It was Royal’s turn to savour the champagne
Over the course of a century, the Royal-Thomian has carved itself a reputation for being the quintessential school cricket spectacle; a rhap- sodic mix of scintillating competition, passionate support and raucous revellry. Last week the encounter lived up to all its hype as Royal College conquered S. Thomas’ by seven wickets, after three electric days at the SSC.
What made their victory even more significant was the fact that the match was plagued by rain, resulting in the cumulative loss of nearly an entire day’s play. Royal’s undisputed hero on the day was Chamika Karunaratne, who took nine wickets during the match. However, he was supported by a bowling attack that went for the jugular right from the game’s outset.
Put into bat by the Royalists, S. Thomas’ was almost immediately were in a spot of bother with two wickets down. One of which was that of their skipper Javed Bongsofor only 20. The proverbial ice they were skating on became even more tenuous when the heart of the Thomian batting line-up was ripped out, leaving them staggering at 92 for 5.
Devin Jayasinghe though displayed the famed Thomian grit with an aggressive 107-ball 74, which propelled the final first innings total to a respectable 192.
In response Royal bludgeoned 260 for 5 by the end of the second daywith Sampath de Silva top scoring with 61 and wicketkeeper, Milan Abeysekera, striking a valuable 50. A draw seemed on the cards as rain had brought an early denouement to proceedings for the second time.
Suspecting the rains might arrive once again on the third day; Royal declared and chanced their luck at bundling the Thomians out for a low total. This they accomplished with lethal execution as Karunaratne, who bagged five first innings scalps, claimed four wickets, his pace partner Hashen Ramanayake registered two early breakthroughs and the side’s leading wicket-taker, Poorna Aluthge, took one wicket. The Tho- mians were bowled out for a paltry 132, leaving Royal needing just 64 runs to win.
Despite losing three quick wickets, Royal crossed the line with relative ease, finishing with a boundary which took them to 67. As the victorious Royal Captain, Devind Pathmanathan, collected the D.S Senanayake Shield from former S. Thomas’ skipper, P.L.D. Kariyawasam who led the Mt. Lavinia School in 1969 and 1970, who was the encounter’s Chief Guest, his school’s supporters burst into a wave of celebration, which only subsided hours later.
Tug-O’ War down South
Now that the Sinhala New Year is around the corner a favourite sport in the offing is the Tug-O’-War contests. Recently a keenly-contested event took place down South and the winners were a team associated with keeping peace and order amongst the higher-ups. It is alleged that this team came into the final of the competition due to the efforts of a top sibling who had a hand in giving the winners weak opponents. It is also said that a top law and order man was going around saying that this is the win to win such events! The ultimate winners were of course a team from a leading security maintenance team, who had been winning these contests with ease in the past.
A scene from ‘The Don’
A scene akin to the Hindi film ‘The Don’ took place at a sports meeting where even guns were drawn. What’s more the meeting was summoned by the lady who is in charge of conducting such events to elect a new head and she had to call in the nominations. At the end of the meeting six vehicles with armed men, who are trained to bring such situations under control, were summoned. This is what happens when those contesting for posts such as these have easy access to firearms.
Buzzing bees
A leading sports body is akin to a hive of disturbed bees these days. Allegations are tossed around saying that at a popular contest held in the hills, low quality balls were used; poor quality kits were worn by the players even down to the boots. The top man in sports is being hounded by these allegations and he is wondering how to answer these questions especially when the competition was named after the top man in the country.
What next?
The CEO of a leading local sports body is all set to resign following the directions of a world body to ban a leading local figure, the reason being that this CEO has spread his tentacles elsewhere and is said to be drawing a salary from that source as well in addition to the salary that he draws here. One thing leads to another. Wonder what’s next.