Dinesh Weerawansa for the Observer Online from SSC grounds
Royal, helped by a superb knock of 83 by skipper Ramith Rambukwella, progressed to 241 for 5 at tea on the opening day of their 132nd Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter against S.Thomas' begun at SSC grounds, Mailtland Place in Colombo today.
The Thomians came back into the picture 30 minutes after lunch as Royal slumped from a commanding 147 for one to 217 for 5, losing five top wickets with the addition of only 70 runs.
At lunch, Royal were strongly placed at 109 for one wicket. Earlier in the morning, Thomian captain Chamod Pathirana surprise all when he invited Royal to take the first lease of a perfect batting strip after winning an important toss.
Pathirana's decision was instantly proved wrong as Royal openers Ramith Rambukwella and Waruna Dissanayake added 91 runs for the first wickets in 25.3 overs without facing any serious trouble from the Thomian bowlers.
In fact, the only Royal wicket to fall in the pre-lunch session was a 'gifted' one as Dissanayake played a half-hearted shot to a full toss from Ravichandrakumar. But the Thomians struck shortly after lunch to capture two wickets within the space of 17 balls, including that prized wicket of Royal captain Rambukwella who narrowly missed a successive big match century.
Opener Rambukwella, who had the honour of playing for Sri Lanka Under-19 recently with distinction, fell 17 runs short of what would have been his second successive 'ton' in the Battle of the Blues series, having struck a blistering knock of 165 for Reid Avenue boys in last year's encounter.
Rambukwella missed the golden chance of becoming only the second Royalist to score back to back big match centuries after Neil Joseph (113 in 1925 and 133 in 1926) when he was caught behind. He miss timed a ball pitched outside the off stump by his vis-…-vis Chamod Pathirana and Sachin Peiris, behind the stumps, obliged with an easy catch.
Had the Royal captain played his usual attacking game like previous year after lunch, he would have well completed his century.
Chief scores: Royal first innings 241 for 5 at tea
(Ramith Rambukwella 83, Waruna Dissanayake 42, Supun Subasinghe 19, Imal Liyanage 27, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 43 not out, Chamod Pathirana 3 for 72, Madushan Ravichandrakumar 2 for 36) vs. S. Thomas' College - Match in progress at SSC grounds
Await! Close of play update to follow.