A couple of days ago, a young lad from Kandana made the cricket headlines after an impressive 253 runs off 249 balls. He is none other than Krishan Sanjula, the skipper of De Mazenod College Kandana for this season.
His valiant knock included a whopping 27 fours and 9 sixes and is the second highest score achieved by any batsman in the U19 Division I Schools’ cricket tournament up to date. It is also his personal best score as well as the highest by a player from De Mazenod College.
Krishan managed this feat while playing against Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala in the second match of the 2016/17 season. The match played at Kandana went on to end in a draw but De Mazenod managed to grab a 1st innings victory.
This young cricketer began his journey at the Ragama Cricket Club under Sanjeewa Mendis, who gave him his first lessons in cricket. At the age of 13, he moved from Karunaratne Buddhist College to De Mazenod College where he began his school cricket career.
The right handed batsman/wicket-keeper has been a first XI player for 5 years at De Mazenod. He recalls that he played his debut first XI game against St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa where he managed to score 30 runs.
Under the captaincy of Akash Senaratne last season, Krishan had managed to score a total of 900 runs which included 3 centuries. After 2 matches so far this season he has managed to gather a total of 330 runs and hopes to reach the 1000 run mark as soon as possible.
When asked about his record breaking achievement last week he said;
‘I went in as the no. 3 batsman. I had no expectation of such an achievement, I was just hoping to play my normal game and win the match. But it turned out to be very lucky day for me as I managed to get 171 runs on the first day. The next day I managed to extend it up to 253. My team mate Avishka Indrajith supported me a lot in the 8th wicket to achieve this target.’
Krishan also plays club cricket for SSC at the moment and was widely considered the best batsman in the under 23 limited overs tournament held earlier this year where he scored 2 centuries and a half century.
This young enthusiastic cricketer puts in a lot of effort in training and his achievements are proof of his dedication to the sport.
‘I train all 5 days of the week at my school and I never miss out on practice. Also I regularly go for practices at my club, SSC.’
With the added responsibility of leading his alma mater this year, Sanjula is keen on bringing every success to this and believes his team has the potential to go all the way this season, ‘We have a well balanced team this year. I think we should be able to make a great impact this season.’ He said.
Krishan is a great admirer of the notable Indian cricketer Virat Kohli. He delights in Kohli’s batting styles and also in the way how he manages his games in a cool manner. His wide array of strokes portraits Kohli perfectly. He is also an avid music lover and spends most of his free time listening to music.
Expressing his gratitude to all who gave him a helping hand, he said;
‘I would first like to thank my parents, without them I would never have been able to come this far. I also would like to thank my first coach Mr. Sanjeewa Mendis, he is the first person who taught me how to play cricket. I cannot forget Dhammika Prasad; he is the cricket consultant in our school and has helped me and my school a lot. I also want to express my gratitude to my present coach Trevin Mathews, Ranesh Malshan sir, our master-in-charge Mr. Malik Keerthi and all others who have helped me in any possible way.’
We thank Krishan for giving us his time and also we wish him the very best in achieving his cricketing goals.
