Skipper Dasis Manchanayake kept up his great play, and Royal College beat their old rivals, S. Thomas’ College, at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place yesterday to take firm control of the 144th Battle of the Blues Inter-School Big Match. After his best score of 137 in the first innings, the elegant left-hander kept making history by becoming the first Royal Captain to score a hundred and a half in the same big match.
Manchanayake, who moved up in the batting order, scored 57 runs from 49 balls, including six fours. This helped Royal get to 168 for four in their second inning, giving them a huge 341-run lead overall. Manchanayake and Uvindu Weerasekera added 62 runs to the total for the third wicket in the same amount of time.
This gave Royal the lead back after they had lost two wickets early on while trying to score quickly. Ramiru Perera was up to the challenge. He hit an unbeaten 46 from 34 balls, including two sixes, and he and wicketkeeper batsman Sanvidu Senaratharachchi added 53 for the unfinished fifth wicket. After bowling out the Thomians for 153 runs and getting a good 173-run lead in the first innings, Royal decided not to enforce the follow-on. Royal ended their first innings with a score of 326 for 8 at the end of the day. They quickly proved that their decision was right by bringing the other team’s score down to 45 for 3 by the end of the 14th over.
The Thomians changed their batting order, but they still had trouble scoring runs and never looked like they would be able to beat the Royals’ attack, which was varied, accurate, and consistent. Senadhi Bulankulama, the opener, worked hard and stayed at the crease for 35 overs to get his highest score of 40. Meanwhile, Mahith Perera, who had been playing for a long time, hit five fours before he was eighth out for 30.
Royal didn’t have much trouble getting rid of the rest of the Thomian team. They took the last three wickets for just two runs, and Sineth Jayawardena took two wickets in seven overs. But the Royal seamers Bulan Weeratunga, Ranuka Malaviarachchi, and Sandesh Ramanayake did most of the hard work because they took seven wickets between them.
