Centurion’s C.C. joint champions with Vikings C.C. last year, are out again strong, defending their title and trying to go all out to regain the full Championship this year.

Once again the club is led by opening bat and wicket-keeper, Srimantha Wijeyeratne and some of the last year players including Ruvindu Gunasekera, all rounder Dhanuka Pathirana who has 87 first class match experience, Sheahan Kamileen (ex first class SL), Barbadian Jade Padmore, Afghan born Asghar Hotak, Indian born Sidaart Sajid, and the two veteran players of the club, former Canadian nationals, Sajayen Thuraisingham and evergreen Balaji Rao donning the colours for Centurions this year. In addition they have recruited two SL born brothers in Uvin & Kavin Bandara, both having played top school cricket and first class cricket in Colombo. Kavin Bandara represented SL U- 19 in 2015. Both are lefties and in particularly the younger brother Kavin is a treat to watch when in middle with his stroke play. Uvin is a middle order hard hitting steady bat who bowls medium pace and comes in handy to bowl first change. A major loss for Centurions was the exit of Canadian national opening bowler, Cecil Pervez, who joined Afridi C.C. to play in ‘Elite’ division.
There was a break in the Super-9 tournament this year due to the Global T-20 that took place from 23-June to 15 July at King City. Many Centurions were involved with two of the players being drafted to the Vancouver Knights squad, K. Shanthikumar (Manager-VK), Gopu Senathiraja (Manager-Montreal Tigers) & S. Wijeyeratne (Manager-Toronto Nationals) . The ground preparations were handled by K. Chandramohan and were ably assisted by Melvyn Croning and Dhanuka Pathirana, S. Sajid and Sujeevan.
So far Centurions have completed 7 games, wining 4, 1 rain out and 2 losses and stands at #3 in the standings of the Super-9 table. In batting, young 20 year old Kavin Bandara is the leading run getter with 300+ runs including his maiden century in Canada (104 Vs OCA) followed by Ruvindu with 167 runs including a highest score of 97 vs OCA with skipper Srimantha just going over 113 runs in total out of 6 games. In the bowling department, Uvin leads with 10 wickets with Sajid and Padmore taking 9 each. The team is well balanced and will be strengthened with the addition of Raymond Byone (Barbados) and Adithya Vartharajan who is playing in Tamil Nadu T20 games who are expected to join the team soon.
Centurions are losing Ruvindu Gunasekera who will be flying out tomorrow to join the squad of Dambulla Invitation XI in Sri Lanka. Ruvindu ended up as the highest run getter in last year’s SL domestic T20 contest. He is expected to be back by early September and will be available for play-offs. Centurions wish him the best of luck in the tournament.
Having resumed the tournament, Centurions started off well with back to back wins against Toronto C.S.C. and meet last year’s joint champions, Vikings C.C. on 11-August, Saturday at King City. Vikings are still unbeaten and will go flat out to maintain that record.
A very interesting game is on the cards and we hope to see both Vikings and Centurions supporters to flock to Maple Leaf and enjoy the best spirit of the “Gentleman’s Game” played by two strong teams.
(Reported by S. Wijeyeratne)