Confront Thomians at Mount Lavinia today:

Joes out to retain Jayasuriya Trophy

Chris Dhambarage

St. Joseph’s College will be hoping to retain the Gilmour Jayasuriya Memorial Trophy when they take on S. Thomas’ College in their 106th annual inter school under 19 cricket encounter starting at Mount Lavinia today.

The Josephians will be looking for a repeat of last year’s performance where they trounced their opponents by an innings and 13 runs under the captaincy of Shameera Weerasinghe on their home grounds at Darley Road.

Incidentally Weerasinghe was instrumental in guiding his team towards victory where he took a matchbag of eleven wickets to increase their overall tally to 25 victories in the series that began way back in 1905.

In contrast the Thomians have not won against St. Joseph’s College since 1994 where they triumphed by seven wickets under the captaincy of Nilanka Peiris (Sr) at Darley Road. The Joes however will start as the favourites following their morale boosting victory over Trinity College at the Asgiriya Stadium last week. That also marked their fifth outright win for the current inter school season having lost just a solitary game against Royal College.

S. Thomas’ College of course have remained unbeaten this season and have recorded two outright victories against Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa and Richmond College Galle respectively.

Last week too they had a satisfying outing where they came out with a pleasing performance to force a draw against Wesley College at Campbell Park. The key player for S. Thomas’ will be Nuwan Kavinda who is in cracking form having already completed three centuries this year.

But this time he will be up against a strong bowling attack which will be spearheaded by left arm seamer Dinal Dhambarage who had a matchbag of eight wickets against Trinity last week.

Ananda -Antonians

Meanwhile Ananda College will be looking to register their third outright victory for the season when they take on St. Anthony’s College in their annual inter school under 19 cricket tournament fixture starting at Ananda Mawatha today.

The Anandians led by all rounder Matheesha Perera have notched up two victories so far against Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda and Zahira College respectively.

Last week they had a good outing where they scored over three hundred runs in the first innings against Royal College at Reid Avenue with Geeshan Wimaladharma and Sachin Devage both completing splendid centuries.

In contrast the Antonians will take the field at the backdrop of a shock four wicket defeat which they suffered at the hands of St. Sebastian;s College Moratuwa last week.

Wesley - Cambrians

Wesley College will face a tough task when they take on Prince of Wales College Moratuwa in another inter school under 19 cricket tournament match at Campbell Park commencing today. The Wesleyites have made a tremendous improvement this season and have already notched up two outright victories against Sri Jayawardenapura MV and Kingswood College Kandy respectively. They also came close of pulling off another outright victory against Dharmaraja College last week.

The Cambrians with a formidable line up will be hoping to maintain their impressive record this year having edged out St. Peter’s College on the first innings in their previous outing.

Nalanda - Thurstan

The unbeaten Nalanda College team will take on Thurstan College in another inter school under 19 cricket tournament match which will be worked off at Campbell Park on Saturday and Sunday. The Nalandians with a well balanced side will be looking to maintain their winning form after having routed Joseph Vaz College by an innings and 106 runs at Wennappuwa last week.

Thurstan College of course went down to St. Benedict’s College on the first innings last week at Kotahena but are determined to bounce back in this important outing. Their batting will be spearheaded by Shehan Kamalean with Arthavindu set to make an impact with the ball.

Peterite - Maris Stella

Meanwhile St. Peter’s College will travel to Katunayake for their inter school under 19 cricket tournament match against Maris Stella College Negombo which begins today.

Isipatana Zahira

in addition Isipatana College will confront Zahira College in another inter school under 19 cricket tournament match which begins at Maradana today. The cynosure of all eyes will be on Isipatana’s left arm spinner Anushka Samaratunga who has already captured over 90 wickets in the current season.