The 9th of March dawned with Royal Thomian essence in the air around the SSC grounds as the second oldest uninterrupted cricket was ready to be kicked off for the 139th time. Royal College won the toss and elected to bowl first. From early on in the first session Royal Captain Pasindu Sooriyabandara was prompted to bring in his slower bowlers with the Royal seamers failing to do too much damage. The results of this was instantaneous with Kamil Mishara striking right away by taking the Thomian Vice captain Dulith Gunarathna’s wicket to end the 27 run opening stand. Then it was the Manula Perera show as the young second year coloursman showed why he deserved his place as he took a splendid return catch to dismiss Shalin De Mel as the Thomians went into lunch on 52 for 2. Manula picked up where he left off at lunch taking wickets at regular intervals as he finished the inning with a five wicket haul. The Thomians made a bold declaration as they ended their inning on 166 for 9. The Royalists came out to bat in the closing overs of the day and got off to a rocky start as the Thomian spear head Kalana Perera trapped Bhagya Dissanayake in his very first over.  His second wicket in which he dismissed Gayan Dissanayake was purely thanks to some exceptional fielding by Shalin De Mel at cover point. Kamil Mishara was also dismissed as he was unable to handle the left arm seamer’s short delivery. Royal were struggling at this point but Captain Pasindu and Vice Cpatain Kavindu were able to hold on until stumps  with Royal being 33 for 3.

The Thomians had the upper hand at the start of the 2nd day but with Royals best two batsmen at the crease a good day of Cricket was certain. And that was exactly what they gave the fans as Soori and Kavindu put up a solid 75 run partnership until Soori was edged behind to become Kalana Perera’s 4th victim ending his 46 run inning which consisted of 7 elegant fours and a massive six. Madarasinghe’s fighting knock of 37 came to an end when he pushed a Pavith Rathnayake ball straight to short mid-wicket. Royal were in a spot of bother as wickets continued fall while Kalana Perera completed his 5 wicket haul with the wicket of Themal Bandara. Royal were 151 for 9 as play was halted due to rain. After the brief shower the last pair Manula and Dimal battled hard to get their side a first inning lead, troubling the bowlers so much that Kalana Perera was bought to bowl left arm spin. The hard work paid off as the pairs crucial partnership getting Royal a slight 12 run lead with the Royal first inning ending with Dimal’s wicket. The Thomians who came on to bat started off cautiously scoring 3 runs of 6 overs until the umpires ended the day due to bad light.

The Thomians started off the day with a formidable opening partnership with both Dulith Gunarathna and De Mel scoring half centuries. The Thomians put up a formidable 227 for 6 as they declared. Manula Perera took another 2 wickets to take his total tally to 7 wickets. The Royalists came on to bat with a positive attitude with the game looking like a draw. Then again you never know what can happen to a Big Match until the last ball is bowled. That seems to be the case when the match which looked like a certain draw changed heads and came close to a Thomian victory with Royal wickets falling fast. But Royal Vice-Captain Kavindu Madarasinghe had other ideas has he continued his form and a Man of the Match winning 58 runs to keep the Senanayake Memorial Shield at Reid Avenue for a sixth consecutive year.