Thomians whip Royal blue & black

“I have been waiting for this since last year,” said the soft spoken captain of S. Thomas’ Ashan Peiris. When he spoke to The Sunday Times shortly after leading his side to a comprehensive innings and 44 runs defeat of traditional rivals Royal in the 128th Battle Of The Blues, which ended half an hour before lunch on the third and final day at the Singhalese Sports Grounds yesterday. Royal continuing from their overnight score of 123 for 6 managed just 40 runs in one and half hours. Charith Fernando who came to the crease at number seven, showed his top order that the pitch was still good for batting. He remained unbeaten on 31 at the end. The Thomians fielded like a team possessed and effected two run outs in the pre lunch session. Skipper Peiris said: “We worked hard at all the aspects of our game, especially fielding. It paid off over the last two days. And yes I am happy with my form and more importantly how the team performed.” When asked about losing the toss, Man of the Match Peiris said: “Obviously it turned out to be a good toss to lose. We may have put Royal in had we won the toss” Thomian coach Ranil Abeynayake said: “It has not sunk in yet. But yes I am overwhelmed with joy.”

Arguably the most dejected person on the ground was Royal’s coach Chulaka Amarasinghe. He said: “The Thomians out played us in every department of the game. The reason behind giving S. Thomas’ first lease after winning the toss was because our attack is pace based. Thus we wanted to exploit any movement that is normally there in the first hour of the day. But they batted well and our fielding let us down”.

Trying to smile despite being disappointed, Royal Captain Haroon Mowjood said: “The better team won the game. The Thomian team deserves all the credit and plaudits. They were superior to us from the beginning. There are some positives we can take. Next year we will be missing only two players. Thus hopefully we can come back.”

With this victory S. Thomas’ edge ahead of Royal with 34 wins. Royal have won this traditional match on 33 occasions.