Royal College cruised to a seven-wickets victory over S. Thomas’ College, ending a six-year wait for a win, as paceman Chamika Karunaratne impressed for a second consecutive day completing a match-bag of nine wickets to decide the destiny of the 134th Battle of the Blues Big Match at SSC Ground, Colombo yesterday.
The new ball bowlers, Karunaratne and Hashen Ramanayake, delivered early blows on the third day morning to hasten the Thomian collapse and turn the direction the 134th Battle of the Blues, which was otherwise heading for a draw after the evening sessions of the first two days were affected by rain. In reply to Thomians 192 runs, Royal were 260 for five wickets at close on the second day. After Royal declared on their overnight score, the Thomians had a deficit of 68 runs to close and soon they were in trouble as the Royal speed duo rattled their top-order line-up reducing them to 63 for four wickets.
Karunaratne picked up four wickets in the second innings to restrict Thomians to 132 runs and it left the Royalists with a target of 65 runs to chase. They scored the win need for the loss of three wickets in the third over of the final session. Milan Abeysekara who scored an unbeaten half century in the first innings knocked off the winning runs after medium paceman Helakamal Nanayakkara accounted for the top three batsmen.
For Thomians, apart from middle-order batsman Sanesh de Mel, who was stranded on 49 runs, no other Thomian could showcase a glimpse of the grit the Thomians are famous for producing at difficult situations. While freshers could not cope up with the pressure, even experienced coloursmen including Thilaksha Sumanasiri panicked becoming victims to run outs.
What the skipper Devind Pathmanathan’s team achieved was their first win in six years. After Nadun Punchihewa’s team beat S. Thomas’ in 2006, six Royal College teams including some formidable teams with Sri Lanka Under-19 players saw Thomians winning once and the rest of the matches being drawn.
Chamika Karunaratne was adjudged the Man of the Match and the Best Bowler of the match, while Devind Jayasinghe received the Best Batsman award. Winning team skipper Devind Pathmanathan received the award for the Best Fielder.
According to Royalists, yesterday’s win has now set the victory tally on 34-34. According to Thomians the tally stands at 35-34 in favour of them.
By Reemus Fernando
Source:The Islands (Sri Lanka)