This years National Day Celebration Challenge saw the first ever all Seychellois team take on a Rest of the World side at Stade Popiler on Sunday. Mr. Patrick Nanty, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government, Youth and Sports complimented the Seychelles Cricket Association on this achievement in his opening address and thanked the members for their continued support of the National Day Celebrations programme.
Seychelles skipper Ramesh won the toss conducted by umpires Peter Virgona and Senerath de Zoysa and elected to bat first on the new mat in use for the occasion. An early breakthrough was achieved by the Rest of the World as Chandre dismissed Suludagoda before he could get off the mark in the first over. This brought out Muditha to join Patrick Thomas and this pair set about the bowling like a couple of young lions fighting over a wounded wildebeest, matching scoring strides to put on 76 runs in the next 14 overs. Rest of the World captain Shantha de Silva changed his attack more frequently than Italy changes Governments, but all nine bowlers deployed took some punishment from the hard hitting duo before Dr. Singh managed to trap Muditha (30) leg before.
Faruk Chaka (13) continued the scoring spree with a brace of beautiful boundaries before he was caught by Dewapriya off the bowling of Dr. Singh with the score at 98 and Mahendra picked up a wicket when he bowled Murali (5) to make the score 116 for 4 with six overs remaining. This solid platform enabled the Seychelles middle order to go after the bowlers in the remaining overs whilst Patrick Thomas continued his majestic progress towards a landmark 50. John Khambatta, author of the very slim book "My Range of Defensive Shots" warmed up with a 4 before launching a 6 over the boundary on his way to 13 prior to missing a straight ball from Shantha de Silva. Having reached his 50, Patrick Thomas celebrated by cracking the next three balls to the boundary whilst Ramesh (6) was bowled by Dr. Singh to give him three victims in the innings. With three balls left, young Pallani decided he wanted to join the double figures club and followed a two with a pair of boundaries to be undefeated on 10, and a jubilant Patrick Thomas carried his bat for a magnificent 63 not out which came off the 60 balls he faced. Seychelles thus racked up a formidable 185 for 6 in their 25 over allocation.
If the Rest of the World thought their nightmare could not possibly get any worse at this stage, the Seychelles dream team had other thoughts. Faruk Chaka conceded a single off his first over and then Ramesh began to cast his spell from the other end, having Betram (1) caught by a juggling Muditha with his second delivery and Santosh Senior (0) caught at slip by Suludagoda with his fourth. His second over involved more magic as he picked up the prize scalp of Shantha de Silva (1), this time caught by wicket keeper Patrick Thomas. Faruk Chaka then produced an absolute rocket of a yorker to bowl Kaushal Patel (1) and the Rest of the World reply stood in ruins at 10 for 4 at the end of the sixth over. Another dozen runs were added before Deepak Patel (5) was bowled by Pallani, and then came a 20 run partnership between Sujeewa and Dr. Singh. Wily wizard Ramesh decided to let John Khambatta have a bowl and was rewarded as Sujeewa (22) hit the ball straight to him for the catch, whilst Faruk Chaka held the catch of the day to dismiss Dr. Singh (7) off the same bowler.
Pallani bowled Chandre (7) with the score at 56, which led to the Rest Of the Worlds most productive partnership, a stand of 29 between Dewapriya and Nishan Burhan with the latter taking a novel stance one third of the way down the pitch as opposed to the conventional standing near the batting crease approach. Ramesh brought himself back into the attack and claimed his fourth wicket when he had Dewapriya (5) caught by Suludagoda. Mahendra (0) was run out following some fine work in the field by Santosh Junior, leaving Nishan Burhan undefeated on 23 and the Rest of the World all out for 86 with four overs remaining, exactly 100 runs short of the winning post.
Sponsors of the National Day Challenge, Source DOr, represented by Mr. Gerard Potter generously provided trophies for the Best Batsman, inevitably awarded to Patrick Thomas, and Best Bowler, which went to Ramesh for his 4 for 9 performance. A somewhat shell-shocked Shantha de Silva collected the runners-up trophy on behalf of his Rest of the World team and their manager Peter Stokes, whilst a very happy Ramesh claimed the winners trophy for Seychelles who were managed on the day by Douglas Imaduwa.
The final presentation was the Man of the Match award, in the form of a cheque for SR 500, which to popular acclaim was presented to Patrick Thomas for his outstanding batting, a catch behind the wicket and Long John Silver impression as he came off the pitch injured.
It is hoped that Seychelles versus the Rest of the World will become a regular fixture on the cricketing calendar, particularly in view of the tremendous interest surrounding this match, with a result which will certainly have confounded those pundits who were expecting the Rest of the World to stroll to victory.