130th Trinity-Royal encounter Trinity end hoodoo, beat Royal at Reid Avenue for first time

The Trinity College team  

By M. Shamil Amit

A knock of 103 by opener Kusal Wijetunge and an impressive match bag of 12 for 52 by left arm spinner Dinuka Tennekoon paved the way for Trinity College to record an innings and 62-run win over Royal College in the Under 19 inter-school cricket encounter concluded at Reid Avenue yesterday.

The win meant Trinity recorded an outright win at Reid Avenue for the first time since the two schools began playing each other 130 years ago. 

Trinity’s last win against Royal was in 2015 in Kandy, under the leadership of Raveen Sayer.

The foundation for the win was laid on day one by opener Kusal Wijetunge, who made 103 in 191 balls that included 12 boundaries and a six having also associated in two valuable partnerships of 78 runs for the fourth wicket with Rahal Amarasinghe and 72 for the fifth wicket with Lakwin Abeysinghe. 

That enabled the Trinitians to amass a first innings score of 300 on day one, before Tennekoon returned on day two to dominate the Royal batsmen taking 7 for 15 as the hosts were bowled out for 108 having at been 50 for no loss overnight. 

Royal made to follow on with a deficit of 192 runs to erase found Tennekoon too hot to handle again as they lost their top five wickets with the score on 77, never recover to be skittled out for 130. 

Tennekoon finished with 5 for 37, while Jayavi Liyanagama and Tharana Wimaladharma together shared four wickets between them.

Trinity 300 (Kusal Wijetunge 103, Jayavi Liyanagama 61, Rahal Amarasinghe 48, Lakvin Abeysinghe 21, Tharana Wimaladharma 18: Ovina Ambanpola 3 for 24, Anush Polonowita 2 for 26, Dan Poddawela 2 for 32, Nethwin Dharmaratne 2 for 78)

  Royal (50/0 overnight) 108 (Savindu Seneratharachchi 30, Rehan Perera 17, Geeshan Perera 15: Dinuka Tennekooon 7 for 15, Tharana Wimaladharma 2 for 49) and 130 (Dasis Manchanayake 36, Bulan Weeratunge 15, Ovina Ambanpola 15, Nethwin Dharmaratne 28 n.o.: Dinuka Tennekoon 5 for 37, Jayavi Liyanagama 2 for 24, Tharana Wimaladharma 2)