Royal crush Thomians to keep Mustangs Trophy
Royalist Sadisha Rajapaksha stroked an unfinished and match-winning knock of 69, guiding his school to a thumping 8-wicket win at the 45th Mustangs Trophy encounter last evening at the SSC grounds. Played before a few hundred schoolboys, the Royal-Thomian finally returned to the conventional conditions of playing in the presence of spectators.
The jubilant Royal team had little trouble in retaining the title
Royal, the defending champions of the 50-over version, returning after a gap of a few years due to Covid-19, were always unbothered and untroubled in their easy chase. In contrast to their good start, their opponents were sloppy in their catching.
S. Thomas’ skipper Ryan Fernando, after failing with the bat, did little compensation by breaking the opening wicket stand. However, the Sri Lanka Under-19 cap Rajapaksha and Uvindu Weerasekara saw them home, sharing a 66-run partnership for the third wicket and retaining the trophy.
The boys from Mount Lavinia won the toss and elected to bat first, and were straightaway into a spot of bother. They only kept on losing wickets frequently as they went from bad to worse. Their only hope, Fernando, strived to arrest the procession. But the depleted batting lineup had already given into enough damage, as Fernando too perished for 30.
Uvindu Weerasekara and Sadisha Rajapaksha shared an unboken stand to steer Royal - Pix by Eshan Fernando
But the pair for the sixth wicket, managed to apply the brakes, and stop the embarrassing and uncontrollable collapse. Muizz Naushan, hit a half century for the losers, and helped his side to revive through an 80-run partnership, was promptly removed by his counterpart opposition, Gishan Balasooriya.
However, Mahith Perera, hitting only the second half century of the side, stood and ensured his team lasted the quota. Fresher Perera notched up his maiden half ton of the limited-over series in the nick of time, and pushed his team post an insufficient 190.
Chief Scores
S. Thomas’ 190 for 8 wickets (50) (Mahith Perera 52n.o., Muizz Naushan 50, Ryan Fernando 30, Damith Kappagoda 2/19, Sadisha Rajapaksha 2/45)
Royal 191 for 2 wickets (42.3) (Sadisha Rajapaksha 69n.o., Sineth Jayawardena 39, Uvindu Weerasekara 35n.o.)