Ananda confident of good display

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: Ananda College with four impressive victories to their credit are confident of putting up a good performance when they take on their traditional rivals Nalanda College in their 78th annual inter school Battle of the Maroons cricket encounter which will be played on March 24 and 25 at the Sinhalese Sports Club grounds in Maitland Place.

The Ananadians have just completed a successful season during which time they had the credit of defeating Royal College, St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa, St. Benedict’s College and Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda before going down to St. Peter’s College.

Incidentally their victory against Royal College had a great amount of significance because they triumphed against their arch rivals after a lapse of 47 years.

The main architect behind Ananda’s success was their captain Malith Gunatilleke who led from the front claiming a matchbag of thirteen wickets. The left arm spinner had a memorable outing both as a bowler and captain as he mesmerised the Royal batsmen with a deadly spell of bowling.

Gunatilleke almost single handedly destroyed the Royal batting with figures of seven wickets for 57 and six wickets for 24 respectively. Not only that he also entered his name in the record books by leading Ananda College to their first ever victory over Royal College since 1960.

Gunatilleke, a fourth year coloursman bats at number four and has scored over 600 runs with a century against Richmond College Galle and also has a rich haul of 91 wickets from their sixteen matches this season. He is easily one of their key players in the line up and has a fantastic average of 12.06.

Udara Peiris is another important figure in the Ananda College line up having captured over fifty wickets in the current inter school cricket season. In addition he has also excelled with the bat scoring over six hundred runs including five half centuries.

However the highest run getter in the Ananda College line up is Udara Jayasundera who has amassed a total of over 750 runs including two hundreds and four half centuries. He has been quite consistent throughout the season and has a top score of 107 and has maintained a good average of just under 40 runs.

Dinesh Chandimal has also topped the five hundred run mark for the current season and has maintained a superb average of 45.00 having compiled one century and two fifties with a highest score of 103.

Vishwa Wijesuriya is also another centurian in the Ananda College team and he has just under five hundred runs to his credit including two half centuries with an average of 38.60. Rangana Wijetunga is another consistent run getter where he has maintained an average of 40.00 having piled up over five hundred runs this season with the help of two half centuries.

In the big match series Ananda has won 12 matches to Nalanda’s 6 with the rest ending in draws. Ananda last won in 2003 under Damindu Kularatne while Nalanda has not won since 1953.

The Ananda College cricket team: (from): Malith Gunatilleke (captain), Udara Jayasundera, Dinesh Chandimal, Prabodha Seneviratne, Vishwa Wijesuriya, Ranganath Wijetunga, Udara Pieris, Dilshan Silva, Ishara Wickremasinghe, Madumal Jayaratne, Matheesha Perera, Chamith Kularatne, Sameera Wijesuriya, Ruchira Herath.