From 25 to 26 June, the SAU cricket team took part in the Beijing Sri Lanka International Cricket Fiesta, hosted by the Sri Lankan embassy. The tournament took place at the Beijing Royal Foreign Language School and involved teams from the embassies of New Zealand, Pakistan, India, the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka, as well as Beijing Indians, Tianjin Medical University and SAU.
The teams from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tianjin were particularly strong and the Tianjin team, made up of players from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka won a tight final against the Sri Lankan team.
The SAU team with eventual champions Tianjin Medical University
For the young SAU cricketers, the tournament was an extraordinary opportunity to meet and play against some talented and experienced players from around the world.
Though cricket is normally played between teams of eleven players, this tournament was played in an explosive 8-a-side format, with squads limited to ten players. The SAU squad featured Sri Lankan student Pubudu Tharanga and coach Matt Smith, the other eight players were all Chinese undergraduate students in their first, second or third years at the university.
In their first game, SAU was overwhelmed by the power hitting of the Tianjin batsmen, but nonetheless performed admirably under considerable pressure and set down a marker for the tournament. Few of the spectators or other teams at the tournament had expected that a Chinese team could pose a serious challenge, but now all were aware that they would have to play hard if they were to overcome SAU.
Late on the first evening of the tournament, SAU faced a very experienced Pakistan Embassy team. The SAU bowlers and fielders put Pakistan under considerable pressure, and a fine opening partnership between Liu Tao and Pubudu Tharanga gave SAU the chance of causing a major upset. The Pakistan players had no choice but to draw on all their experience, dig deep, and through a very aggressive period of play managed to subdue SAU’s remaining batsmen.
SAU were effectively out of the tournament, but not before showing that they could compete at this level. They’d earned the respect and praise of their opponents, and proved to themselves that they can stand toe-to-toe with some of the best overseas players in China.
The teams enjoyed a wonderful banquet, courtesy of Sri Lankan Charge d’affaires, Mr Ruwanchandra, on the Saturday night, giving them a chance to get to know each other off the field.
On Sunday morning, with the pressure now off, the SAU team was able to relax and enjoy a very pleasant game with Beijing Indians. This gave the players another chance to learn, develop and make new friends and admirers.
The team then settled down to watch two thrilling semi-finals and a tough final, in which Tianjian eventually overcame hosts Sri Lanka, to walk away with the trophy.
