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| Friday, 20 February 2004 |
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Kulasekera in line for 'Best Player' title by Chris Dhambarage Rajshai, Bangladesh, Wednesday Having won his second man of the match award in successive games Sri Lanka's Chamith Kosala Bandara Kulasekera has put himself in early contention for the 'Player of the Tournament' award at the ICC under 19 Youth World Cup cricket tournament. The 18-year old schoolboy from Vidyartha College Kandy has won plenty of admiration from his teammates for two outstanding contributions in the first round of the competition. The lanky fast bowler first guided Sri Lanka to an exciting two wicket win over Zimbabwe by scoring an unbeaten 37. He followed up this with another splendid performance capturing a five wickets in the match against Canada. Kulasekera said that he enjoyed bowling at both venues and certainly felt as if he was playing at home because the conditions here is similar to Kandy. The right arm paceman said that the match against Zimbabwe was a real challenge for him and was happy to see his team after going through some anxious moments. Kulasekera is no stranger with the bat having made a century for his school last season against his home town rivals St. Anthony's College. his contribution in that match was worth more than that as Sri Lanka scraped home by a close margin of two wickets. Kulasekera said that the atmosphere at the Chandu Stadium was quite electrifying and was bit nervous at the start when he walked into bat with the team struggling at 65 for 6. He praised the effort of Gihan de Silva who played a good supporting role and the pair also putting on 73 runs for the seventh wicket. He said that the uneven bounce at the Chandu Stadium was the main concern because there were some deliveries which were almost unplayable. Even then he held his nerve under most critical conditions and steered the Lankans to their first victory of the tournament. Kulasekera got his act together once again at the Rajshai Divisional Stadium which is situated some 200 kilometres away from the capital Dhaka. The medium paceman was in devastating form as he ripped through the Canada batting line-up to return excellent figures of 5 for 27. This was of course not the first time that Kulasekera is representing the Sri Lanka junior team in a major international tournament. He has been an outstanding cricketer from his young age and has captained Vidyartha College under 13, 15, 17 and 19 teams respectively. Kulasekera toured Pakistan with the Sri Lanka under 19 team last year for a one day series but this was easily his best performance in an international encounter. He said that the conditions at the Rajshai Divisional Stadium was excellent and a good wicket for both batsmen and the bowlers. He simply destroyed the Canadian batting line and paid the way for a convincing victory for the Lankans at the end. Kulasekera has now collected a total of six points after his two man of the match awards against Zimbabwe and Canada respectively. The man of the match of each game will receive three points and the second best player will receive two points and the third best player will receive one point. The winner of the man of the tournament award is the player who accumulated the most points during the course of the tournament. The winners may not necessarily have won a single man of the match award but could be the most consistent performer by way of picking up one or two points across a number of matches. |
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