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130th Battle of the Blues:

Royal out to be at their brilliant best

Royal College, Colombo are determined to be at their brilliant best for the season when they take on traditional rivals S.Thomas' College, Mt.Lavinia in their 130th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter which starts at the Sinhalese Sports Club grounds in Maitland Place, Colombo on Thursday.

Three years ago

The Reid Avenue boys are looking forward to a repeat of their last big match win which was registered three years ago. Royal's last win in the series was in 2006, though they did not have on outstanding track record to boast in that year. Yet, they produced their best effort for the season to taste a sweet seven-wicket victory at the end.

Unbeaten Royal, with a proven track record this season, go out firm favourites to win the big 'un and level the series at 34-all. Leading the Reid Avenue boys this year will be fourth-year coloursman and left-arm paceman Yasitha Abayakoon.

The morale of the Royal team is high after performing extremely well this season. They have not less than nine wins to their credit over Ananda, Nalanda, Dharmaraja, Richmond, St. Sebastian's, St. Benedict's, Isipatana, Lumbini and Trinity.

All what Abhayakoon and his lads would be looking forward to is to taste that elusive 'big match' win to put icing on the cake of a highly successful season.

In fact, Royal is the only team to humble two of the heavyweights in inter-school cricket - Ananda and Nalanda, this season. That alone speaks volumes for the success the Reid Avenue boys this season.

Energizing Royal's batting will be middle order batsmen Bhanuka Rajapakse and Kithruwan Vithanage. Both of them have completed their magical 1,000-run marks this season. Fourth-year coloursman and vice captain Kusal Perera is the other prolific run-getter in the Royal camp.

The wicket keeper bat who comes one down has nearly 850 runs to his credit.

The trio has jointly aggregated over 3,000 runs this season. Hence, Royal's batting would depend heavily on Rajapakse, Vinthanage and Perera who are set to pose a big headache to Thomian bowlers.

Opening Batsman

Reliable opening batsman Sahan Hettiarachchi is capable of giving Royal a solid start. He has scored over 600 runs this season and is worth watching.

Vice captain Perera, besides his lavish contributions with the willow, has done a neat job behind the stumps, accounting for nearly 50 victims.

Spearheading the Royal's bowling department is left-arm spinner Maneesha Thanthirigoda who has bagged nearly 75 wickets this season. Fifth-year coloursman Haroon Mowjood too has captured nearly 50 wickets and the duo could pose additional problems to Thomian batsmen.

Teamwork and dedication has been the key to Royal's success this season and skipper Abhayakoon is confident that his teammates would continue their good work in the most important assignment for the season as well.

The Royal-Thomian series has long traditions and remarkable achievements which are hard to match. The longest unbeaten era for Royal in the series was from 1965 to 1987. During the 23-year period without a single big match defeat, Royal emerged victorious on two occasions while the rest 21 games were drawn. Royal's last back to back wins in the series was in 1990 and 1991 under Udaya Lakmal Wijesena and Rohan Irriyagolla.

Inside Two Days

Having lost the 2007 encounter by an innings and 44-runs inside two days and 95 minutes of play, followed by a drawn game last year, it's Royal's turn to pull off a surprise win to level the series, which began way back in 1879.

Over the years, Royal has produced many cricketing legends who went on to bring glory to Sri Lanka at international level. Heading that list of rich Royal-Thomian history is Ranjan Madugalle who led Royal at the centenary encounter in 1979.

The stylish middle order bat, who went on to captain the Sri Lanka Test team, is currently the Chief Match Referee of the International Cricket Council. Three years later, he had the rare honour of playing in Sri Lanka's inaugural Test against England and made a superb half century.

Current Chairman of Selectors, Asantha de Mel, who played for Royal under Madugalle as a medium paceman in that centenary match in 1979, also played for Sri Lanka in its first ever Test.

Former Sri Lanka Board X1 player Sumithra Warnakulasuriya (Royal) holds the record for the highest individual innings in the series for his marathon knock of 197 was made in 1980.

Besides Warnakulasuriya's dream knock on debut, the only other Royalist to score a 'big match century' on debut is Jagath Pattiarachchi (100 n.o in 1974).

Royal also accounts for the highest ever partnership for any wicket in the series - 254 runs (for the third wicket) between Anushka Polonnowita (164) and Yasas Dharmarathne (124) in 1996. Incidentally, it was the only occasion in the series that both the captain and vice captain scored centuries.

Youngest Captain

Nigel Fernando is the youngest ever Royal captain in the series. He was only six days short of his 17th birthday when he led the Reid Avenue school in 1989.

Fernando, with a joint record five- big match appearance along with Madugalle, holds the second highest individual aggregate in the series for Royal (344 runs averaging 43.00) behind Warnakulasuriya - 386 runs averaging 64.33 which is the best in the series for either sides.

With the remarkable performance this season, this weekend's crucial meeting provides Royal an opportunity to humble their traditional rivals and level the series if their last encounter of the 13th decade of the Battle of the Blues history.

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