(Reviewed by Rehan Anandakumar, Prawana Dissanayake, Krishiv Ekhaash)
The 104th cricket encounter between TCK and St. Anthony’s College Katugastota: “Battle of the Blues” became the most looked forward to event for both schools, on the 15th and 16th of March 2024. Played at the Asgiriya Cricket Stadium, a historically renowned venue in the Hill Capital of our Island, the annual event comes alive with much hype and glory.
A fully electrified atmosphere charged with the customary ‘papare’ beat and live music brought out the support of the student strength of the schools.
Day one kicked off with Trinity winning the toss and opting to field. After an early breakthrough in the first over by Manula Kularathne, the excitement went quiet in terms of wickets. By the efforts of the captain, Thisara Ekanayake (63 runs) and Janith Rathnasiri (59 runs), The Eagles were able to end the day with a score of 232 for the loss of 9 wickets.
Day two commenced with Anthonians being bundled out for 249 runs within the first hour, resulting in Trinity facing the new ball in swinging conditions in the morning. Despite the loss of two early wickets, Trinitians were able to build up a good partnership of 100 runs. With Viduka Dhammage scoring 70 runs, Trinity was halfway through the game. But due to the constant pressure built up by the Antonian bowlers, Trinity found themselves in a tough position. As the game stepped into the last hour, Trinity was left with only 2 wickets, still being a few runs short of 250 runs.
With only 10 overs left to go, captain Manula Kularathne, who had been holding the fort for over 4 hours, got out, leaving TCK with only one last wicket. The last few overs were suspenseful, with all the fielders creeping in on the batsman, waiting for him to make a mistake. But the last pair was able to keep calm and batted out the remaining overs, hence, after a strong fight between both the teams the match was drawn, securing the trophy to Trinity College Kandy once more.
We thank both the teams, coaches, umpires and students for their relentless support in making this year’s match a memorable one.
TCK acknowledges the unstinted training and support rendered by the Head Coach Mr.Naveen Ekanayake, Assistant Coach Mr.Lakshitha Alahakoon and the MICs Mr. Brian Senarathne and Mr. Bandula Pushpakumara.
We wish the team good luck for the upcoming year.
Day 01
Day 02
