Ghany’s Thomian grit holds sway

S. Thomas’ retained the Mustangs Trophy for the fourth consecutive year with a thrilling two wickets victory over Royal in their thirty third edition of the limited overs contest played at the P. Sara Stadium yesterday.

Man-of-the-Match Naveed Ghany was the hero for the boys from Mount Lavinia with three wickets and a fine 52. He was well supported by opener Jehan Thahir who top scored with 59. Royal’s spin based attack made the Thomians struggle for runs on a pitch that assisted them. But defending just a mere 190 proved to be just a futile exercise at the end.

Earlier in the day, S. Thomas’ appointed Vishwa Weerawardana as Captain as present skipper Jehan Thahir will not be eligible to play next year. Weerawardene, who obviously being groomed to take over, called correctly and invited Royal to take first strike on a somewhat lively pitch in overcast conditions.

Royal also made one change bringing in opener Thilina Samarasinghe instead of Charith Bogoda. But this move did not pay off. Opening bowler Naveed Ghany was getting the ball to swing both ways troubled the early Royal batsmen.

This along with some kamikaze like stroke play by Royal’s top order and intelligent bowling by S. Thomas’ saw Royal reduced to 41 for 4 before first innings hero and vice captain Charith Fernando and skipper Dilan Nanayakkara got together and added 35 for the fifth wicket. Royal was aided by the fact that Ghany was taken off for reasons best known to his skipper. Ghany had figures of 3 for 11 off five overs at the time.

However, it was an enterprising last wicket stand of 64 between Manisha Thanthrigoda and Haroon Mowjood that guided Royal to a competitive total of 190 for 9 off their allotted 50 overs.The pair came together with Royal tottering at 126 for the loss of nine wickets and looking down the barrel with over ten overs left.
Thanthrigoda took the singles and ensued that Mowjood got most of the strike.

Mowjood obliged by remaining unbeaten on 50 off 85 balls with three hits to the ropes, while Thanthrigoda made 23 off 32 balls with two fours.