A keen tussle is expected at the 125th Trinity-Royal cricket match to be played on February 23 and 24 at the Asgiriya Stadium. This season both sides are evenly balanced and an enjoyable game of cricket is expected. In this 125th game, the players on both sides will be determined to showcase their prowess with bat and ball to gain honors. Both sides have a good batting line up. Trinity Principal Andrew Fowler-Watt, Vice Principal former Royal captain J.D. Shaw Wilson, POG Shane de Silva, MIC D.D. Kulatunga and the rest are making elaborate arrangements to host this historic match while Old Trinitians Sports Club too are making arrangements to mark this occasion on a grand scale. Two former captains M.T.M. Zarook of Trinity and Dr. Ranjith de Silva of Royal will be the chief guests. The days program will start with the celebratory breakfast at 9 a.m., where all past captains and players are invited.
These two schools first met at cricket in 1893, and in the first four years Royal won in a row, the first win being under F. Van Rooyen. Trinity’s first win came in 1896 under A. Coswatte which was by 9 wickets,
The 100th encounter too was played at Asgiriya stadium where a grand opening ceremony was organized, and the chief guest was the 1930 Trinity skipper S.A. Odayar, and the two principals were Col. Leonard M de Alwis of Trinity and B. Sooriyarachchi of Royal. In that game Trinity were led by Kelum Edirisinghe and Royal by G. Perera. Royal rattled up 204 for the loss of 6 wickets in 270 minutes off 66 overs. T. Subasinghe scored a half century with eight fours and K. Makar a fluent 48 and D. Dharmaratna was run out for 52 that included three fours. Trinity paceman D. Munasinghe took 3 for 34 in 14 overs. Trinity replied with 198 with skipper Kelum Edirisinghe top scoring with a half century comprising seven fours and U Chandrakumar 38.
Royal going in for the second time scored 139 for the loss of 4 wickets in 51 overs to draw the contest. D. Dharmaratne who made 52 in the first innings batted well to score an unbeaten 76 in the second innings with 10 fours. Skipper Kelum Edirisinghe and K. Ekanayke took 2 wickets each.
At the end of the first day’s play both teams were received by the president Old Trinitians SC H.M. Halimdeen who is no more, Sports Secretary Deva Amunugama and the rest of the OTSC members who were present hosted the two teams to tea at the club.
No comments:
Post a Comment