The 1^st XI Cricket team of Royal College lead by skipper Harith Samarasinghe clinched their 3^rd victory for the season, by an Innings and 85 runs, last Tuesday the 16^th of December 2014. The win came against the 1^st XI cricket team of St. John’s College, Jaffna, Captained by S. Kapilraj, when they visited Royal College on the 15^th & 16^th of December 2014, for the first time in 11 years since 2003.

The toss was won by the Royal skipper, who took first use of the pitch. Naveen Withanapathirana and Hasitha Samarasinghe opened the batting for Royal and managed to build a first wicket partnership of 25 runs, before Naveen was bowled for 14 runs. Hasitha was then joined by the Vice Captain Geeshath Pandithrathne and the duo took the score to 135 runs, a total of 110 runs for the 2^nd wicket. The partnership was broken when Hasitha Samarasinghe fell after scoring 70 runs, caught behind off Raveendran Lohateeswar. Wickets then started falling at regular intervals after short partnerships of 20s or 30s. Ultimately the Royal 1^st innings was concluded when the skipper declared the innings at 238 runs (off 66.4 overs) for the loss of 6 wickets. The leading scorer for Royal was Hasitha Samarasinghe for his score of 70 runs, the leading wicket taker being Jayakumar Kishantujan for his 2 wickets for just 17 runs.

The 1^st innings of St. John’s College did not set off the way they’d have liked it. The first couple of wickets were lost for just 1 run and the visitors were 3 down for just 16 runs on the board. The innings quickly tumbled for 69 runs (4 ducks) dominated by Lasith Embuldeniya who took 6 wickets for just 19 runs. The top scorer for St. John’s College was the leading bowler himself Jayakumar Kishantujan for his 15 runs.

Following on, the boys from Jaffna did go past their first innings score, but still were not good enough to equal the massive 238 first innings score set by the Home team. Bowled out for 84 runs, the top scorer for St. John’s College this time was the left-handed number 8 batsman Thevaraja Kajeeban after a quick fire 38 runs off 30 balls with 8 elegant boundaries around the park. The former skipper Chamika Karunarathne lead the bowling attack for Royal, bagging yet another 5 wicket haul for 23 runs bowling just 33 balls. Earlier in the innings Chamika Karunarathne secured the first hat-trick for Royal, for this season taking the 4^th, 5^th & 6^th wickets of St. John’s College in quick succession.

The clock struck 2.30pm when Chamika struck the wicket of the number 11 batsmen for yet another 1^st ball duck, thus winning the match for his side, once again!

The 3^rd win by an innings at the current 1^st XI Cricket season with only 6 games been played so far portrays the competency of the Royal 1^st XI side with only 80 days to go to the 2^nd oldest & continuous cricket rivalry of the world: the 136^th Battle of the Blues. It must be noted that the big-match winning side in 2013 had also not won this many matches, by an innings.

With 9 matches remaining before the big-match, the Royal cricketers can walk into Kandy on the 2^nd day of the New Year, with their heads held high looking for yet another victory, this time against St. Anthony’s College.

Match Summary

Toss: Royal, who chose to bat first.

Umpires: Mr. Vidura Prasad & Mr. Susiri Fernando

Scorers: Derku Fernando & Prabath Fernando

Result: Royal College won by an innings and 85 runs.