When the Antonian openers put on 266

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy sports correspondent

It was the year 1954 and St Anthony's College, Katugastota was celebrating its 100th anniversary and in addition to their main celebrations their target was to win their Big Match against their traditional rivals Trinity College but this was no easy task as the lions were a dominant force at cricket at that time.

The plans were laid for this and the ‘Prince of cricket coaches’ the late John Halangoda had laid the foundation towards but before the big event, he crossed over to the land from where no man returns. John Halangoda was a Trinitian and by a strange quirk of fate an Old Antonian P H T Silva was coaching the Trintians.

Maurice took over the coaching and Rev Bro Macky too was there. The team was captained by a lean allrounder A C M Lafir who was to later become one of our best opening bats in the pre test era. Those were the days when video cameras were not available. Said Lafir whenever the Trinitians played he made it a point to watch them play and studied their strong points as well as their weak ones.

At the team meeting on the day before the big match, Lafir spelled out his plans. If we win the toss, we are going to bat first and only the first five batsmen should bat and a score in excess of 250 should be made before the closure could be applied.

The match started at 1.30 pm and the Antonians batted first with skipper Lafir and Ronnie Stevens opening the batting. Lafir said those were the days in which we never knew the records. Lafir reached his hundred first and Stevens in his sixties. Stevens thinking there will be declaration at any time had requested for more of the strike to get his hundred. But Lafir would have none of it. There was no room for sentiments and told his partner you play your game and I will play mine and try to get your hundred soon.

Both batsmen displayed aggression and Lafir had made 176 before he was dismissed and had hit 25 fours and 5 sixes. This was also the first time he had hit a six in his school cricket career.

The first wicket stand had realized 266 runs which was a record in school cricket. Ronnie Stevens who made 103 was out at 302 and the hard hitting T M Deen followed suit without scoring and the scoreboard read 302 for 3. Wijeyapala Premaratne (43) and Saliya Doranegama (26) pushed the score along and the Antonians were 399 for 6 by 6 pm after batting for 83 overs. Off spinner M Wanduragala bowled best to capture 3 for 75.

The following morning the Antonians declared and put the lions to bat, who batted well to total 220 but they were up against some fiery pace by T M Deen who had figures of 4 for 52. In fact at one stage Trinity College were 119 for 7 when a stubborn stand of 83 for the 8th wicket between R Aluwihare (52) batting at No 9 and G G Samarasinghe (47) rescued them. But this was not enough to avoid the follow on. Back again at the wickets the Trinitians needing 179 runs to avoid an innings, started off disastrously by losing their first 3 wickets for 15 runs including that of skipper A Hulangamuwa and H Scharenguivel who collected a pair in the match. L Witharane and M Ganesar took the score up to 54 before they were separated. The score slumped from 54 for 3 at one stage to 58 for against the left arm spin of A Sivanathan 6 for 24 and Saliya Doranegama 2 for 14.

Tail-ender R Aluwihare once again performed the heroics by scoring 32 batting at No. 9 and with around 15 minutes to go the scoreboard read 104 for 8 and the lions had a chance of saving the match but Sivanathan completed the demolition act by capturing the last two wickets without any addition to the total.

The Antonians won by an innings and 75 runs. This was also the first time they had beaten Trinity by an innings. Abdul Lafir was one of the finest opening batsman to come out of the portals of St Anthony's College. In the year 1954 he scored over 1,000 runs in just 7 matches scoring hundred against St Benedict's (184), Trinity (176), Wesley (100) and Ananda (136). Against Wesley College he reached his hundred in 60 minutes. He had an average of 103 which surpassed that of batting immortal Jack Anderson. He captained the Combined Schools against the visiting Pakistan Services which included test players like Imtiaz Ahamed, Waquar Hassan, and the mystery spinner Ghulam Ahamed who had the distinction of playing for both India and later for Pakistan when the two countries were separated.

He played for All Ceylon as a schoolboy in 1954 and ended up in 1964. He scored 89 against Ted Dexter's MCC and did well against foreign sides. Those were the days there were hardly any tours by foreign sides and only ‘whistle stop’ games by England and Australia.

He scored two centuries for All Ceylon in their annual Gopalan trophy match against Madras. His first double century in club cricket was 206 not out for Kandy United against Saracens Cricket Club at Rifle Green in a P Sara Trophy match. He also scored 255 not out for Nomads against University of Ceylon also in the P Sara Trophy tournament in 1971.