DSS-Mahanama well balanced

Second Battle of Golds at R. Premadasa Stadium:

Chris Dhambarage

Two well balanced teams and traditional rivals D. S. Senanayake College and Mahanama College will clash in the second annual Battle of the Golds inter school Big Match at the R. Premadasa Stadium today and tomorrow.

Both teams have maintained an unbeaten record throughout the season and are determined to make an impact in this important encounter. The D. S. Senanayake outfit have always maintained a high standard on the field and have had eight first innings victories in addition to their six wicket triumph against Isipatana College.

Even though they have managed to pull off just a solitary win they have had the better of the exchanges against all other opponents including St. Peter’s College, Nalanda College, Kalutara MV, Prince of Wales College Moratuwa, Ananda College, St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa and Kingswood College Kandy.

Mahanama College too have just concluded a successful season where they recorded three outright victories against St. Servatius College Matara, Sri Devananda College Ambalangoda and Sri Jayawardenapura MV.

The Mahanama College team will be captained by fourth year coloursman and right hand middle order batsman Anura Prasad who has accumulated over 550 runs including one century and two fifties.

In fact his knock of 138 against St. Servatius College Matara was a crucial one which helped them to pull off an innings and 50 runs outright victory. Prasad who is also their wicket keeper of the side has impressed behind the stumps with 35 victims to his credit in the current season. Last year too he scored over 500 runs and held on to over 40 victims.

He had a memorable game last years where he was named as the best batsman in both Big Match as well as in the limited overs encounter.

Fourth year coloursman and left arm spinner Ishan Abeysekera is the vice captain of the side having picked up over 50 wickets in the current inter school season. Abeysekera is their main strike bowler and took a match bag of ten wickets on one occasion and also returned figures of six wickets for 13 against Sri Devananda College Ambalangoda.

The D. S. Senanayake College team will be captained by fourth year coloursman and right arm off spinner Dimuthu Samarakkody who has captured over 40 wickets in the current season. He has claimed five wickets in an innings once and has also scored over 250 runs as a middle order batsman.

Samarakkody is one of their most experienced players in the side having captained the under 17 team which emerged runners up in 2005 in which year he also represented the Sri Lanka under 17 team.

Fifth year coloursman and left hander Gayashan Weerasekera is the vice captain of the side having accumulated over 700 runs this season including one century and four half centuries.

Weerasekera had the honour of captaining the D. S. Senanayake College under 13 team and the under 16 team and was a member of the under 17 team which emerged runners up in 2005. He was also a member of the champion under 19 team in 2004.