If history has its way then a draw seems inevitable
With a chain of drawn games in the background, the 90th Battle of the Maroons annual cricket encounter between Ananda and Nalanda will take place at the SSC Grounds next Saturday (2) and Sunday (3).
Ananda’s last victory was in 2003, under the captaincy of Duminda Kularatne, while Nalanda tasted the sweetness of victory way back in 1953, the famous last ball, last man in and last run encounter. Nalanda was led by W. Wimalaratne Silva.
Ananda walk into the big match with confidence, though they enjoyed a fair 2018-'19 season with 4 wins in the Division I Inter Schools Cricket tournament and 2 wins in their traditional matches. The Anandians will go all out to match the high riding Nalandians and to improve the series tally which stands at 12 wins to them and 6 wins to Nalanda. Ananda with 85.97 points were not fortunate enough to book a berth in the Schools Knock-Out, which will be coontested by the 12 top teams in each Group.
Nalanda led Group ' B' with 143.62 points, from 4 outright wins and 3 1st- innings wins, with a defeat at the hands of St. Peter's College. Nalanda’s total number of points is the highest achieved by a school in the Schools cricket tournament so far.
Ananda led by wicketkeeper batsman Kamesh Nirmal, a 3rd- year coloursman, who reached the milestone of 1000 runs when he scored a half century against St. Joseph's last week. Though they failed to live up to their reputation, the Ananda batting lineup was studded with batsmen in the calibre of Kav i s h k a Ranthilakage, a promising batsman with 716 runs under his belt, Sudeepa Angulugaha, the skipper himself, Janidu Jayawardene, Kalana Wijesiri and Moditha Ranatunga who are capable of taming any bowling attack.
Ananda’s pace attack will be led by right arm fast medium bowlers Chamika Gunasekera and Adeesha Perera. Dasun Tharuka will join as the 3rd paceman. The strong point in the Anandian attack is their spin combination headed by left arm
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orthodox spinner Janidu Jayawardena, right arm off-spinner Saviru Bandara and left arm leggie Nadeesha Karunaratne. The trio will have a lot of responsibility in curbing the free scoring Nalanda batsmen.
Nalanda, a strong and superb all- round outfit with 3 junior national cricketers and 5 coloursmen, is led by Laksitha Rasanjana Manasinghe, an all- rounder par excellence. He has reached the 1,000- runs milestone and captured 74 wickets with his off- spinners. Opener Avishka Perera ( 691 runs), Ranidu Silva ( 389 runs), Dilhara Po l g ampola ( 338 ru n s ) , Chamidu Wijesinghe ( 356 runs) and Raveen Silva ( 350 runs) join the skipper in forming a classic batting lineup capable of sending any attack on a leather hunt. Ananda bowlers will have to maintain a good line and length in taming these free scoring batsmen.
Skipper Manasinghe spearheads the strong Nalanda bowling attack with right arm pacie Chamindu Wijesinghe ( 42 wickets), left arm spinner Kaveesh Madurapperuma ( 51 wickets), left arm seamer Dineth Samaraweera (25 wickets) and right arm leg- spinner Raveen De Silva (26 wickets) to make the opposition batters fight hard for their runs
The two skippers Nirmal and Manasinghe intend playing positive cricket to make this encounter a memorable one, to bring a halt to the drab drawn encounters. Nirmal hopes his team will fire on all cylinders to match the Nalandians, while Manasinghe and his team will make every effort to break the 65-year-old hoodoo.
Looking back at the performances of both schools, the Nalandians hold the edge but, in this noble game, anything is possible till the last ball is bowled.