Battle of the Maroons

Battle of the Maroons - The Legendary Cricketing Encounter Ananda vs Nalanda

History at a Glance

The inaugural cricket encounter between Ananda and Nalanda was played in 1924 and the Captains of Ananda and Nalanda were A.P. Rajakaruna and B.S.Perera respectively.

See: The first ever group photo of the two teams in 1926

 

The match between the two schools was not played in 1943,1944 and 1945 due to the 2nd world war. The Maroons encounter was also not played in 1948, the year in which Sri Lanka gained independence. Because of these incidents some captains of the two schools were deprived of the honour of leading their teams in the Big Match.


Their names are as follows.


Year AnandaNalanda
1942P.J. Ranathunaga G.W.G. Senevirathne
1943B.R. Fernando G.W.G. Senevirathne
1944G.Cumaratunga G.W.G. Senevirathne
1945A. Senevirathne A.N. Piyadasa
1948B. Wickramasinghe S.D. Dayapala

Victories

Throughout the long history of the Battle of the Maroons Ananda has emerged victorious on 12 occasions while Nalanda has recorded victories in 7 encounters.

The Last victory

The last victory in a Maroons Battle was recorded by Ananda at the Big Match in 2003 and for Nalanda the last victory was in 2022 after a lapse of sixty nine years.. These winning teams were led by Duminda Kularathne and Dinethe Samaraweera respectively.

Continuous wins

By winning the Big Match during the years 1937, 1938,1939,1940 and 1941 Ananda established a record for the most consecutive victories in the history of the encounter. The captains who led the Ananda teams to victory during these 5 years were V.R.Perera , M.Sirimanne, J.D.Sugathadasa, G.W.Perera and M.A.Jayasinghe . Nalanda on the other hand has recorded successive wins only during the years 1949 and 1950. The victorious teams for Nalanda were led by M.A.L.Perera (1949) and A.W.Dharamadasa (1950).

Maroons who led Sri Lanka in Tests and one day International cricket.

AnandaNalanda
Sidath Wettamuny
Arjuna Ranathunga Bandula Warnapura
Marvan Atapattu Roshan Mahanama
Dinesh Chandimal Mahela Jayawardene

It's with great pride we remember that Bandula became Sri Lanka's first test captain and Arjuna Ranatunga led the Sri Lanka team to victory at the 1996 cricket World Cup while the Sri Lanka team that became runners up at the 2007 World cup was led by Mahela Jayawardena.

Golden memories of Sri Lanka test cricket

The first half century, first century and the first double century for Sri Lanka were scored by three Anandians whose achievements shall stand unique in the history of Sri Lanka Cricket. They are Arjuna Ranatunga (1982), Sidath Wettimuny (1982) ,and Brendan Kuruppu 201*.

Marvan Athapaththu once held the record for the highest number of doubel centuries by a Sri Lankan, only to be broken by the former Sri Lankan Cricketer Kumar Sangakkara. He is closely followed by Mahela Jayawardena and Thilan Samaraaweera, both of whom have graced the Battle of the Maroons by thire participation.

Mahela Jayawardena holds the current record for the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan in test cricket. He scored mammoth 374 against South Africa at Colombo which is also the forth highest score and the highest by a right hand batsman in the history of test cricket. Mahela shares the record for the highest partnership in a test match 576 which he and Kumar put on during same match.

Mahela also holds record for the second highest number of catches by a player in one day Internationals.

Arjuna Ranatunga is the youngest player yet to debut for Sri Lanka. He made his International debut while being a member of the college under 17 team. He is also the only cricketer to have played in the inaugural match as well as the 100th test for a country.

Dinesh Chandimal is the only player to score twin fifties on his test debut.

Those who represented Sri Lanka in Cricket

AnandaNalanda
D. Weerasinghe B.S. Perera
Sonny Yatawara Stanly Jayasinghe
Anurudha Polonowita Carl Obeysekara
Sarath Wimalaratne Ashly De Silva
Sunil Wettimuny Bandula Warnapura
Sidath Wettimuny Lalith Kaluperuma
Ajith De Silva Jayantha Senaviratne
Arjuna Ranatunga Anura Ranainghe
Brendon Kuruppu Sunil Jayasinghe
Marvan Attapattu Susantha Karunaratne
Sanjeewa Ranatunga Hemantha Devappriya
Thilan Samaraweera Yohan Gunasekara
Tilan Wijesinghe Roshan Gunaratne
Oshadi Weerasinghe Sanath Kaluperuma
Dinuk Hettiarachchi Asanga Gurusinghe
Hemantha Wickramaratne Roshan Mahanama
Chandika Haturusinghe Keerthi Ranasinghe
Avishka Gunawardena Mahela Jayawardena
Thilina Kandamby Kumar Dharmasena
Akalanka Ganegama Shantha Kalavitagoda
Muthumudalige Pushpakumara Gamini Wickramasinghe
Nishantha Ranatunga Sudharman De Silva
Mahela Udawatta Ishara Amarasinghe
Mithra Wettamuni Chamara Dunusinghe
Dhammika Ranathunga Shammi Silva
Charith Senanayake Sunil Jayasinghe
Dulip Samaraweera Ishara Amarasinghe
Dinesh Chandimal Dilshan Munaweera
Sachithre Senanayake Ashan Priyanjana