I woke up early on a Sunday morning, excited and ready for one of my favourite Rotaract events of the calendar year. Hatrick had always been a fun and exciting cricket tournament unlike any other and was always a ‘must-attend’. As we pulled up to the Thurstan College cricket ground, located just off Baudhaloka Mawatha, I remembered how it was at this same venue that Hatrick 2019 was unpleasantly interrupted by the Easter Sunday attacks in April 2019. Nevertheless, this was a completely new day which would go onto be very enjoyable. The atmosphere at the ground was one of excitement. Many teams had shown up and were scattered across the ground, warming up and practising.
The defining factor to hattrick over other cricket tournaments is neatly incorporated into its slogan, “You’re not out”. It simply meant that the tournament had ‘plate’ rounds to play for as well. This means that teams wouldn’t spend a large portion of their day under the scorching sun, just to be knocked out of the tournament due to some tough luck in the first game…unlike in some other tournaments( If ya know, ya know). At Hat trick, you are guaranteed at least 2-3 games, which appeals well to a team, that, although has never been short on talent and ability, often choked on the pressure of opening games. Unfortunately, this was yet again the case for the team from the Rotaract Club of Achievers.
Simply put, we were outplayed in our opening game. Having batted first, we were unable to set an imposing target despite valiant efforts from Rtr, Thisura, Rtr. Mubashir and Rtr. Sahan. The opposing team managed to chase the score down with an over to spare. However, this was hattrick, we didn’t have to feel disappointed, and we would still be playing the plate rounds. Soon it was lunchtime and we were given lunch packs, water bottles and even cans of Redbull by the organizing committee. They really did go above and beyond!
During our second match of the day, we did much better. Having opted to bowl first, we were able to restrict the opposing team to 52 runs, owing to good bowling efforts by Rtr. Kasun, Rtr. Sahan and the rest of the bowlers. A clinical batting performance by the openers saw us through to our first win of the day, with an over to spare!
The third match was a much tighter game, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to come out on top. It was disappointing, but the team did perform well and most importantly, we had fun, lots of fun! We were able to spend our Sunday playing the game we loved with our friends, our progression through the tournament wasn’t as important to us as one might think.
As the day came to a close, we watched a few more matches and decided to head home. We thanked the organizing committee for the memorable day and vowed to return to play in next year’s edition of Hattrick as well.
Rtr. Yasiru Gunaratne
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