Thomians prevail over Royal to win 42nd Mustangs Trophy at SSC
S. Thomas’ College, led by Romesh Nallaperuma, recorded a narrow 9-run win against traditional rivals Royal College to retain the Mustangs Trophy for the fourth year running. The 42nd annual Limited Overs Cricket encounter between the two leading cricket-playing schools in Sri Lanka was played at the SSC ground last Saturday.
Put into bat first, the Thomians posted a challenging total of 258 for the loss of 7 wickets and in response, despite losing early wickets, Royal came close but fell short at 247 for 9 wickets. Thomian opener Ravindu Kodituwakku and skipper Romesh Nallaperuma took the initiative with valuable knocks that helped their team post a good total. Ravindu hit 95 off 113 deliveries inclusive of 11 fours and two sixes, and missed out a well deserved century by five runs. Skipper Romesh contributed with a well compiled knock of 53 runs off 70 deliveries while hitting three boundaries.
Anchorman Ravindu was involved in two valuable partnerships which helped the Thomians retain the trophy eventually. He paired with fellow opener Dulith Gunaratne to put on 59 runs and then went on to create a partnership of 73 runs with Romesh for the third wicket. Royal skipper Helitha Vithanage impressed with figures of 4 wickets for 42 runs.
Chasing a challenging target of 259, Royal, despite losing quick wickets early in their innings was helped by the young pair Ahan Wickremasinghe (26) and Lakindu Nanayakkara (44). Ahan and Lakindu put on 72 runs for the second wicket but lost wicket at regular intervals in their run chase. Coming in from the middleorder skipper Helitha (33) and Thevindu Senaratne, who top scored with 71 runs, helped Royal recover from 103-5 with a stubborn and valuable partnership of 86 runs for sixth wicket. In the latter stage Royal batsmen made a stunning comeback by hitting 36 runs off 24 deliveries but two quick wickets again put them in the back foot. Despite all these, Royal ended up scoring 247-9 in their allotted 50 S. Thomas’ College 258 for 7 wickets in 50 overs (Ravindu Kodituwakku 95, Romesh Nallaperuma 53, Ishen Perera 36 n.o., Helitha Vithanage 4/42, Ganith Sandeepa 2/45) overs. S. Thomas’ opener Ravindu Kodituwakku was named the Man-of-theMatch.