Chris Dhambarage
COLOMBO : Royal College won the toss and elected to field in their 145th Battle of the Blues Inter-School Big Match against the traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place today.
The Thomians responded well and got off to a good start as their openers Sadev Soysa and Senadhi Bulankulame negotiated the Royal attack to reach 40 for no loss after the first hour of play.
The feature of their batting was that both did not hit a single boundary, but they rotated the strike always with some quick singles and superb running between the wickets.
Royal opened the bowling with Ranuka Malaviarachchi and Dinura Senaratne but both failed to produce any results during the first 10 overs of the game.
Royal immediately decided to use their third bowler as Bulan Weerathunga came into the attack after 11 overs of play.
The Thomian openers were cautious inside the first hour of play as they look to build on this opening stand before accelerating the scoring rate during the final session.
In this year’s encounter, the lads from Mount Lavinia will be led by Mahith Perera while the side from Reid Avenue will play under the captaincy of Sineth Jayawardena, the Under-19 Sri Lanka Skipper.
The current tally between the two schools has Royal leading with 36 wins to S. Thomas’ 35 with the highly-debated match in 1885 — where Royal were all out for nine runs and refused to play on the second day — considered a win by S. Thomas’ and a draw by Royal.
In the 144th Battle of the Blues, under Dasis Manchanayake, Royal recorded a comprehensive 181-run win to register their first victory since 2016.
