Nalanda College who’s had a mixed bag of results this season will be hoping to break a long standing hoodoo that has been haunting them for the past 64 years by beating traditional rivals Ananda College in the 89th Battle of the Maroons cricket encounter that will be played for the Dr. N.M. Perera Memorial Challenge Trophy at the SSC grounds on March 3 and 4.
The last victory for Nalanda in the Maroons Battle was recorded in 1953 under W. Wimalaratne Silva’s captaincy. Overall Nalanda has six victories to Ananda’s 12 with the majority of the matches ending in draws – 70.
In the current season Nalanda has secured four outright victories in 20 outings against Isipathana, D.S. Senanayake, Dharmapala Pannipitiya and Dharmaraja Kandy and suffered two outright losses to St. Joseph Vaz and S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia. They also have nine wins on 1st innings.
Skipper of the Nalanda team 4th year coloursman and all rounder Lakshitha Rasanjana has made 780 runs including a century and two fifties. He has also captured 50 wickets. In last year’s big match Lakshitha scored a brilliant 113 not out for his school and won the Man of the Match and Best Batsman awards.
Vice-captain Suhanga Wijewardana, who represented the Sri Lanka Under 19 squad and a 3rd year coloursman has displayed his talent with 627 runs as a fresher. All-rounder Chamindu Wijesinghe has also made useful contribution with 570 runs including three half tons and bagged 48 wickets.
Another stylish batsman Avishka Perera has performed well during the season scoring 556 runs inclusive of three fifties with a best of 89. All-rounders Ravin de Silva and Kaveesh Madurapperuma will hope they can do the damage to the Anandian batting with their individual talent.
Ravin has made 240 runs and claimed 47 wickets while Kaveesh has scored 187 runs and bagged 59 wickets with a best bowling effort of 5 for 9.
The Nalandians bowling has been upto expectations with spinners Umeksha Dilshan and Mahima Weerakoon taking the honors with hauls of 30 and 33 wickets respectively during the season.
Nalanda has produced many talented players to the national cricket such as B.S. Perera, Ashley de Silva, Bandula Warnapura (the first Test captain), Lalith Kaluperuma, Jayantha Seneviratne, Anura Ranasinghe, Sanath Kaluperuma, Asanka Gurusinha, Roshan Mahanama, Keerthi Ranasinghe, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Dharmasena and Shantha Kalavitagoda.
Nalanda are coached by former Sri Lanka speedster Keerthi Gunaratne who has performed the role for the past four years. He is assisted by Prasanna Dahanayaka.
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