- Boys of Randles Hill defy all odds to be victorious after 2017
Kingswood College Kandy taught a lesson on what resilience and ‘never give up’ attitude is all about when they pulled off what was considered an unimaginable task by pundits during the pre-game build up to the 35th Winston Hoole Memorial Trophy Battle of the Maroons Limited Over Encounter against Dharmaraja College yesterday (31) at Pallekele. The lads from Randles Hill pulled off a memorable 10-run victory to lay their hands on silverware after a long wait in the rugby crazy school. Kingswood’s last win in the Limited over series came in 2017. The Rajans have been the dominant force in both one day and the big match during the past few years. In the past decade, Kingswood had won the one day encounter only twice while the Rajans had the most number of wins.
Kingswood College put up a better performance in their one day encounter when they scored 233 on board with the help of deputy skipper, Kavija Gamage who scored a brilliant century (102) only off 124 balls inclusive of 13 boundaries and one huge six. He was in explosive mode hitting all around the park. Once again for Rajans, Manukalpa took four wickets.
Meanwhile Rajans taking lease of the wicket Pulindu Perera stroked an elegant 82 off 88 with 12 boundaries. He was well-supported by Onajith de Silva (33) and Isuru Pannala (62). But in the end fell short by 10 runs.
Coming into this game, Kingswood College were cornered to the wall with zero hopes of winning the encounter because previously in the 117th Battle of the Maroons (BOM) they suffered a heavy defeat by an innings. During that game,
- 20 wickets of Kingswood collapsed on day-2
- Every Kingswood player batted twice
- Rajan Manukalpa of Rajans equalled the all time big match bowling figures
- Rajans recorded their best run-rate in BOM history
- Rajans secured the most number of outright wins by a school In Pallekele
- Most number of wickets fallen in a day In Pallekele
By going through the above stats and trivia anyone could not have predicted that Kingswood would be able to pull this off in grand fashion like they did yesterday (31). The moral of the story to be learnt from Kingswood’s victory against all odds is simple – ‘Never celebrate too early’
(Match scores sent to the Daily Morning Sports by former Trinity College Cricketer M.S. Jaleel)
Brief scores :
Kingswood 233/9 (50 ov) – (Kavija Gamage 124, Nikeshala Nanayakkara 33, Barana Ratnayake 33, Aadil Sheriff 26, Yasath Abeykoon 24, Dakshika Manukalpa 4/38, Sesath Thilakaratne 2/19)
Dharmaraja 223 (48.2 ov) – (Pulindu Perera 82, Isuru Pannala 64, Onajith de Silva 33, Amesh Rupasinghe 3/25, Nenuka Dissanayake 3/27