Royal College Won Big Match 2013

Royal College, Colombo won the 134th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter after seven years beating their traditional rivals St.Thomas College, Mount Lavinia by 7 wickets short while ago at the SSC grounds, Colombo.

Royal last won in 2006 under Nadun Punchihewa and they are determined to win this year's encounter to level the series, considered the oldest and the uninterrupted inter-school cricket series in the world which began way back in 1880.

The Reid Avenue boys are determined to put an end to five successive drawn games in the series after they suffered an innings defeat at the hands of Ashan Peiris’ Thomians in 2007.

Man of the Match : Chamika Karunaratne(RC)

Highlights

The lads from Cinnamon Gardens remain unbeaten this season, winning four matches outright - against Isipatana, St. Anthony’s Katugastota, Dharmaraja and Thurstan.

Royal, in its proud and rich cricket history, has produced some top cricketers who had played for Sri Lanka with distinction.

Heading that galaxy of world class players is former Royal, NCC and Sri Lanka captain Ranjan Madugalle, now the Chief ICC Match Referee.

He led Royal in the 100th Battle of the Blues encounter. The longest unbeaten run by the Reid Avenue boys in the series was from 1965 to 1987. During the 23-year period without a single big match defeat, Royal emerged victorious on two occasions (1969 and 1983) while the rest of the 21 games were drawn.

Royal's last back-to-back victories in the series were recorded in 1990 and 1991 under Udaya Lakmal Wijesena and Rohan Irriyagolla respectively.

Royal's top order bat Sumithra Warnakulasuriya’s marathon knock of 197 in 1980 has remained the highest individual innings in the series.

Besides Warnakulasuriya, the only other Royalist to score a ‘big match century’ on debut was Jagath Pattiarachchi, who made 100 not out in 1974.

Royal also holds the series record for the highest ever partnership for any wicket - 254 runs for the third wicket between Anushka Polonowita (164) and Yasas Dharmarathne (124) in 1996.

Nigel Fernando is the youngest ever Royal captain in the series.He was only six days short of his 17th birthday when he led the Reid Avenue school in 1989.

In 1983, Royal's Rochana Jayawardene probably produced the best allround effort, stroking an unbeaten 145 not out and capturing 5 for 29 and 4 for 44 (which gave him a match haul of 9 for 73).

In 1930, Barney Gunasekera of Royal too, had an impressive match analysis a top score of 148 and 7 for 57. The highest total recorded by Royal is 432 for 7 declared in 2006.

Of the 132 encounters played todate, S.Thomas’ takes a slight lead with 34 wins to Royal's 33 with the rest drawn.

Royal last won the big match in 2006 under the leadership of Nadun Punchihewa.

Score Card

S.THOMAS COLLEGE

ROYAL COLLEGE

S.Thomas College 1st innings		R	B	4s	6s	SR
D.Herath	b Karunaratne	06	14	01	00
N.Gamage	c Karunaratne b Aluthge	19	41	03	00
J. Bongso	lbw b Karunaratne	05	09	00	00
D.Jayasinghe	st †Abeysekera b Aluthge	74	105	05	03
T.Sumanasiri	run out (Samarasinghe/†Abeysekera)	17	21	03	00
S.De Mel	b Karunaratne	01	04	00	00
H.Nanayakkara	b Thillakeratne	24	78	01	00
M.Ravichandrakumar	b Karunaratne	01	12	00	00
R.Tillakaratne	not out	26	87	04	00
S.Wijesinghe	c †Abeysekera b Karunaratne	04	29	00	00
I.Kularatne	c de Silva b Pathmanathan	01	41	00	00
Extras	14
Total	192
Fall of wickets : 1 for 14 , 2 for 20 , 3 for 52 , 4 for 88 , 5 for 92 , 6 for 158 , 7 for 158 ,8 for 160 , 9 for 183, 10 for 192

Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
C Karunaratne	19.1	3	55	5
A Thillakeratne	6	3	12	1
P Aluthge	17	4	44	2
H Ramanayake	8	1	25	0
H Samarasinghe	7	2	14	0
D Pathmanathan	14	4	23	1
S de Silva	2	0	11	00

Royal College 1st innings		R	B	4s	6s	SR
R.Ahangamage	c Bongso b Nanayakkara	40	41	06	00
I.Gunathilake	lbw b Kularatne	07	12	00	00
S.De Silva	121	121	121	06
H.Ramanayake	b Kularatne	43	86	03	01
H.Kumarasiri	c †de Mel b Wijesinghe	20	42	03	00
M.Abeysekara*		50	58	05	02
P.Aluthge*		21	32	03
Extras	18
Total	260
Fall of wickets : 1 for 38 , 2 for 64 ,3 for 149 ,4 for 180 , 5 for 188

Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
S Wijesinghe	13	1	64	1
I Kularatne	11	2	44	2
H Nanayakkara	7	0	28	1
R Tillakaratne	9	0	35	1
M Ravichandrakumar	16	1	59	0
T Sumanasiri	5	0	21	0
D Jayasinghe	2	0	5	0

S.Thomas College 2nd innings		R	B	4s	6s	SR
D Herath	c †Abeysekera b Karunaratne	25	75	3	0
N Gamage	b Ramanayake	13	19	2	0
D Jayasinghe	c Ahangamage b Ramanayake	0	2	0	0
J Bongso*	lbw b Karunaratne	19	45	2	0
T Sumanasiri	run out (Samarasinghe)	5	25	1	0
S de Mel†	not out	49	106	6	0
H Nanayakkara	c sub (U Sooriyabandara) b Aluthge	3	31	0	0
M Ravichandrakumar	c de Silva b Karunaratne	1	6	0	0
R Tillakaratne	b Karunaratne	0	2	0	0
S Wijesinghe	b Samarasinghe	5	30	1	0
I Kularatne	not out	0	12	0	0
Extras	12
Total	132
Fall of wickets : 1 for 14 , 2 for 22 , 3 for 60 , 4 for 63 , 5 for 73 , 6 for 89 , 7 for 98 , 8 for 100 , 9 for 121 , 10 for 132

Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
C Karunaratne	17	6	32	4
H Ramanayake	10	3	36	2
A Thillakeratne	1	0	7	0
P Aluthge	15	5	27	1
D Pathmanathan	10	4	19	0
H Samarasinghe	5.5	4	4	1

Royal College 2nd innings		R	B	4s	6s	SR
R Ahangamage	c Herath b Nanayakkara	16	19	2	0
I Gunathilake	c Jayasinghe b Nanayakkara	12	15	1	0
S de Silva	11	11	12	1	0
M Abeysekera†	not out	13	10	1	1
Extras	2
Total	47