A media conference was held yesterday at the Otters aquatic club Colombo on the occasion of the 10th battle of the gold’s. D.S Senanayake college vs. Mahanama college will be playing their big match on the 19th and 20th of March at the P.Sara Stadium Colombo.
The DS camp first addressed the media and the crowd, the DS-Mahanama annual big match which has been going on since 2007 has played 9 matches until now. DS has been leading the table up to now by winning one match in 2014, the rest of the matches have been draws. D S Senanayake college have held the upper hand in the one day encounter with 5 wins to 4 of Mahanama with DS winning the latest encounter last year. Main sponsors are Dialog and Nestle.
It was announced that former national player, star batsman and now chief selector Aravinda de Silva will be the chief guest for the opening ceremony of the two day encounter. He is an old boy of D S Senanayake. Moreover the limited overs encounter will be held on March 26 at the R.Premadasa Stadium.
This year, the Senanayakians are led by fifth year coloursman Kavin Bandara, he isthe schools’ pride as he was one of the key players of the Under 19 Sri Lankan team for the ICC U-19 world cup which was held few months back. It was stated that they want to build more players who will represent Srilanka Cricket in different levels. Kavin addressed the media saying; “We have been working really hard for this and the help from the coaching department is tremendous. Practices and fitness have been worked on regularly. We somehow want to play good cricket and bring the cup home. Malindu Maduranga and Miduka Welikala have scored more than 500 runs and Kanishka Dimhan has taken over 35 wickets”
Photo Album – Battle of the Golds press conference 2016
Talking about the opponent gold team. Having a history of 40 years Mahanama College has produced some great personalities such as Danushka Gunathilake and Lalithmana Fernando. Mahanama is really interested and working on building more players who will represent Sri Lanka.
Mahanama has played 13 games so far and has recorded two outright wins and two first innings wins, while managing to draw 06 matches.
This year Mahanama is led by Thanula Sandesh who has also been quite in good form by being successful in both the departments, having scored 500 runs with the bat while picking 20 wickets till now. Captain Thanula said “Everyone looks in good form. In the batting department 2nd coloursmen Malinda Maduranga is the highest run scorer in this season with 500 runs with him right hander Niduka Welikala is closing the 500 run mark. He even said, I believe in my team and the support from everyone is helpful. We are only focusing on bringing the cup home.”
Thereafter, both the team captains posed with the cup for the media.
