Royal cricketers enjoy a successful season

Royal College, Colombo concluded the 2013 cricket season in style with a smashing 88 run win over S.Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia to clinch the Mustangs Trophy for the 21st occasion in the series. In the process they notched up the highest score of the series of 330 for seven wickets and also produced the highest individual scorer of the 38 year old series - Hashen Ramanayake who scored 116 runs surpassing the previous highest of 106 by Royalist Heshan Morawake in 2004.

Royal skipper Devind Pathmanathan seen with the Mustangs Trophy after receiving it from Warden of S.Thomas' College Prof.Indra de Soyza after beating S.Thomas' by 88 runs in the one dayer played at
the SS C Grounds on Saturday.

The lads from Reid Avenue had an excellent season this year in which they notched up five victories beating Isipatana (by 10 wickets), St.Anthony's Kandy (by an innings), Dharmaraja (by 129 runs) and Thurstan (by 10 wickets) before scoring a memorable seven wicket win over S.Thomas’ in the 134th “Battle of the Blues” ten days ago to remain unbeaten.

Royal were hampered by injuries and illness to several key players during the season. Paceman Chamika Karunaratne missed the entire third term due to studies. Sampath de Silva missed two matches due to injuries while the injury prone paceman Anupa Tillekeratne missed several games due to injury. To add to their woes, Skipper Devind Pathmanathan was down with dengue fever during the peak of the season in February and missed four games.

But Royal's Coach Neil Rajapakse was able to overcome all those problems and produce a champion team. Rajapakse, a coach with a proven track record (having coached the Champion St.Sebastian's team in 2011) was able to harness the talent of the players, motivate them and mould them into a champion outfit.

Second year coloursman Chamika Karunaratne who was having an ordinary season with only 23 wickets in the first term matches rose to the occasion in the big match . In the first innings he destroyed the Thomian batting by capturing five for 51 and came up with another stupendous performance in the second innings by taking four for 32 which gave him a match bag of nine for 83.

Royal batsmen also gave of their best in the big match when they rattled up 260 for five wickets before declaring at the end of the second day. Roanaka Ahangamage who returned to form with two sparkling knocks of 58 and 143 against Prince of Wales led the way with a fine 40. Hashen Ramanayake made a well compiled 43 which gave him a tally of over 750 runs for the season.The lanky Sampath de Silva made a well compiled 61 which was the top score of the Royal innings. The consistent Milan Abeysekara (having scored 74 and 54 against Prince of Wales in the previous week.) had piled up 801 runs before the big match made a sparkling 50 not out just before the rains came down on the second day and was involved in an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 72 with Poorna Aluthge(21 not out).

The victorious Royal College team is seen here after their convincing 88 run win over S.Thomas' College Mount Lavinia which helped them to clinch the Mustangs Trophy, and also the cricket double having won the big match buy seven wickets a week earlier. Skipper Devind Pathmanathan is seen in the middle row(third from left). Also in the picture are front row from left: Roanaka Ahangamage with the best batsman trophy, Isuru Gunatilleke, Chamika Karunaratne holding the "Best Bowler" trophy. In the middle row are Milan Abeysekara(third from right) and Coach Neil Rajapakse (extreme right). Picture by Susantha Wijegunasekara

Hashen Ramanayake who opened bowling in the absence of Anupa Tillekeratne in the second innings, struck two vital blows in the Thomian second innings removing Nipuna Gamage(13) and the dangerous Devin Jayasinghe for a duck.Then the destroyer Chamika Karunaratne took over dismissing opener Deelaka Herath and skipper Javed Bongso before lunch on the third day.

He came back for his second spell and took the wickets of Madushan Ravichandrakumar and Ravindu Tillekeratne in quick succession to open the gates for a Royal win which gave him a match bag of nine for 83.

The Thomians were dismissed for a paltry 132 which gave Royal the simple task of scoring 65 for victory which they achieved in only 11 overs for the loss of three wickets.

Coach Neil Rajapakse paid a glowing tribute to skipper Devind Pathmanathan for his excellent leadership throughout the season and his deputy Milan Abeysekara who stood in as Captain in the absence of Pathmanathan. He also mentioned the guidance and support given by Director of Coaching Dilip Somaratne, Senior Games Master M.T.A.Rauf and Principal Upali Gunasekara which was a great source of strength to him.