Royal - Thomian clash for Mustangs Trophy on March 16

Thushan Jayasuriya

The 38th Mustangs Trophy encounter between Royal College Colombo and St.Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia will be worked off at the SSC Grounds on March 16(Saturday).

Royal, who scored a resounding seven wicket win in the 134th Battle of the Blues will go out favourites, but will face a strong challenge from a rejuvenated Thomian team today.

The Royalists are leading the series with 20 victories while Thomians have won on 17 occassions with the 2002 encounter ending in a tie.

The Reid Avenue School will miss the services of Paceman Anupa Tillekeratne who was injured in the big match and bowled just one over in the second innings.Royal has three centurions in the Mustangs Trophy series- Heshan Morawake(106 in 2004), Chalaka Bogoda(104 in 2010) and Ramith Rambukwella (103 not out in 2011) while the solitary century for the Thomians came last year with Devin Jayasinghe making 101. The best bowling performance in the series is by Thomian Kapila Wijegunawardena (6 for 21 in 1982) while Royal's Best is Manaram Hettige (5 for 22 in 1981).

Royal are likely to include promising youngsters 17 year old all rounder Randev Pathirana who made a debut 50 against Trinity and has scored heavily for the second XI and Geeshanth Panditharatne, a spinner and useful late order bat, who played many matches for the first XI this season.

The Thomians are also likely to bring in coloursmen Ramith Gunaratne and spinner Dilum Fernando who were left out for the big match. Last year the Mustangs trophy was shared between the two teams due to a miscalculation of the runs on the Duckworth-Lewis system after the match had to be stopped due to rain.

The teams Royal from

Devind Pathmanathan (Captain), Roanaka Ahangamage, Isuru Gunatilleke, Sampath de Silva, Hashen Ramanayake, Heshan Kumarasiri, Milan Abeysekara(Vice Captain), Chamika Karunaratne, Poorna Aluthge, Harith Samarasinghe, Randev Pathirana, Geeshanth Panditharatne, Tiran Dhanapala

S.Thomas’ from

Javed Bongso(Captain), Nipuna Gamage, Deelaka Herath, Devin Jayasinghe, Thilaksha Sumanasiri, Sanesh de Mel, Helakamal Nanayakkara, Madushan Ravichandrakumar(Vice Captain), Ravindu Tillekeratne, Sahan Wijesinghe, Ishan Kularatne, Ramith Gunaratne, Dilum Fernando, Gunatilleke, Dhanush Peiris.