Royal in nerve-tingling win beat S. Thomas' by 13 runs

By A.C. De Silva

Flashback: Royal - Thomian cricket matches in the good old days have produced some thrilling finishes and it was the game of 1951 that was played at the Colombo Oval (now the Saravanamuttu Stadium). Some daring declarations brought added excitement to the game in the closing stages and victory went the way of Royal by 13 runs.

It was lowing scoring especially in the first innings and Royal batting first made 146 in their innings and S. Thomas' captained by Roger Inman were in a trouble when their batsmen crashed out and the scoreboard read as pathetic 61 for 7 wickets at which score Inman made an unexpected declaration - that 65 runs behind Royal's first innings score.

Royal batted first and somewhat of a disappointing score of 146 with Thomian bowler C.A. Barrow (5 for 18) and C.M. Samarasinghe (3 for 28) toeing the Royalist batsman down. However, there were two Royalist batsmen S. Unamboowe (31) and Ubhaya de Silva too making the identical score of 31. Royal's score was not good enough, but shocks came S. Thomas' way went they went into bat. Thomian wickets tumbled and the Thomians were in a somewhat a mess with their score 61 for 7 wickets at which score Thomian skipper Roger Inman made a surprising declaration.

After Royal were out for 146 and when the Thomians batted for a few overs and there was rain and play had to be stopped early on Friday. With playing hours those days being from 12 noon to 6.15 p.m. Which left an effective playing time of only 5 1/2 hours for three innings on Saturday.

Play started on Saturday on a damp wicket, though not "sticky" and Royal skipper Vairavanathan handled his bowlers well and kept the Thomian batsmen in check when play started on that Saturday and they slumped to 28 for 5 wickets and it was left E.H. Titus and Samarasinghe to see that the Thomians would get to a reasonable total. Titus was out for 18 and Samarasinghe for 16 and the Thomians scrambled to 61 for 7 wickets at wickets at which score Thomians skipper Inman declared.

Royal batted a time and there were two batsmen T. Vairavanathan (38) and S.S. Jayawickrema (39) gave some muscle to the batting with a third wicket. Stand of 65 runs. Royal seemed to take a bold step and they declared their second innings at 105 runs.

E.H. Titus (3 for 23) and C.M. Samarasinghe (3 for 20) bowled best for S. Thomas' in the second innings.

S. Thomas batted better in their second innings and made 177. D. S. Samuel making 51, Ian Pieris 47 and T. Jayalingam 33 making useful runs, but they fell short by 13 runs as they were all out for 177 runs.

The wicket for Royal were shared by Unamboowe (2 for 49) Arichandran (2 for 44) and Vairavanathan (2 for 17).