When a charm, mild mannered young boy walked into the Royal College junior grounds four years ago, a bat and luggage in hand little did anyone think he would go on to become one of the most depended upon cricketers for the Royal College cricket team.

Thomian opening bat Kavindu Perera has been ruled out for the annual Royal Thomian encounter due to a fractured toe. Team sources told ThePapare that Perera had fractured his toe while fielding at the SSC at 10 am today. The loss of Perera who is a hard hitting batsman would be a big blow to the Thomians,Perera’s replacement is likely to be seventeen year old Brian Dharmasena.

Thepapare caught up with a very confident Royal College team before the 131^st encounter. They look to be shaping up well for the big one. We spoke to the skipper Banuka Rajapakse, vice captain Maneesha Tantrigoda, Senior players Kithruwan Withanage, Ramith Rambukwella, Chalaka Bogoda and fresher Imran Khan to get their views on the big match.

Thurstan College won their annual one day match played against their traditional big match rivals Isipathana by 2 wickets at the P.Sara which was worked off today played for the W.A De Silva Memorial trophy.

It was a gutty fight back by Ananda College after having half of their top order back in the pavilion for a very low score in the first few overs. Nalanda College pace bowler Rangana Cooray wrecked through the Ananda batting ending up to end up with figures of 5/54. His fiery spell gave the Nalandians the early advantage in the match.