‘Saints’ given three days to convert draws

Rishma Amarasingehe (Captain)

Enosh Peterson (Captain)

By M. Shamil Amit

The past and present boys of St Joseph’s College and St Peter’s College will come together again at the SSC ground on March 19, 20 and 21 when the two traditional rivals clash in their annual Battle of the Saints match which is being played over three days for the first time.

The series played for the Fr. Maurice Le Goc Trophy is the 92nd in the series and with the two teams evenly balanced a closely contested game could be witnessed.

From the 91 matches that have been played so far the Josephians lead the series with 12 wins as against 10 by the Peterites. The Josephians’ last win was achieved in 2008 under the leadership of Ruwantha Fernandopulle while the Peterites’ last victory was in 2016 under Vinu Mohotty. 

St Joseph’s will be spearheaded by Rishma Amarasinghe while Enosh Peterson will lead St Peter’s.

The two teams have fared up to expectations this season but the Josephians have been successful to record two outright wins from the 12 matches that they have played against St Servatius College Matara and St Benedict’s College both by innings while the Peterites though succeeding to remain unbeaten has not been able to record any outright wins from the ten matches played.

The Joesphians possess a fairly strong batting line up and they have five centurions in the side in Sri Lanka youth player Senuja Wakunugoda who was unable to represent the side due to national duties and from the four matches that he played he cracked two half tons and a ton being one of three to achieve it.

Aveesha Samash and skipper Rishma are the other two centurions of the side and much will be expected from Aveesha who is their top scorer having accumulated over 750 runs inclusive of seven half tons while skipper Rishma has scored over 500 runs and support will be expected from Yenula Dantanarayana who has been in the runs having scored over 650.

The bowling will be in the hands of spin trio Nushan Perera who is the top wicket taker of the side having bagged over 65 scalps. Sri Lanka youth player Vigneswaran Akash who has played only three matches has shown his potential along with Demion de Silva.

The Peterites too possess three centurions one of them Asadisi Thejan the top scorer of the side who has three centuries to his name and is the highest scorer of the side with over 700 runs. The other two are Savi Fernando has scored over 500 runs and Thareen Sanketh. Apart from this trio they have skipper Enosh Peterson, Sadeesha Silva, Jason Fernando and Joshua Sebastian to keep the scoreboard moving. The bowling will revolve around Sadeesha Silva, Janith Panditharatne, Joshua Sebastian and Dinsara Ratnaweera

The three day match will be followed with the 52nd limited over encounter which is fought out for the Rev. Fr. Peter A. Pillai memorial trophy slotted to be played in April 25 at the same venue and in this version too the Josephians are leading with 25 wins to the Peterites’ 23 with one ending in a tie and two no-results. 

St Peter’s are the holders of the trophy and will be aiming to make it three in a row.