Stafford International School will take on Asian International School in their 5th Annual cricket encounter scheduled to be held on Tuesday at Bloomfield ground, Reid Avenue, Colombo.
The two teams have shared respect in their previous annual 40-over matches winning two games apiece. Asian International will be led by Mishal Weerasekera while Stafford will be captained by Charana Cumaratunga.
Cumaratunga, who made a precious 30 runs in last year’s match, will take the field with another five senior members who played for the last two seasons. On the other hand, Weerasekera’s team is combined of few good individual performers.
Coach and the Master-in-Charge of Asian International School, Gerald Bennett said his team is good enough to win the match.
“We start as the underdogs, but this team has a lot of talent and experiences. We have about six players who played last year’s match. They are quite capable of handling the pressure of a big match.”
“There are a lot of expectations to win this match, but we are playing against an opponent who beat us last time and they have got even stronger. So it would be a great challenge and I hope the players will deliver,” Bennett added.
Meanwhile, the Stafford International coach Yasith de Silva is quite confident of his team’s success.
“We have done well in the recent past. We haven’t made many changes to our squad and it’s pretty much the same squad which has a lot of experience. But as we all know, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. The team that does well on that particular day will win and I’m confident our boys will come out on top.”
In their ranks, Stafford have some proven performers. Heshan Pollonowita was named the Best Batsman in the Under-15 Inter-International Schools Tournament.
