1987 - 1991 REMINISCING
The 108th Encounter in 1987 was my
first Royal-Thomian Match. I was only a 15 year old boy and the
second youngest player in the team. The youngest was Nigel
Fernando and he was my team mate for the next five years.
My cricketing career started in 1986 when I was
picked as an opening bowler for the College Under 15 team. I still
can remember that I was fast but could not pitch the "Red Hot Iron"
on target as it was heavier than a tennis ball to which I had been
used to.
Later I was selected to play in the "B" team
and a couple of months later I got promoted to the "A" team. With
improvements in accuracy I was recommended to participate in the
First XI cricket practices.
Since then I was a regular player in the Second
XI and was called to play some of the First XI matches occasionally
whenever regular players were not available. The Old Boys' Vs
Present Boys' Match in 1987 gave me the opportunity to play in the
108th Encounter.
C.Jayakody was our Captain and S.K.Jayasinghe
captained S.Thomas'. Both teams were well balanced and both had
equal chances of winning the match. The match was played at the
P.Saravanamuttu Stadium.
Although the match ended in a draw I will never
forget the third day's play. The Thomians had a lead of 78 runs and
at one stage we were 106 for 6 wickets with our skipper walking back
after being ruled out hit wicket. Then Nigel Fernando walked in for
the second time to the crease after a Samarasekara "bouncer" had
injured his jaw earlier in the innings. Coming back from the
Hospital with this severe injury he played a brilliant knock and
along with Prasanna Jayawardena had a partnership of 91 runs for the
seventh wicket to save the match for Royal.
The 109th Encounter was a sad story
for us and we lost the match by an innings and 72 runs. The
highlight was the brilliant bowling by Lashan Egalahewa who had a
match bag of 8 wickets for 47 runs. Anura Fernando led our team and
Anura Bulankulame led S.Thomas'.
The 110th Encounter also ended in a
draw and the highlight was a sporty declaration made by Thomian
Captain Nisal Fernando. Royal side was captained by Nigel
Fernando and Nisal Fernando declared their innings inviting us to
get 164 runs in 45 overs. We could not reach this and the match
ended in a draw.
In 1990 I was appointed as the Captain of the
team and Naresh Adikaram was the Captain of S.Thomas' for the 111'1'
Encounter at SSC Grounds. Both had equally balanced sides and no one
expected a decision in this match. We started bowling first to get
the benefit from early morning moisture on the wicket. Naresh
Adikaram opened the batting with Serasinghe who could not last long
as he became a victim of our initial surprise of opening the bowling
with Kithsiri Udawatte. Naresh Adikaram played a captain's knock and
scored a very good 70 and later Ravi Kumarasinghe contributed a
valuable 34 runs to reach a total of 186. In reply we could score
only 218 runs due to some good bowling by Lalindra Wickremaratne.
Lalindra took 7 wickets for 50 runs and our survival was due to a
valuable partnership between Rohan Iriyagolle and Kathab Markar.
Rohan Iriyagolle scored 43 runs and Kathab Markar scored a match
saving 71.
We had a 32 runs lead and the Thomians started
their second innings during the latter part of the second day and
they were 59 for no loss at close of play. With this good start,
they were in the driving seat. At the end of the day's play our team
looked really upset about the progress and at an official team
discussion with the Coach, Mr Dilip Somaratne, we formulated our
strategy for the final day to get them out for a score of less than
200 runs.
We planned to open the bowling on the third day
with Gamini Perera (leg spinner) and we also decided to keep one end
always with a spinner as we noticed that Naresh Adikaram was not too
good in playing the spin.
On the same night after dinner we had another
discussion and everyone wanted to win this game as they felt the
danger of the Thomians getting a big total on the final day. Our
main target was to get the danger man Naresh Adikaram out as soon as
possible. I took the responsibility of getting him out and Suranga
Lokubalasuriya promised to bowl his heart out and to take at least
three wickets.
On the third day Gamini Perera and myself
started the bowling. During Gamini Perera's first over Naresh
Adikaram gave a stumping chance and was missed by our wicket keeper.
No one said anything about it and anyway to our joy Gamini Perera
got rid of Serasinghe a little later. I bowled the next over and my
deliveries were very quick and those could be the fastest overs that
I bowled during the cricket season. I saw a ball taking the edge of
Naresh Adikaram's bat and then "popping" up after hitting the wicket
keeper's shoulder. I thought that it was another missed chance and I
turned back. Suddenly I heard people cheering and it was a pleasant
surprise to see that Zulki Hamid had taken the catch. The danger man
was gone and the scoreboard read 63 for 2 wickets. We were excited
with the fall of this wicket and thereafter the team mates were
really running on the field, stopping runs, cheering and encouraging
each other for their good work.
When the scoreboard read 80 for 3 wickets
Lokubalasuriya took charge of the situation. He bowled so accurately
to have the Thomian batsmen bewildered. At lunch the scoreboard read
98 for 8 wickets. Shortly after lunch we got them out for the same
score with Lokubalasuriya taking 5 wickets for 26 runs. I took 3
wickets for 14 runs.
We had to score only 67 runs to win the match
and we did it sacrificing only one wicket off 17 overs. Although the
Thomians lost their last 7 wickets for 8 runs we proved that the
track was a good one to bat.
It was a right Royal victory!
Next year I played under Rohan Iriyagolle. The
Thomian Captain was Lalindra Wickramaratne. This year too we won the
match by 9 wickets. Nigel went on to score a century and Zulki Hamid
had 8 victims in this match.
I am happy to note that the Royal-Thomian
Cricket Match had been played in an atmosphere of friendly rivalry.
The five years I played for Royal were
memorable years. In fact the bond we built with the Thomian
counterparts are continuing even up to now.
In this spirit all of us are looking forward to
the historic 125th Encounter in 2004.
