Thurstan – Isipatana encounter should be a close contest

Chris Dhambarage

Two well balanced teams and the traditional rivals Thurstan and Isipatana will clash in their 47th annual inter school Big Match for the Blackham Wijewardena Memorial Trophy today and tomorrow at the SSC ground in Maitland Place.

The series have been almost even since the inception in 1964 where Thurstan hold a slight edge of having recorded five outright victories against their opponents’ four wins with 36 drawn.

However Isipatana were the last team to have tasted success in the series when they beat Thurstan under the captaincy of Krishantha Jayawardena in 1999. Thurstan have not won since 1992 where they triumphed under the leadership of Mackenzie Perera. This year both teams have made good preparations ahead of the Big Match through some outstanding contributions from their senior players. Thurstan have certainly maintained a better record than their opponents having lost only a solitary game against Nalanda College.

But they have also successfully recorded three outright victories against Wesley College, Maliyadeva College Kurunegala and Kingswood College Kandy respectively.

Isipatana too have experienced mixed fortunes where they lost to St. Joseph’s College by four wickets, Nalanda by eight wickets, Lumbini MV by 39 runs and St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa by four wickets.

In between they have been able to register six morale boosting outright victories against St. Servatius College Matara, Mahanama College, Dharmapala MV Pannipitiya, D. S. Senanayake College, Zahira College and President’s College.

The main reason for these victories have been some inspired bowling performances from their left arm spinner Anushka Samaratunga who in fact became the first schoolboy cricketer to have completed a century of wickets in the current inter school cricket season.

He has been single handedly responsible for some of their victories and is looking forward to making a memorable Big Match.

Samaratunga will no doubt be targeting the all time series record for Isipatana of seven wickets for 79 held by K. L.S. K. Sirisena way back in 1967. He has the talent and the potential to achieve that goal having already claimed a matchbag of ten wickets on five occasions this season.

In addition he captured five wickets or more in an innings on 13 occasions with a career best performance of nine wickets for 22 against Mahanama College. The other key player in the Isipatana line up is Samitha Sulochana who has captured 70 wickets at an average of 13.08. But more than the record his biggest task will be to contain the strong Thurstan batting line up which will be spearheaded by Shihan Kamileen. The Thurstan captain has been in tremendous form this season and was the first batsman to have reached the magical one thousand run mark.

The stylish right hander will be oozing with confidence having collected a massive 1116 runs at an average of 46.50 and inclusive of three centuries. Kamileen will be looking to conclude his school cricket career on a bright note and will be eying the highest individual score by an Isipatanian which is 146 not out made by Kamal Mahendra in 1990. The other top batsman in the Thurstan line up is Udara Munasinghe who is just 14 runs away from completing the one thousand run mark for the current season.

The solid opening batsman scored two superb centuries against S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia and St. Sebastian’s College in addition to eight half centuries.

All rounder Prabodha Arthavindu is another key player for Thurstan having made his presence felt throughout the season with both bat and ball.

He has performed his role quite effectively as a solid middle order batsman and as their stock bowler who could pick up some vital wickets for the team.

In contrast Isipatana’s batting has been somewhat shaky and will be hoping for an improved performance from their top order. But in their last couple of outings they have been scoring heavily with Harith Kalindu stroking back to back centuries against President’s College and St. Aloysius College Galle.

In addition skipper Thivanka Ranasinghe and Vidharshana Shenuka are the other two centurions in the team and a lot will depend on these two senior players to build up a good first innings total.

Thurstan (from): Shihan Kamileen (captain), Udara Munasinghe, Jehan Siyabalapitiya, Thisura Madurapperuma, Prabodha Arthavindu, Supun Navaratne, Sajeewa Salgado, Sachintha Wijesinghe, Sachith Dias, Kevin Silva, Prabath Wijesinghe, Ranga Wijewickrema, Ashen Weerasinghe, Luvina Lochana, Krishan Wickremarachchi, Lilan Avishka, Ramindu Kumarasinghe, Minhaj Jaleel, Harith Dias, Yasaru Kularatne

Isipatana (from): Thivanka Ranasinghe (captain), Nilusha Sasanka, Harith Kalindu, Harshaka Cooray, Dimuth Warapitiya, Dimithri Perera, Vidharshana Shenuka, Chamara Waduge, Samitha Sulochana, Anushka Samaratunga, Chanaka Jayanetti, Danushka Sandaruwan, Irfan Rahim, Dinusha Fernando, Didath Vimukthi, Anju Jayashantha.