St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, one of the leading cricket-playing schools in the country, will field a team of experienced players blended with newcomers this season. The Josephians played 18 games last year but could not elevate themselves to the required level. However, they recorded three wins.
Midway through the season last year, they lost two key players with all-round abilities as Chathurnaga Kumara and Supeshala Jayathilake were drafted to play for the Sri Lanka Under-19 team during this phase. The three wins came while the duo were with the team but after their brief departure St. Joseph’s were left to rue results not favouring them.
This year the team claims to be a well balanced unit with the inclusion of four senior performers, skipper Vidusha Jayasinghe, his deputy Supeshala Jayathilake, Sadeera Samarawickrama and Dinal Fonseka. Wicketkeeper/Opener Jayasinghe, who is in his fourth and final first XI season, will open the batting with Samarawickrama, who has the honour of hitting this season’s maiden century. The inclusion of Jayathilake, a left-arm spinner with batting abilities, will be a great boon for the Josephians. Jayathilake was a key player in the Sri Lanka Under-19 team during their series against England. Fonseka is one of the many all-rounders in the team.
The St. Joseph’s batting line-up promises to be as strong as in the past while also possessing variety in its bowling. They have quite a few campaigners in their seam department, while the key attraction will be the spinners. Jayathilake is tipped to lead the twisters, which include an array of four spinners. Coach Dilan Ramanayake has worked hard with the team to build up the characteristics of the players while paying special attention to their fielding, which is an area they are good at.
“We are a young side strong in batting and the spin department. These two aspects will be our key towards winning. Already we have won a match and in total we have 20 matches to complete this season. Our target is to win half of them. As always we will continue to carry out our usual tactics while looking forward to playing positive cricket, which will be the key for wins,” said Skipper Jayasinghe.
The St. Joseph’s cricket squad: Vidusha Jayasinghe (Captain), Supeshala Jayathilake, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dinal Fonseka, Aravind Fernando, Sachin Hewawasam, Yashan Samarasinghe, Fabian Fernando, Randil Perera, Isuru Malinda, Rajindu Rodrigo, Hashindra Perera, Vinura Mendis, Shiven Aliraja, Pathum Madushanka, Dilan Ramanayake (Coach), Prashantha Ranaweera (M-I-C) |
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