Dharmaraja–Kingswood Cricket Encounter

Dharmaraja-Kingswood Cricket Encounter
Sport	Cricket
Timeline	1893 – present
Tournament format	Annual two-day test match encounter
Participants	Dharmaraja College Kingswood College
Current champion	Dharmaraja College (2011)
Most successful	Dharmaraja College 32 Kingswood College 19 Drawn 54

The Dharmaraja–Kingswood Cricket Encounter is a cricket match between Dharmaraja College, Kandy (a government-run national school accommodates approximately 4500 students) and Kingswood College, Kandy (another government-run national school accommodates approximately 2500 students). It is the longest cricket match series in the central province, Sri Lanka, having been played for 105 years.^[1] It is also known as the "Battle of the Maroons" in public. The first match was played in 1893, with Dharmaraja College team captained by the great educationist, later Sir Don Baron Jayathilake, who was the principal of Dharmaraja at that time. Kingswood team was captained by A.E. Spencer. It was played at the Bogambara Stadium, Kandy which is no longer a cricket venue. But that match and some others followed were not all schoolboy matches as they included a few members of the staff of each school. The first all schoolboy Big Match was played in 1899 with J.C. de Mel captaining Dharmaraja and T.B. Marshall leading the Kingswood. It was played at the Asgiriya international Cricket stadium until 2010, but starting from 2011, it is played at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

Award

This match is played for the prestigious T.B. Tennakoon Memorial Trophy.

Series Summary

Up to 2011, 106 cricket matches have been played. Out of the outings so far, Rajans lead the tally with 32 wins against 19 by Kingswood while 54 matches ending in a draw.^[2] It is notable that all matches starting from 1981 to 2011 have ended in a draw. The last time a decision was possible during the series, before 2011, was in 1980, when Rajans defeated Kingswoodians by nine wickets under the captaincy of Janaka Mendis.^[3] Last time Kingswood won a match in this series was way back in 1957 under Maurice Fernando.

Dharmaraja College registered a historic seven wicket win under the captaincy of Hemal Munaweera over Kingswood College on 26th of March 2011 at the Pallekale Cricket International stadium in Kandy, ending 30 years of indecision in the long history of Battle of maroons encounters.

Highlights

Dharmaraja-Kingswood 104th encounter at Asgiriya Stadium

• 1899 - First Kingswood vs Dharmaraja match only for schoolboys was played on July 1. Kingswood was captained by T. B. Marshall.^[4]

• 1914 - A. Jayasundera captured 8 wickets for 9 runs as Dharmaraja beat Kingswood by an innings and 17 runs.

• 1916 - R. Burke 8 wickets for 7 runs as Kingswood beat Dharmaraja by an innings and 24 runs.

• 1918 - Dharmaraja were shot out for 9 (nine) runs by Kingswood, which to date is the lowest score in an inning in any inter-school match. Similarly Royal had been dismissed for exactly the same score (9 runs) in a Royal-Thomian encounter.

• 1943 - First century in the series - The distinction of scoring the first century in the series goes to R. L. Arthur Alwis of Dharmaraja College. It is interesting to note that the Rajan's skipper, T. B. Talwatte, was deprived of this honour as he was injured by the Kingswood pace bowler, M. T. Jaimon and Talwatte had to leave the field temporarily during which time Arthur completed his century. Later Talwatte too completed his century. M. T. Jaimon took 5 wickets for ninety (90) runs for Kingswood. The match was won by the Rajans by an innings and 152 runs. Late J. P. Jayasena captained Kingswood.

• 1951 - Kingswood led by left-hander Shelton R. S. Perera, scored an exciting win over Dharmaraja, having had to score ten runs in six balls and one run in two balls, which they did with a ball to spare. Winning stroke was hit by the captain himself.

• 1952 - Chandra de Silva scored 158 for Dharmaraja in this match, played at Randles Hill. Asoka Perera scored 148 for Kingswood. The match ended in a draw. de Silva's 158 was the highest individual score in the series up to that date.

• 1956 - The highlight of the drawn encounter was the bowling feat of M. Nizar of Kingswood who took 6 (six) wickets for 48 runs.

• 1957 - Kingswood amassed 401 for 9 wickets with Maurice Fernando scoring 101 runs. Dharmaraja replied with 269 runs in the first innings.

• 1958 - Kingswood defeated Dharmaraja by 10 wickets and was the last time Kingswood defeated Dharmaraja. In this match Kingwood was captained by C. M. Fernando who was selected 'the School Boy Cricketer of the Year'. Dharmaraja was captained by D. D. T. Alwis. The Kingswood opening pair, considered the best among schools, was Maurice Fernando and Herly Jayasuriya. They put on an unbroken stand of 102 runs in the second innings enabling Kingswood to win. Herly scored a brisk 50 while Maurice scored 43 runs.

• 1959 - C. Ratnavibushana scored 167 for Kingswood which erased the earlier record of 158 the highest individual score.

• 1960 - The match ended in a tie but Kingswood's Principal, K. M. de Lanerolle, awarded the match to Dharmaraja having gone through the score book for better performance.

• 1964 - Match was postponed due to rain and the rescheduled game the Rajans were two runs short of victory when stumps were drawn.

• 1965 - The Jayasundera twins, Ananda and Upananda, played for Dharmaraja. Earlier Kingswood had twins.

• 1967 - Kingswood skipper Tissa Jayathilake batting well with Mohan Kodituwakku, declared the innings still short of 9 runs of a century, which would have earned him the distinction of scoring consecutive centuries having scored an unbeaten 100 in the 1966 match. Another feature in this match was the bowling of left-arm spinner Sena Abeygunaratne, who captured 7 (seven) wickets for 32 runs in the Dharmaraja 1st innings of 143 runs.

• 1976 and 1977 - P. B. Wickremasuriya of Kingswood and Ajith Naranpanawe of Dharmaraja entered the record books by scoring centuries in both years thus becoming the only two players to score centuries in consecutive matches.

• 1981 - Cricket Captain of Dharmaraja College Janaka Mendis registered an out right win over Kingswood College, since then for 30 years there was no decision.

• 1983 - Senaka Dissanayake scored a double century for Dharmaraja, 200 the only double century in the series, stands as the highest individual score for the series.

• 2001 - First one day match played in colour outfits which Dharmaraja won under Anuradha Jayasundara.

• 2011 - First match played in Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and the first school cricket encounter to be played at that stadium. Dharmaraja College win by 7 wickets putting an end to the 30 years of draws starting from 1981.

See also

• Dharmaraja College, Kandy
• Kingswood College, Kandy

References

1. ^ Kingswood-Rajans battle continues - Lankapuwath
2. ^ Kingswood-Rajans Big Match - LankaNewspapers
3. ^ Cricket Encounter - SLCricket
4. ^ Highlights of Kingswood-Dharmaraja series - Dailynews

External links

• Dharmaraja College website
• Kingswood College website
• Dharmaraja College Archives
• Muditha Wijekoon - opening batsman par excellence
• The Kingswood-Dharmaraja match of 1958