Two of Sri Lanka’s leading Buddhist institutions Ananda and Nalanda will come out once again when they clash for the 80th time in their annual Battle of the Maroons encounter for the Sujeewa Kamalsooriya trophy to be played on March 7 and 8 at the SSC ground.
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| Nipun Karunanayake (Nalanda) |
Dinesh Chandimal (Ananda Captain) |
Kamalsooriya was an outstanding sportsman of Ananda who led the cricket team in the year 1983. He met with a tragic death during the tsunami disaster that devastated Sri Lanka in 2004.
Of the encounters played so far Ananda lead with 14 wins against the six by Nalanda. Ananda’s last win was in 2003 under Daminda Kularatne while Nalanda’s last win came way back in 1953 under the leadership of W.W. Silva.
But the form of the two teams this season points at a win for the strong Ananda side led by Dinesh Chandimal having recorded 12 wins from the 17 matches played. Nalanda having played the same number of matches have recorded four outright wins.
But the two teams have also been defeated with Ananda losing to Royal and Nalanda to Dharmasoka Ambalangoda and Royal.
Ananda skipper Chandimal in his 11 matches has scored 1346 runs with a best of 196 and he is sure going to be thorn in the flesh for the Nalandians. Praboda Seneviratne the other centurion of the side will be the other batsman to watch while Udesh Nadiranga along with Sachin Dewage and Ravindu Shamen to give support.
The bowling will revolve around spinner Mateesha Perera who was the first schoolboy to take 100 wickets for the season while Ruvindu Shamen and Ruchira Herath with Sachitra Perera to support.
Nalanda don’t have the power that their rivals’ possess with their top scorer being Dinuk Jayasinghe who has just pass 600 with skipper Nipun Karunanayake and Prashan Wickremasinghe being the others with over 550 runs.
Nalanda’s bowling will revolve in Tharindu Wickremasinghe, Dinuk Jayasinghe and skipper Karunanayake. So it is going to be Herculean task for Nalandians to curtail the strong Ananda batting.
It all points to an interesting battle with the Nalandians aiming to break the 55 year old jinx and the high riding Anandians going for their second win after five years.
The teams:|
Ananda – Dinesh Chandimal (Capt), Praboda Seneviratne, Mateesha Perera, Udesh Nadiranga, Ruvindu Shamen, Sameera Wijesuriya, Sachin Dewage, Madumal Jayaratne, Ruchira Herath, Sachitra Perera, Minura Janadhi, Navin Samaraweera, Mayuka Perera and Pasindu Madushan.
Nalanda – Nipun Karunanayake (Capt), Dinuk Jayasinghe, Adeesha Nanayakkara, Tharindu Wickremasinghe, Chandimanthu Rodrigo, Sineth Gunawardena, Sayura de Silva, Chethan de Silva, Vimukthi Perera, Naveen Subasinghe, Suranga Tennekoon, Gayan Maduwantha, Tharindu Vidanapathirana and Charith Dissanayake. |
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