142nd Battle of the Blues

The rain hampered 142nd edition of the Battle of the Blues saw only six Royal batsmen came to bat against the arch rivals S. Thomas. According to Battle of the Blues statisticians this is only the second time it has happened.

The match which was twice postponed due to pandemic related issues was finally played behind closed doors at the SSC but after the entire first day’s play was lost due to wet ground and inclement weather conditions a draw was the only possible out come. S. Thomas’ fielded one of the youngest teams in recent times with some players eligible to play in the Big Match in 2024 as well.

The huge gap of experience between the two teams was evident soon after Royal decided to bowl first as the Thomians lost the first eight wickets for 35 runs.

Paceman Sonal Amarasekara rattled the top order with a devastating spell before Gishan Balasuriya mopped up the middle and late order with his four wicket haul.

It was the ninth wicket pair of Yasiru Rodrigo and fresher Mahith Perera who helped them survive till the close of play on the second day adding 38 runs.

The Thomians were a young team but two of their key players, the skipper Shalin de Mel and Sri Lanka Under 19 player Ryan Fernando too failed to score.

Royal in their essay posted 112 for four wickets declared with Isiwara Dissanayake top scoring with 47 runs.

Commencing the second innings the Thomians lost their first wicket for no runs as Romesh Mendis was out for no runs for the second time in the match. But Anuk Palihawadena and de Mel kept their wickets intact before the match was stopped for bad light.

This Big Match had not been interrupted even during the two World Wars and local insurgencies. The organizers managed to keep intact that status by conducting the match behind closed doors. However, lack of covers to protect the ground during rain prevented the first day’s play. There were only four covers to protect the ground when rain started in the morning and two additional covers were used later on day one. There were only 15 ground staff to remove covers on day one. Though rain ceased well before the scheduled start on day one the ground staff could not prepare the ground till around 2.00 pm for umpires to have their first inspection.

However, the SSC had acquired double that number of staff by the second day and some 15 covers were used on day two making it possible for the 142nd edition of the Battle of the Blues to see the light of day.

According to statisticians the last time only six batsmen came to the middle to score for Royal was in 1971. Royal scored 295 for two wickets declared with three batsmen coming to the crease in the first innings. Jagath Fernando scored a century for Royal in that innings. In the second innings Royal used five batsmen and scored 13 for three wickets declared.