What a victory – a once in a lifetime moment!
While hangovers of many who witnessed the great Nalandian victory two weeks ago may be still lingering in their heads, I thought of penning down my recollections of this comprehensive win. This was a rare chance of seeing Nalanda winning the big match after 69 years. It was the nine-decade old tradition of the Battle of Maroons, that the match between two leading educational institutions, Ananda and Nalanda, should be played with spectator participation.
This year due to circumstances beyond the control of the school authorities, participation was limited to a few. This year’s big match was played without crowd participation and only a limited number was restricting it to officials, school children and parents of team members and the teachers. Yet, few cricket loving old boys could not be kept away, they rushed to Maitland Place when the Anandians lost early wickets in their second innings sensing a great Nalandian victory.
Nalanda batters did their job well by scoring 289 runs with Chanul Athukorale scoring a magnificent 88 which included 10 hits under the ropes and three over it. Ananda batters scored 69 runs losing five scalps at the end of first day’s play. Ananda, resuming their innings the next day, lost wickets at regular intervals to muster only 139 runs with all their batsmen back in the pavilion. Ananda batting on for the second time too were losing wickets regularly and when their fifth wicket fell, few die hard cricket fanatic old Nalandians started flocking to SSC.
Nalanda captain Dineth Samaraweera’s meticulous field setting and bowling changes made the Anandians struggle and they finally folded up for 180. The two Sri Lanka Under-19 bowling stars Raveen de Silva and Vinuja Ranpul completely outclassed the Anandian batting outfit. What finally needed to re-write the history of the Battle of Maroons was just 31 runs. When Raveen de Silva stepped out to execute a stylish drive on the offside towards the extra cover boundary, it became Nalanda’s glorious moment of cricket at the encounters of the Battle of Maroons during the last 69 years. Nalanda recorded their seventh victory in the series of 92 encounters.
It was beyond our wildest expectations that Nalanda would ever win a big match in our lifetime. Nalanda had to wait for almost seven decades to register a win against their traditional rivals at the Big Match. This long wait for a win could probably be a record in a school’s big match series, not only in Sri Lanka but in the world too. The last Nalandian victory was recorded in 1953 under the stewardship of Nalanda captain W.W. Silva. This interesting match had been a last ball finish with ‘Soysa’ the last man in supported by the loud cheer ‘Ara Soysa Aro’ echoing also the Henry Newbolt’s poem ‘play up, play up play the game’ smashed one to the ropes to record the last Nalandian victory of the 20th century. The students who had witnessed the last Nalandian victory are now octogenarians including my uncle, the legendary ‘Colvin Karunaratne’.
It was noticeable during most of the past encounters, both sides were playing defensive cricket which resulted in many ending in unimpressive draws. The last few years Nalanda was playing some positive cricket, and they came close to winning the match, the previous encounter played in 2020 was a classic example of Nalanda losing its grip towards the latter part of the match. The most unforgettable match where Nalanda would have recorded a victory was in 1973, exactly 20 years after their last win. Nalanda’s star-studded side, ably led by Dhammika Samrawickrama and deputised by Nalin Jayasinghe, was able to get Ananda reeling at 15 runs for five wickets in their second innings at around 2.00pm with four hours of complete play left.
The Nalandian pace duo Palitha Amarasekra and Wasantha Chandrasekera shared the wickets among them, and the best of the Ananda batters were back in the pavilion. It was Nalanda’s best chance of winning the Battle of Maroons but rain gods had other ideas, rains came pouring down to the Colombo Oval but not for long. The heavy shower lasted only for 30-40 minutes, when rain ceased to everyone’s surprise umpires found the wicket was completely damaged by the spectators who had intervened in the playing area, which resulted in umpires calling it a day by abandoning the match, thus depriving Nalanda of a much deserving win.
Although there was no fun and frolic this time at the SSC, entertainment was at the barest minimum with lack of background music in the form of ‘papare bands’, yet the grounds and the ambience created was well suited for a big match. Congratulations should go to the joint organising committee, co-chaired by Bimal Wijayasinghe representing Ananda and Varuna Ratnaweera representing Nalanda and the two Principals Lal Disanayake and Thilak Wattuhewa for taking a big risk to play this match under the current atmosphere in the country after it being postponed twice this year.
This is a victory that we will not forget for a long time. It was a dream come true for many disappointed Nalandians who have watched the big match in the past so many years. They had virtually given up hope of witnessing a Nalanda win in their lifetime. Nalanda dominated all six sessions of the match, it was like a one-sided game. The winners should be thankful that they had two complete days of play without a single disturbance, with zero spectator intervention. This can be a lesson learnt by the organisers, for the big matches in the future. Let all of us have fun to the maximum but all must make sure that nobody other than the players, reserves and the umpires should be allowed inside the playing area in the matches to come.
Congratulations the Nalanda ream of 2022! You relieved us, you made us proud, you made our dreams come true. A big thank you to the captain, Dineth Samaraweera and the boys and the coaching staff headed by ex-Nalandian cricketer Malinga Surappulige. I sincerely hope at least half of this winning side will don the national cap in the very near future.