Exciting game on card with evenly balanced sides
It’s celebration time again for the young and old boys of the two top cricket playing schools Royal College and S. Thomas’ College as they will converge when their young cricketers battle it out in the 145th Battle of the Blues big match over three days beginning from March 7 at the SSC ground, which is fought out for D.S. Senanayake Memorial Shield.
The encounter is deemed to be the second oldest inter-school match in the world after St. Peter’s College and Prince Alfred College of Adelaide, Australia which began in 1878 and also having the honour of staving off two World Wars and the recent Covid-19 pandemic which did not prevent the game being played.
This time out the scales are in favour of the Sea Side school boys, who have remained unbeaten while on the other the Reid Avenue boys have been unable to make any impression and underwent back to back defeats to Trinity this season.
Last year to recollect on what happened it was the Thomians who were hot favourites to pull off the game as they came into the field with high hopes after a successful inter-school cricket season. But it was not to be as underdogs Royal pulled off a welldeserved win by 160 runs, which saw them chalking up their 36th win of the series as against to the 35 by the Thomians.
The Thomians led by Mahith Perera, who has been in top form throughout the season, will be coming into the game with their heads high having recorded five outright wins from the 14 matches played this season while Royal, led by Sri Lanka youth player Sineth Jayawardena, was able to play only a few matches as he was on tour with the Sri Lanka U-19 team to South Africa for the ICC U-19 World Cup.
The Thomians has a strong batting lineup comprising of three centurions in skipper Mahith, who is their top scorer and has made over 700 runs inclusive of three tons. His best of 151 not out against
St. Benedict’s while the other two centurions for S. Thomas’ are Thisen Eheliyagoda, who has scored over 600 runs with a best of 101, and Dineth Goonewardena, who has scored over 500 runs with a best of 150 against St. Benedict’s. Apart from these three batters the Thomians will bank on Nathan Caldera, Sadev Soysa, Mithila Charles, Senadhi Bulankulame, Kavindu Dias and Akash Fernando.
The bowling will be spearheaded by top wicket taker Abeeth Paranavidana, who has taken over 60 scalps. Along with four bowlers -- Kavindu Dias, Nathan Caldera, Yatinda Siriwardena and Akash Fernando, the Thomians will need to combine with effect to curtail the opponent’s batting.
Royal skipper Sineth, who has played only six matches and is one of the five centurions of the side with the others being Yasindu Dissanayake, the top scorer with over 550 runs, Rehan Peiris (525 runs), Ramiru Perera (475 runs) and Isula Geeganage, while support will be expected from Ovina Ambanpola, Anush Polonowita and Nethwin Dharmaratne.
Spinner Ramiru Perera, the top wicket taker with over 45 wickets, along with skipper Sineth, Yenula Bandara, and Ranuka Malaviarachchi, will lead the bowling attack
for Royal with support expected from Dinura Seneviratne and Nethwin Dharmaratne to curtail the Thomian batting.
There are some records to be surpassed with the series top individual knock of 197 made by Royal’s Sumithra Warnakulasuriya in 1980. Duleep Mendis holds the Thomian record of 184 made in 1972.
The partnership of 284 runs for the third wicket between Anushka Polonowita and Yasas Dharmaratne achieved in 1986 stands as the best for any wicket in the series. Royal holds the record of the highest score in the series which is 432 for 9 achieved in 2006 that eclipsed the best 388 for 9 held by the Thomians.