‘Hill Country Battle of the Blues’ on Friday

The serene landscape of Kandy will pulsate with the excitement of big match fever as Trinity College clashes with local rivals, St. Anthony’s College, in the 105th Hill Country Battle of the Blues powered by Dialog Axiata PLC, endeavouring to empower champions of tomorrow, on March 15th and 16th  at the Trinity College Cricket Stadium in Asgiriya.

As the primary sponsor, Dialog Axiata has made provisions to broadcast the Big Match and Limited Overs match LIVE on Dialog Television – ThePapare TV HD (Channel Number 126), as well as a livestream on ThePapare.com and the Dialog ViU App.

In this year’s two-day battle for the John Halangoda Memorial Trophy, a tradition since its inception in 1914, Trinity College will be captained by Manula Kularatne, while St. Anthony’s College will be led by Thisara Ekanayake.

With 104 games behind them, Trinity boasts 23 victories, while the Antonians have clinched 11, with 70 matches ending indecisively. The Antonians’ last outright victory dates back to 1992 under Umesh de Alwis while Trinity’s latest triumph occurred in 2012 led by Niroshan Dickwella. Trinity College, Kandy currently holds the trophy, securing it with a first-innings win in 2023 by restricting the Antonians to 110 before scoring 221 in their rain-shortened encounter.

Following this, the 42nd Limited Overs Encounter will take place on 23rd March, with the winner earning the Sir Richard Aluwihare Trophy. Trinity currently leads the one-day encounter with 19 victories against St. Anthony’s 17, with four matches, including the 41st limited-over match, concluding with no result and one game ending in a tie.

Both schools have produced a number of national cricketers, including Kumar Sangakkara, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Sachith Pathirana, Niroshan Dickwella, Lahiru Kumara, and Matheesha Pathirana from Trinity, and Muttiah Muralidaran, Ruwan Kalpage, and Piyal Wijetunga from St. Anthony’s.