129th Battle of the Blues:

Thomians brimming with confidence

Dinesh Weerawansa

S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia will go all out to emulate Royal's back to back wins in 1990 and 1991 when they take on traditional rivals Royal College, Colombo in their 129th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter which starts at the SSC grounds, Mailtland Place tomorrow.

The Mount Lavinia boys will march into the big 'un brimming with confidence. They have every reason to do that. With seven wins this season and those sweet memories of last year's innings and 44-run win over Royal at the same venue, the Thomians would start the big match on an confident note.

Their impressive track record this season an that convincing innings win inside two days and 95 minutes last year would undoubtedly be a morale booster for the Thomians. They are well set to capitalise on the advantageous position to emulate Royal's feat of back to back wins in 1990 and 1991 under Udaya Lakmal Wijesena and Rohan Iriyagolla respectively.

Fourth-year coloursman Jehan Thahir will lead S.Thomas' this season. He is a versatile player who has proved his all-round qualities, faring equally well with the bat and ball. A specialised slip fielder, Thahir has aggregated nearly 650 runs and would form the backbone of Thomian batting with fresher M.F. Saleem.

His right-arm leg breaks have been a blessing for the team which has played as many as 18 matches this season.

Their eight-wicket win over Trinity has injected tremendous amount of confidence to the team. They have emerged victorious in eight of their 18 outings with wins over Trinity, Wesley, Nugawela Central, Dharmapala, Zahira, Dharmasoka and Thurstan.

Vice captain Ruchira de Silva who opens the new ball attack, is a third-year coloursman who is also a dependable middle order batsman and a safe fielder. Besides skipper Thahir and his deputy de Silva, there are six more coloursmen in the Thomian side.

The last two matches of the series have produced results. Following Royal's big match win in 2006 under Nadun Punchihewa, the Thomians bounced back to take revenge last year with a merciless innings routing under Ashan Peiris. The Thomians are fully aware of the advantageous position they enjoy even before the first ball is bowled.

Besides skipper Thahir who has a top score of 90 this season, the Thomians have a galaxy of batsmen who are capable of keeping the scoreboard moving. They have produced centurions in fresher Fahim Saleem, Thilina Nugawela and Naveed Ghany.

Saleem, making his debut season for the Mt.Lavinia school, has been their most prolific run-getter with 956 runs. He is looking forward to that magical four-figure aggregate in the big match, at which he needs just 44 runs more to complete 1,000 runs. His highest innings this season has been a fluent 151 against Nugawela Central.

Apart from skipper Thahir and Saleem - the highest scorers for S. Thomas, sharing over 1,600 runs between them, the others who are capable of making generous contributions towards a healthy Thomian total are Nugawela (who has an aggregate of nearly 500 runs with a top score of 103 not out against Nugawela Central) and fresher Ghany (who has aggregated over 400 runs with an unbeaten century against Wesley).

The Thomian bawling attack too has that much needed variation to keep Royal batsmen all at sea. Undoubtedly the trump card in the Thomian bowling attack is second-year coloursman Milan Fernando, who had the rare honour of completing 100 wickets this season. The left-arm orthodox spinner has 103 scalps to his credit and would pose the biggest threat to Royal batting.

Thomian coach Ranil Abeynaike has made a great contribution to his alma mater. He has groomed the team into a fighting outfit that could handle any tense situation. His advice, undoubtedly, to the team would be to go from the first ball and hold the upper hand, as they have done so fare this season.

Former Sri Lannka Test captain Duleep Mendis heads the list of celebrated former Thomian cricketers. He holds the record the highest individual innings for S.Thomas' for his marathon knock of 184 runs made in 1972.

It was skipper Ashan Peiris (161) and Nisham Mazahir (162) who established the highest ever Thomian partnership in the series last year, erasing the previous mark of 186 runs scored by Ian Pieris (123) and Geoff Wijesinghe (64) in 1953. The 238-run alliance between Ashan Peiris and Mazahir was the first ever double century partnership for Thomians in the Battle of the Blues series.