Joes-Royalists battle for glory

Anuradha Abeysekera

The historic cricket encounter between Royal College, Colombo and St. Joseph's College, Maradana will stage its 115th edition on January 13 and 14 at the Royal College grounds, Reid Avenue. The match has been played annually uninterruptedly since its inception in 1898. Even during World War I and II, the match continued to play every year.

The inaugural match has been won by Josephians in 898 who clinched the victory in 28 occasions overall while Royalists in contrast were able to credited the crown for themselves 21 times. Being in the back seat of the overall tally, Royal College recorded their last victory in 2010 under the captaincy of Banuka Rajapakse. Banuka guided the team to victory, ending 16-years of no-victory regime of Royalists in the battle.

Josephians bagged back to back victories in 2004 and 2005 with Ranesh Perera and Hashan Goonetilleke captaining the teams respectively. The annual battle has been a great experience for the young cricketers of both schools and many national players produced by the two schools have represented the encounter in its early versions.

Joes will battle it out with a strong side this year will lead by skipper wicket keeper / batsman, fourth year coloursman Vidusha Jayasinghe. Vidusha along with Sadeera Samarawickrema and Sachin

Hewawasam are in very good form and the triplet have scored centuries in this season. St. Joseph's College registered two victories against Isipatana College and St. Sebastian's College, Moratuwa recently. Their bowling attack will consist of Sri Lankan under-19 player, left arm spinners Supechala Jayatilleke, Shivane Alliraja and young off spinner Priyamal Perera. These three bowlers have shared 60 wickets this season and surly will pose a great threat to the royal batting lineup.

Royal College will field their squad captained by middle order batsman and fourth year player Imal Liyanage. Royalists had an early set back in the season as they went down to Richmond College, Galle, but progressed well thereafter and defeated Isipathana College later.

Supun Subasinghe is the only centurion in the Royal side and Heshan Kumarasiri who struck three fifties this season is also a batsman to watch. Royal bowling department has lost their main attacker Sri Lanka under-19 player Govravadeva due to an injury, but left arm spinner Bevin Padmanadan who captured 16 wickets in the season will test his prowess against Josephian batsmen.