Battle of the Maroons: An evenly-poised encounter

Friday, 16 March 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

An evenly balanced Dharmaraja College and Kingswood College will battle it out at their 112th Big match which will take place at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on 16 and 17 March. This is the oldest Big match encounter up in the hills and the second oldest in the country after the Royal vs Thomian encounter.

The Rajans are being led by Bawantha Udangamuwa, younger brother of Kandy SC rugby player Buwanka Udangamuwa. Bawantha scored more than 500 runs this season with a best of 89. He was well supported by Dulaj Bandara (620) and Sachintha Senanayake (509), who were among the run scorers for the Kandy school this season. Among the wicket takers, Upendra Warunakulasuriya (53) and Rukmal Dissanyake (21) stood out for the Rajans. This season, they played 16 matches winning four of them and losing five with rest ending in draws. They won against Richmond, Zahira Colombo, Maliyadeva and Sylvester’s. They are coached by Sarath Perera.

Kingswood is led by Ganindu Kaushalya who scored over 300 runs and took 14 wickets for the Randles Hill school. He was supported by Dhanjaya Maduranga (423), Achala Bogodawatte (411) and Hasitha Gamage (388). In the bowling side, they were supported by Lakmal De Silva with 75 wickets with three five wicket hauls supported by Uthpala Jayalath (38) and Deegau Bandara (32). Randles Hill school scored 3 wins this season against Sri Dharmaloka Kelaniya, Piliyandala Central and St John’s Panadura. But at the same time, they lost to St Anthony’s Katugastota, St John’s Jaffna, Wesley and Tissa Kalutara. Seven of their matches ended in no decision but they won three matches in first innings.

They are coached by former Antonian cricketer Indika Fernando, who was a class act for the Katugastota lads in the mid 90’s.