Well done Royal for the excellent sportsmanship
Royal-St. Peter’s Traditional Cricket Encounter has always been an exciting affair. We were fortunate to witness a thrilling game of cricket on 3 and 4 February at Reid Avenue. On day one St. Peter’s had scored 250 and Royal was 112 for 4 at one stage, were bundled out for a mere 134, which forced them to follow on early in the second day.
Royal lost their first wicket early and it looked like Petes are going through the Royal batting line up and finish the game in their favour. But determined Royal batsmen took up the challenge and at tea were 280/5. At this juncture Royal skipper Geeshath Panditharatne took a brave decision to declare their innings and set a target of 164 to win in approximately 30 overs, which looked like a gettable score for the Petes than picking up 10 wickets to record a Royal win as the ground conditions were ideal for batting.
All the spectators were somewhat shocked by this decision and even it looked like the Peterite camp had problems to plan their innings. Peterite batsmen started bit negatively but their middle order batted brilliantly to keep the spectators at the edge of their seats. As the game went in favour of Petes, Royal fought back gallantly to restrict them by getting break through at vital stages. At the end the score was read 147/7.
My memory went back to few decades back when Asitha Jayaweera’s Royal team made such challenging declarations to keep the game alive whatever the end result would be. Both Royal and Peters gains some valuable experience on how to handle the game in such pressure situation as most inter-school matches end up in dull draws as captains and coaches are in fear of losing the match. Rather than plan positive cricket.
Freshers from both teams Pasindu Sooriyabandara, Ronuka Jayawardane and Charutha Hatharasinghe from Royal and Ranmith Jayasena for Petes made notable contributions. Incidentally this was the last appearance in their home grounds for three fine players produced by Royal namely skipper Geeshath Panditharatne, vice captain Thiran Danapala and highest wicket taker in the ongoing Schools Cricket Season Lasith Embuldeniya. I am sure they will never forget this match in their cricketing career.
Well done Royal; well done Peters for the great exhibition. Keep it up.
W.M. Fernando