Thomians have the edge over Royal

Dinesh Weerawansa

CRICKET: S. Thomas' are determined to prove the adage that 'Catches win matches' when they take on their traditional rivals Royal in the 127th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter which begins at the picturesque Singhalese Sports Club grounds in Colombo today.

Though the strengths of both teams look almost the same on paper, the Thomians have a distinct advantage due to their aggressive fielding. S. Thomas' coach Ranil Abeynaike has emphasized much on ground fielding over the couple of years and he has been able to make a team, which would make full use of even half chances that may come their way.

Apart from the advantage they have on their accurate fielding, the Thomians would walk in to the middle with their heads held high after that smashing innings and 28-run win over Royal under Vidyesh Balasubramaniam last year.

In fact, the Thomians have emerged victorious on the last three occasions the Battle of the Blues produced results while Royal's last win in the series was recorded 15 years ago under Rohan Iriyagolla.

Hence, last year's win and advantage on fielding would give an early edge to the Thomians to let the black and blue magic work once again to attempt for back to back wins - as Royal did for the last time in 1990 and 1991.

Winning the toss would be a big bonus but that alone is not going to help, unless you make the best use of favourable conditions. Customarily, the SSC wicket is expected to help batsmen but the side taking the first lease should be extra cautious in the first session.

The opening paceman could extract some rhythm with the early life of the wicket and the initial hour's play will be crucial to both teams.

Royal has a well-knit bowling attack but they are bound to face an acid test with the Thomian batsmen who have made five centuries this season. "Get Shashreeka Pussegolla early," will undoubtedly be the advice to Royal bowlers by their captain Nadun Punchihewa.

Pussegolla is the first schoolboy cricketer to complete 1,000 runs this season and this he achieved in style with three centuries. His presence would definitely add a big weight to Thomian batting and skipper Naveen Perera would expect another big contribution from his most prolific run-getter.

This will be the 13th consecutive time the Royal-Thomian being played at SSC grounds at Maitland Place. The highest record partnership for Royal has been 254 runs (for third wicket) by Anushka Polonowita (165) and Yasas Dharmaratne (124) in 1996, which is also the series record for any wicket.

Accounting for the best Thomian partnership in the series are ex-Sri Lanka Cricket Board President Ian Peiris (123) and former editor of the 'Daily News' Geoff Wijesinghe (64), who added 187 runs for the fifth wicket way back in 1953.

Of the 125 matches played in the series since 1880, S. Thomas' takes a slight lead with 33 wins to Royal's 32 with 61 drawn.

The Royal-Thomian encounter is one of the oldest continuous annual cricket matches of the world. This would be the 25th occasion that the match is being played over three days ever since the series began in 1879.

From the centenary encounter in 1979, the blue riband of annual cricket encounters became a three-day affair. In fact, Ranjan Madugalle, who went on to captain Sri Lanka and then become ICC's Chief Match Referee, led Royal in that centenary match. Irrespective of the end result, the Royal-Thomian is ready to serve its traditionally high quality display with the gentlemen's game played in its true spirits.

Thanks to the untiring efforts of that great Royal-Thomian combination of Nushad Perera (General Manager - Sales & Marketing) and Dr. Hans Wijeyasuriya (CEO), leading mobile communication, giant Dialog Telekom has once again come to power the rich traditions of the Battle of the Blues with an attractive sponsorship package for the sixth successive year.

The teams

ROYAL COLLEGE: Nadun Punchihewa (captain), Dulanjaya Wijeratne (vice captain), Dimitri Siriwardena, Malinga Maligaspe, Sukitha Senaratne, Haroon Mowjood, Charith Fernando, Yasitha Abeykoon, Feroze Ahmed, Kusal Perera, Dilan Nanayakkara, Chulaka Amarasinghe (coach).

S. THOMAS' COLLEGE: Naveen Perera (captain), Ashan Peiris (vice captain), Nizam Mazahir, Kasun Bamunuarachchi, Dhanushka Colombage, Devinda Fernando, Jehan Tahir, Ruchira de Silva, Shivan Gnanaskandan, Gayendra Karunaratne, Sashreeka Pussagolla, Ranil Abeynaike (coach).