102nd Kingswood-Dharmaraja encounter on March 7 and 8

By Upananda Jayasundera, Kandy Sports Special Correspondent

The oldest 'Big Match' of the Hill capital, the 102nd Battle of the Maroons between Dharmaraja and Kingswood, Kandy will be played for the T. B. Tennakoon Memorial Trophy on the 7th and 8th March, 2008 at the Asgiriya Cricket Stadium.

Out of 101 matches played so far, Dharmaraja has won 31 matches while Kingswood has won 19 matches. 50 matches have ended in a draws. In 1973, the match was not played due to unavoidable circumstances.

Rajans won the last big encounter in 1980 under Janaka Mendis and Kingswood won under the captaincy of Maurice Fernando in 1958. Senaka Dissanayake of Dharmaraja who scored 200 runs in the 1983 Big match is the only player so far to score a double century in this encounter. The best for Kingswood is 167 by Clifford Ratnavibushana in 1959.

This year, Kingswood will be captained by Anuruddha Hettige and Dharmaraja will be led by Buwaneka Ekanayake.

Seventeen players from Dharmaraja and eleven players from Kingswood have scored centuries for their colleges in this encounter.

The centurions in the series

Dharmaraja: P.L. Arthur Alwis 121 in 1942, T.B. Talwatta 104 not out in 1942, A.L. de Alwis 109 not out in 1945, P.B. Munasinghe 108 in 1951, Chandra de Silva 158 in 1952, R.J.K. Gunasekera 105 in 1954, Siri Ranasinghe 112 in 1966, N. Yatigammana 121 not out in 1970, Dhammika Vithanage 100 in 1975, Ajith Naranpanawe 127 not out in 1975 and 120 in 1976, Dananjaya Navarathna 109 in 1979, Senaka Dissanayake 200 in 1983, Prasanna Walalawela 103 not out in 1983, Prasanna Dissanayake 102 not out in 1985, Chanakya Kulatunga 112 in 1987, R.Y. Sooriyarachchi 113 in 2006.

Kingswood: Freddie White (exact score not available) in 1949, Mahinda de Silva 132 in 1951, Asoka Perera 148 in 1952, Maurice Fernando 101 in 1957, Clifford Ratnavibushana 167 in 1959, Tissa Jayatilake 100 in 1966, Priyantha Wickramasuriya 127 in 1976, Priyantha Wickremasuriya 116 in 1977, B.H. Sherifdeen 100 in 1981, Mangala Dharmaprema 120 in 1984, Buddhika Ekanayake 105 in 1966.

The best bowler for Kingswood has been by Sena Abeygunaratne who had a match bag of 11 for 107 in 1966, getting 8 for 39 in the first innings and 3 for 68 in the second innings.

The best effort by Dharmaraja bowler has been 12 for 66 in 1971, getting 5 for 10 in the first innings and 7 for 56 in the second innings.