HOW THE ‘86 TRINITY CRICKETERS ENDED A 35-YEAR WAIT
No one would have given the slightest chance to the Trinity cricket team of 1986, led by Thushara Weerasuriya, to beat their traditional rivals St. Anthony’s College Katugastota in their annual big match that year.
St. Anthony’s, captained by Rienzie Perera, in fact went into that encounter as favourites, but after chasing a 150plus run target Trinity won the match by seven wickets ending their wait since 1951 for a big match victory.
Trinity just about scrapped together an unbeaten season, registering seven first innings wins, almost losing to Ananda College before the school from Colombo ran out of time.
A majority of the ‘86 squad had toured England together with the schools’ Under 15 team, which ensured they were one unit that clicked well. In the end, the big match win was the icing on the cake as they ended a 35-year wait, before they doubled up on that achievement beating St. Anthony’s in the limited over encounter as well.
The Antonian camp says their skipper had thrown the game wide open, but the Trinitians claim it was more a case of underestimation after a low first innings score. Whatever the reason, the final outcome was a win for the Trinitians.
St. Anthony’s scored 126 in their first innings with Nimalka Perera and Suresh Peries both scoring 24 and Damian Nadaraja contributing 23. Both of Trinity’s spinners Selvaratnam Ratnakumar and Channa Fernando produced great spells of bowling – the former ended with figures 5 for 33 in 23.4 overs, 10 of them maidens, while Fernando took 3 for 41 in 22 overs also inclusive of 10 maidens.
In fact Ratnakumar was unplayable and had a grand outing with his rightarm off spinners a treat to watch. The Trinitian joy was short lived however.
They were shot out for 98 runs, a deficit of 28 runs. That too was thanks to a brisk 38 by former Sri Lanka Under
Looking back at the season, it was a super one, given no opposition team player scored a century against us, as I recall and I believe, other than in the Big match, no opposition scored more than us, such was our bowling side
19 cricketer Chaminda Unantenne and 21 from Mevan Balalle, propping up a pathetic batting performances from the rest. Antonian skipper Perera took 6 for 36.
In the second essay the Antonians scored briskly to put up a score and set themselves up to record an outright win against their opponents whom they may have considered to be a weaker outfit.
They declared at 160 for 7 leaving Trinity a target of 190 runs in 90 minutes and 20 mandatory overs to get them in. Suresh Peries (40) and A. Senenviratne (47) batted beautifully for the Antonian outfit. It was once again the Trinity spin combination of Ratnakumar and Fernando who starred with the ball, taking three wickets a piece, ending the game with 14 wickets between them.
Balalle scored a brilliant 81 while
Premasinghe with a stylish-as-usual innings of 38 took Trinity through with nearly seven overs to spare. Unantanne made a brisk 29 and Romesh Jayawardane made 10 including the winning run to secure the win for Trinity.
Credit for the win should be given to the Trinity spinners Ratnakumar and Fernando, along with the superb 95-runs opening-stand between Premasinghe and Balalle, scored in 100 minutes, which was also a highlight.
A week later they beat the Antonians in their limited over encounter at the Asgiriya International Stadium. For the hard work put in skipper Weerasuriya, Balalle and Denham Madena were awarded “Lion” while the rest received Colours. To everyone’s surprise Ratnakumar who was the highest wicket taker in the 1984 and 1986 seasons playing four years of 1st XI cricket had to be satisfied with Colours in his final year for his hardwork. Former Royal skipper, Shaw Wilson coached the outfit with the hard working Upali Nanayakkara being the Master-inCharge for Cricket.
Madena, Unantenne and Balalle represented the Sri Lanka Under 19 that toured England. The following year, Madena led the national outfit against the touring England team led by Michael Atherton.
The Trinity skipper of 1986, speaking to Daily Mirror said “We had our coaching camp leading to the Big match at Asgiriya Stadium under the watchful eyes of our Head Coach Shaw Wilson. Shaw came up to us and told ‘we are going to win, I have a premonition we will be victorious tomorrow evening’ and from that point onwards, for the next two days, every step was to go forward, not one step backwards.”
“Looking back at the season, it was a super one, given no opposition team player scored a century against us, as I recall and I believe, other than in the Big match, no opposition scored more than us, such was our bowling side.”
“At the end of St. Anthony’s first innings, we went in to bat after the tea break. My message to the team was ‘let’s get their score of 126 in one session’. With our aggression, end of day the score stood at 79 for 7 wickets. I wanted to declare our innings overnight, given that I knew our batting was superlative, and much better than the meagre 79 runs. And also knowing we had the bowling strength, having the confidence, if there was a fourth innings we have the depth and would be much better on a run-chase. Next day we battered for an hour, and finished the innings at 97. The Antonians were soon in trouble in their second essay at 3 wickets down for 12. They set us a target of 16 runs in 33 overs,” Weerasuriya recalled.
Speaking further, Weerasuriya said, “Our opening pair of Premasinghe and Balalle batted beautifully. Balalle scored 81 while Premasinghe’s 40 plus runs helped us put on 100-plus for the first wicket which had the Antonians under pressure. They started thinking negative and bowling on the leg side which did not help them either as our openers batted with lot of authority. It was a proud moment to all of us, each member of the squad who gave heart and soul during the season, including our coach, our mentor Shaw Wilson, who installed discipline and confidence directing us towards this victory.