Royal confident of victory

DINESH WEERAWANSA

Royal College, Colombo are confident of holding the upper hand and pressing for a win when they meet their traditional rivals S.Thomas’ College, Mt.Lavinia in their 131st Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter which starts at SSC grounds, Colombo on Thursday.

The Reid Avenue boys have been shaping well this season with four wins against Wesley, St. Benedict’s, Maliyadeva and St. Joseph’s. But they suffered a set back in the final lap that leads to the big ‘un, going down to Trinity. That was their second defeat for the season, having lost to Prince of Wales earlier.

Even then, the shock defeat at the hands of Trinity should not bother them too much as the hill capital school also humbled S.Thomas’ a few weeks ago.

Royal team is a blend of experience and youth. They have the services of six coloursmen, including skipper Bhanuka Rajapakse, who has turned out to be a vital cog in the Sri Lanka youth team.

Fourth-year coloursman Rajapakse who leads Royal this season, missed a few games as he was on national duty with the youth teams. He has represented Sri Lanka at Under-17 and 19 levels, showing his talent as a reliable top order batsman. The left hander was the vice captain of the Sri Lanka Under-19 team’s recent tour of South Africa.

He proved his credentials as a future national star, winning two man of the match awards in the ICC Under 19 World Cup played in New Zealand earlier this year. In seven matches this season, Rajapakse has scored 540 runs with top score of 132 against St. Sebastian’s last week.

Fourth year coloursman Maneesha Thantirigoda is the vice captain of the side. Besides his useful contributions as a left hand middle order batsman, Thanthirigoda has shown greater success as a left arm leg spinner.

He has shown no mercy to batsmen with his deadly leg breaks, becoming the first Royalist to reach that magical 100-wicket mark in a 1st XI season. On ten occasions, he has innings analysis of five wickets or more and match bags of ten wickets and over six times.

Besides skipper Rajapakse and Thanthirigoda, the other star player in the team is third year coloursman Kithruwan Vithanage. He is an aggressive left hand top order batsman and a useful right arm leg spinner. Vithanage served as the Vice Captain of the Sri Lanka Youth World Cup squad. Vithanage also won man of the match awards on two occasions at the Youth World Cup in New Zealand.

Opening batting for the Reid Avenue boys will be third-year coloursman Chalaka Bogoda who has scored nearly 500 runs this season. His partner in the top order - Ramith Rambukwella, son of Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, has shown great form this season, scoring over 900 runs this season with an impressive average of 50.55.

The much looked forward to ‘big match’ could well give an opportunity to the seasoned campaigner and second-year coloursman Ramith Rambukwella to complete that memorable 1,000-run milestone. He has scored centuries against St.Joseph’s (110), St.Peter’s (103) and Maliyadeva (100).

Undoubtedly, skipper Rajapakse will be the ‘king’ of the galaxy of stroke makers in the Royal batting line-up, which includes Bogoda, Rambukwella, Vithanage, Charutha Rajarathna and Madushan Gunaratne - the stumper of the side.

Rajarathna, a second year coloursman and left hand middle order batsman, has aggregated over 600 runs this season with a top score of 127 against St.Joseph’s.

Among the others who are capable of keeping the scoreboard moving are Madusha Rajaratne Devind Pathmanathan, Shavinda Edirisuriya, Imal Liyanage and Waruna Dissanayake, who has a top score of 119 against St. Benedict’s in a season’s aggregate of over 400 runs.

Sharing the new ball attack are freshers Imran Khan and Guarav Deva Khan, who has the identical name of legendary Pakistani quick bowler, has captured nearly 30 wickets at an average of 18.38, unique by any standard.

But the deadliest weapons in the Royal bowling armory are the leg breaks of Thanthirigoda, who has captured a century of wickets. He has produced a season’s best innings analysis of 8 for 48 against Dharmaraja.

None of the other Royal bowlers has captured even one third of Thanthirigoda’s ‘harvest’, which speaks volumes of control the left-armer has had during the season.

True that Royal will be over dependent on Thanthirigoda but there are few others who could pose a serious threat to Thomian batting. Right arm off spinner Dhanika Rajakaruna is one such bowler who could add variety to Royal attack.

This is the 17th consecutive year that the Mecca of Sri Lanka cricket - the SSC grounds, will be hosting the Royal-Thomian cricket encounter. Since switching back to the SSC in 1994, all matches of the series have been played at Maitland Place. However, the Royal-Thomian was first played at the SSC grounds way back in 1975. Overall, the SSC has hosted 24 Royal-Thomian encounters, including the centenary encounter in 1979 - the year since the Battle of the Blues turned out to be a three-day affair.

Of the 130 encounters played, S.Thomas’ takes a lead with 34 wins to Royal’s 33 with the rest drawn.

The Royal-Thomian series has maintained its rich traditions for 13 decades, making an immense contribution to Sri Lanka cricket, producing some of the brilliant cricketers that the country has ever produced.

Heading that proud list of national stars are two former Sri Lanka captains Ranjan Madugalle (Royal), the current ICC Chief Match Referee, and Duleep Mendis (S.Thomas’), now a veteran cricket administrator.

The Royal-Thomian is not just another inter-school cricket match and it has turned out to be the prime event of their social calendar for both Royalists and Thomians young and old, as well as for their supporters. It would provide ideal atmosphere for them to recall past memories and share their experience.