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Sports

Thomians rout Royal after eleven years
By S.S. Perera
After medium pacer P.I. Peiris led the Thomians to that memorable innings win in 1953 there was bit of a wait for the school by the sea at Mount Lavinia as well as for the school at Cinnamon Gardens to savour victory. The results of the ensuing ten games were noted as draws. The trend of matches being drawn was just beginning in the series, that otherwise used to see a win for either of the two schools.

Then, in the year of nineteen hundred and sixty four, middle order batsman P.N.W. Gunasekera led the Thomians while opening batsman J.D. Wilson led the Royalists on to the field. Going into bat first, the Thomians had early hic-cups. Opener Kumar Boralessa was run out without scoring, Skipper Gunasekera was caught by Anketell for one while L.S. Perera was trapped in front also by Anketell for 21. However at the other end one-drop batsman, young Anura Tennekoon held on till Sarath Seneviratne joined him. Together these two batsmen built a stroke filled innings around themselves that lasted for two tortous hours for the Royalists.

The final result of this association was a 146 run 4th wicket stand, which went into the record books as a series record. Ironically, both missed well-deserved centuries as Royal paceman Lakshman Thalayasingham had not given up. He removed both batsmen, Tennekoon first, caught off C.M. Fernando for 76, and then he was wicked enough to deprive Seneviratne of his century by only four runs as M.H. Macan Markar held on to a catch. Later on, in the innings Sriyantha Rajapakse chipped in with 41 to see the Thomians total 262 for 6 declared at tea. S. Thomas' had batted for 245 minutes of which 126 minutes was taken by Seneviratne. The Royal bowlers were treated shabbily; hit for almost 4 runs an over.

Going into bat after tea, the tired Royalists lost their top order very much like the Thomians had. G. Balasingham the ever-popular chappie who moved to S. Thomas' from St. John's, Jaffna started the rot when he had opener Sockanathan for two when the score was only thirteen. Skipper Wilson (30), and S. Rajaratnam (29), followed by a stubborn 46 by C.M. Fernando was not sufficient to prevent Royal from folding up before they had the ignominy of following on. Royal were all out at lunch on the second day for 152 run in their first innings, occupying the crease for 200 minutes and facing 54.4 overs. For S. Thomas' paceman Buddy Reid finished with figures of 3 for 56 off 23.4 overs while off spinner Sriyantha Rajapakse followed his performance with the bat to stun the Royal late order to finish with figures of three for 8. Batting for the second time, Royal openers Wilson and Sockanathan got off to a half-century stand. Royal seemed comfortable erasing the first innings deficit.

Then, suddenly, things began to happen.Both openers were out at the score of 55. The Royalists steadied the ship, and then again there was a slide, and eventually an avalanche. With the score at 112 for 3, wickets started to fall like nine-pins. 112,112, 138, 139,139, 177 and 179. Though some resistance came from the bat of Marcan Markar (41), it was a solo effort. Royal slumped from 3 for 112 to 179 all out. It was a sensational period before tea and immediately after tea. In this debacle Royal had no one to blame, but themselves. Opening bowler Reid once again had a healthy haul, four wickets in the second essay, to finish with a match bag of seven, but, Royal undid their resistance by way of three runouts, and a batsman being stumped off the bowling of paceman Reid.

The Thomian batsmen did short work of the required 70 runs. They romped home at 70 for 2 with skipper Gunasekera remaining unbeaten on 22 to supervise the win from the middle. The ten years drought of draw upon draw had been broken with another Thomian victory. The Colombo Oval was a sea of blue and black flags. Many of the players from both teams went on to play club cricket and for the University, the most prominent of them being Anura Tennekoon who represented the country at the highest level at the time, and captained it as well with great distinction.

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