Trinity – Royal 121st encounter today and tomorrow

Hafiz Marikar

Trinity College’s oldest cricket encounter against Royal College, which is going to be the 121st encounter, will be played today and tomorrow at the Royal College Grounds at Reid Avenue.

This inter-schools game is one of the most looked forward to cricket events between these two schools, from the day they first played in 1893.

In this series, Royal has the highest number of wins.

Trinity first played Royal College in 1893, which game went in favor of the Royalist. It was in 1896 that the Trinitians first beat the Royalist. That was a nine wicket win, after losing the first three games. The first draw of the series was in 1897. Again from 1898 to 1902 Royal consecutively won and the next win for Trinity came in 1903, In 1904 /05 Royal won, 1906 was a draw again, then in 1907/08 Trinity lost.

Trinity won in a row from 1909 to 1911, in 1912 once again the Royalist won, from 1913 to 1916

Trinity won, 1917 was a draw and in 1919 was a tie, followed by a draw. From 1921 to 1927 Trinity dominated. In today’s game both sides will be determined to test their prowess both with the bat and ball to gain honors.

This writer goes back to the Trinity-Royal centenary game which was played at Asgiriya Stadium, on February 28th and 29th in 1992. Ten minutes before the first ball was bowled both school flags were hoisted by the two principals Col. Lernoade de Alwis and B. Sooriyarchchi. The Royal College band was in attendance, and played the school anthemes.

Royal College won the toss and elected to take first lease of the wicket, on a perfect batting strip. Royal rattled up 204 runs for the loss of six wickets in 270 minutes of batting, which came in 66 over’s. The opener D Karunarthne was run out for a duck, and the score board read 1 for 1. The other opener skipper Tharaka Subasnghe and the No. 3 batsman Dinesh Darmarthne settled down to some sedate cricket. While Subasinghe had a smack at the loose once Dahramrthne preferred to satisfy the viewers with some sparkling stroke play. Skipper Subasinghe drove stylishly on both flanks.

These two went in for lunch with the scoreboard reading 101 for the loss of the first wicket, which came in the 135th minutes, and 33 overs.

Finally these two put 102 runs for the second wicket when skipper Subasinghe was well caught at long on by Ruwan Mudalpath; Subasinghe had eight hits to the ropes in his aggressive knock. His 50 came in 98 minutes, K. Markar who came in next scored a fluent 48 before he was caught and bowled by Dinushan Munsinghe - 153 for 3. At the same score, G.Perera was caught by Mudlapath off Munasinghe. Next to go was the No. 3 batsman Dahrmarthne at 52, which included three hits to the fence.

His 50 took him 125 minutes. His wicket to fell at 153, he was run out.

Then the next two in the crease Zulki Hameed and Nalliah Rajan batted well to take the score to

169. This time Zulki Hameed was out for 16 and Royal declared their innings at 204 for 6. Paceman Dinushan Munasnghe bowling to a line and length pocketed 3 for 34, in 14 over’s, out of which three were maidens. Kelum Edirisnghe the captain of the side took a wicket for 46 runs, and the other two were run outs.

Trinity took their turn at 3.35 pm, lost both openers with the score board reading 5. First to go back to the pavilion was Inok Nanayakara for 01 followed by Himesh Gunatilake 03, much was expected from these two openers but they failed to deliver. U. Chandrakumara and the Vice Captain Amil Ramanathan, batting at peak form took the score to 62 runs, with a partnership of 57 runs, Ramanathan using every stroke in the book, he drove and hooked in his 19 runs, he had three boundaries. Chandrakumar was joined by Ruwan Mudalpath; these two took the score to 67 for 3 at the end of the first days play.

Which took them 120 minutes and 30 over’s Chandra Kumar was on 30 and Mudalpath 05. Royal College paceman H. Ariyarthna had taken two wickets and one was a run out.

At the end of the first day’s play both teams were entertained for tea at the Old Trinitians Sports Club, at that time president was late H.M. Halimdeen and Deva Amunugama was the sports secretary.

Trinitains, on the second day continuing from their overnight score of 67 for 3, lost the fourth wicket, Ruwan Mudalpath for 10, at 76.

The fifth wicket to fall at 82, Chandrakumar was run out for 38. Now the Trinitains had started disastrously losing their wickets, and had to fight for every run they scored.

Trinitys sixth wicket fell at 94 when, S. Fernando was out for 6, then the next wicket to fall with two more runs coming in that was K. Ekanayake who was out for a duck. At this point Trinitians were struggling to put a good score thanks to the efforts of their skipper Kelum Edirisinghe who came in Number six was joined by number nine bat Vimindra Sangakkara, and both of them took the score to a respectable 152, these two went on score 52 runs.

Kelum Edirisnghe using his feet well, had the entire attack at his mercy, many bounders came off his bat, he laced the lose once and made his half century with seven well timed hits to the ropes. He was cleaned bowled by N. Rajan, with the score board reading 152. Next to go was Vimindra Sangakara, he was out for 18, at 164.

The last man, Dinushan Munasinghe drove and pulled the Royal bowling to score 27 valuable runs, which took the Trinity total to 198 for the loss of ten wickets in 290 minutes, which came in 76.2 overs.

For Royal paceman H. Ariyarthne was the man who bowled to a line and length to hold the Trinitians. He bowled 21 over’s in whcih nine were maidens and gave away 44 runs to claim four wickets. K. Hearth took 3 for 29.

Royal College coming in for the second time, made 139 for the loss of 4 wickets, in 51 over’s and 205 minutes. Royal started their second turn at 2 pm, and took tea with the score 52 for 1. This time the first to go was Tharaka Subasinghe, was out for a duck, D. Karunarthne who was out for duck in the first innings batted well to score 18 runs, which had three boundaries and Dinesh Darmarathne who made 52 runs in the first innings batted well to knock an unbeaten 76. Darmarthne had some superb hits right round the field in his classic knock of 76 which had ten good hits to the fence. The other not out bat was K. Markar who was 17. Skipper Kelum Edrisinghe and K. Ekanayake took two wickets each.