It’s an even-stevens clash
Ananda Team
Two of Sri Lanka’s leading Buddhist institutions Ananda and Nalanda will confront each other in their annual Battle of the Maroons encounter scheduled to be played on March 6 and 7 at the SSC grounds with play commencing at 9.30am each day. This traditional clash between these two schools will be the 87th in the series and will be played for the Sujeewa Kamalsooriya Trophy. Sujeewa excelled in sports at Ananda and led the cricket team in 1983.
Sujeewa met with a tragic death during the Tsunami disaster that devastated Sri Lanka and some of the Asian countries in 2004. A win in the series has not been recorded since 2003 when Ananda led by Daminda Kularatne came out victorious while Nalanda has not been able to achieve a win for 62 years since their last win which was way back in 1953 under the leadership W.W. Silva. However this time out the battle between Maroons is Even Stevens as both the teams are evenly balanced and final outcome is not that easy to predict.
But as mentioned it’s high time that the Nalandians put in a positive approach to break the over 60 year drought of not having won the game. Looking back at the performances of the two sides the Anandians led by fourth year coloursman Nisal Fransisco has played 14 matches so far recording three outright wins against Bandaranayake MV Gampaha, Dharmasoka MV Ambalangoda and Dharmaloka MV Kelaniya but their unbeaten record was tarnished when they lost to Trinity.
Nalanda led by third year player Dasun Seneviratne has played 17 matches securing three outright wins against Thurstan, Rahula Matara and DSS whilst losing outright to Richmond and S. Thomas’ which both they lost very badly. Ananda have in their side two centurions in Kavishka Anjula and Kamesh Nirmal who both have scored two tons each. Kavishka is their top run getter for them this season having scored over 675 runs and he is a good allrounder having taken over 40 scalps so he is going to one of the main players in the clash.
Skipper Nisal is the other batsman for the Nalandians to take note of and he has score over 600. Vice captain of the side last year Sammu Ashan was unable to play the full season due to national duties and the hard hitter who is an experienced player will be expected to make his valuable contribution. Centurion Kamesh along with Asel Sigera, Kalana Perera, Rahal Avishka, Nipun Hakgalla and Supun Waragoda’s contributions will be expected to bolster the Ananda scoring.
Nalanda Team
The bowling will be spearheaded by their top bowler Dileepa Jayalath who has taken over 60 scalps this season with Kavishka and Supun Waragoda’s support being looked forward to curtail the Nalanda batting. Nalanda have two centurions in Kasun Sandaruwan and Suhanga Wijewardena who has played only eight matches so this season. But they will be pinning their hopes in skipper Dasun to lead them from the front. Dasun has scored over 500 runs and Kasun is the other batsmen to have scored over 500 runs and the duo have a fight in the hands to bolster the side’s score to give the much needed confidence for the others.
Malinga Amarasinghe last year captain along with Nimnaka Ratnayake, Dilan Suraweera,Kavindu Bandara, Thinura Hettiarachchi and Aroshan Kumara are the other batsmen from who much will be expected. The bowling will revolve around, their top wicket-taker and deputy skipper Kavindu Bandara who has taken 93 wickets this season which includes six five wicket hauls and he is expected to get the support from Dilan Suraweera, Ayantha de Silva, Asel Kulatunga, Nimnaka and Malinga As mentioned earlier with the two sides being evenly balanced it’s left to be seen whether Nalanda could break the 62-year-old jinx or Ananda will be able to achieve a win after ten years or ultimately the game will end in another stalemate.