A draw looks inevitable when St. Sylvester’s College clashes with
Vidyartha College in their 54th Battle of the Babes which will be
played at Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium on March 16th and
17th.
According to past records of the 53 battles the
Sylvestrians are ahead with 14 wins against 3 by Vidyartha College,
while 36 matches have ended in draws. The last time this match produced
a decision was in 2009, but in unusual circumstances. When the
Sylvestrians were cruising to victory, play had to be halted by the
umpires for bad light. No sooner the light improved the umpires decided
to resume play but the Vidyarthians refused to come onto the field and
the match was awarded to the Sylvestrians. The Vidyarthians last won in
1967 under RM Lafir and they have a 44-year jinx to break.
In the
current inter-school cricket season the Sylvestrians are unbeaten to
date, having played 16 matches won 4 outright and drawn 12. Vidyartha
played 17, won 4 outright, lost 1 and drew 12.
As for the Big
Match records, Thushara Kodikara of Vidyartha is the highest individual
scorer with 212 not out in 1984 and in the same year GP Sugathadasa of
St. Sylvester’s scored 124 to prop up the Sylvestrians. This match was
played at Police Grounds Kandy.
The best bowling performance is by
Sarath Basnayake of St. Sylvester’s College who had a match bag of 14
for 48 – taking 9/14 in the 1st innings and 5/34 in the 2nd enabling
the Sylvestrians to win by an innings.
St. Sylvester’s will be
led by fourth year all-rounder Ruwantha Ekanayake who scored over 800
runs last season but has fallen short of it this year. He is a good
leg-spinner.
All-rounder Waruna Wijesinghe is the vice captain
of the side. He has scored 530 runs and captured 31 wickets with his
medium pacers.
Fourth-year player Faiz Ahamed, who started as a
spinner, has now developed into a batsman and is the highest scorer for
the side with 675 runs.
In addition, to prop up the batting they
have Sumedha Dissanayake, Dushan Malalasena, Indunil Samarananda,
Hansamal Perera and Dhanuja Hettiarachchi who scored 92 in the last
match with Sri Sumangala College.
The new ball attack will be
led by Waruna Wijesinghe and Indunil Samarananda, but it is their
spinners who hold the key to their success. Left-arm spinner Nimesha
Mendis has been the most successful bowler with 89 wickets, Sumedha
Dissanayake has 60 wickets with his left-arm spin. Unfortunately
leg-spinner Dushan Malalasena has not come off this season.
Vidyartha
College will be led by Nilusha Galapitige who has scored over 500 runs
and will open the batting. The vice captain is all-rounder Tilina
Rupasena who has scored over 800 and taken 83 wickets.
The most
successful batsman however is opener Ruwan Bandara who has over 1200
runs to his credit including three centuries. He has created a record
for himself becoming the first Vidyarthian to score 1000 runs in a
season.
The others from whom runs are expected are Isuru
Weerasinghe, Samitha Attanayake, Tharindu Ranaweera, Keshan Gamage,
Muditha Elpitiya, Ravindu Dissanayake and Sherad Buddhika.
The
pace attack will be in the hands of Samitha Attanayake and Isuru
Weerasinghe supported by Muditha Elpitiya and Nipuna Ranaweera. Their
main spinner is Tilina Rupasena who has taken 83 wickets. Also, among
the wickets are off-spinner Tharindu Ranaweera, Keshan Gamage, Chanaka
Ratnayake and Ravindu Dissanayake.
Roland Perera is the head
coach of St. Sylvester’s assisted by Sankalpa Gunasekera. Susantha
Basnayake is the coach of Vidyartha with Jayantha Kumara as the
master-in-charge.
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