It’s celebration time again for the young and old boys of two prestigious schools in the island Royal and S. Thomas’ when their cricketers battle it out in the 132nd ‘Battle of Blues’ for over three days beginning March 10 at the SSC grounds.
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| The Royal Team |
The encounter deemed to be the second oldest inter-schools match to be played in the world also has the honour of staving off two World Wars which did not prevent this game from being played.
Joining the celebrations will be the young and old boys domiciled in various countries around the world. They will converge along with the present boys in a carnival atmosphere.
This time out the two teams are equally balanced. Predicting the winner is not going to be that easy. Royal this year will be led by Sri Lanka youth player Ramith Rambukwella while S. Thomas’ will be skippered by Chamod Pathirana. Of the two teams the Thomians have a better record than their opponents and are unbeaten. They have played 18 matches recording two outright wins against Dharmapala and Revatha MMV Balapitiya. Royal too have played 18 matches winning three but had their unbeaten record tarnished by St. Sebastian’s.
Royal skipper Ramith will pin in his hopes on Sri Lanka youth captain Bhanuka Rajapakse who led Royal last year. Bhanuka though he did not play in most of their matches is in top form.
Then they have Heshan Kumarasiri who prepared himself with a twin ton in the final match before the big one. He along with Imal Liyanage, Milan Abeysekera and Waruna Dissanayake will be the players to watch.
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| S. Thomas' Team |
The bowling will be spearheaded by all-rounder Devin Pathmanathan who is their top wicket taker this season with support coming from Imran Khan and Gaurav Deva.
Thomian skipper Chamod has in his team one of the top batsman in Nuwan Kavinda who has been in terrific form this season. Nuwan has scored over 900 runs which includes a ton and seven half tons. He will be the man that the Royalists will have to take note of.
Then they have two players - Sachin Peiris ad Asiri Wickramanayake - both having scored over 600 runs and are both centurions of the side. Asiri has scored two tons with Javed Bongso being the other to make a ton this season.
Skipper Chamod who has scored over 400 runs along with Kavindu Perera and Javed are expected to give their support if the Thomians are to make any impression in the batting department.
The bowling of the Thomians has been dominated by the spinners with the pair of right arm spinner Madushan Ravichandran leading the way with over 60 scalps. Madushan will look forward for support from the left and right arm spin combination of Neomal Wickramasekera who is their next best bowler with over 40 wickets and Umesh Fernando.
From the 131 matches played so far the tally stands at 34 wins for the Thomians and 33 for the Royalists. The rest have ended in draws. Royal’s last win was in 2006 under the leadership of Nadun Punchihewa with the Thomians winning it last in 2007 under Ashan Peiris.
The two teams have some records to be surpassed with Royal’s Sumithra Warnakulasuriya being the highest individual score with 197 which he made in 1980 and Duleep Mendis holds the Thomian record of 184 made in 1972. The partnership of 254 runs for the third wicket between Anushka Polonowita and Yasas Dharmaratne made in 1996 stands as the best for any wicket in the series.Royal holds the record of the best score of the series of 432 for 9 declared which they achieved in 2006 eclipsing the best of 388 for 9 held by the Thomians. Nevertheless with both the teams coming into the game with full confidence it’s left to be seen who will celebrate victory or will it turn out to be another drawn encounter? |
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