How Ananda won a school cricket title
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I wish to recollect my memories where the motivation, strategies and self-belief of a team, very much the underdogs, beat a side full of cricketing skills and talent. The occasion was the school’s limited overs title for the Lemonade Trophy held on 9 April 2006 at the SSC grounds. The final was between St. Peters and Ananda.
St. Peters came to the final beating their arch rivals St. Joseph’s. Josephian side included the current national players Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne, Thisara Perera and Roshen Silva. Ananda came to the final by beating a fighting Dharmaraja side. Man to man Peterites were much stronger with Hans Fernando as the captain, and with other players in the likes of Shivanga Ranasooriya, Lahiru Pieris, Delon Udugamasuriya, Lakshan Rodrigo, Angelo Perera, Akshu Fernando, Umar Samsudeen to name a few.
Ananda had the services of only a few senior players in the likes of skipper Chathura Herath, Amal Athulathmudali, Ranganath Wijetunge and Malith Gunatilleke. The average age of the Ananda side was 16 plus.
Everyone expected the Peterites coached by the veteran coach Roger Wijesuriya to steamroll Ananda, and they were the clear favourites. Ananda were coached by the former Ananda, Police, SSC and BRC Cricketer Udaya Ananda Perera who took over as the Ananda coach from Anuruddha Polonnowita. Udaya requested my assistance to build up a side for the season and I instilled confidence in the players and brought up a side with nine allrounders. As an ardent cricket fan of Ananda I wanted Ananda to win the Limited overs crown which has eluded Ananda since year 2000. The forte of Ananda cricket was their amazing feats in Limited overs cricket. Ananda became champions for 6 consecutive years from 1988 to 1993 and lost to Nalanda in 1994 by the toss of a coin after the scores were tied. Coach Udaya and myself mapped out the winning strategies and briefed the captain and the team the previous day. As Peterites were a mighty side, we had to take off the fear psychosis of the players with confidence building methodology.
Ananda batted first and made 199 runs against a top bowling side of Peterites. Amal Athulathmudali top scored with 59 runs. When Peterites batted they were tied down first by the pacies and then by the 3 pronged spin attack of Malith Gunatilleke, Udara Pieris and Matheesha Perera. Malith got the prized wicket of Hans Fernando by trapping him leg before. Ultimately the Peterites folded up for 140 runs. Thus Ananda clinched the Lemonade Trophy after a lapse of 5 years. A special word of appreciation should go out to Ananda skipper Chathura Herath for his captaincy right throughout the tournament and to all players in the team who executed the winning strategies to perfection.
Chandrajith Samaranayake
Paranawadiya