140th Battle of the Blue: Thomians make history

COLOMBO (News 1st) - St.Thomas' College made history today(March 09) by defeating Royal College by 7 wickets to clinch the 140th Battle of the Blues after 12 long years and took home the Hon. D.S. Senanayake Memorial Shield to Mt. Lavinia. The opening batting session at SSC, the Royalists scored 158 runs. Thomians responded with 296 runs in 39 overs with Umayanga Suwaris and Kalana Perera scoring 62 runs each. Trailing by 138 runs, Royal in their 2nd innings secured 259 runs with Pasindu Sooriyabandara making a valiant effort to save the Royalists by scoring 67. Shalin de Mel of S.Thomas' College made an iconic performance by taking 7 catches in the match and ultimately breaking the record set by Royalist C. T. van Geyzel in 1920 to become the player to take the highest number of catches in a battle of the blues encounter. For the Royal second innings, Kamil Mishara scored 34 and Ahaan Sanchitha added 26. Sri Lankan Cricket under 19 Captain Kalana Perera bagged 9 wickets in the encounter. The Thomians entered the ground with a target of 122 on the horizon which they pursued within 20 overs with 7 wickets in hand. Shalin de Mel scored a magnificent 67 runs to pave the path to a Thomian victory and take home the prestigious D.S. Senanayake Memorial Shield. Sri Lanka Cricket under 19 prodigy Kalana Perera who excelled with both bat and ball was awarded the man of the match. St.Thomas' last win was way back in 2007 under the captaincy of Ashan Peiris.