The question ahead of the Hill capital’s 104th ‘Battle of the Maroons’, the oldest big match in the hills is, will Dharmaraja College end the stalemate of 29 draws or will Kingswood College provide stiff resistance to hold back the pressure from their opponents when they play for the T. B. Tennakoon Trophy, at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy this Friday and Saturday (March 5 and 6), with play set to commence at 9.45 am, on the first day and at 9.30 am on the second day.

Going by the performance this season, The Rajans certainly do have the edge over their rivals since the former has performed well thus far, but the same cannot be said in respect of the performance of the latter.

According to the history books of these two schools, cricket has taken pride of place and their first meeting goes down the lane to 1893, with the inaugural match at the Bogambara Stadium. Those were the days when the team included staff members. It was none other than Don Baron Jayathilake, who was later knighted, who led the lads of the Lake View school, while a staff member at Kingswood, Earl Spenser, guided the boys from Randle Hills. It was in the year 1899 that the first all schoolboys match was played with J. C. De Mel and T. B. Marshall captaining Dharmaraja and Kingswood.

Opening the record books, it indicates that Dharmaraja College leads the series with 31 wins against 19 by Kingswood College with 53 matches ending in draws. Irrespective of the result, this encounter has continued to generate interest among all quarters for over a century. The Rajans registered their last win in 1980 under Janaka Mendis at Police grounds, but the Kingswoodians have a 51-year-old hoodoo to break, since it was in 1958 that they last won under Maurice Fernando. Yet, the two schools have a 28 year stalemate to break.

In the year 1907, the Rajans recorded their first win in the series by a run and moved on to the following year loosing all their men for a mere nine runs. Forty nine years after the inaugural match, there appeared the first centurions, P. L. Arthur for Kingswood and T. B. Talwatta for the Rajans. What is interesting here is that Talwatta was hit on the head by a ball at 90 and was rushed to the hospital and on his return to the field he scored his century.

The following year, Clifford Ratnavibushana set a record by scroing 167 runs for Kingswood, which is yet to be surpassed.

As one peeps into the 60th decade, yet another momentous incident took place in 1960, where the match ended with the scores tied and the Principal of Kingswood, Kenneth De Lenerolle decided to present the trophy to the Rajans for a moderately enhanced feat by the Rajans in the match.

In 1967, Tissa Jayathilake, the Kingswood captain, having made 89 runs, retired paving the way for his teammates to take their turn on the pitch and this incident is a yet another memorable part of history.

The present cricket coach of Dharmaraja College, Senaka Dissanayake holds the record for the highest individual score (a double hundred), which is yet to be matched or broken and this occurred at Asgiriya in 1983. The Rajans posted 370 for 4 with Prasanna Walallawala scoring an unbeaten century. In 1995, Senaka’s brother made 100 not out, exhibiting the cricketing vigour in the family.

This series also incorporates some interesting incidents. The duo of Priyantha Wickramasuriya

of Kingswood who is also the present Kingswood College coach and Ajith Narampanawa of Dhrmaraja, in 1976, both scored a century for their teams and in the following year, they repeated this feat.

These two re-emerged for their respective teams at Asgiriya for the third successive year and Priyantha Wickramasuriya made 56 while Ajith Narampanawa made 55.

The most recent centurions appeared in the 80th decade with Dananjaya Navaratne in 1980 and Chanaka Kulathunga in 1987 who stood out for the Rajans while scoring two fine centuries, while Ramzan Sariffodeen with 115 in 1981 and Mangala Dharmaprema in the year 1984, with an unbeaten 120, excelled for Kingswood.

Dharmaraja College, led by allrounder Ramesh Yapa Bandara have performed well this season. They have played 15 matches, won 2, lost 1 and drawn the rest. Their wins were over Sri Sumangala Vidyalaya, Panadura and Maliyadewa College and in addition to this, they have secured several first innings wins. Their only loss was to Ananda College, Colombo, following an inept batting performance in the second innings. The Anandians won with just nine balls to spare.

Their batting will revolve around skipper Ramesh Yapa Bandara (600 runs), vice captain Rahula Ekanayake (660 runs including 2 centuries), Sanjay Kalubowila 450 runs), Sandun Weerakoddy (500 runs), Sanjay Kalubowila (450 runs), Prathap Silva (350 runs), Hemal Munaweera (275 runs), Kavinda Wijekoon (350 runs) and Lahiru Herath (325 runs).

Nuwan Karunartne (23 wickets) and Hemal Munaweera (30 wickets), will open the bowling and will have the support of Tharaka Silva (25 wickets), Lahiru Herath (20 wickets) and Tilina Ranasinghe. But it is the spinners who will hold the key for a Rajan victory in this match. Left arm spinner and skipper Ramesh Yapa Bandara has captured 40 wickets, off spinner Rahula Ekanyake (35 wickets) and Pratap Silva (35 wickets). For additional spin they have Chaminda Abeyratne and Sasanka Nakkawita.

The team is coached by old Rajan Ananda Wijesekera, who has had stint of cricket coaching in Malaysia. M. Senaviratne is the Master-in-Charge. Sarath Matharaarachchi is the Perfect-of-Games.

The Kingswoodians will be led by Udara Hettige, a good allrounder who has not performed to his true potential due to injuries and he often had to take the field not fit to bowl. Adding to their woes in the fact that some of the key players had not performed well due to poor form and this had a disastrous effect on the overall performance of the team.

The Kingswoodians have played 14 matches, won 0, lost 4 and drawn 14. A noticeable fact is that during the third term, they did reasonably well, but the first term saw them lose four matches, three of them on the trot.

For runs they will rely on skipper Udara Hettige (450 runs), vice captain Lahiru Gannoruwa (200 runs), Imesh Rabel (480 runs) Lakshitha Madhusanka (375 runs), Yasinda Athukorale (350 runs), Mahesh Dunukara (250 runs), Chamila Gunasekera (180 runs) and Hasitha Dharmaprema (150 runs).

Lahiru Gannoruwa (20 wickets) and skipper Udara Hettige (19 wickets), will open the bowling with Rashminda Sandaruwan and Madhushan Premawardena providing the additional pace. Off spinner Lakshitha Madhushan has been the most successful bowler with 35 wickets and Chamila Gunasekera has taken 25 wickets. The other spinners in the side are leg spinner Subodha Premaratne and off spinner Dasitha Kangararachchi.

The team is coached by old Antonian Suresh Peiris, with Sunil Herath as Master-in-Charge and Ananda Weerasuriya, Perfect-of-Games.

Dharmaraja College: Ramesh Yapa Bandara (captain), Rahula Ekanayake (vice captain), Pratap Silva, Tharaka Silva, Hemal Munaweera, Sandun Weerakkody, Sanjay Kalubowila, Kavinda Wijekoon, Nuwan Karunaratne, Lahiru Herath, Sasanka Nakkawita, Tilina Ranasinghe, Sasith Gunasekera, Chandima Abeyratne, L. S. Weeraratne, Nilpul Rajapakse, K. T. D. Jayasinghe, Viraj Karaputugala and Arosha Jayatillake.