Trinity hold slight edge over Antonians

By Shamseer Jaleel

The 101st Battle of the Blues between Trinity College and St. Anthony’s College will unfold today (16) at the Asigiriya International Stadium in Kandy. 

Two days of exciting cricket can be expected today and tomorrow from these two leading Kandy schools with hardly anything between the two sides. 

This encounter is played for the John Halangoda Trophy. Known as the Battle of the Blues it is the second oldest big match in the Central Hills started in 1914 March. Trinity leads the series with 23 wins to the 12 by St. Anthony’s with 65 games ending in draws. The last Antonian victory came in 1992 while Trinity win came in 2012 under Niroshan Dickwella.

Both schools have produced some outstanding cricketers who went on to represent the country. A few of them representing the Katugastota lads were A.C.M. Lafir, Mahesh Gunathilake, late Bernard Perera, Ruwan Kalpage, Muttiah Muralithararnan, Marlon Von Heart and Piyal Wijetunge. 

Trinitians who come in to play for the national outfit are Nilantha Ratnayake, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Ravi Ratnayake, Lahiru Kumara, Niroshan Dickwella, Sachith Pathirana, Hasitha Boyagoda and Kumar Sangakkara.

Best bowling by Sudanga Fernando (Trinity) 10 for 38 in 1997 still stands as a record taking all wickets in an innings. Batting record of 176 by A.C.M. Lafir (St. Anthony’s) is untouched to date with his classy drives all over the park.

Trinity is led by national youth player, Hasitha Boyagoda who toured with the Under 19 national side for the ICC Youth World Cup in New Zealand. He scored a cracking unbeaten ton to see Sri Lanka win the Plate trophy in Kiwi land. Hasitha who played only a few matches this season ended up in scoring two fine centuries. He will have another Sri Lankan youth cap in his outfit that is pacer Thisuru Dilshan. With the new ball he will be dangerous. 

They also have three top batsmen who did well this season. They are Hasintha Jayasuriya, Trevon Percival and Pubudu Bandara. In the bowling department are two spinners Vimukthi Nethumal (84) and Avishka Senadeera (54) destroyed many top sides this season. So far Hasintha Jayasuirya (945), Pubudu Bandara (830) and Trevon (715) are among the runs.

Trinity have registered six victories and drawn nine matches. Their victories were against St. Servatius College, Matara, Bandaranaike Vidyalaya Gampaha, St. Benedict’s College, Moratu Vidayalaya, Wesley College and St Aloysius.

Antonian leadership has fallen on the shoulders of Janidu Himsara who is one of the finest all-rounders in school cricket. He is not only a fine attacking batsman, but also a good bowler.  

This season they have done well to record nine outright wins playing against Wesley, Kingswood, Taxila MV, St. Anne’s, Royal Panadura, Zahira, Kalutura Vidyalaya, Dharmaraja and Revata. Their image was tarnished when the Peterites outclassed them in a low scoring game at Katugastota. 

Janidu Himsara is a fourth year, right-hand bat and bowls right arm off spin, his special being the century against Joes and a five-wicket haul against St. Anne’s. Thekshana Gunasinghe (790) is a fourth year player, the stumper, left hand bat has scored brilliant century against the Rajans while Sunera Jayasinghe (650) a fourth year, right handed too scored a century this season. 

Stouter being an asset to the Katugastota lads with Navodya Wijayakumara (700) and 56 wickets, Sathish Wickramaarachchi a talented all-rounder bats right hand, Sathis Wickramarachchi an all-rounder, Mohamed Kamil a second year player, Gihan Achintha a top all-rounder, Thamashan Abeyakoon right hand bat and a right arm off spinner, Sasith Hirudika a right hand bat and right arm medium pace bowler, Nimnaka Jayathileke a right arm spinner has taken 90 wickets, Kalhara Seneviratne right arm off spinners (56), Gihan Ebert right hand bat, Mohamed Rukshan left hand bat, Asitha Wanninayake an all-rounder, Chamika Samarasinghe right hand pace bowler, Pramudith Panditharatne right arm pace bowler, Gayan Samarasinghe right arm spinner, Kevin Dhananjana a right arm of spinner.

Trinity is coached by one of their old boys, Kavinda Jayasuriya. He represented Trinity (2008-2011) winning his colours in cricket. In his last year he scored 700 plus runs for his alma mater along with national player Niroshan Dickwella and Kithmal Wimalaweera. Kavinda is a Level II qualified cricket coach.

Sampath Perera is the Head Coach of the Antonians outfit. He played for D.S. Senanayake and later on represented Bloomfield, Moors and BRC. He is a Level III qualified coach. His school coaching success was witnessed when he was at Trinity for more than seven years with lot of success. After this season he will leave to take over coaching the Malaysian National Cricket Team.

Trinity: Hasitha Boyagoda (Captain), Trevon Percival, Rashmika Dilshan, Hasintha Jayasuriya, Vimukthi Nethumal, Pubudu Bandara, Avishka Senadheera, Kavishka Senadheera, Ruvin Pieris, Ashan Lokuketiya, Abishek Anandakumar, Chanuka Kumarasinghe, Himanga Suriyampola, Narendranath Ashok Kumar, Uvindu Imaldana, Jeff Weerasinghe.

Coach: Kavinda Jayasuriya; Master-in-Charge: Dhammika Kulasuriya

St. Anthony’s: Janidu Himsara (Captain), Theeksha Gunasinghe, Sunera Jayasinghe, Dion Stouter, Mohamed Absar, Jamashana Abeykoon, Navodya Vijaykumar, Kalhara Senaratne, Gihan Achintha, Sateesh Wickremaarachchi, Nimnaka Jayatilleka, Sasith Himdika, Mohamed Kameel, Gayan Samarasinghe, Savin Weerasinghe, Pramuditha Panditharatne