In Cricket’s Matrix...

Thurstan College captained by Shihan Kamileen are off to a good start in the Inter-School Under-19 cricket season as they are enjoying a successful third term.

With all-rounders and the senior cricketers shouldering a good chunk of the responsibilities, the Thurstanites have recorded three first innings victories and a remarkable outright victory while producing a fine rearguard action to save one match.

They produced their first outright victory over Wesley College, a stunning eight wickets win after reducing the opponents to a paltry 79 runs in the first innings. Their first inning victories came against formidable Ananda College, S. Thomas’ College and Mahanama.

A good team is identified by its temperament in adversity. And Thurstan proved just that when they produced a terrific comeback performance in their match against Royal last week.

They were bowled out for 75 runs batting first and commencing their second innings with a deficit of 130 runs, they batted the whole second day, spare a few overs washed off by rain, to force a respectable draw to their match against formidable Royal College.

Seniors in the side, from skipper Kamileen, vice-captain Thisura Madurapperuma, Udara Munasinghe, Prabodha Arthavidu to Javed Siyambalapitiya have all contributed to their success while less experienced but a committed lot of other players provided ample support.

Left-hander Munasinghe is their highest scorer with a century, that laid the foundation for their first innings win against the Thomians, and three half-centuries. He has scored over 350 runs so far in five matches.

Second behind Munasinghe in the highest scorers’ list is his opening partner Kamileen who has scored over 250 runs. His best performance so far as captain came in when the team needed it the most as he anchored the top order with an unbeaten 84 runs to force a draw to their match against Royal. He was impressive in both bowling and batting departments and has reaped a haul of nearly 20 wickets with his off-spinners.

Although they have not been as consistent as their openers, deputy skipper Thisura Madurapperuma and Javed Siyambalapitiya have scored runs when needed. When both produced their top scores of the season, Madurapperuma a moderate 31 and the latter a half-century Thurstan cruised to an outright victory.

Skipper Kamileen has a good spin department with Prabhoda Arthavidu, Sachith Dias, Sachintha Wijesinghe and Krishan Wickramarachchi striking form from the beginning of the season. Off-spinner Dias and Arthavidu have shared nearly 30 wickets between them while leg-spinners Sachintha Wijesinghe and Krishan Wickramarachchi have bagged over 15 wickets together.

In the pace department Kaveen Silva had to spearhead the attack without their regular opener Ranga Wijewickrama who was not available for number of matches. But he came up with flying colours in their match against Ananda producing a four wicket haul.

Supun Nawaratne is doing a good job behind the wickets but his most impressive performance so far was in the batting department as he helped his captain save their match against Royal with a useful half-century in the second innings.

There are other contributors to the success of Thurstan this season. Among them the performance of young Sajeewa Salgado is notable as he has scored two half-centuries this season.

With the Master-in-Charge D.N. Gurudeniya and new coach Aravinda Amarasekara assisting them Thurstan are looking forward to achieve great success in the remaining matches of the season.