Chanaka first batsman to score a double century this season

Chris DHAMBARAGE

He thought it would be another ordinary day at the crease. But it turned out to be little different from that. January 19, 2008 turned out to be a memorable day for Chanaka Gimhana Wijesinghe who became the first batsman to score a double century in the current SLC Premier Trophy inter club four day league tournament.

The elegant right hander from Nondescript Cricket Club hit a trail blazing career best 250 in the second innings following an unbeaten half century in the first innings.

The 25 year old of course took the field at the back drop of some uncertainly because he was making his debut for the Maitland Place team. He was surprisingly overlooked for the SLC Premier limited overs knock out tournament following a series of low scores during the warm up matches.

He was probably nervous having completed a couple of unsuccessful seasons with Kandy Youth CC, Moors Sports Club and Ragama Cricket Club. But his career took a drastic change from the moment he joined NCC and he turned out to be a batting hero for his club almost overnight.

He had a tough task in his very first outing because NCC were up against it having conceded first innings points. NCC had the task of setting their opponents a challenging victory target and for that they had to bat really well in their second innings.

Chanaka Wijesinghe took up the responsibility as he set up the run chase in a professional manner. The feature in his batting was that he was prepared to work the singles every time and kept the score moving at a steady pace.

He was prepared to wait for the loose deliveries and showed a great amount of concentration in building up the innings. Wijesinghe’s outstanding performance came in for high praise from his captain Sampath Perera who was of course disappointed that his team could not pull off the game outright.

But for that Wijesinghe cannot be blamed because the NCC bowlers just could not pick up the last Tamil Union wicket after they had been set a tough target. NCC coach Sampath Perera said that he is not surprised with Chanaka Wijesinghe’s performance with the bat because he was well aware of his talent and potential with both having played together for their company Seylan Bank.

He said that Wijesinghe hardly made any mistake on that day and collected his runs at a reasonably good pace which suggests that he is also a good player in the shorter version of the game. He said that Wijesinghe could attack the bowling given the opportunity or even he could concentrate in occupying the crease which is something unique for a batsman.

Perera said that he is a quality player against the spinners and has the ability to play a long innings. Even then he was surprised that a player in the calibre of Chanaka Wijesinghe could not find a place in the recently concluded Inter Provincial tournament.

Wijesinghe of course had earlier toured Australia with the Sri Lanka under 19 team and also Hong Kong with the Sri Lanka under 17 team after a successful inter school career where he ended up by captaining the St. Sylvester’s College first Eleven team.

In addition Wijesinghe had the opportunity of representing the Sri Lanka A team against the West Indies and South Africa in Colombo. But apart from these outings Wijesinghe has not really had the chance of impressing the national selectors for a place in the national pool.

Former Sri Lanka player and a stalwart of NCC Ranjith Fernando who himself scored a double century for the Maitland Place team also showered praises on the promising Chanaka Wijesinghe who seem to have matured a lot since making his debut during the 2002/03 season.

In a total of 40 first class matches he has accumulated 2253 runs at an average of 34.13. Wijesinghe has four hundreds and seven fifties to his credit. Ranjith Fernando now a popular television commentator observed that Wijesinghe should now concentrate on making more runs and automatically he will be able to find recognition at the highest level.

Fernando also recalled Wijesinghe’s double century as similar to the efforts of Kumar Sangakkara and Chulaka Amarasinghe who were also prolific run getters having made double centuries for NCC.