Colts – Sebastianites battle in second semi-final at P Sara Oval

Major Club Emerging 3-day tournament

The P Sara Oval will be the focus over the next three days when formidable Colts take on spirited Sebastianites in the second semi-final of the Major Club Emerging 3-day tournament beginning today.

Colts captain Jehan Daniel

Sebastianites captain Tharusha Fernando

The winner of this contest will play Tamil Union in the final after the New Year holidays.

Colts led by all-rounder Jehan Daniel have come up with some awe-inspiring performances in the group stages of the tournament that make them the favourites to enter the final. Their strong point has been their batting that has seen them go over the 500-run mark on two occasions and past the 400-run mark on two other instances. 

In fact, Colts recorded the highest total of the tournament in their final group match against Park rivals BRC reaching a mammoth 568-7 declared, and were deprived of a sixth consecutive outright win when the final day’s play was abandoned due to the Government imposing an island wide curfew.

So, it is no surprise that three of their batsmen occupy the top 10 positions in the batting and four of them have crossed the 400-run mark. On top of the order is opener Avishka Perera who scored a double century against BRC (245) which eventually is the highest individual score of the tournament. He is the leading run-getter with 651 runs (avg. 93.00) and has been involved in two triple century partnerships with Ravindu Rasantha of 395 for the second wicket against Kalutara TC which eventually is the highest of the tournament, and one of 326 with Shalin de Mel for the first wicket against BRC. 

Perera and De Mel have also shared a double century opening stand of 234 against Kandy Customs CC. Getting rid of the opening pair early will be one of the priorities for Sebastianites if they are to make any headway in the semi-finals.

Colts’ batting does not end there because Rasantha is also a double centurion having scored an undefeated 224 against Kalutara TC and is the second highest run-getter for Colts with 472 runs (avg. 78.66). De Mel is the other batsman to make over 400 runs. 

The top three of the Colts batting have each made two centuries apiece and with Muditha Lakshan who has scored three half-centuries, to follow it will be no easy task for the Sebastianites bowlers to see the back of them early in the innings.

Colts’ batting has been so awesome it has given their bowlers a lot of breathing space to bowl their opponents out twice. Colts have an all-round bowling unit with pacies Harshana Wickramasinghe (17 wickets) and Daniel (13) and spinners Rohan Sanjaya (16), Ruvin Seneviratne (15) doing the bulk of the bowling for them.

Sebastianites who are also captained by an all-rounder Tharusha Fernando have been very clinical in their performances. Fernando with his all-round skills has led the team from the front scoring 378 runs and capturing 20 wickets with his leg-breaks. 

Although not so flamboyant as Colts, Sebastianites have in their own way made it to the semi-finals without much fanfare. They too possess a strong batting unit in the likes of Manelker de Silva (528 runs), Sandun Fernando (465) and Tharusha Fernando (378) with all three of them having scored centuries. 

However, their main strength lies in their bowling where the ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake leads the way with 38 wickets which includes six five-fours and three match bags of ten wickets which has been matched only by the leading wicket-taker in the competition Kaumal Nanayakkara of Army SC. 

Ratnayake is supported by Tehan Schaffter (14), Sandun Fernando (9) and Tanusha Costa (9). Sebastianites pipped Moors SC to top Group A and enter the semi-finals, the irony of it being that Moors SC beat Sebastianites by 10 wickets in their group match played at Moratuwa. – 

(ST)