Wesley beat S. Thomas' after 17 years and never won ever after

By Dilwin MENDIS - Moratuwa Sports Corr

CRICKET: Inter-School cricket is on again! And speaking of inter-school cricket matches in the years gone by, there are several matches that come to mind, not necessary the customary 'Big Matches', but matches that really thrilled the spectators.

One of these thrilling matches was the one between S. Thomas' College and Wesley College played at Campbell Park matting wicket in 1972. Being a cricketer, I went to Campbell Park, though I was not an old boy of either schools because included in the two teams were some of the super schoolboy stars of the day.

S. Thomas' did not have regular skipper Duleep Mendis, Kamal Samarasinghe and Ranil Abeynaike as they were on call with the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Team for the match against Australia - the Third Test. The top trio cut of the Thomian team made the side somewhat weak.

S. Thomas' went in first and were out for 153 runs in the first innings and were bundled out for 99 in their second essay. C. D. Ekanayake, R. Saravanamuttu and N. M. Wijesuriya batted with some authority, the others, in their eager to score runs, threw their wickets away unnecessarily.

But what happened then was that Wesley could not take advantage of the situation and they lost quick wickets and were all out for 169 in the first innings. Anura de Silva and R. Kern were the pick of the Wesley batsmen.

There were two Thomian bowlers - Ajith Abeygunawardena and R. Abeywardene who troubled the Wesleyites and picked up four wickets each. The two remaining wickets were captured by D. K. Silva who 'stood in' for regular skipper Duleep Mendis.

Real battle

Now came the real battle. Wesley had to make 84 runs for victory when S. Thomas' were shot out for 99 in their second innings. Wesley had ample time --two hours to get those vital runs for victory.

Wesley's batsmen did not disappoint this time. They made the runs for the loss of four wickets, with the main contributions coming in from R. Devadasan, Oscar Dissanayake in particular had a fine season that year with the bat scoring 500 runs. For the Thomians, Ajit Abeygunawardena bowled well to capture three wickets, but his effort couldn't deliver the goods.

Around this period, inter-school cricket was played between 12 noon and 6 p.m. on two days without mandatory overs coming into play.

Schools did not have many fixtures those days -only a handful of matches, unlike the present period where there are many matches on the card.

That particular weekend was a happy occasion for the Wesleyites skipper Cader and his team as the Campbell Park school was able to beat S. Thomas' after 17 years and what's worrying the Wesleyites is the fact that they have not been able to beat S. Thomas' ever since.