Trinity beat Antonians to break 26-year hoodoo
by S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Correspondent
Trinity College broke a 26-year-old hoodoo and also established a new
record of outright wins in school cricket when they beat their
traditional rivals St. Anthony's College by an innings and one run in
their 96th "Battle of the Blues" played for the John Halangoda Memorial
Trophy at the Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy yesterday. As pre-match
predictions indicated the Lions completely outplayed the Eagles. The
Antonians had chances of saving the match, but they threw away them at
crucial times.
This win brought Trinity College their 11th outright win for the
season and 10 of them by an innings.
The tally of the series now stands at 23 wins by Trinity 12, by St.
Anthony's College, while 61 matches have ended in draws.
The last time Trinity College won was in 1986 under Thushara
Weerasuriya. By a coincidence playing for Trinity in that match was late
Susil Premasinghe and his son Janishka played in yesterday's match and
was adjudged the Man of the Match getting a bag of 6 for 85 and also top
scoring with an elegant 61 and played a major role in Trinity's victory.
He has also captured over 100 wickets for the season and only the third
Trinitian to do so.
The Antonians resuming from their overnight score 77 for 4 and lost
an early wicket of anchorman and opener who was run out. A seventh
wicket stand of 65 between Skipper Kanishka Ranaraja 42 (90 balls, 5
fours) and Saranga Rajaguru 39 (69 balls, 1 six, 4 fours) briefly held
their hopes of averting the follow on. But their tail failed to wag and
were all out for 192 which gave Trinity a lead of 110 runs. Left-arm
spinner Alwin Fernando bowled best to capture 4 for 41.
Following on the Antonians lost their way at the start itself and
were 26 for 5 at one stage. They hung on briefly through a sixth wicket
partnership 42 between Kanishka Ranaraja (21) and Kavinda
Pullikuttiarachchi 23 (103 balls, 3 fours) but the writing was on the
wall.
Despite some dogged batting by Pullikuttiarachchi and Saranga
Rajaguru (25) who batted for 20 overs in putting on 16 runs.
The Trinitians finally made the breakthrough after completing the
mandatory overs ahead of time and around 13 minutes of playing time was
left when they posted victory.
Medium pacer Amrith Srimahan took 5 for 39 while Janishka Premasinghe
4 for 45.
Awards:
Best Fielder: Niroshan Dickwella (TCK)
Best Bowler: Amrith Srimahan (TCK)
Best Batsman: Aikla Jayasundera (TCK)
Man of the Match: Janishka Premasinghe (TCK) |