St. Joseph’s College Maradana will not flinch and go as underdogs against their traditional rivals St Peter’s College for the Rev.Fr Maurice LeGoc trophy when they confront each other in the 85th Battle of the Saints cricket encounter that will take place on March 1 and 2 at the P.Sara Oval.
This battle of the Saints encounter started way back in 1933 with St. Joseph’s College winning the inaugural clash under Robert Fernando in the first encounter.
The Joes’ last win in the series in 2008 under the leadership of Ruwantha Fernandopulle.
Of the 84 matches that have been played between the two schools thus far Josephians lead the series with 12 wins.
Josephians under the leadership of off spinner and Sri Lanka under19 player Ashain Daniel have won four matches outright this season against St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna, Gurukula Vidyalaya Kelaniya, St.Sylvesters College Kandy and Devapathiraja College Rathgama. While losing to St.Anthony’s College Kandy and Maristela College Negombo.
Their batting has not been consistent as only one batsman Dineth jayakody has been in outstanding form scoring over 700 runs and being their top scorer for the season with two hundreds and three fifties. He will have a big burden of steering the batting for the Josephians along with the trio of Johanne de Zilva with five fifties, Sheran fonseka with three fifties and Shevon Daniel (younger brother of last years skipper Jehan Daniel) scoring a solitary century and three fifties who have all scored over 500 runs to their credit. Much will be expected from them as well.They are expected to bolster the Joes middle order batting. To curtail the Peters strong batting line up the bowling will be in the hands of left arm spinner Salinda Seneviratne with over 75 wickets and who together with another left arm spinner Miranga Wickramage has taken over 100 wickets between them. They will be supported by captain cum right arm off spinner Ashain Daniel with over 20 wickets to his crdit.
St.Joseph’s has produced many national cricketers who have gone on to represent the country with distinction - D.S.Jayasundara one of the fastest schools bowlers in the 1930’s, Fairlie Dalpathado, Gerry Gooneratne, Malcolm Francke (who later played Sheffield shield cricket for Quensland), Brian Obeysekara, Ashley de Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Michael Vandort, former Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews, present Sri Lanka test captain Dimuth Karunaratne, Thisara Perera, Sadeera Samarawickrema and Roshane Silva to name a few.
St. Joseph’s College squad: Ashan De Alwis, Miranga Wickramage, Dinal Anuradha, Shevon Daniel, Vesith Rupasinghe, Ashain Daniel (Captain), Dilesh Perera, Johanne De Zilva, Rishitha Perera, Lakshan Gamage, Shevaan Rasool, Dineth Jayakody, Dunith Wellalage, Sachintha Ravindu, Shalinda Seneviratne
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