Ceylon won inaugural Gopalan Trophy match by 95 runs in 1953

By A.C. de Silva

CRICKET: The Gopalan Trophy cricket encounter had many name changes as for as the Sri Lankan team was concerned and recently under the name tag of President's XI, the team won the trophy outright in Madras. This match was inaugurated 54 years ago - in February 1953 and the local team played under the name tag - "Ceylon" and captained by the late F.C. de Saram beat Madras by 95 runs in Madras.

The first innings was somewhat puzzling for the Sri Lankan team as the first wicket - that of opener C.H. Gunasekera (jnr) fell in the second over with the team total at 2 and opener Gunasekera had made just 1. Then came the life-saving partnership between the other opener late Makkin Salih (38) and R. Bertie Wijesinha (48) which realised 86 runs for the second-wicket.

There was somewhat of a collapse after the lunch interval and six wickets fell in that period for 87 runs.

However, a last-wicket partnership of 21 runs between late V.J.H. Gunasekera (24) and T. Shanmuganathan (12 not out) took the Lankan total to 221. S.V. Vaidyanathan bowled best for Madras with 4 for 49.

This, being a three-day game, it was going to be tough for the Lankan side as the Madras team somewhat took control of the game as they made 245 in their first innings, thereby gaining a first innings lead of 24 runs. It was the batting of M.G. Bhawanarayan who made 71 that paved the way for Madras to overtake the Lankan first innings total of 221. There was other useful contributions from opener D.L. Chakravarthi (41), bowler S.V. Vaidyanathan (38) and M. Suryanarayan (29) that helped them to get past the Lankan total.

The Lankan side did much better in their second turn and with a fine opening partnership of 88 runs between opener C.H. Gunasekera (45) and Makkin Salih (55) pushed the score along at a rapid pace to enable the rest of the batsmen to pile on the runs.

The top scorer for the Lankans was Stanley Jayasinghe who made 76 and with skipper F.C. de Saram making 39, R. Bertie Wijesinha (39), E.C. Kelaart (32) and C. Bertels (28 not out) making useful scores, the total of 327 for 6 wickets declared looked somewhat a big one and it made for Sri Lankan team to push forward their victory attempt.

So, Madras had to make 304 runs for victory.

But the Madras team were all out for 208 runs in the second innings, thereby giving the win to the Sri Lankans.

For Madras, opener M. Swaminathan (37) top scored while paceman H.T. Gunasekera (3 for 40) and Bob Bartels (3 for 68) were the leading wicket-takers in the second innings.

Tamil Nadu has won the annual Gopalan Trophy cricket match with Sri Lanka twice by an innings at Colombo in 1971-72 and at Salem in India in 1974-75.

CEYLON 1ST INNINGS

C.H. Gunasekera c Chakravarthi b Narasingham	 1
Makkin Salih st. Chakravarthi b Sarangapani	38
R.B. Wijesinha b Vaidyanathan			48
Stanley Jayasinghe b Vaidyanathan	 	 2
F.C. de Saram b Vaidyanathan			28
H.T. Gunasekera run out				18
H.I.K. Fernando b Abraham			14
E.C. Kelaart c Saryanarayan b Abraham	 	 1
C. Bartels b Vaidyanathan	 		 1
V.J.H. Gunasekera c Balakrishnan b Sarangapani	24
T. Shanmuganathan not out			12
Extras						34
Total:                                      	221
Fall of wickets: 2, 88, 91, 108, 160, 170, 176, 188, 200
Bowling: Rangachari 5-0-18-0, Narasingham 4-0-17-1, Suryanathan 3-0-15-0, 
Vaidyanathan 29-12-49-4, Sarangapani 8.5-0-42-2, Raghavan 7-0-23-0, Abraham 14-6-23-2.

Madras C.C. 1st Innings
D.L. Chakravarthi c Fernando b Bartels		41
M. Swaminathan c Fernando b Wijesinha	 	 3
M. Suryanarayan run out				29
M. Balakrishnan c Fernando b Shanmuganathan	 1
C. Abraham b Shanmuganathan			19
M.G. Bhawanarayan lbw b Wijesinha		71
S.V. Vaidyanathan c Makkin Salih b Kelaart	38
A.K. Surangapani c Jayasinghe b H.T. Gunasekera	 9
R. Raghavan not out 	 			 9
C.R. Rengachari not out 	 		 8
T.S. Narasingham b Wijesinha	 		 0
Extras						17
Total                                        	245
Fall of wickets: 32, 51, 52, 82, 123, 201, 226, 230, 243
Bowling: H.T. Gunasekera 13-6-27-1, R.B. Wijesinha 10.4-2-29-4, 
C. Bartels 19-7-35-1, Shanmuganathan 23-1-69-2, V.J.H. Gunasekera 10-1-28-0, 
E.C. Kelaart 16-4-40-1.

Ceylon 2nd Innings
C.H. Gunasekera c Balakrishnan b Vaidyanatha 	45
Makkin Salih lbw b Vaidyanatha 			55
R.B. Wijesinha c Vandyanathan b Abraham		39
S. Jayasinghe c Narasimhan b Balakrishnan	76
F.C. de Saram c Suryanarayan b Rangachari	39
C. Bartels not out 				28
E.C. Kelaart b Balakrishnan 			32
Extras						13
Total (for 6 wkts dec)... ..                 	327
Fall of wickets: 88, 117, 184, 249, 273, 327
Bowling: Rangachari 18-4-70-1, Narasingham 9-0-46-0, Suryenathan 16-3-37-0 
Balakrishnan 17-1-57-2, Vaidyanathan 14-0-57-2, Sarangapori 7-0-4-0, 
Raghavan 3-0-19-0, Abraham 5-0-19-1, Swaminatha 2-0-5-0.

Madras C.A. 2nd Innings
D.L. Chakravarthi c Jayasingha b Gunasekera 		30
M. Swaminathan b Gunasekera 				37
M. Suryanarayan b Bartels				25
M. Balakrishnan c V.J.H. Gunasekra b H.T. Gunasekera	10
G. Abraham run out	 				 3
M.C. Bhawanarayan c Bartels b R.B. Wijesinha		12
S.V. Vaiyanathan b Shanmuganathan			15
C.R. Ranghachari c and b Bartels			23
A.K. Surangapani c Kelaart b Shanmuganathan	 	 0
R. Raghavan b Bartels 					16
T.S. Narasingham not out	 			 1
Extras							36
Total                                        		208
Bowling: H.T. Gunasekera 22-10-40-3, R.B. Wijesinha 9-5-13-1, 
S. Jayasinghe 3-1-7-0, C. Bartels 31.4-13-68-3, T. Shanmuganathan 16-3-44-2.