Joes out to clinch a double

Chris Dhambarage

St. Joseph's College will be hoping to complete a grand double when they take on their traditional rivals St. Peter's College in their 34th annual Battle of the Saints limited overs cricket encounter for the Rev. Fr. Peter Pillai challenge shield at the R. Premadasa Stadium today.

The Josephians are in a confident mood having trounced the Peterites by an innings after a lapse of 35 years in their annual Big Match worked off at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium last week.

They also warmed up for this game by outplaying Isipatana College by a massive margin of 162 runs in their inter school knock out tournament match on their home grounds at Darley Road on Thursday.

The cynosure of all eyes will be on their top order batsman Roshane Silva who is fresh after having compiled a splendid 115 not out against Isipatana. He was named as the best batsman in the Big Match too and will be hoping for a repeat performance having stroked an unbeaten century in last year's encounter.

In fact Tharindu Ariyawansa (St. Joseph's College) and Malintha Warnapura (St. Peter's College) are the only other centurions in the limited overs series which the Josephians lead by 18 matches to 14 with the 2001 fixture ending in a tie.

St. Joseph's College of course are forced to make a change to their winning combination as Treshan Rajasuriya will keep away following a family bereavement. He will be replaced by left arm seamer Dinal Dhambarage who is also in good form having picked up a hattrick in their limited overs match against Henagama Central.

St. Peter's College too have made one change to their side that lost the Big Match with Shivanga Ranasuriya coming in place of Thivanka Silva who made 0 and 1 in the Big Match last week.

The teams: St. Joseph's College: Ruwantha Fernandopulle (captain), Dimuth Karunaratne, Anton de Livera, Roshane Silva, Thisara Perera, Sameera Weerasinghe, Prabudha Sankalpa, Sahan Wijesiri, Hareen Silva, Chaturanga Kumara and Dinal Dhambarage.

St. Peter's College: Anuk Silva (captain), Angelo Perera, Srimantha Wijeratne, Chatura Peiris, Ruwan Wickremanayake, Chanaka Fernando, Vinod Perera, Suranga Rodrigo, Andry Berenger, Akshu Fernando and Shiwanga Ranasuriya.