Big match season will swing into action once again with the 60th Battle of the Brothers encounter between Thurstan College and Isipathana College at the SSC Grounds beginning from 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

The teams will play for the Blackham Wijewardena Trophy. 

From the 59 encounters that have been played so far there have been only ten outright wins with Thurstan pulling off the last win of the series in 2019 under the leadership of Sandaru Dias, extending their lead to six wins against the four recorded by Isipathana College. 

Their last win came over two decades ago, in 1999 under the captaincy of Krishantha Jayawardena.
Thurstan have played 13 matches this season but they cannot be satisfied with their performance as they have only two outright wins, suffering two outright defeats. They will be led by Shanikya Deshapriya, who with his deputy VihasThewmika, have been at the forefront of the side’s batting.

Isipathana on the other hand have played nine matches with one outright win and one outright defeat and they are spearheaded by one of the top sportsmen to come out of their school in recent time in Naveen Kanishka, who also led the school rugby team.

Themiya Gunaratne will however be the player to watch, their top scorer this season while much will be expected from Sithuka Gunawardena, Yuneth Seneviratne and Yesith Kalupahana.

The best batting and bowling records in the encounter are split between the two schools, with Isipathana’s debutant Saman Nishantha holding the best individual score of 202 n.o. achieved in 2002 while the best bowling figures is held by Thurstan’s Jayajeewa Karunaratne who took 7 for 28 in 1992.

The highest score of the series is 331 for 9 declared made by Thurstan in 2012 and the lowest 56 by Isipathana way back in 1968.

This encounter will be followed by the 43rd Limited Over encounter fought out for the W.A. de Silva Memorial Trophy scheduled to be played on March 5 at R. Premadasa Stadium. 

Thurstan lead that series as well with 21 wins to Isipathana’s 18.

The 16th T20 encounter is slated to be played on March 25 at the Thurstan ground. 

Thurstan lead with seven wins to Isipathana’s five. BY M. SHAMIL AMIT