Two leading Colombo Catholic schools St. Joseph’s College Maradana and St. Peter’s College Bambalapitiya will meet in their 90 th “Battle of Saints “big match which will be played on March 22 and 23 at the SSC, grounds starting at 9.45a.m.
Out of the 89 matches fought for the Rev. Fr. Maurice Le Goc Memorial Trophy, the Josephians lead the tally with 12 wins. Their last victory was achieved in 2008 under the leadership of Ruwantha Fernandopulle and after 15 years St Joseph’s is searching for a victory this time.
St Josephs has produced lot of national players including Sri Lanka captains Angelo Mathews and Dimuth Karunaratne, Thisara Perera and legendary paceman Chaminda Vaas also captained a few Sri Lanka matches. In fact Vaas the most successful Sri Lanka fast bowler later became the National fast bowling coach was a member of the 1996 world cup winning team.
The present Sri Lanka Cricket Chief Executive officer Ashley de Silva also one of the best products of St Joseph’s who kept wickets for National team. Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne, Thisara Perera and Roshane Silva were in the same St Joseph’s team later did National duty while two National under 19 cricketers Dunith Wellalage and Shevon Daniel are the latest addition to the National team .Ian Daniel and Micheal Vandort two former Test openers while Jehan Daniel and Ashien Daniel the off spinner next in line to the National team are products of St Joseph’s while can’t forget two talented Weerakkody brothers Rohan and Ajith who played for Sri Lanka A team . Carlton Bernnadus the former St Joseph’s coach always will be remembered for his superb service while another Josephian Harsha de Silva was the former National women’s coach .
In terms of current form, the Josephians, led by Lahiru Amarasekera, enter the game with confidence, remaining unbeaten in the ongoing Under-19 Inter-School cricket season. .However another two players Hiran Jayasundara and Hirun Kapurubandara got chance to represent National under 19 team at recently concluded Under 19 world cup but unfortunately Jayasundara couldn’t play as he was named a stand bye player . Undoubtedly Hiran Jayasundara the wicket keeper batsman is the most successful batter of the St Joseph’s team having made a double century against Trinity while he set up very rare record of back to back double centuries in two seasons and first Josephian to do it Deputy skipper Hiran Jayasundara, who is the team’s top scorer with over 650 runs, including two centuries apart from his double century .Other notable batsmen for St. Joseph’s include openers Abishek Jayaweera and Rishma Amarasinghe.Abhishek has scored 450 runs with a century and two fifties while Amarasinghe has scored over 350 runs with a century and two fifties .Yenula Dewtusa also scored over 480 runs with 4 half centuries while Senuja Wekunagoda also among the runsscored over 425 runs with three fifties.Experienced Hirun Kapurubandara played only 7 matches scoring 266 runs with 2 fifties and Aveesha Samesh had 225 runs also useful batter and overall St Joseph’s batting is very powerful .
St Joseph’s Bowling will be led by skipper Lahiru Amarasekera and Yenula Dewthusa and both took over 40 wickets this season .Yenula Dewtusa the highest wicket taker with 46 had his best figures 9 for 54 while Lahiru Amarasekara had 40 wickets with best figures 5 for 33.
In fact Hiran Jayasundara and Yenula Dewtusa added record fifth wicket partnership of 283which was highest for St Joseph’s this year in their match against Trinity Jayasundara made an unbeaten 212 while Dewtusa scored an unbeaten 97 to set up new record partnership.
The coach Dilan Ramanayake former St Joseph’s top order batter doing excellent service to young Josephians while Master in charge Asiri Caldera always with the team St Joseph’s Rector Rev Father Ranjith Andradi and Rev Fr Priyan Tissera the Priest in Charge and College Head of Sports Susilough de S.Wijeratne always give their blessing to the team .The coach Dilan Ramanayake has an idea of adopting a positive approach as big match first innings of each team limited for 60 overs and this is good move to big match Following the two-day encounter, the 50th limited-over match, played for the Fr. Peter A. Pillai Trophy, is scheduled for April 6 at the SSC ground. St. Joseph’s currently leads the tally with 25 wins, having won last year, compared to St. Peter’s 21 wins, with two matches washed out and one ending in a tie.
Dhammika Ratnaweera
