Tamil Union, Sebastianites vie for honours

• Major Club Emerging (3-day) tournament final today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Ranmith Jayasena (Tamil Union captain)

Tharusha Fernando (Sebastianites captain)

The trophy that will be awarded to the winner of the Major Club Emerging (3-day) final

Tamil Union and Sebastianites have emerged as the two best sides in the Major Club Emerging (3-day) tournament and both teams are capable of winning the 3-day final that commences at the SSC grounds

today.

They reached the final defeating their opponents on the first innings in drawn games affected by bad weather - Tamil Union against Negombo CC, and Sebastianites against Colts.

Sebastianites with five outright wins (one defeat) in the group stage and with victories over big names like SSC, CCC and Colts are confident that they can do something big in the final if they can continue in the same vein that has brought them this far.

“Having defeated good sides like SSC, CCC and Colts we have gained a lot of confidence, but it all boils down to how you perform on the day. When you defeat big sides like them, any player gains a lot of confidence and their morale also gets lifted. They know that they can defeat even top sides,” said NIC (Chaminda) Silva who has been the head coach of Sebastianites for the past three years.

“We have played as a team. We don’t have players with long experience, but players who have just left school. They’ve had good practice sessions and corrected their weaknesses. During matches they have played according to the situations and come to the final.”

“We also have the confidence of having won five matches outright. If we were not good enough, we cannot reach the final. We should do the same basics that have brought us thus far, nothing extra. It is not easy coming to the final. I have the confidence that they can perform well and finish it. It all depends on how they perform on that day. If we do the right thing at the right time during situations, we can do something big,” stated Silva.

Sebastianites’ strength has been their bowling which has been able to defend even low totals.

“Our strength is spin with Tharindu Ratnayake (42 wickets) who bowls with both hands and Tharusha Fernando (23) who bowls leg-spin are the ones who have taken the most number of wickets. If you take the fast bowlers Tehan Schaafter (17) has bowled well. I could say our strength has been bowling because we have been able to defend even low totals,” said Silva, a former Sebastianites cricketer who counts 24 years as a school and club coach. Schaafter who bowls left-arm seam has provided Sebastianites the vital early breakthroughs. He was instrumental in Sebastianites starting off the tournament with an 83-run win over SSC capturing 10 wickets in the match and then played a crucial role in the semi-finals against fancied Colts getting rid of their top three run-getters cheaply in his opening spell. Manelker de Silva (536 runs), Sandun Fernando (512), skipper Tharusha Fernando (402) have all made centuries in the tournament and are the leading run scorers for the club. Tamil Union will fancy their chances of winning the final as they will be strengthened to a great extent by the return of two key players opening bat Navod Paranavithana and left-arm spinner Dilum Sudeera Thilakaratne after their stint in the National Super League 4-day tournament.

Kanishka Boteju, the Tamil Union head coach said the main reason for their success so far is that they have retained at least six to seven players who were members of the team when they won the Major 50-over final against Ragama CC last December.

“The main reason is we backed a lot of junior players from the Major 50-over tournament and gave them several chances that is why we emerged unbeaten in the 3-day Emerging tournament and reached the final. The experience these players gained from playing in that tournament is the reason for our success,” said Boteju who was assistant coach to former Sri Lanka cricketer Ruwan Kalpage before he took over the head coach’s role when Kalpage was appointed coach of Sri Lanka’s Emerging side that is due to tour England shortly.

Assessing Tamil Union’s strength, Boteju said: “At the beginning it was our bowling. We actually didn’t play on good surfaces at the start of the tournament, we played our first four matches away. As a result, our batsmen could not make a big impact so it was our bowling unit that excelled with Dilum Sudeera taking 41 wickets in his first four matches. After we started playing at home on good wickets our batting clicked. As of now we have four centurions and several scores of 90s and 80s. We are 50-50 in batting and bowling and our strength is good.”

Supun Kavinda is their leading run scorer with 386 runs and one century, and along with him are Ravindu Fernando, Kavindu Pathiratne and Captain Ranmith Jayasena who are the other century scorers.

“If you take our present side, we have only two players who will not be able to play in the U23 tournament next year, the rest of the nine players are very young at 20 and 21 and we played our semi-final with one over 23 player. Looking at the path we have come to the final, we’ve had our ups and downs but as a team we have managed to remain unbeaten,” said Boteju who has played and coached (fielding) Royal College, Colombo and spent two years with a Melbourne club as player-coach before joining Tamil Union as assistant coach to Kalpage in 2020.

“We won’t underestimate our opponents because they gave a good fight to the Colts and came to the final. They have players who have scored runs and there is an ambidextrous spinner in their side who is the highest wicket-taker of the tournament. Mentally we have a good set of players. Navod and Dilum joining us is a big plus point for the team. We are playing at the SSC and the climate is something we cannot control. Our confidence levels are high, no issue with that. At the end of the day the side that makes less mistakes will win.”

The winning team will receive Rs. 500,000, and the runner-up team Rs. 300,000. Individual awards include Rs. 100,000 for Player of the Tournament and Rs. 75,000 each for Best Batsman and Best Bowler of the tournament.