St. Peter’s College Bambalapitiya hold the key to success in the 85th Battle of the Saints cricket encounter against St Joseph’s College battling for the Rev. Fr. Maurice LeGoc Challenge Trophy which will be played on March 1 and 2 at the P. Sara Oval.
This Battle of the Saints encounter started in 1933 with George Jayaweera (father of former Sri Lankan national under 19 cricket captain cum Royal College 1970 and 1972 1st XI captain Asitha Jayaweera and former St.Peter’s College 1974 1st XI cricket captain Ruwan Jayaweera) leading the St.Peter’s College outfit in the first encounter.
So far out of the 84 encounters that have been played, the Peterites have won on 10 occasions.
According to the form of the two teams St. Peter’s will be coming into this game with the upper hand having recorded two outright wins against Presidents College Kotte, Lumbini College Colombo while losing a solitary match outright to Mahinda College Galle last week.
They are led by all rounder Ranmith Jayasena who is the son of former Panadura Sports Club cricketer Mangala Jayasena.
Last year’s skipper and Sri Lanka national under 19 World cup player right hander Santhush Gunathilake is the leading run-getter for the Peterites this season with a massive 1350 runs with 8 hundreds, four fifties and a swashbuckling innings of 251 against Ananda College Colombo. Captain cum all rounder and left handed batsman Ranmith Jayasena with a tally of over 700 runs inclusive of two hundreds and four fifties will be the mainstay of the Peterite batting department.
The other top run scorers are Dineth Anjula nearly 500 runs with three fifties, Nipunaka Fonseka close to 400 runs with three fifties will be expected to make their contributions to bolster the Peter’s scoreboard.
There is no shortage of amour in their bowling attack and they will be banking heavily on left-arm spinner Kanishka Maduwantha their top wicket-taker with over 60 scalps and right arm off-spinner Ruvin Seneviratne who has taken close to 55 wickets. They have plenty more in the bowling department with right arm pacie Santhush Gunathilake who has also taken nearly 35 scalps along with left arm fast bowler Tariq Saboor 30 wickets and Shivan Perera 30 scalps each to give the senior duo the backing they need.
The Peterites will once again be coached by their 1998 captain who scored a breathtaking 159 in the big match and Sri Lanka national cricketer Malinda Warnapura. Warnapura guided them to a sensational double by winning both the big match and the limited over encounters convincingly under all-rounder Vinu Mohotty in 2016.
St.Peter’s has produced many national cricketers who have gone to represent the country with distinction - Clive Inman was one of the finest left handed batsmen in schools in the 1950’s who later went on to play English County cricket for Leicestershire, Dr. H.I.K. Fernando - once rated as Asia’s best wicket-keeper, David Heyn, Tony Opatha, Keerthi Gunaratne, former Sri Lanka vice captain Roy Dias, Rumesh Ratnayake, Vinothan John, Amal Silva, Russel Arnold, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Malinda Warnapura and Angelo Perera to name a few. Incidentally Inman holds the all time batting record for the highest individual score of the series - 204 not out in 1954.
The outcome of the match will depend on which side will have the upper hand of scoring more runs in the first innings due to the 60 overs restriction.
St. Peter’s College squad: Ruvin Seneviratne, Trishen Wickramasinghe, Shannon Fernando, Ranmith Jayasena (Captain), Kanishka Maduwantha, Shivaan Perera, Nipunaka Fonseka, Wanuja Kumara, Dinith Anjula, Vinuda Liyanage, Tariq Saboor, Rishika Dawatage, Lakshane Rodrigo,Himsara Randeniya, Bhanuka De Silva, Prabhasara Herath, Santhush Gunathilake, Shenal Boteju,
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