Thomians hold the edge over Royal  

144th Battle of the Blues  

by Reemus Fernando   

Pacemen will hold the key to success when S. Thomas’ meet arch-rivals Royal in the 144th Battle of the Blues which commences at the SSC today.

With both teams fielding wicket-taking speedsters who have collectively done better than their counterparts from other Colombo schools, the skippers are likely to back their quicks to share majority of the bowling duties on conditions favourable for them.

However, of the two pace departments, the Thomians are ahead with new ball bowlers taking credit for the matches they won. The big plus for them is the number of matches their pacemen have taken part in during this season.

Due to injury or for other reasons the four Royal pacemen have played only a limited number of matches compared to their opponents.

The Thomian pace trio of Akash Fernando, Nathan Caldera and Kavindu Dias have accounted for nearly 140 wickets as they played throughout the season.

The Royalists seemed to be experimenting with speedsters until the tail end of the season resulting in their speed quartet accounting for just over 50 wickets. Ranuka Malaviarachchi, who struck form in the quarter-final match against Trinity and the traditional encounter against Prince of Wales has bowled more than any other speedster from Reid Avenue and has 21 wickets against his name. Bulan Weeratunga, who is the only other paceman to have bowled more than 100 overs during the entire season has 16 wickets. Dan Poddiwela commenced the season on a positive note but has bowled just over 60 overs. Sandesh Ramanayake is another player who has not bowled much.

Skipper Dasis Manchanayake, Ramiru Perera and Nethwin Dharmarathne will perform spin duties for Royal, while batting will revolve around Manchanayake and their Sri Lanka Under 19 player Sineth Jayawardana, who has received an exemption from Sri Lanka Cricket to join the National Youth team in UAE after the conclusion of the Big Match.

Manchanayake is among the leading batsmen of the season after having scored over 1000 runs including a double century to an outstanding average of 62 runs. It would be interesting to note how Jayawardana fits into a three-day match after training with the Youth team for a Limited Overs tournament. Rehan Peiris, Uvindu  Weerasekara and Sanvidu Senaratharachchi are the other batsmen the Royalists will rely on.

The Thomians have a long batting lineup with skipper Romesh Mendis leading from the front. Mendis has over 700 runs, while Thisen Eheliyagoda, Mahith Perera and Dineth Goonewardene have all contributed for the team to remain unbeaten this season.

When the two teams take the field the D S Senanayake Memorial Shield is in the possession of S. Thomas’ having last won under Sithara Hapuhinna’s captaincy in 2019. Royal last won in 2016 under G. Panditharathne. The Thomians count the victory tally of this historic series 36-35 in their favour, while Royalists claim it to be level 35-35. The difference is due to the disputed result of the 1885 match where Royal had been bowled out for nine runs in the first innings.