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| Sunday, 12 March 2006 |
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The Centenary Kingswood-Dharmaraja match March 24 and 25 By Upananda Jayasundera Kandy Sports Special Corr The historic centenary cricket match between Kingswood College and Dharmaraja College will be played for the T. B. Tennekoon Challenge Cup on March 24 and 25 at the Asgiriya International Stadium. In the 99 encounters that have been played so far, Dharmaraja College is in the lead with 31 wins to Kingswood's 19 with 49 matches ending in draws. In the early matches from 1893 to 1898, the two schools included members of the staff too in the teams besides the schoolboys. In fact in the first encounter in 1893 that was played at the Bogambara Grounds, Dharmaraja was led by a member of the staff - the great educationist Don Baron Jayathilake, later Sir Baron Jayathilake, Kingswood's captain was Spencer. The first all schoolboy match was played in 1899 on July 1 where Kingswood was led by T. B. Marshall. In 1960, the match ended in a 'tie'. However, Kingswood's principal K. M. de Lanerolle awarded the match to Dharmaraja for better performances though the scores were the same. 1914 - A. Jayasundera captured 8 wickets for 9 runs as Dharmaraja beat Kingswood by an innings and 17 runs. 1916 - R. Burke 8 wickets for 7 runs as Kingswood beet Dharmaraja by an innings and 24 runs. 1918 - Dharmaraja all out for 9 (nine) runs Kingwood had the unique distinction of dismissing Dharmaraja in one innings for 9 (nine) runs, which to date is the lowest score in an innings in any inter-school match. Similarly Royal had been dismissed for exactly the same score (nine runs) in a Royal-Thomian encounter. 1943 - First century in the series - The distinction of scoring the first century in the series goes to that evergreen, veteran sportsman of Kandy R. L. Arthur Alwis of Dharmaraja College. It is interesting to note that the Rajan's Skipper, T. B. Talwatte, was deprived of this honours as he was injured by the Kingswood pace bowler, M. T. Jaimon and Talwatte had to leave the field temporarily during which time Arthur completed his century. Later Talwatte too completed his century. M. T. Jaimon took 5 wickets for ninety (90) runs for Kingswood. The match was won by the Rajans by an innings and 152 runs. Late J. P. Jayasena captained Kingswood. 1951 - Kingswood in an exciting win. Kingswood led by left hander Shelton R. S. Perera, scored an exciting win over Dharmaraja, having had to score ten runs in six balls and one run in two balls, which they did with a ball to spare. Winning stroke was by the captain himself. 1952 - Chandra de Silva score 158 in this match, played at Randles Hill, Asoka Perera scored 148 for Kingswood while the late Chandra de Silva scored 158 for Dharmaraja. The match ended in a draw. Chandra de Silva's 158 was the highest individual score in the series up to that date. 1956 - The highlight of this year's drawn encounter was the fast bowling of M. Nazar of Kingswood who took 6 (six) wickets for 48 runs. 1957 - Kingswood amassed 401 for 9 wickets with Maurice Fernando scoring 101 runs. Dharmaraja replied with 269 runs in the first innings. 1958 - Kingswood defeated Dharmaraja by 10 wickets and this was the last time Kingswood defeated Dharmaraja. In this match Kingswood was captained by C. M. Fernando who was selected "the schoolboy cricketer of the year". Dharmaraja was captained by D. D. T. Alwis. The Kingswood opening pair, considered the best among schools, was Maurice Fernando and Herly Jayasuriya. They put up an unbroken stand of 102 runs in the second innings enabling Kingswood to win. Herly scored a brisk 50 while Maurice scored 43 runs. 1959: C. Ratnavibushana scored 167 for Kingswood which was the highest individual score upto that date. 1960: Tied. Kingswood's Principal, K. M. de Lanerolle, awards match to Dharmaraja having gone through the score book for better performance - although the scores were the same. 1964: Rajans 2 runs short of victory - Match was put off due to rain and in the rescheduled game, the Rajans were two runs short of victory when stumps were drawn. 1965: Twins in this year's match, the Jayasundera twins, Ananda and Upananda, played for Dharmaraja. Earlier Kingswood too had twins playing for them. Clare and Patrick Vethakan and Jimmy and Roysten Bulner. 1966: Dharmaraja won the match. Siri Ranasinghe scored a century for Dharmaraja and the team was led by Upananda Jayasundera. 1967: The great sacrifice - Kingswood Skipper Tissa Jayathilake was not out and batting well with Mohan Kodituwakku. He declared, still short of 9 runs of this century, which would have earned him the distinction of scoring consecutive centuries having scored an unbeaten 100 in the 1966 match. Another feature in this match was the bowling of left arm spinner Sena Abeygunaratne, who captured 7 (Seven) wickets for 32 runs in the Dharmaraja 1st inning of 143 runs. 1967 & 1977: P. B. Wickremasuriya of Kingswood and Ajith Naranpanawe of Dharmaraja entered the record books by scoring centuries in both years thus becoming the only two players to score centuries in consecutive matches. 1981: B. Z. Sheriffdeen scored a century for Kingswood. 1983: Senaka Dissanayake scored a double century for Dharmaraja, 200 (exactly) the only double century in the series. Dharmaraja won by 9 wickets. Upto date this is the highest individual score in the series. 1985: Mangala Dharmaprema the Kingswood captain, scored a century and also completed 1000 runs for the season during this match. 1994: Dayal Dharmaprema, younger brother of earlier Kingswood skipper, Mangala, took six wickets for 38 runs in the Dharmaraja 1st innings score of 153 runs, the match was drawn. 2001: First one day match played in colour outfits Anuradha Jayasundera captained Dharmaraja and Chamara Seneviratne, Kingswood. The match was won by Dharmaraja.
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