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126th Battle of the Blues : Royal out to give a better display
Royal College will be looking forward to forget their recent setbacks and rise to the occasion with true 'big match spirit' when they take on their traditional rivals S. Thomas' College in their 126th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter to be played at the Singhalese Sports Club grounds, Colombo starting on Thursday. One of Sri Lanka's leading sports promoters - Dialog GSM, has once again come forward to sponsor the Battle of the Blues encounter, thanks to the keen interest shown by its Royal-Thomian combination of the top management - the CEO, Hans Wijesuriya and General Manager Sales and Marketing Nushad Perera. The Reid Avenue Boys suffered their biggest blow in their lead up to the all-important big 'un when they were beaten by Dharmaraja by seven wickets a week ago. But the Royalists are a determined lot to make sure those bitter memories would not affect their morale. The lads from Cinnamon Gardens are set to play a better game when they take on the Thomians in true big match spirit, as experienced over century and a quarter proud history of the game. Royal has often failed to turn their real potential into results this season. Their record of just a solitary win against virtually an unknown school at their level and three defeats do not give a real indication of their formidable side which has failed to deliver the goods at crucial stages. But the 'big match' is a different story altogether and the Reid Avenue boys are all set to forget that bitter experience to give Thomians a good run for their money. Leading Royal this season will be Dimitri Siriwardena, a third year coloursman who is a right handed aggressive top order batsman and a brilliant fielder. He had the honour of captaining the Western Province team in inter-district tournaments and was also the vice captain of the Sri Lanka Under-17 team to India last year. He also cracked an unbeaten century for Sri Lanka under -19 team, against the visiting Qatar national team. Royal's only consolation win this season has been against wooden spoonists Meepawela Amerasuriya MV, Galle. They have lost to St. Joseph's, Prince of Wales and Dharmaraja. Royal have not handled decisive situations correctly and as a result, they have not been successful. While irresponsible batting has let them down in crucial games, they even have thrown away advantageous positions they had, especially in the game against Nalanda. Skipper Siriwardena would add strength to Royal batting, having topped that magical four figure mark this season. He has aggregated 1,093 runs with four centuries - against St. Sebastian's (107), Richmond (100 n.o), Trinity (106) and St. Benedict's (136). His deputy Nadun Puchihewa, is a useful all-rounder. Facing the new ball for Royal will be Sukith Senaratne and Ravinath Gunasekera, two aggressive batsmen who will have to be extra cautious against the penetrative Thomian attack. Adding strength to Royal's middle order batting would be wicket-keeper bat, Malinga Maligaspe, skipper Siriwardena, Gayan de Silva, Samith Nandamulla and Feroze Ahamed. Maligaspe has scored over 700 runs this season. Royal bowling looks sound on paper with a lot of variety. But how good they would come against the Thomian batsmen is left to be seen. The dark horse in the Royal bowling attack would be Haroon Mowjood, the 15-year-old leggie who has captured over 25 wickets. He would certainly play a good supportive role to key off break bowler Dulanjaya Wijeratne and left-arm leg spinner Nadun Punchihewa. Coach, Nalliah Devarajan is confident that his boys would come good when their services are needed the most. Though the boys have not played to their true potential, the former Royal all-rounder expects his team to come up with a fine display at SSC. Royal's last win in the series came 14 years ago when they emerged victorious under Rohan Iriyagolle in 1991. In fact, Royal had back to back wins in 1990 and 1990 under Udaya Lakmal Wijesena and Iriyagolle respectively. But since then, they have failed to savour a big match win for one and a half decades, though they had fancied teams on several occasions. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the highest ever individual innings of the Battle of the Blues series will be Sumithra Warnakulasuriya who cracked a magnificent 197 runs in 1980. He went on to represent Sri Lanka Board President's X1 but was unfortunate not to win a Test cap. Nevertheless, Royal has contributed to the national team over the years. Among the Test cricketers produced by Royal are Ranjan Madugalle, Asantha de Mel, Roshan Jurangpathy, Rohan Jayasekera, Jayantha Amarasinghe and Jehan Mubarak. Madugalle, who figured in five Royal-Thomians from 1975 to 1979 aggregating 328 runs at an average of 46.85, went on to captain the Sri Lanka Test team and is currently the chief match referee of the International Cricket Council. Only two Royal batmen have scored centuries on debut - Jagath Pattiarachchi (100 n.o in 1974) and Warnakulasuriya (197 in 1980). Of the 125 matches played in the series since 1879, Royal have won 32 matches while losing an equal number with 61 drawn. But the inaugural 1879 Royal-Thomian is not counted in the Battle of the Blues series as the teams included two masters from each school. Royal is the first public school in the world to play 1,000 consecutive cricket matches at under-19 level since 1880 to 1997. ROYAL COLLEGE: (from) Dimitri Siriwardena (Captain.), Nadun Punchihewa (Vice captain.), Malinga Maligaspe, Gayan de Silva, Sukitha Senaratne, Akitha Bandara, Samith Nandamulla, Ravinath Gunasekera, Dulanjaya Wijeratne, Haroon Mowjood, Eranga Godamune, Feroze Ahmed, Lakmal Abeysekera, Roshan de Silva, Nalliah Devarajan (Coach).
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