Balanced Nalanda are gearing up for the big game
Nalanda is regarded as one of the best schools cricket teams in Sri Lanka. Over the years they have produced top quality cricketers. It still maintains its standards. They thrive to produce top quality cricketers. This trend has been preserved for decades.
With a balanced team, rich with allrounders, any one of them can emerge as a hero on any given day. This is the upper hand of Nalanda cricket this season. As a cricket team noted among other leading schools, Nalanda too have their setbacks from time to time. With this mixture Nalanda, are on their way to redeem winning ways.
“If I may make an assessment about the team, I can rate them as a balanced outfit. The plus point of the team is, except for the wicketkeeper, all can bat and bowl. There are three batsmen who have scored over 700 runs and a couple of bowlers who have taken over 30 wickets. Others come to the peak when the team is in the need of a good knock or some vital wickets. As a whole they are performing as a unit, not on individual glories. That is a good sign for Nalanda cricket,” said Tharanga Dhammika who took over as coach six months ago.
According to Dhammika, Nalanda has always entered an encounter with a winning frame of mind whatever the outcome had been. So far they have played 12 matches and recorded a win against Thurstan while losing to St. Sebastian’s. Ten matches have ended in draws, favouring Nalanda. They still have six games to be played before brining down the curtain with the big match against traditional rivals, Ananda.
This year’s team is captained by senior player Koshan Dhanushka while Ishan Rangana is his deputy. Apart from these two Nalanda has two more - Malinga Vimukthi and Vihan Wickramarachchi - which makes it four seniors. The remaining 13 players are those who are on the verge of taking forward Nalanda cricket in the coming seasons.
“The present team has six potential players who will make it to the top, if they continue cricket seriously. This I found out after working with the team closely during the past six months or so. What I told the boys is that their past performances based on individual and team efforts, is a matter of occurrence. It’s not fair by assessing a player’s or a team’s performances based on the outcomes from a season. The players do change by days or moments and if they can readjust themselves back to the basics - that will be a great boon for the team. In that case Nalanda players are agile and they have the knack to adjust accordingly,” Dhammika pointed out.
As the coach mentioned Nalanda’s strong batting line-up consist of top performers. Woshantha Silva and Manjula Jayasekara are the permanent opening batsmen. But Nalanda has a spot of trouble in finding a suitable batsman for the one-down position. The remaining batsmen with permanent places are skipper Dhanushka, Rangana and Lahiru Jayakody. The rest of the line-up is open for notable players with good performances. Nalanda’s pace bowing attack is shouldered mainly on Kushal Dias as their other strike bowler; Nikila Weerasinghe is stricken with injury.
They have a set of spinners who can rise and strike when they are badly needed. Apart from skipper, Dhanushka himself who is an off- spinner Woshantha Silva, Pramud Hettiwatte and Lahiru Wijeratne are the part timers who come to aid Nalanda’s bowling. With these facets Nalanda has been fairing well this season despite losing a game. They approach each game with a positive frame of mind and have emerged victorious in terms of teamwork.
“What looks optimistic for us is the players’ approach to the game. They go out with a plan aiming at wins and above all it’s about playing positive cricket. Our targets have been always there though we failed to record victories as we planned. We have achieved less in that aspect. However we have gained a lot by taking on the game with a positive frame of mind. We look forward to carry on this way making suitable changes putting our special brand of Nalanda cricket in the forefront,” Dhammika said in conclusion.