112th Battle of the Maroons: Even teams set for battle

BY SHAMZEER JALEEL

Evenly balanced Dharmaraja College and Kingswood College will battle it out at their 112th Big Match which will take place at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on March 16 and 17. This is the oldest big match encounter in Kandy. The Rajans are led by Bawantha Udangamuwa, younger brother of Kandy SC rugby player Buwanaka Udangamuwa. Bawantha scored more than 500 runs this season with a best of 89. He was well supported by Dulaj Bandara (620) and Sachintha Senanayake (509) who were among the runs for the Kandy School this season. Among the wicket takers Upendra Warunakulasuriya (53) and Rukmal Dissanyake (21) stood out for the Rajans this season. This season they played 16 matches winning four and losing five with the rest ending in draws. They won against Richmond College, Zahira College Colombo, Maliyadeva College and St. Sylvester’s College. They are coached by Sarath Perera.

Kingswood are led by Ganindu Kaushalya who scored over 300 runs and took 14 wickets for the Randles Hill School. The other main scorers are Dhananjaya Maduranga (423), Achala Bogodawatte (411) and Hasitha Gamage (388).

In the bowling department they were supported by Lakmal De Silva who has taken 75 wickets, with three five-wicket hauls, who was well supported by Uthpala Jayalath (38) and Deegau Bandara (32). The Randles Hill school scored three wins this season against Sri Dharmaloka Kelaniya, Piliyandala Central and St. John’s College Panadura. But at the same time they lost to St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, St. John’s College Jaffna, Wesley College and Tissa MV Kalutara. Seven of their matches ended in no decisions but three of them were first innings wins.

They are coached by former Antonian cricketer Indika Fernando who was a class act for the Katugastota team in the mid 90’s.