10 years on from St Joseph’s College’s historic win at the 74th Battle of the Saints, here is winning captain Ruwantha Fernandopulle’s recollection of what proved to be an extremely successful season for the Joes.
By Ruwantha Fernandopulle – 2008 St. Joseph’s College Captain
The day before the 74th Battle of the Saints saw a heavy downpour. I don’t think anyone imagined it would be possible to have an uninterrupted game for the next two days. But by the grace of God, we had great weather over the course of the game and managed to create history, winning the ‘Big Match’ for St. Joseph’s after 36 long years.
I had a team full of talent, most were already stars in the schools’ arena and most importantly they had the hunger to win. The winning mentality was with us from the very 1st game of the season, and because of it, we managed to get through the season without even losing a single game on the 1st innings. The Big match was the final goal, but during the season we set ourselves small targets that made it possible for us to achieve our final goal. What was most pleasing for us was the fact that we didn’t depend on one or two stars, everyone in the team chipped in to make it an unforgettable season for us all.
We did not have the luxury of having our two top players, Roshane Silva and Thisara Perera, in our playing XI during most of the season due to national under 19 duty but this gave players like Dimuth Karunaratne, Anton Livera, Shameera Weeerasinghe, Sahan Wijesiri, Prabuddha Sankalpa and Treshan Rajasooriya the much awaited chance to step up and see us through every game to win either outright or on first innings. What I loved about being a part of the team was being surrounded by a bunch of guys who wanted to always play positive, ruthless cricket and found ways to bring out the best in each other.
Thisara Perera, who was known more for his pace bowling during the time, picked up five wickets in the first innings of the game and completed a hat-trick of the Best Bowler titles at the Big Match with his Man of the Match winning performance. Roshane Silva, who scored his fourth consecutive half ton in a Battle of the Saints series, was named the Best Batsman. Dimuth Karunaratne, who was Man of the Match during the previous year’s fixture, was named the Best Fielder at the encounter. It’s great to see that since that since then, all three of them have gone on to represent Sri Lanka at the highest stage. Spinner Shameera Weerasinghe, who had been one of our top all-rounders during the season, was awarded the Best All-Rounder prize for his 55 runs and two wickets. It was truly a privilege to have captained such a side, where everyone knew exactly what they needed to do.
We also had the luxury of having an amazing supporting system and I would not be being fair if I didn’t mention their contribution to helping us create history. To start off we had our Head Coach Harsha De Silva, who has been an amazing asset to St Joseph’s College over the years. His mantra was always ‘quality over quantity’ and that theory brought him and the Joes a lot of success during the years he was with the team. Our assistant coach Kapila Manohara, Prefect of Games Father Chaminda, Master in Charge Prasantha Ranaweera, motivator Stefen Moraes all kept us positive and fit throughout the season, helping us achieve great things during 2008, a year my teammates and I will never forget.
*St Joseph’s College last win at the Battle of the Saints came back in 2008, under the leadership of the author Ruwantha Fernandopulle.
All the action from the 84th Battle of the Saints will be brought to you Live and Exclusively on ThePapare.com, Dialog Television Channel 1 and Dialog MyTV on the 2nd and 3rd of March from the P. Sara Oval Grounds from 8.30am onwards.
Live score updates, match reports and photos will be available on each day of play on ThePapare.com.
