St. Anthony’s, St. Servatius battle for supremacy
The curtains of the Under- 17 Division I Cricket Tournament will come down with the final clash for supremacy between two outstation teams St. Anthony’s Katugastota and St. Servatius Matara scheduled to be played on August 30 at Moors SC ground in Braybrooke Place.
The specialiaty is that the two teams are playing in the final having overcome top teams in the island with the Antonians making it after a lapse of 11 years with the last being in the year 2006 when the side was led by Sahan Palihakkara while on the other hand the Servatians are playing in a final of this tournament for the first ever time.
Another factor is that the two teams will be meeting for the second time with St Anthony’s coming out victorious in their second round assignment. So the Antonians will be looking to make a repeat of that performance while the Servatians will be coming into the game to avenge their defeat and with the two teams looking to win their first ever title it points out to a keenly contested game.
Looking back at the performances of the two teams St Anthony’s led by Theeksha Gunasinghe in qualifying to the final had a successful run losing only one match. In the first round they began with rousing 164 runs win over St Thomas' Matale but lost to Dharmaraja on the Parabola System.
From there on they won all their matches recording wins against Kegalu MV and Rahula MV Katugastota by ten wickets, Vidyartha by seven wickets and St Sylvester’s by one wicket.
They won all the three second round mat ches defeat i n g Maliyadeva by 103 runs, Tissa MMV Kalutara by 72 runs and St Servatius Matara their opposition in the final by two wickets.
In the pre- quarter, quarter and semi final they overcame Isipathana by three wickets, St Sebastian’s by four wickets and Royal also by four wickets.
On the other hand St Servatius led by Keshara Nuwantha won all the five of the six first round matches that they played. They began with a six wicket win against Vidyaloka MV and followed it up with wins against Richmond by seven runs, Devapathiraja MMV by five wickets, P de S. Kularatne MV Ambalngoda by 72 runs and St Aloysius Galle by four wickets before losing to Dharmasoka MV Ambalangoda by seven wickets.
In the second they overcame Tissa MMV by 23 runs, Maliyadeva by 52 runs but lost to St Anthony’s Katugastota by two wickets.
In the pre- quarter, quarter and semi final encounters they got the better of Ananda by 76 runs, S. Thomas’ by 11 runs and Nalanda in a thrilling encounter by 11 runs.
St. Anthony’s skipper Theekshana along with Mohamed Kamil will be players to watch in the batting department while Thamashana Abeykoon, Gihan Achintha, Kalhara Senarathne and Navodya Wijekumara will be expected to combine to curtail the opposition batting.
For St. Servatius, skipper Keshara and his deputy Shashika Dulshan who claimed a hat- trick in the semi final along with Rishira Weerasooriya and Naveen Sahith will be expected to guide the side in their quest for the title.
St. Anthony’s is coached by the experience Sampath Perera who has produced champion teams having guided his school DSS, then NCC in the Premier league and then Trinity which was his last stint with a school team whom he guided to several U19 championship titles and would be aiming for his first title after taking over the Antonians.
On the other St. Seravatius coach Priyantha Abeysekera will leave no stone unturned will sure to come prepared to guide his side to win their first U-17 title in their first ever appearance.