2009 Match report - Sydney Royal Thomian

Reported by Doosra!

St Thomas College NSW OBA outclassed the Royal College NSW OBA in the “Sydney Battle of the Blues” as the annual cricket encounter was contested in a friendly spirit, in the northern suburbs of Sydney at Ted Horwood Reserve Baulkhalm Hills,NSW

Thomian skipper Gimantha Jayasinghe won the toss and invited the Royalist to take the first lease of the wicket. Anuk de Silva had the Royalist in trouble in the very first over trapping Yathis Raben lbw for a duck. Both Anuk de Silva and Anthony Abeynaike bowled a tight line and length to keep the Royal batsmen tied down.

Harshana Ariyaratne and Kavisha De Silva repaired the early damage with some solid defense and sharp running between the wickets. De Silva stroked a couple of boundaries before Richie De Silva lured him into a loose shot to be caught in covers. Don Jayasinghe and Richie De Silva who returned figures of 2 for 21 and 2 for 9 had the Royalist in all sorts of trouble from their on.

Ariyaratne was the next to go trying to up the scoring rate when he was caught brilliantly by Anuk de Silva on the long on boundary for 14 .The Royal skipper Prasad Chelliah could only add 2 more runs to the total before being trapped plum in front by an in swinging yorker from Richie De Sillva. Don Jayasinghe found the edge of the new batsmen Ruwan Weerakoon for a duck and had the Royalist struggling at 5 for 49.

Lalin De Silva and Neshan Dias set about repairing the early damage by digging in and working the singles around trying to consolidate the Royal innings. De Silva in particular started to play expansive shots and looked to cut loose. He was soon dismissed by a brilliant piece of wicket keeping by Darnley Van Culenberg off the bowling of  “Tangles” AKA Duke Ramachandran for 28.

Wijesekera kept his end going with a good mixture of solid defense and aggressive hitting.  Together with Dias he put on  21 runs for the 6th wicket before Anthony Abeynaike had him caught at long on for a well compiled 23. Abeynaike ran through the Royal tail with some accurate bowling. He had Wijesekera caught at midwicket when Denham Williams held on to a skier at Mid wicket for 12 and skipper Jayasinghe took a blinder to dismiss Dulip de Livera for a duck. Prasad Ganesh the last man was run out off  the first delivery of the 40th over to end the Royal innings at 124, setting the Thomian’s a target of 125 to win.

For the Thomian’s, the attack was led by Anthony Abeynaike (3-30), the “evergreen” Richie De Silva (2-9) ,Don Jayasinghe (2-21) and supported by Duke Ramachandran (1-18) and Anuk de Silva (1-23).

Royal got off to flyer when Ruwan Weerakoon trapped Thomian opener Ashan Senathirajah plum in front for a duck. The Thomian skipper Gimantha Jayasinghe joined Denham Williams and repaired the early damage with a good mixture of solid defense and all-out attack when any loose ball presented itself. The stand took on menacing proportions as Jayasinghe was severe on anything loose. Williams presented a straight bat and kept working the ball around. Jayasinghe and Williams took the game away from the Royalist by putting on 74 runs for the first wicket. Unlike the Royalist, they scored runs at ease before Williams lofted  a pull shot to be caught in the deep off Duleep de Livera. Jayasinghe soon brought up his half century with a pull shot to mid wicket. Anuk de Silva who joined Jayasinghe at the fall of Williams wicket was happy to knock the ball around for the Thomiam skipper to blast the royal attack to all parts of the ground. Jayasinghe was in menacing mood where he hit 4 sixes with two of them clearing ground to be unbeaten on 71. Anuk de Silva was unbeaten on 18 when the Thomian’s went pass the target of 125, to beat Royal convincingly by 8 wickets.

A most enjoyable day was brought to an end with the key awards being presented to;

Gimantha Jayasinghe (Best Bastman (STC)

Don Jayasinghe (Best Bowler (STC)

Darnley Vanculenberg (Best Fielder (STC)

Gimantha Jayasinghe (Man of the Match (STC)

The Thomians celebrated the win with the singing of the college anthem and retaining  the E.C. Gunasekara challenge trophy.

Chief Scores

Royal OBA NSW – 124 All out in 39.1 Overs

Harshana Ariyaratne 14, Lalin de Silva 28, K de Silva 21, Neshan Dias 23
Anthony Abeynaike 3 for 30, Richie de Silva 2 for 9, Don Jayasinghe 2 for 21

STC OBA NSW – 126 for 2 off 26.4 Overs

Gimantha Jayasinghe 71 not out, Denham Williams 25

Ruwan Weerakone 1--25, Duleep de Livera 1-31

Teams

Royal: Prasad Chelliah (Captain) Yathes Ruban, Lalin De Silva, Duleep De Liviera, Ruwan Weerakoon, Harshana Ariyaratna, Rajitha Wijesekera, K de Silva, Vineeetha Rajakaruna, N Dias, P.Ganesh

S. Thomas': Gimantha Jayasinghe (Capt), Richie De Silva , Anthony Abeynaike,  Duke (Tangles) Ramachandran,  Anuk De Silva, Denham Williams, Darnley Van Cuylenberg, Thavanga Wimalasuriya, Ruwan Fernando, Ashan Senathirajah, 12th Man Shalindra de Silva