ School 

Harshitha Samarawickrama Anula Vidyalaya 6,752 

Pabasara Ranabahu Rathnavali GS, Gampaha 5,539 

Kaveesha Dilhari Devapathiraja, Rathgama 60 

Ruwini Nandasena St. Joseph’s Girls School 18 

Readers prizes go to: 1. Dineth Methsara, 159, Ihalagama, Mabodala, 2. Mayuri Peiris, 34/25, Dharmaratne Mawatha, Rawathawatte, Moratuwa, 3. J.A. Hemapala, 18, Welhena, Minuwangoda, 4. Indika Manoj, 3, Royale Flam, Ethagama, Payagala.