Royal College Skipper Dasis Manchanayake joined an elite select band of players when he hammered an unbeaten double hundred in their Under-19 Inter-Schools Division One Two-Day Cricket Tournament Tier ‘A’ match against Gurukula College Kelaniya.
The elegant left-hand middle order batsman scored a run-a-ball 200 not out with the help of two sixes and 25 boundaries to become the seventh player to score a double century for the Reid Avenue School in a First XI cricket encounter.
Manchanayake’ effort was even more significant as he walked into bat under tremendous pressure when Royal had lost four wickets for a mere six runs inside the first four overs, after they had elected to bat first.
But he found an equally good partner in Uvindu Weerasekera (92) and the pair repaired the early damage with a solid fifth-wicket partnership of 151 runs in 25 overs.
Manchanayake added a further 51 runs for the sixth wicket with young Anush Polonowita and thereafter, he put on 81 runs for the seventh wicket along with Geeshan Perera.
However, Manchanayake’s task became even more difficult and his hopes of reaching the double century was in the balance when Royal lost their ninth wicket at 365 putting last man Bulan Weeratunga under enormous pressure. The Royal Captain was on 193 when the ninth wicket fell but he made certain that he took most of the strike from the Gurukula bowlers during the latter
part of the innings by protecting the last man and eventually achieved his dream double century before declaring their first innings in the 73rd over.
Meanwhile, the first player to score a double century for Royal was right-hand middle order batsman Carl Theodore Van Geyzel, who struck 202 in their Inter-Schools Under-19 match against St. Benedict’s College, way back in 1920.
This record stood for 63 long years before opening batsman and Skipper Chulaka Amarasinghe rewrote Royal’s cricketing history with a magnificent 207 not out against Wesley College in 1983 at Campbell Park.
After 36 years, Royal were able to produce two double centurions in successive matches during the 2019 season with Sri Lanka Youth Caps Kamil Mishara and Pasindu Sooriyabandara becoming the third and fourth Royalists to join the elite 200-club.
Kamil scored a marathon 250 runs against Ananda College at Ananda Mawatha on January 18, 2019, while Pasindu scored an unbeaten 202 against St. Mary’s College Chilaw at Reid Avenue on January 26, 2019.
Thereafter, in 2020 Kavindu Madarasinghe cracked an unbeaten 200 against Trinity College at the Asgiriya Stadium and Skipper Ahan Wickramasinghe scored an unbeaten 210 also against Trinity at Reid Avenue in 2021.
In fact, Wickramasinghe’s 210 not out was also the highest individual score at Reid Avenue while erasing the previous best of 200 made by Madarasinghe in the previous year.
The 200-Club at Royal College:
1. Carl Theodore Van Geyzel: 202 v St. Benedict’s in 1920.
2. Chulaka Amarasinghe: 207 not out v Wesley in 1983.
3. Kamil Mishara: 250 v Ananda in 2019.
4. Pasindu Sooriyabandara: 202 v St. Mary’s, Chilaw in 2019.
5. Kavindu Madarasinghe: 200 not out v Trinity in 2020.
6. Ahan Wickramasinghe: 210 not out v Trinity in 2021.
7. Dasis Manchanayake: 200 not out v Gurukula in 2023.
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