ANTONIAN CRICKET – A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

The outstanding performances of our junior teams in the past 18 months have put Antonian cricket on the path to prosperity, something we have not seen for a long time. Coupled with this, our First XI team emerged after the 2017/2018 season as a team that can compete with the best schools in the country.

Our team, led by Janindu Himsara, played 16 games prior to the knock-out tournament, winning 10 of them outright and losing just the one, a close affair against St Peter’s College. Five of our victories were achieved against traditional schools which included Wesley College (by an innings), Kingswood College (by 8 wickets), Dharmaraja (by an innings), St Anne’s (by 10 wickets) and Zahira College (by 116 runs). We showed a sense of ruthlessness in finishing off games having registered six victories by an innings.

In the quarter finals of the Division II tournament, we overcame Royal College by a huge first innings margin of 296 runs. We only had to reach the finals to qualify to Division I, but unfortunately were knocked out by a determined St Anne’s side whom we defeated by an innings at the start of the season.

There were some wonderful performances during the season, but none so significant than the emergence of a 15-year old left arm spinner, Nimnaka Jayathilaka. He finished the season with only a couple of wickets short of the magical 100-mark and in the process bagged four 10-wicket hauls. Only Muralitharran (with six 10-wicket hauls in 1990/91) and Aravinda Premaratne (4 in 2010/2011) had reached this milestone previously. Nimnaka returned figures of 13 for 90 vs Wesley College, 11 for 77 vs Zahira College, 10 for 136 vs Royal College (Colombo) and 10 for 148 vs St Peter’s College.

Our batting unit achieved the unique feat of registering five centuries in the season by five separate players. Kalahara Senaratne (119* vs Kingswood), Theeksha Gunasinghe (101* vs Dharmaraja), Sunera Jayasinghe (133 vs Revatha Balapitiya), Mohammed Absar (113 vs Revatha Balapitiya) and Dyon Stouter (115 vs Zahira College) formed the group of five.

Headlines of this nature should make all Antonians proud. More to come next year …..

Our record total of 517 for 8 declared against Revatha College Balapitiya, scored off only 70 overs, was the highest team total in the annals of Antonian Cricket.

Navodya Wijekumar showed immense talent with both bat and ball, achieving the double of 500 runs and 50 wickets. He was rewarded for his efforts by being selected to represent the Sri Lankan Under 19 side against the touring Indians. The other all-rounder, Kalahara Senaratne also gained national honours along with Navodya. Off-spinner Kalhara, who played second fiddle to Nimnaka, was able to improve his skills to a significant level as the season progressed that he emerged as the best spin bowler in the Sri Lankan Under 19 side.

We will be lucky to have the services of both Navodya and Kalhara in the coming 2018/2019 season, under the captaincy of Theeksha Gunasinghe. Along with some outstanding youngsters like Nimnaka, Asitha Wanninayake and Gihan Ebert, we can look forward to another productive year in 2019 and many more years after that.