EXCLUSIVE: Losing captain of Tamil Union C&AC Sadeera Samarawickrama was happy that he played a marathon innings of 188, but was sad that his side lost the final of the Sri Lanka Cricket Major League Tournament after amassing 558. In an exclusive interview with Sri Lanka Cricket website, the 27-year old wicket-keeping opening batsman, who unleashed a rollicking career best display, but had to be content collecting the runners-up trophy, said, “I am happy that I played such an innings, but am sad that despite the big effort that fetched us a huge score of 558 we lost the final. Their opponents CCC responded with 669 to emerge the championship?
“Even on the fourth day we batted well in the second innings scoring 145 for 4 in double quick time,” he lamented. The Tamil Union skipper did concede that the dropped catch off to read Chamindu Wijesinghe proved to be costly. “But then it was a difficult chance,” he mused while crediting him for what he described as a ‘good innings.’
He emphasised that the team comprised of young players and that their efforts were praiseworthy considering their comparatively much more experienced opponents. “The team consists of young players, but their ability has been fantastic despite their less match experience. All have played 150 matches in comparison to our opponents 500 matches. Malinda Pushpakumara and Ashan Priyanjan have played 150 matches each, Isuru Udara 70 and Jeffrey Vandersay 40. In that context I believe we performed well,” he said. Samarawickrama singled out his opening partner Navod Paranavithana as a barman with a good future. “Navod is a very sound opening batsman who has been discovered from the U19 system. He is technically well equipped in defence and attack,” the skipper added.
As to his own form and future, the former Josephian product said, “I have topped 1000 runs this season with 4 hundreds and 3 fifties. I do look to impress the selectors for a recall to international cricket. I have performed well representing the Sri Lanka A team against Pakistan and Australia with 2 centuries to my credit having captained the side versus Pakistan,” he enthused while looking forward to more A Team tours in the future.
