On the 15th and 16th of February 2023, the most awaited 130th encounter between Trinity College Kandy and Royal College Colombo was held at Reid Avenue. The Trinitians were put into bat by the Royalists, which then Trinity did give a strong reply to. With an amazing century scored by the stylish opener Kusal Wijethunga supported by Jayavi Liyanagama’s 61 and captain Rahal Amarasinghe’s 48, Trinity scored a challenging total of 300 on Day 1.
Royal’s openers started off well by going into stumps on day 1 on being 50 for no loss, but what happened thereafter turned out to be nightmare on day 2 for the Royalists. Trinity’s left arm spinner Dinuka Tennakoon rattled through the Royal line-up with incredible figures of 7 for 15 with the support of Tharana Wimaladarama’s 2 for 49, managed to get the Royalists all out for 108. With a lead of 192, the Trinitians forced the follow-on on the Royalists in sight of an outright win.
In the end Trinity managed to get the Royalists all out in their second inning for 130 with Dinuka Tennakoon once again leading the attack with another five-wicket haul. Which he ended up with a match bag of 12 wickets.
Trinity won the match by an inning and 62 runs which for the first time in history, did Trinity beat Royal College at Reid Avenue!
Review by Yeshan Ranatunga
