Vidyartha hold the edge

By Shamseer Jaleel

Vidyartha College holds a slight edge over Sylvester’s College in their 60th Big Match, which will take place at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on 20 and 21March.

This encounter is played for the Dom George Memorial trophy, initiated in 1955. So far, the Sylvestrians are leading the tally with 14 wins to Vidyartha’s 3, the rest of the matches ending in no decisions. The last Sylvester’s win was in 2009 under Chanaka Colombage while Vidyartha’s last win was 50 years ago in 1967 under R M Lafir.

Vidyartha, led by Pulina Gunatilleka, have outright wins over Revata, Taxila Horana and Sri Jayewardenepura and at present they are unbeaten this season. Pulina scored a century against S. De S. Jayasinghe MMV and a fifty against Devananda Amabalangoda. Vidyartha are fortunate to have their previous skipper, Ravindika Upananda - he scored unbeaten tons against Sri Jayewardenepura and Taxila. He scored two half tons against Royal Panadura. He also shares the new ball in the opening spells. Isuru Prabodha scored over 600 runs got 4 half tons under his belt. In bowling, Vidyartha has two top quality spinners in their ranks: off-spinner Kasun Karunatilleka and Madunaka Wijetilake. Both these bowlers taken over 40 wickets a piece.

Vidyartha is coached by former Antonians cricketer Champika Siriwardena.

Sylvestrians on the other hand had a poor 2017 and 2018 not even winning a single outing. They lost to Lumbini MV, Mahinda Galle and Rajans. Avindu Herath leads the outfit, and has scored over 400 runs this season. They have fast bowlers Nimsara Attanagalle and Nirmalan Pavitharan and Pasan Hettiarachchi in their team. In batting, Avindu Herath and Manjith Rajapakse had some good scores but none of them have gone on to make the big hundred this season.

Sylvester’s is coached by Jaliya Weerasinghe.

St. Sylvester’s: Avindu Herath (Captain), Nimsara Attanagalle, Nirmalan Pavitharan, Pasan Hettiarachchi, Manjith Rajapakse, Hasindu Nissanka, Abishek Isuranga, Kasun Ediritilleka, Abishek Kumar, Nadeera Balasuriya, Kanishka Jayasekara, Pasindu Jayakody, Chandula Jayakody, Chandrababu Hiroshan, Sadeepa Halangoda, Pasan Waduge

Coach: Jaliya Weerasinghe – Master-in-Charge: Pasindu Silva