Gurutalawa Thomians win Uva encounter

St. Thomas' College Gurutalawa captained by Udesh Ranaweera went into the Uva Thomian cricket encounter against St Thomas' College, Bandarawela as underdogs but won the match by 4 wickets with two overs to spare in their annual encounter played at the Bandarawela Esplanade recently.

STC Bandarawela captain Chanaka Manathunga won the toss and elected to bat. The Thomians succeeded in dismissing Bandarawela team in 47.3 overs but not before the Bandarawela Thomians had piled up a handsome score of 282 runs.

The Gurutalawa Thomians struck back with some fine display of batting and were successful in reaching the target 284 runs in 47.2 overs to win the Headmasters E St. Patrick Gunawardene and S L A Ratnayake Trophies for the first time since this annual encounter was revived in 2009.

M T S Maduka of STC Gurutalawa was awarded the Trophy for Best Batsman for his striking 74 runs, while Anjana Silva of STC Gurutalawa was awarded the Trophy for Man of the Match for his fine double (71 not out and 3 wickets). The Best Bowler Trophy was awarded to Manoj Prabath of STC Bandarawela (3 wickets for 45).

This fixture, unlike a traditional Big Match, is more for strengthening the common ties shared by two Schools in the same family - two brother schools, not rival schools. However, the standard of Cricket in the Schools is often judged fairly or unfairly by the result of the match.

It must be noted that it was these two schools that pioneered School Cricket in this part of the Uva Province and a number of similar encounters have been started as a result.

The last occasion that STC Gurutalawa won this encounter was in 1987 after which it was stopped due to a number of unavoidable circumstances. It is to the credit of a School with a small number of students and limited facilities that it was able to achieve this win and much of the credit must go to the STC Gurutalawa Cricket Coach K Mohan Kumar for having brought about such a positive change in the cricket at Guru since he took over in November 2010.

Prof Mohan de Silva, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sri Jayawardenepura and a distinguished old boy of STC Gurutalawa was the Chief Guest on the occasion while Chaminda Wijesiri, Mayor of Bandarawela and a distinguished old boy of STC Bandarawela, was Guest of Honour.

A traditional 'Big Match' atmosphere prevailed at the Bandarawela MC Ground as supporters, old boys and present students of both schools in this region displayed good discipline and friendly rivalry as they enjoyed the match. The joint Organising Committee comprising the two Headmasters, Prefects of Games, old boys and sports staff of both schools led by Dinesh Wijekannan put in a lot of hard work in organizing the event. On the previous day a Thomian Motor Rally was also held that paraded through Bandarawela Town.

STC Bandarawela 282: (Ashan Weeraman - 31, Nihanga Liyanage - 62, Hansaka Liyanarachie - 43, Nalan Jayawickreme - 32, Tharindu Bandara - 2/17, Anjana Silva - 3/68, Ravishan Wickremarachie - 2/0)

STC Gurutalawa 284: (M T S Maduka - 74, Tharindu Bandara - 41, Anjana Silva - 71 (Not Out), A M Sarathchandra - 32 (Not Out), Nalan Jayawickreme - 01/48, Nihanga Liyanage - 01/25, Hansaka Liyanarachie - 01/53, Manoj Prabath 03/45)