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| Sunday, 09 March 2003 |
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Royal confident of winning this year by LAL GUNASEKERA Since the three-day game was introduced in 1979 - the centenary year of the Battle of the Blues, schools cricket encounter between the traditional rivals, Royal and S. Thomas' only six decisions have been reached (three by either side). The 124th game between these two schools is to be staged at the picturesque SSC grounds at Maitland Place on March 13,14 and 15 and whether a decision could be reached is left in the hands of the two captains who should play positive cricket. Both schools have won 32 games each, while 59 have been left drawn. The Thomians last won in 1999 under Naren Ratwatte and two years before (1997) they won under H.N.G. Pieris. Anura Bulankulame led them to a historic victory in 1988 - a win that was achieved by the Thomians after 24 years. Royal's last win in the series was in 1991 under Rohan Iriyagolle after winning the previous year (1990)too under U.L. Wijesena. The Royalists won in 1993 as well under Chulaka Amarasinghe. This year (2003) the Royalists under Rochana Wijeratne, have already clinched the league title and are confident of doing well in this three-day game against the Thomians. Royal have four outright wins under their belt this season - defeating St. Benedict's, Dharmapala, Dharmasoka and St. Anthony's. They possess some good batsmen in the two openers Dimithri Siriwardene and Velu Arulprakash. The former scored 155 against Richmond, while the latter is the wicket-keeper of the side too. Then comes Tharanga Edirimuni, Navin Dias, skipper Rochana Wijeratne, former skipper Ganganath Ratnayake, Janith Jayawardene and Tharaka Kottehewa. Its quite a strong batting line-up with the skipper making 107 versus Trinity, apart from about seven half centuries, Ratnayake scored 124 against Dharmapala, while Jayawardene made 100 in the game with Isipatana. Royal's bowling is spearheaded by Kottehewa and Pradeepan Jayaprakash with the former having a match haul of 12 wickets against Wesley. Among the other leading wicket takers are the two right-arm orthodox spinners Ganganath Ratnayake and Danushka Edusuriya, while there is also the left-arm spinner Heshan Morawaka. Royal's coach Roger Wijesuriya said: "We have a good chance of winning, but are not too cocky. We will play positive cricket. We have six freshers and have improved tremendously. We have a a good balanced batting line-up and an equally good bowling side where the paces have taken 21 wickets between them. Winning the league was great and the boys are looking forward to winning the big 'un too. Everyone has contributed their share to the success and Rochana Wijeratne, as captain, has done well. I do not interfere when the game is in progress and allow the captain to take decisions." The Thomians led by Arjuna Rajawasam has two outright victories - against Thurstan and Dharmapala, while winning seven on the first innings with three ending in no-decisions. Four Thomian batsmen, including Rajawasam, who now bats at No. 4, have scored over 500 runs. Rajawasam has made 554, Kaushal Silva who is a member of the Sri Lanka under-19 outfit has made 671 runs, Damith Warsuwithana 500 and Isuru Warnakulasuriya 549. Then there is Navin Perera and Sajeev Mendis, the son of former Sri Lanka's dashing batsman Duleep who has been among the runs apart from taking over 20 wickets too with his spinners. The new ball will be handled by Tharindu Fernando and Shehan Shanthikumar with the former taking over 40 scalps and latter about 20. Fernando is a left-arm 'quickie', while Pramuditha Rodrigo, too, is a fine paceman taking 27 wickets. Among the spinners are Sanjeev Mendis, Videsh Balasubramaniam (leg-spin) and Suneth Perera (off-pin). Ranil Abeynaike, who led the Thomians in 1973 when Royal was captained by Ajith Pasqual, is the Thomian coach this season. He said: "We got off to a great start in the third term games and then we had some injury problems that upset the run a little bit. However, within the last two to three weeks, we have bounced back slowly. Balasubramaniam was out for about three months due to a groin injury and I am working on his rhythm. I am confident of the side and we want to play positive cricket and we are planning our strategy. Royal (from): Rochana Wijeratne (captain), Velu Arulprakash, Dimithri Siriwardene, Tharanga Edirimuni, Navin Dias, Ganganath Ratnayake, Janith Jayawardene, Tharaka Kottehewa, Heshan Morawaka, Danushka Edusuriya, Pradeepan Jayaprakash, Dhanushka de Saram, Nadun Punchihewa and Chaturanga Punchihewa. S. Thomas' (from): Arjuna Rajawasam (captain), Tharindu Fernando (vice captain), Kaushal de Silva, Videsh Balasubramaniam, Pramuditha Rodrigo, Damith Warsuwithana, Shehan Shanthikumar, Suneth Perera, Navin Perera, Sanjeev Mendis, Isuru Warnakulasuriya, Dhanushka Colombage and Sajith Kularatne. |
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