Yawn on the cards – prove them wrong
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Ananda Captain Thushara Samarakoon
The 84th Battle of the Maroons will take place at the SSC ground in Colombo on March 2 and 3. Interestingly this exercise is more or less as a battle for honour between the two brother schools — Ananda College and Nalanda College.
Both schools go out for the battle with hoping to walk out as winners but interestingly neither of the schools has registered a win from the season. To make things more uncertain none of the players have been able to clobber a century from either side. As a battle of any nature requires a favourite and an underdog, Ananda becomes the better side with a relatively better side than their rivals so quite a few reasons.
The good news is Ananda led by Thushara Samarakoon has played more matches than their rivals but are winless from 14 encounters. What they have gained after many weeks were two unexpected defeats from the hands of Richmond and Dharmasoka Ambalangoda.
But they can be happy about the form of certain players. Deputy skipper Danuka Pathirana and 
Pasindu Isira have gathered 540 runs apiece with three and five half centuries respectively. Both have scored their respective best knocks against Prince of Wales’ which are 93 and 99.
Skipper Samarakoon has made up 520 runs with three fifties with the best of 67 against St. Servatius Matara while Thamalaka Athulathmudali has scored 450 runs with the best of 98 against Maliyadeva and accumulated 26 wickets as an off-spinner. Among other bowlers who could rise up are spinners Isuru Gunasekara and Sammu Ashan who have collected 33 and 31 wickets respectively. On the other hand Nalanda has very little to impress though in a battle of this nature a sudden surge could not be ruled out.
Under skipper Lahiru Jayakody, Nalanda has played 11 games and are also winless. What spoiled their average mode of play was a shocking defeat at the hands of Lumbini College, which experienced soon after they returned from a three-week Twenty20 tour of India. Nalanda could rely on skipper Jayakody who has topped up 475 runs with three half tons, Woshantha Silva and Avishka de Silva who have reached 288 and 260 runs respectively for their school while others have failed to impress. Among bowlers spinners Malinga de Silva and Pramud Hettihewa has captured 39 and 37 scalps respectively. They will have to play a key role to overturn Ananda and make the game even.
The encounter has not seen a winner since 2003 where Ananda last won it under Daminda Kularatne beating a Nalanda side lead by Sanjaya Gangodawila. That win too had come after 21 long years. But if Nalanda fail to win it this time around it will be their 60th year in-a-row without a win.
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