The first XI cricket team of Royal College Captained by Harith Samarasinghe and vice-captained by Geeshath Panditharathne proved their visit to the hill capital on the 25^th & 26^th of January 2015, a very successful one when they cruised to an easy 10 wicket win over St. Anthony’s College, Kandy by outclassing their opponents in all aspects of the game. Another prospective aspect for the Royal team was when their skipper Harith Samarasinghe went past his 50 wicket milestone for the season.

The day’s proceedings began with the hosts winning the toss. However, the Anthonian skipper invited the Royal batsmen to take first lease of the wicket. It was a good batting pitch, but naturally was a test for the Royal batsmen as the breezy conditions overhead and the ground conditions below were not in favour of them.

The Royal openers stepped up to the task with Naveen Withanapathirana capitalizing on his good batting form throughout the season. Although Royal had a middle order collapse with the loss of wickets at frequent intervals, Naveen made sure Royal College had the scoreboard ticking. Naveen Withanapathirana went on to make a valuable 94 falling short of a well-deserved century. The Royal skipper Harith Samarasinghe added to the tally with a well moulded 49 while former captain Chamika Karunarathne aslo chipped in with a vital 36. Thus, Royal College declared with a score of 290/8 posting a tough task for the hosts. In terms of the Anthonian bowling, Uditha Mahindarathne ended with figures of 3 for 69 while Nimesh Wanasinghe ended with 2 for 42.

In response to a highly competitive 1^st innings score amassed by Royal College, the hosts had to make an impact from the inception of their inning. However the Royal College bowlers complemented their batsmen by displaying spells of top class bowling. The Anthonians only managed to put up 105 for the loss of 6 wickets at the end of the first days play.

Resuming from an overnight score of 105 for the loss of 6 wickets, the Anthonian lower middle order was further put to test with a great combination of bowling from both the Royal pacers and spinners. The Royal bowlers continued their dominance and had the hosts bowled out for a mere 155 runs. Lasith Ambuldeniya lead from front with figures of 3 for 31, while Chamika Karunarathne bagged 2 wickets for 42 runs.

The hapless Anthonians who were trailing by 135 runs were invited to follow on. This time around, the hosts got off to a reasonably better start and had the game under survival when they went into lunch with a score of 42 for the loss of just one wicket.

After lunch, Royal College turned tables with their skipper Harith Samarasinghe bowling his way into his team’s victory. Harith began the post lunch session with back to back wickets which indeed brought Royal on course of hopes of a victory. At this very stage the Anthonians were struggling at 85 for 6.

Harith Samarasinghe who sparked past his 50 wicket milestone for the season continued to attack the Anthonian batsmen. Wickets continued to crumble and St. Anthony’s College were bowled out for just 154 in their second innings falling short of their first inning score by just one run. Harith Samarasinghe finished with brilliant figures of 8 for 44, while Randev Pathirana bagged 2 for 37. For St. Anthony’s , the only notable performance came from the bat of Damithra Panditharathne who managed to score 35 runs.

Royal College, Colombo who had sights of victory had to score just 20 runs to emerge victorious. With the simplest of tasks in hand, the Royal openers cruised pass 20 with the loss of no wickets, Thus giving Royal College, Colombo a well-deserved win over their opponents.

Match Summary

Toss: St. Anthony’s, who chose to bowl first.

Result: Royal College won by 10 wickets.