Royal College, Colombo are determined to display their fighting qualities when they take on traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia in the 139th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter that will be played at the SSC grounds on March 9, 10 and 11.
The Reid Avenue boys are famous for their fighting qualities as they proved in the 137th encounter. Trailing heavily on the first innings, they came back strongly on the third day to pull off a stunning four-wicket win by beating the Thomians in 2016.
The Royalist will once again go in as the underdogs, but they are determined to fight back and turn the game in their favour.
Leading Royal this year will be third-year coloursman cum top order batsman Pasindu Sooriyabandara, who is also a safe fielder at any given position.
Despite being the skipper, Sooriyabandara has let his willow to do the talking with a rich harvest of runs scoring over 1200 this season with two centuries and 10 fifties and being the top run getter for the school.
Besides Sooriyabandara, the other Royalists who have scored heavily this season are two left handed top order batsmen vice-captain Kavindu Madarasinghe (who is also the wicket keeper of the side) and Kamil Mishara (who has a top score of 102 against St.Peter’s Bambalapitiya). Both have scored close to 750 runs. Tharindu Senaratne has scored close to 700 runs along with the two openers right hander Bhagya Dissanayake and left hander Gayan Dissanayake each of whom have over 600 runs under their belt.
Royal could boast of many bowlers who have performed extraordinarily this season with left-arm spinner Manula Perera heading the honours list with over 85 wickets. Both right-arm medium paceman Lahiru Madusanka and Bimal Wijesekara too have been enjoying a good time with the ball, capturing nearly 35 wickets.
There is also plenty of variety in the Royal spin department with Kamil Mishara the off-spinner capturing 50 plus wickets. They could keep their options open with the possibility of left-arm chinaman Gayan Dissanayake (who had a five-wicket haul against Wesley) turning out to be an effective bowler. He has over 25 wickets and would probably come into bowl as the second or third change bowler.
Royal has emerged victorious on six occasions from 18 outings this season. They have beaten Dharmaraja College Kandy, Dharmaloka College Kelaniya, Wesley College, Siri Piyaratana Vidyalaya Padukka, Kegalu Maha Vidyalaya and Piliyandala Central whilst losing to St. John’s College Jaffna by 10 runs.
The Battle of the Blues encounter started way back in 1879 with Ashley Walker leading the Royal College outfit in the first encounter and winning the game by 56 runs.
So far out of the 138 encounters that have been played, Royal have won on 35 occasions. Jagath Pattiarachchi (100 not out in 1974), Sumithra Warnakulasuriya (197 in 1980) and Pasindu Sooriyabandara, the present Royal College captain (123 in 2016) remain as the only Royalists to score centuries on debut.
The honour of making the highest opening partnership goes to Sukitha Senaratne and Malinga Maligaspe who added 218 runs for Royal in 2006 while the highest partnership for any wicket is shared by Anushka Polonowita and Yasaswin Dharmaratne who added 254 runs for the 3rd wicket in 1996. Neil Joseph (1925 & 1926) has the rare distinction of scoring more than one century during their Royal-Thomian careers for Royal. Only two Royalists, Malinda Thotuwilage (95 & 108) and Ganganath Ratnayake (75 & 111 not out) have achieved a rare batting double (a century and a fifty) in the same game for the Royalists in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Royal made the highest team total in the series 432/7 at SSC in 2006. The lowest Royal team score is 9 all out at Galle Face in 1885. For Royal the leading batsmen are Sumithra Warnakulasuriya (1980-82) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (2007-11) - both having scored 386 runs in their Royal-Thomian careers. Rajapaksa has also taken 14 wickets for 306 runs, establishing himself as one of the most successful all-rounders at the Royal-Thomian.
J.R. Jayewardene, who became the first President of Sri Lanka, donned the Royal cap in 1925.
Notable Royalists who have played in the Royal-Thomian cricket match are J.R. Jayewardene, Sir John Lionel Kotalawela, Sir Forester Obeysekera, Neil Joseph, Robert de Krester, former Army commander B. R. Heyn, Churchill Hector Gunasekara, B. W. Bawa, L.B. Bulankulama, Eran Wickramaratne, Ranjan Madugalle, Gamini Goonesena, Fredrick C. de Saram, Donald Rutnam, ex Navy commander Basil Gunasekara, Muhammad Ajward Macan Markar, Fritzroy Crozier, Nihal Kodituwakku, Daya Sahabandu, Asantha ce Mel, Sudath Pasqual, Jayantha Amerasinghe, Rohan Jayasekera, Roshan Jurangpathy, Jehan Mubarak, Pradeep Jayaprakashdaran, Kithuruwan Vithanage, Kusal Perera, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
This year the Royal team is coached by experienced former Ananda College, SSC, Sri Lanka under 19, Sri Lanka 'A' and Sri Lanka national cricket captain Thilina Kandamby.
Royal last emerged victorious in 2016 under Geeshath Panditharatne. Last year the game ended in a draw.
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