All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

251 1938. It was named in honour of Paramjoti Saravanamuttu, president of the Ceylon Cricket Association (1937-49), and the first president of its successor the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. In 1991/92 it was contested by two groups of seven teams, with the group winners then playing off for the Trophy. The Sinhalese Sports Club Ground was one of three grounds in Colombo to have staged Test cricket, to which a fourth would soon be added. It is the headquarters of Sri Lanka Cricket and has hosted more Tests than any other ground in the country. Built on an aerodrome which was used by Allied forces during the Second World War, it has a capacity of about 10,000, with the general public mainly accommodated on open grass banks. Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) had had considerable success in the competition’s pre-first-class days and were current holders, but this year would just be pipped in the Final by Colts Cricket Club. They had a powerful batting line-up, with a middle order that included three Test stars: Asanka Gurusinha, Arjuna Ranatunga and Marvan Atapattu. The opposition was less well-endowed and, it has to be said, were their group’s whipping boys, losing three matches and not even getting near a first-innings lead in the matches they drew. All of the side against SSC had made their first-class debuts in the season, and only two would go on to have first-class careers of any substance - 19-year-old allrounder Pathmanath Perera, 44 matches, and 17-year-old left-hand batsman Sanjeewa Warusamana, 52 matches. None of the rest would play more than ten times and, as Kalutura would not play first-class cricket for another 25 years, seven were playing in their only first-class season. Without achieving spectacular returns Wickramasinghe had begun the season taking wickets steadily. The season’s Trophy matches had been badly affected by rain, and with no play possible on the first day of the scheduled three-day match against Kalutara, the home captain Saliya Ahangama decided to hasten things along by putting the opposition in to bat. Wickramasinghe then did his bit by bowling unchanged and taking his all-ten in just 19 overs. He quickly reduced the visitors to one for two as both opener Silva and his replacement Mahesh Hemantha were caught by wicketkeeper Hemantha Wickramaratne, the latter for the first half of a pair. Mahesh Hemantha had a curious two-year career. He failed to score in one third of his 15 innings and only exceeded ten twice, scoring 30 and an unlikely 163. After Kalutara’s disastrous start nobody stayed long apart from young Warusamana who went in when Hemantha left and remained undefeated with 36. (Wickramasinghe would dismiss him for a duck in Kalutara’s second innings.) Ahangama was clearly keen to keep getting wickets because the 20 overs at the other end were shared among five bowlers. It would seem that if you didn’t strike quickly somebody else had a go! Thirty-two-year-old Ahangama had applied this maxim to his own performance, opening the bowling, but for only three overs. Six years previously he had made his Test debut, taking 18 wickets in just three matches against a strong Indian batting line-up. These figures suggested that a successful career was in store. Unfortunately because of injuries Pramodya Wickramasinghe