99th Hill Country battle; Can St. Anthony’s spoil a Trinity victory?

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‘March Madness’ will finally make its entrance to the hill capital this weekend with arch-rivals Trinity College and St. Anthony’s College going head to head in the 99th edition of the hill-country Battle of the Blues at the Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium on the 15th and 16th of March 2016.

The hill country encounter dates back to 1915 when the two schools first played each other and since then the encounter has been in existence continuously. The 2016 game will be the 99th meeting of the two schools, as the game did not take place in two years. Trinity holds the trump card in the overall tally, winning 23 of the encounters while St. Anthony’s have only 12 wins throughout the series. 64 of the encounters were drawn.

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The last time Trinity won was in 2012 under the captaincy of Niroshan Dickwella and the innings and a run win that was registered by Trinity that year was after a long lapse of 50 years. St. Anthony’s last won a game in 1992 under the captaincy of Umesh De Alwis.

It was in 2014 that St. Anthony’s achieved the unforgettable feat to regain the championship. St. Anthony’s led by Nimesh Gunasinghe was able to edge out Trinity at Asgiriya by one run in the first innings. Although this was a 1st innings triumph, the joy of having the silverware at Katugastota after a long lapse of five years was a celebrative achievement. Last year’s encounter was washed off due to rain and gave the Antonians another year to retain the trophy.

It is a difficult task to balance out Trinity and St. Anthony’s on the same plate as the two teams are of two different extremes. Trinity College currently play in the top division while St. Anthony’s still fight their way in Group II.

Trinity have racked up ten outright wins and 4 first innings victories while suffering two 1st innings losses but their biggest disappointment will be their cheap exit in the league quarterfinal, as the defending champions lost out to St. Peters. Reconciling their defeat was their comprehensive innings win against traditional rivals Royal College that came in line with the big match.

 Spirited Trinity seeks vengeance 

On paper, St. Anthony’s don’t have too much to boast but with five outright wins in the division and four wins on first innings, they should be content with their performance. Their losses to Royal College, St. Joseph’s & S. Thomas’ would have knocked them out a bit but an outright win against Royal College Panadura in the pre-quarters will liven their spirits.

 Resilient St. Anthony’s looking to reach new heights 

Trinity possess the batting stronghold

Trinity’s batting lineup might be a tough one for the Antonian bowlers to counter. With three of their top order batsman peaking the 1000 run mark, Trinity cannot ask for a better composition. Opening batsman and deputy skipper Nushan Weerasinghe joined the 1000 run club last week against Maris Stella and will be looking at making it to three figures in this upcoming big match encounter. The last time someone hit a century was way back in 2009 when Shameera Wijesooriya hit the landmark for Trinity College. Nushan who already has three hundreds to his name will most likely look for his fourth.

Trinity’s top run scorer Dilan Jayalath has 1240 runs for himself and supporting him in the middle order is Shanogeeth Shanmuganathan who is 14 runs short of achieving the four figure mark. He is most likely to hit his 1000th run this weekend at Asgiriya. When all of their top three options fail, they have Hasitha Boyagoda who has chipped in with important knocks throughout the season that include a fighting 91 against S. Thomas’.

Captain and Co needs to step up

In return, the Antonians have their skipper Kanishka Ukgalpaya and Theeksha Gunasinghe to rely on. Skipper Ukgalpaya has been their best hope in run scoring. Skipper Kanishka’s fighting stand of 73 against Wesley a fortnight back in the quarterfinals will give him confidence when he faces the Trinity bowling attack.

The other hope for St. Anthony’s will be Theeksha Gunasinghe who has a century and a few half centuries under his name. He scored a century in the Royal encounter that his team lost, showing his fighting capabilities but the rest of the batsmen in the lineup lack the exposure they need to face experience.

Their weak link will be their batting where the Eagles have been restricted below 182 runs on fourteen occasions this season and have stopped at the 200 mark six times.

Kanishka Uggalpaya

The Sayer-Duvindu Combo

One of the biggest fears the Antonian batsmen will have to face is the Sayer-Duvindu bowling combination. Between the two of them, they share a total of 197 wickets where Duvindu is just one wicket short of reaching triple figures. These two have dominated the bowling attack from the beginning of the season and skipper Raveen Sayer delivered when the team needed him the most.

Raveen Sayer

Sayer has with him seven five wicket hauls and Duvindu has picked up five wickets or more on seven different occasions. Countering these two will be the biggest challenge for Ukgalpaya and his team in home conditions. In addition to the two, they have their Under 19 youth player and paceman Lahiru Kumara who be looking to put his international expertise to good use.

Bowling worries for St. Anthony’s 

Left arm pace & spin specialist Sandaruwan Dharmarathne will have to play a lead role in the Anthony’s bowling attack this weekend. Sandaruwan has with him 4 five wicket hauls and accounts to almost 60% of the wickets the team has taken. He alongside Yapa Bandara will need to play the Sayer-Duvindu role for the Antonians if they are to go for a win at the 99th.

Keys to success

Trinity’s keys to success lie on a good aggregate in the first innings with important partnerships coming from the top order. If St. Anthony’s could break the top order apart, there lies a possibility of them getting the upper hand.

Restricting Trinity to a total less than 200 will be key for the Antonians while Trinity will look to keep their opponents below the 150 run mark. In conclusion, Trinity will go out as favorites with Raveen Sayer looking to tick one more off his bucket list in bringing another outright victory to Trinity after a lapse of four years.