126th Battle of the
Blues from tomorrow :
Thomians set to capitalise on any early advantage
by Dinesh Weerawansa
S. Thomas' College are well set to capitalise on any
early advantage when they take on their traditional rivals Royal College
in their 126th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter to be
played at the Sinhalese Sports Club grounds, Colombo from tomorrow.
The proud sponsor of the world's oldest inter-school
cricket encounter, which was even uninterrupted during the two World
Wars, is Dialog GSM. Sri Lanka's leading mobile telecommunication
provider has once again come forward to the Battle of the Blues
encounter.
Its General Manager (Sales and Marketing) Nushad Perera
and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Hans Wijesuriya, that successful Royal-Thomian
combination, not only have shown a keen interest to be associated with
the mega event in Sri Lanka cricket history, but also taken a leading
role as a top sports promoter in the country.
S. Thomas' will have the services of not less than seven
coloursmen. Their experience would be coupled with young talent in
making a successful recipe for the 'big match'.
Led by Vidyesh Balasubramaniam, the Thomians have won
five of their 19 outings this season. They have beaten St. Benedict's,
Maris Stella, Dharmasoka, Gurukula MV and St. Aloysious, Ratnapura.
The Mount Lavinia boys would have boasted of an unbeaten
record, if not for that solitary defeat at the hands of St.Peter's.
Nevertheless, the Thomians have turned out to be a
successful team this season and their coach Ranil Abeynaike would expect
his boys to come out with their best performance of the season in the
most crucial assignment.
Skipper Balasubramaniam is a fourth year coloursman who
bowls leg spin. He is an excellent bowler with all the variety and is
expected to give a testing time to his opponents. A sharp fielder,
Subramanium is also a useful middle order batsman who has also
represented Sri Lanka at last year's Under-19 Youth World Cup tournament
in Bangladesh.
The presence of last year's captain Kaushal Silva would
give tremendous amount of confidence to Balasubramanium and his team. An
aggressive right-handed top order batsman, who was also a member of the
Sri Lanka team for last year's Under-19 World Cup.
Silva would add weight to the Thomian middle order
batting and is just a couple of runs short of the magical four figure
mark. He needs just two runs in the big match to complete 1,000 runs
this season, having aggregated 998 runs in 2004/05 season with four
centuries.
It was Kaushal Silva who played a match-saving captain's
innings at last year's big 'un. In reply to Royal's first innings total
of 294 for 6 declared, S. Thomas were reeling at 91 for 6 before Silva
came to his side's rescue. He played a superb innings of 85, raising 114
valuable runs for the seventh wicket with Sanjeev Panduwalala, who made
51 n.o.
If not for their brave partnership, the Thomians would
have been forced to follow on as they had only four wickets in hand to
score 55 runs to make Royal bat again.
Vice captain Sanjeev Mendis, a third year coloursman and
son of former Sri Lanka captain Duleep Mendis, is a right handed top
order batsman and a right-arm fast medium bowler with a proven track
record. Opening batting for the Mount Lavinia school will be Naveen
Perera and Shashrika Pussgolla.
Second year coloursman Ashan Peiris too is a vital
ingredient in Thomian batting, having cracked two unbeaten centuries
this season - 100 n.o. against Trinity and 101 n.o against St.
Benedict's. Fresher Nisham Mazahir too could be dangerous with the
willow. The baby of the side has scored nearly 500 runs this season,
including a top score of 100 n.o against St. Benedict's. Danushka
Colombage too has scored nearly 500 runs this season, Two right-arm
quick bowlers - Sajith Kularatne and Nigel Adams, will share the new
ball attack for S. Thomas'.
Both the bowlers have been sharp with their targets and
are capable of making the best use of the new ball. They would have the
support of part-time fast medium change bowler Mendis while the rest of
the Thomian attack is packed with spin.
The main weapon in the Black and Blue spin armory is the
leg breaks of skipper Balasubramanium, well supported by off breaks of
Daham Pilapitiya and Colombage. The Thomians have been victorious on the
last two occasions in which the Battle of the Blues series had produced
results. In 1997 S. Thomas' defeated Royal under Nilanka Peiris and in
1999 under Narein Ratwatte.
The first ever Royal-Thomian cricket match was played in
1879 but this game, won by Royal, is not counted in the series as the
two teams included masters of respective Colleges. Since then, the
Royal-Thomian cricket series continued uninterrupted and even the two
World Wars could not disrupt the oldest continuous inter-school cricket
match in the world sporting history.
The first ever Thomian win in the series came in 1882
when the Royalists went down by eight wickets. S. Thomas registered four
successive big match wins from 1904 to 1907.
S. Thomas' College has been one of the leading and
oldest cricket playing schools in Sri Lanka and has contributed
immensely to foster the game here.
There have been many talented cricketers produced by S.
Thomas' with the most notable being former Sri Lanka Test captain Duleep
Mendis, who also has served as national coach and national cricket
selection committee chairman. Mendis had the honour of scoring big match
centuries in successive years - 103 in 1971 and 184 in 1972.
S. THOMAS' COLLEGE: (from) Vidyesh
Balasubramaniam (Captain), Sanjeev Mendis (Vice captain), Ashan Peiris,
Kaushal Silva, Dhanushka Colombage, Shashrika Pussegolla, Naveen Perera,
Sajith Kularatne, Nigel Adams, Daham Pilapitiya, Nisham Mazahir Rajendra
Karunaratne, Shivanth Girasbandran, Ranil Abeynaike (Coach). |
