March Madness is approaching the emerald island with past students from various schools descending to support their alma mater during the festive cricket season. Meanwhile as the greatest and most prestigious of school rivalries in Sri Lanka, the Battle of the Blues, gathers momentum, old boys of these two great institutions met in Auckland for the 5th Royal-Thomian encounter in New Zealand.
The 3rd Sunday in February 2018 was a bright sunny morning in Takanini, Auckland when Thomian captain Randika Peiris tossed the coin to be correctly called by Royal skipper Kasun Eranga, who had no reservations in taking first lease of the wicket.
With an experienced batting line up, Royal backed themselves to regain the title which they surrendered last year. The Thomians on the other hand, fielding a relatively younger side, with a few coloursmen in their ranks had different ideas.
Play commenced immediately after the singing both college songs and the intorduction to the guest of honour. It was a dream start for S. Thomas’ when Royal opener and last year’s skipper Asanga Pathiraja played an irresponsible shot off speedster Oneash Labrooy’s first delivery to offer an easy catch to long on. Mafaaz Ismail walked in to join Subodha Hewage and found difficult to negotiate the pace of Labrooy who was ably supported by fresher Deelaka Weeraratne. Together they dished out probably the most fearsome new ball spell ever at a New Zealand Royal-Thomian. Meshan David and Pramodh Nallapperuma came in at 1st and 2nd change to maintain a tight line and length. At the end of ten overs Royal could only muster 25 runs with less than 15 runs coming off the bat.
The pressure exerted paid off when Mafas was runout off a direct hit from Deelaka at mid-off. Number four batsman Sumudu Maturata played with authority for a while to score a quick 19 runs before skying the ball to Nallaperuma at long on. Soon after Subodha followed suit, offering an easy catch to Meshan. The batsman with the highest series aggregate, Rameez Saldin joined experienced Bhagya Wijeratne in a quest to resurrect the Royal innings. Although the pair stuck it out for a while, they couldn’t get on top of former Sri Lanka U19 players Gihan Fernando and Asiri Wickramanayake bowling in tandem. Pressure was mounting and disaster struck when Rameez took on Nallaperuma at backward point whose brilliant piece of fielding found the Royal stroke maker well short of his crease. Royal captain Kasun Eranga and Sashi joined Bhagya for brief knocks with both being caught out in the deep by Meshan. Jansher Khan was the third Royal batsman to be runout by another direct hit from Oneash who returned to clean up Shammike leg before wicket. Lone soldier Bhagya fought valiantly as he did last year but failed to prevent a Royal collapse as they were dismissed for their lowest score of 94 runs when leggie Sahindu Weerasinghe cleaned up Malik Peiris in the 28th over. Every call by Thomian skipper Randika yielded positive results and was backed up by a dazzling fielding performance which included three direct hits.
Thomian openers coloursman Asiri Wickramanayake and last year captain Malinda Chandrasekere walked in to chase the relatively meagre target of 94 set by Royal in 30 overs. Down but not out, Royal fought hard, backed by some purposeful bowling by Shammike to send both Malinda and one drop batsman Harshana back with just 17 runs on board. Gihan Fernando, the millennium captain of STC joined Asiri and the pair steadied the ship with a stand of 50 runs. With victory in sight a loose stroke from Gihan was held in the deep by Sashi. Fresher Sahindu Weerasinghe walked in next and made sure he was there till the end while Asiri carted Royal bowlers around the park to score consecutive fifties at a NZ Roy-Tho to carry his side home comfortably.
The Royalists performed well in patches throughout the game but couldn’t stand up to a superlative all-round performance from a younger Thomian outfit who came, saw and conquered in style.
Best Batsman – Asiri Wickramanayake (STC)
Best Bowler – Oneash Labrooy (STC)
Best Fielder – Pramodh Nallaperuma (STC)
Man of the Match – Asiri Wickramanayake (STC)
