Unbeaten S. Thomas’ fancied over Royal in Big Match

By M. Shamil Amit

Royal College will take on their traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College in the 146th Battle of the Blues Inter-School Big Match over three days, beginning from March 6 at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place.
The two teams will be vying for the D. S. Senanayake Memorial Shield.
This encounter is the second oldest Inter-School cricket match in the world after the clash between St. Peter’s College and Prince Alfred College Adelaide, Australia which began in 1878 and having the honour of staving off two World Wars and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
This time the scales are in favour of the seaside schoolboys from Mount Lavinia, who have remained unbeaten while the Reid Avenue boys have been unable to make any impression having suffered back-to-back defeats to Trinity this season.
However, the Big Match is something unique and the team favoured could be toppled as it happened two years ago.
On that occasion Royal turned the tables and pulled off a surprise 160-run win and in the process chalked-up their 36th win of the Big Match series. The Thomians have 35 wins.
The two teams are evenly balanced and no doubt a close contested game could be expected. The Thomians are led by Kavindu Dias while Royal are led by Ramiru Perera.
The Thomians have a strong batting line-up headed by Deneth Goonewardena, who is their top scorer and has made over 750 runs inclusive of two centuries, and three half centuries with a best of 119 against Richmond College. The other two centurions in the side are Avinash Fernando, who scored over 450 runs with a best of 122 and Mithila Charles, who scored over 400 runs.
Apart from them, the Thomians have batsmen in the likes of Jaden Amaraweera, Sadev Soysa and skipper Dias to keep the scoreboard ticking.
The Thomian bowling will be spearheaded by Aaron de Silva who has taken nearly 50 wickets with the support expected from Goonewardena, Dias, Darien Diego and Anshen de Silva.
Meanwhile, Royal will pin their hopes on top scorer Rehan Peiris, who has made over 650 runs inclusive of one century and five half centuries.
The Royalists have two other batsmen from whom they will be expecting useful contributions to bolster the score in Vimath Dinsara, one of the two centurions.
Vimath has scored over 600 runs inclusive of two centuries and four half centuries and skipper Perera, has cracked two half centuries with over 500 runs to his name.
Isula Geeganage with 430 runs, Thevindu Wewalwala with over 400 runs, Yasindu Dissanayake and Hirun Liyanarachchi both have scored over 350 runs and will be the other batsmen to take note of.
Royal’s bowling will revolve around skipper Perera, Sandul Abayawardana, Ranuka Malaviarachchi, Yenula Bandara and Ryan Sugathadasa.
There are some records to be surpassed with the series top individual knock of 197 made by Royal’s Sumithra Warnakulasuriya in 1980. Duleep Mendis holds the Thomian record of 184 made in 1972.
The partnership of 284 runs for the third wicket between Anushka Polonnowita and Yasas Dharmaratne achieved in 1996 stands as the best for any wicket in the series.
Royal holds the record of the highest total in the series which is 432 for nine achieved in 2006 that eclipsed the previous best of 388 for nine held by the Thomians.
Pix by Kushan Pathiraja and Waruna Wanniarachchi