Ananda have the advantage over arch rivals Nalanda
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 March 7 and 8 at the SSC grounds with play commencing at 9.30am each day.
Nalanda College Squad
This traditional clash between these two schools will be the 86th 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 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 Sri Lanka youth player Sammu Ashan has played 15 matches recording four outright wins against Wesley, Dharmapala Pannipitiya and Revatha MMV Balapitiya and first inning wins over S. Thomas’, Royal Colombo, Dharmasoka MV, Prince of Wales and Maliyadeva.
Ananda College Squad
Nalanda led by Malinga Amarasinghe, a Sri Lanka youth player, has played 16 matches. They have recorded only one outright which was against Maliyadeva while losing three outright to St. Peter’s, Trinity and Richmond and overall their performances this season has not been consistent.
On paper and 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 eventhough they will be coming into the game to stave off defeat.
Ananda can boast of two players who have scored over 700 runs in Lakkana Jayasekera, who has scored over 800 runs, which includes an unbeaten 204 against Dharmasoka MV and two tons and Nisal Fransisco who has two tons and three half tons under his belt for a score of over 700 runs.
Then they have skipper Sammu Ashan and Sahan Arachchige, another player who represented the Sri Lanka youth side. But the pair was unable to represent the side the full season but even then Sahan has accumulated over 650 runs from 11 matches inclusive of two tons and three half tons.
Both of them are capable of making useful contributions to bolster the score and along with allrounder Dilanka Sandaken and Nipun Haggala are expected to be in the forefront of Ananda’s batting department.
The bowling will be spearheaded by Dilanka Sandaken who has been their most successful bowler this season and Sammu with support expected from Sandaken Pathirana, Sahan Arachchige and Kavishka Anjula.
Like the Anandians the Nalandians will bank on skipper Malinga who has scored nearly 500 runs inclusive of three half tons. Malinga was able to play for the side in only 13 matches due to national duty.
None of the Nalanda batsmen was able to score a ton this season and their batting will be spearheaded by Dilan Suraweera who has scored over 550 runs that included four half tons.
Then they have Raveen Dasanayake, Aroshana Kumara and Kasun Sandaruwan Pramud Hettiwatte who has shone with his all-round 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 Ayantha de Silva and Malith Peiris with Kavindu Bandara, DIlan Suraweera and skipper Malinga to curtail the strong Ananda batting to a low score.
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.
The two-day match will be followed by the limited over encounter slotted to be played on March 15 at the same venue.