Will it be another Maroons stalemate?
Two of Sri Lanka’s leading Buddhist institutions Ananda and Nalanda will confront each other in the annual Battle of the Maroons encounter scheduled to be played on April 4 and 5 at the R. Premadasa Stadium. Play will commence at 9.30 a.m.
This traditional clash between these two schools will be the 85th 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.
Nalanda College Captain Woshantha Silva
Ananda Captain Thamalaka Athulathmudali.
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 six decades. Their last win was way back in 1953 under W.W. Silva.
Looking back at the performances of the two sides the Anandians led by Thamalaka Athulathmudali have played 16 matches and remain unbeaten with three outright wins against Wesley, Maliyadeva and Dharmasoka MV Amblangoda.
Nalanda led by Woshantha Silva have undergone fluctuated fortunes having played 15 matches being able to record only one outright win against St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa. They lost three games outright to De Mazenod, Trinity and Mahinda. Overall their performances this season have not been consistent.
On performance Ananda looks to have a slight edge over their rivals but even then a keen tussle could be expected and a positive result or an outright win for either side looks remote even though they will be coming into the game to stave off defeat.
Ananda can boast of two players who have scored over 700 runs in wicket-keeper Pasindu Isira who has scored over 850 runs, which includes three tons and Sahan Arachchige who has three tons under his belt for a score of over 700 runs.
Then they have Sammu Ashan, Dasun Wijesinghe who has scored over 600 runs. Both of them are capable of making useful contributions to bolster the score. The openers, skipper Thamalaka and Lakkana Jayasekera will be expected to give them a sound start for in order to gain their confidence.
Ananda College Team
The bowling will be spearheaded by Isuru Gunasekera who has been their most successful bowler this season and Sammu with support expected from Sandaken Pathirana, Sahan Arachchige and Tharana Ravindu.
Like the Anandians the Nalandians will bank on skipper Woshantha who has scored over 600 runs inclusive of a ton and three half tons, he will have to lead from the front and forget the lackluster performance of the side during the season.
Then they have deputy skipper Pramud Hettiwatte who has shone with his all-round
Nalanda College team
performance and the Amarasinghes -Malinga who has scored over 500 runs and Senura with over 400 runs and Lahiru Wijeratne to make the scoreboard moving and post a challenging score.
The bowling will revolve around, their top wicket-taker Hettiwatte and Malinga who have both been successful in sharing over 75 wickets and Lahiru Wijeratne who will be expected to be at their best to curtail the Anandians.
However the supporters of the two sides will be doing a favour the sides’ if they behave in a way that would not tarnish the image of their alma mater and not make a repeat of what took place in the big match last year.
This has been the reason for the change of venue from SSC where they played for a quite a long period to the R. Premadasa Stadium.
As mentioned earlier with the two sides being evenly balanced it’s left to be seen whether Nalanda could break the 60 year old jinx or Ananda will be able to achieve a win after ten years or ultimately the game will end in another stalemate.