COLOMBO – Coach of the victorious Royal College First XI Cricket Team Rohan Soysa believes that Skipper Dasis Manchanayake was the most influential player in the 144th Battle of the Blues Inter-School Big Match against the traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College played at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place.
Royal defeated S. Thomas’ by 180 runs shortly after tea on the third and final day to regain the Rt. Hon. D. S. Senanayake Memorial Shield after a lapse of seven years having last won in 2016 under the captaincy of Geeshanth Panditharatne.
“The captain was the key player in this Big Match. The way he batted, bowled and fielded was outstanding. His captaincy and the way he handled the match was exceptional, always with a smiling face. He really enjoyed the game,” Soysa stressed.
The Royal Coach also said that their first day’s batting performance was the turning point in this Big Match after they were put into bat by the opposition.
“The first day was the turning point when we got that score of 326 runs in the first innings. We knew that we had the game in the bag at that moment,” he added.
Soysa said that their outstanding fielding was another area that helped them to win the Big Match apart from some excellent bowling and batting on all three days.
“I think it was a fantastic all-round effort but ultimately, we won the Big Match because of our fielding as we held on to all the catches that came our way.”
“We held on to about six to seven very good catches and those were not easy. We stuck to our gameplan, and we bowled to a good line and length and there were not too many loose deliveries from the team,” he stressed.
The former Sri Sumangala College, Panadura and Sri Lanka ‘A’ player said that Royal played positive cricket on all three days despite the early setback of losing a couple of quick wickets on the opening day.
“We managed to put them on the backfoot on the very first day by scoring over 300 runs. We had a very good plan for the Big Match with our fast bowlers and four spin bowlers and the batting line-up.”
