St. Sebastian’s come out as favourites
The cricket crazy town of Moratuwa will come alive yet again when the much looked forward to big match between the two leading cricket playing schools in the area St Sebastian’s and Prince of Wales takes place on March 9 and 10 at De Zoysa Stadium in Moratuwa.
This is the 62nd in the series which the Cambrians are leading with six wins against the three wins to Sebs. St Sebastian’s come out as favourites as they will be coming into the game with full of confidence after their resounding win in the encounter last year.
St Sebastian’s in the process broke a long standing hoodoo of either teams being unable to record a win for 33 years and also their first win which was achieved way back in 1966 which was after 44 years.
In fact they went on to clinch the double of winning the limited over encounter too and in both the matches they made record scores of 363 in the two day match and chased a score of 287 in the limited over contest.
Nevertheless it will be interesting to see how the two teams will battle it out in the middle next weekend. But looking at the performances of the Sebs they seem to have the edge over their rivals due to the fact that they have recorded seven wins from the 19 matches while undergoing only one defeat.
In contrast the Cambrians have played 17 matches securing four outright wins but have undergone three defeats which gives the psychological edge to their opponents.
The Sebs this year is led by Sri Lanka youth player and all rounder Amila Aponso and has in the side another national youth player Sanitha de Mel who led the side last year and the pair will be their trump card.
Even then the Sebs posses batsmen who could rise to the occasion in the calibre of Nishamal Fernando, Avishka Fernando and Sangeeth Cooray who are the three centurions of the side this season and have reached over 500 runs, Then they have Anuk Fernando, Anushka Perera who is their top scorer this season with over 650 runs and both have four half tons under their belts. The others to take note of will be Luke Jayadeva and Sachintha Fonseka
The Sebs bowling department will be spearheaded by skipper Amila Aponso who has been very consistent and their top wicket taker who was unfortunate to miss out on 100 wickets by just one as he got stagnated on 99. The pacies Sanitha and Anuk who opens the attack have taken over 80wickets between them and the duo along with Isuru Mendis and Sachinda Gunawardena would be the trouble makers to their opponents. The Cambrians this year are led by Tharindu Dilshan and their batting will be in the hands of right hand batsman Kusal Mendis who had the honour of reaching the 1000 runs mark this season.
Kusal in achieving this feat made a double century against Dharmapala and also has two more tons, so definitely he is the man that the Sebs will have to watch, Apart from Kusal the Cambrians have two other centurions in the side in skipper Tharindu and Shanuka Dulaj both left hand batsmen who have scored over 800 runs and the pair along while opener Suchira Fernando and Ashen Mendis will the others to watch. The Cambrians main striker will be left arm spinner Thilan Nimesh who is their leading wicket taker with 70 wickets. Thilan with two other left arm spinners skipper Tharindu and Shanuka are going to be the threat for the Sebs.
The trio have combined to guide the side to victory and along with right arm pacie and spin combination of Hashan Fernando and Jayanga Peiris are capable of restricting the strong batting line up of the Sebs.
The two day encounter will be followed with the limited over 27th match due to be played on March 17 at the same venue. In this version the two teams are on par with 12 wins each and two matches being abandoned due to rain.
The last win in the two-day series achieved by the Cambrians was in 1977 when the side was led by Pemlal Fernando. Samaratunga Menikdiwela MV Kandy), A. Dayawathie (Principal,