51st Battle of the brothers between Thurstan College and Isipathana College will be played on 4th and 5th of March at Sinhalese Sports Club grounds as both teams are keen to dish out positive cricket to extract a result.
Two days of entertaining and interesting cricket is on the menu with both teams evenly poised to give out their best shot in this traditional encounter.
History of the Encounter
Thurstan leads the tally with five wins as against four to Isipathana with the rest ending in draws. No outright result has been recorded by either side since 1999 when the Isipathanians triumphed under Krishantha Jayawardena.
Isipathanian Saman Nishantha’s 150 not out holds the batting record for the highest individual score in the series while Kamal Mahendra’s 142 remains the top score for Thurstan in the series. Thurstan’s left arm medium pacer Jayajeeva Karunaratne (7 for 28) has the best bowling analysis in the series with Isipathana’s K.L.S.K. Sirisena also taking 7 for 49 in the 1967 match.
Formidable ‘Pathana’ outfit
Isipathana led by Kaminga Dhananjaya has recorded only one outright win this season which was against St. Aloysius College, Galle but have lost two outright defeats to St. Peter’s College and DS Senanayake College during the 2013/14 season. Isipathana college does not possess any star players in the under 19 circuit and their key to success have always been their team work. Kaminga is a talented all round cricketer and his middle order batting and quick ‘mystery’ off spinners would be handy for Isipathana.
Isipathana batting will revolve around right handed opening batsman Sachin Jayasuriya who is their only centurion, Salinda Ushan who has scored over 650 runs and Pramod Maduwantha who is the top runs getter with over 750 runs this season. Isipathana would be desperate to see these three players make a solid contribution in the ‘Big’ match. Torry Thabrew is another key figure in their lineup as his all-round performances have helped his team immensely. Torry has scored 500 runs this season and have been striking well leading up to the ‘Big’ match and the Isipathana cricket community would be hoping for a classical knock from Torry Thabrew.
Isipathana bowling attack will be spearheaded by their experienced seamer, Kelum Bastianz and his opening bowling partner Dushan Nirmana who has loads of talent to do wonders with the red shiny ball. Bulk of the bowling will be done by their ace left arm spinner Chameera Dissanayake who has captured over 55 wickets this season. Torry Thabrew and skipper Kaminga Dhananjaya will have to support largely if they are to stop the strong Thurstan batting lineup.
Consistent Thurstanites
Sri Lanka under 19 youth player Kavindu Kulasekara will lead the Thurstan side for this year’s ‘Big’ match. Kavindu missed a good number of matches due to his involvement with the under 19 squad, but has done well to score over 500 runs with two astonishing centuries during this season. In Kavindu’s absence, Thurstan was led by Minhaj Jaleel and he has been one of the four players to cross the 1000 run mark this season. Jaleel has scored 1094 runs in 16 matches with an average of over 55 runs per innings. Thurstan College has played 18 matches this season and they have registered a solitary outright win over Kingswood College and tasted defeat against St Sebastian’s College while other games ended as drawn encounters.
Sajith Gunathilake and Thimira Jayasinghe have scored centuries for Thurstan College this season and Sajith Gunatileke who has over 750 runs which also includes seven half tons and Thimira Jayasinghe who has scored over 650 runs will look to take responsibility and play their normal game in the ‘Big’ match as well.
The bowling attack will be controlled by Ayesh Weeraratne and Achintha Kalpana. Both these two individuals have taken over 65 wickets between them and with the spinning trio of Minhaj Jaleel, Senal Wijesinghe and Thimira Jayasinghe they possess a fine bowling combination.
Prediction
Both teams have failed to notch up competitive cricket throughout their season but in a ‘Big’ match of this nature, Tendency of giving their best is a known factor. Who will become more positive and competitive during the ‘Big’ match will decide the winner or if both teams use negative tactics to draw the game, a result is unlikely to be the outcome.
Isipathana College squad:
Kaminda Perera (Captain), Kelum Bastianz (V.Captain) , Salinda Ushan, Torry Tharindu Thabrew, Chameera Dissanayake, Danura Deelaka, Sudara Dakshina, Davis Imesha, Yamesh Ranasinghe, Dushan Nirmana Perera, Avinda Soysa, Pramodh Maduwantha, Sachin Jayasinghe, Senal Deelaka, Diluka Shehan, Venushka Chamod,
Thurstan College squad:
Kavindu Kulasekera (Captain), Minhaj Jaleel, Sajith Gunatileka, Thimira Jayasinghe, Charana Nanayakkara, Senal Wijesinghe, Achintha Kalpana, Arjun Gunawardene, Kasun Abeyratne,
Ayesh Weeraratne, Isuru Fernando, Chinthaka Udaya, Arjuna Jayasena, Thilan Gunaratne
Sahan Dassanayake.
