Royal guile vs the Thomian grit
View(s):By David Stephens
The emperor of all traditional encounters, the Royal-Thomian, is ready once again to stir from its slumber and rise to its throne. For the time is approaching for two of the country’s most well-known schools to engage each other, for the 134th time, in the Battle of the Blues, a three-day no-holds-barred battle royal, set to ignite the SSC grounds on March 7, 8 and 9.
On paper Royal College have the edge, having notched up four outright wins while remaining undefeated, compared with S. Thomas’ record of two victories and a single defeat. However, the Thomians are a gritty unit and will doubtlessly look to produce their best cricket come Big Match time.
Leading S. Thomas’ College out onto the field this year is third year coloursman Javed Bongso, who has been in scintillating form with the bat, amassing 679 runs to catapult himself into his team’s leading scorer slot. Bongso says that he is playing the best cricket of his life and will look to reproduce that sublime batting form against his school’s perennial rivals.
This though will require a significant degree of patience, considering the wiles of Royal’s potent spin attack led by Bongso’s counterpart this year, Devind Pathmanathan.
Pathmanathan, a fourth year coloursman, has frequently bamboozled batsmen with his left-arm leg spin to claim 44 scalps this season. He is also no slouch with the bat and has struck one fifty and a season’s tally of 240 runs.
The Royal skipper is more than aptly aided in the spin department by Poorna Aluthge, who has beguiled his way to an impressive 67 wickets this season. He was at his deadly best at a recent friendly fixture against Trinity College where he finished with figures of 6 for 64.
The Thomian bowling charge will be spearheaded by gifted allrounder Madushan Ravichandrakumar, who has bagged 50 wickets with his right-arm leg spin while adding 370 runs to his name. His partners in this spin heavy bowling attack are left-arm ‘chinaman’ bowler Ravindu Tillakaratne (24 wickets), right-arm off spinner Thilaksha Sumanasiri (22 wickets) and right-arm off-spinner Devin Jayasinghe (16 wickets).
Sumanasiri (608 runs), Madushan (370 runs) and Jayasinghe (341 runs), together with their skipper, also form the core S. Thomas’ batting.
For Royal, the batting burden is shouldered by Hashen Ramanayake, who has a season’s tally of 700 runs, Milan Abeysinghe, a scorer of two centuries this season and Isuru Gunatilleke, who dazzled with a knock of 154 against Ananda.
With the Royal-Thomian’s last result emerging in 2007, a draw seems the most likely outcome of this classical encounter. However, considering the bevy of talent possessed by both teams, a riveting battle is almost guaranteed.
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