St. Joseph’s, Mahinda battle for final slot
St. Joseph’s College and Mahinda College, two unbeaten teams of the Under 17 Division One inter-schools cricket tournament, will battle it out for a slot to the final today.
The two teams, who will square off in the first semi-final scheduled to be played at the Galle International Cricket Stadium, are led by Sri Lanka youth players with Ashain Daniel captaining St. Joseph’s and Navod Paranavithana spearheading Mahinda.
Since the tournament began in midMay the Josephians have played 11 matches and have come out victorious in all of them. In the pre-quarterfinals the Joes defeated Isipathana by two wickets and in the quarter-final they outclassed Royal Colombo by 128 runs.
On the other hand Mahinda too played the same amount of matches winning ten with one ending in a no result. In the pre-quarter-final they got the better of Prince of Wales by one wicket before coasting to a tenwicket against last year’s runners-up St. Anthony’s College Katugastota.
The cynosure of all eyes in the two sides will be all-rounders Dunith Wellalage of St. Joseph’s and Mahinda skipper Paranavithana. Dunith put in a fine all-round performance against Royal in the quarter-final encounter while Paranavithana steered his side with an unbeaten half ton in the quarterfinal match against St. Anthony’s.
Apart from Dunith the Josephians will pin their hopes in Yesith Rupasinghe, Johanne de Zilva, Shevaan Rasool and skipper Ashain in the batting department while in the bowling Dunith along with Miranga Wickramage, Lakshan Gamage and Ashan de Alwis will be expected to combine with effect to curtail their opponents.
Beside skipper Paranavithana Mahinda will be banking on batsmen Sithara Helitha, Kaushika Sanketh and Shakya Sampath and their bowling will revolve around spinners Kaveesha Malliyawadu and Chethiya Gunasekera and support will be expected from Subanu Rajapakse and Kaveesha Vimukthi. However with the two teams oozing with talented players the outcome of the match is not easy to predict, but the supporters of both the sides will get their money’s worth and no doubt a closely contested game is in the offing.
The Teams:
St. Joseph’s - Ashain Daniel (Captain), Shevaan Rassool, Johanne De Zilva, Dineth Jayakody, Lakshan Gamage, Ashan De Alwis, Dinal Anuradha, Dunith Wellalage, Miranga Wickramage, Yesith Rupasinghe, Yanik Muller, Sheran Fonseka, Shenuka de Silva, Dineth Anthony, Klenn Kalyanarathne, Sanjeewa Fernando (Master-in-charge), Roger Wijesooriya (Coach), Darantha Menerigama (Assistant Coach)
Mahinda - Navod Paranavithana (Captain), Subhanu Rajapaksha, Kawshitha Kodithuwakku, Sandew Induwara, Kosala Udayanga, Kaveesha Malliyawadu, Sithira Guruge, Osindu Kavindya, Thejan Shakya Sampath, Kushan Madhusha, Chethiya Gunasekara, Shehan Sandeepa, Geeth Vidusha, Preethija Supulsara, Theekshana Sanjeewa, Y. Nishantha Kumara (Cricket Coordinator), Gihan Tharusha, Aravinda Rathnayake (Master in Charge), Anil Rideegammana (Head Coach), Suneth Kudahetti (Assistant Coach).