124th Battle of the Blues St. Servatius’ favoured, aiming to break over five decade hoodoo

By M. Shamil Amit   
It’s big match fever in down South when two of the leading cricket playing schools St. Servatius’ Matara and St. Thomas’ Matara battle for supremacy in their annual Battle of the Blues big match scheduled to be played over three days from March 22 at the Uyanwatta Stadium.   
The clash between the two schools which is supposed to have begun in the year 1900 is the 124th in the series with St. Thomas’ in leading the tally having won 32 as against to the 27 won by St. Servatius’.   

However the Servatians who last won the big match 53 years ago in 1971 under the leadership of Nimal Munaweera will be aiming to break the hoodoo with skipper Dinura Abeywickramasinghe from whom they will be banking along with support from his deputy Vishwa Supun, Viran Chamuditha, Binal Nethmika, Raveen Kavintha and Chamarindu Nethsara to name a few to fulfill their aim.   
On the other hand the Thomians were the last winners of the big match having achieved it in 2007 under Tharaka Dushantha and they too spearheaded by skipper Navija de Saram with the support of Senura Perera, Abdul Majeed, Pesandu Sanjan, Lakshitha Diksith, Kumesh Nuwanjana and Punal Pamuditha will for sure be seeking to increase their tally of wins.   
Nevertheless, the two sides are evenly balanced, though the scale is in  favour of St. Servatius’ a close game is expect.