S. Thomas’ College, with nine senior coloursmen in their ranks will be brimming with confidence when they take on traditional rivals Royal College in the 144th Battle of the Blues Inter-School Big Match for the D. S. Senanayake Memorial Shield, which begins on Thursday at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place.
This has been a highly successful season for the Thomians as they remained unbeaten having recorded four outright victories against Dharmapala, Isipathana, Mahinda and St. John’s, Jaffna.
The Thomians have packed their side with few all-rounders and their progress too have been quite excellent where they have come out victorious in the first innings in their last eight outings.
The main reason for their success this season has been their ability to claim early wickets where the fast bowlers and the spinners have equally performed extremely well to dismiss the opposition for a low score. In fact, they had the satisfaction of bowling out some of their opponents for less than 100 runs, as they showcased their bowling prowess against
Dharmapala (29 and 27), Isipathana (31) and St. John’s (25 and 61) respectively.
In addition, some of the other teams, who were at the receiving end against this formidable S. Thomas’ bowling attack were Mahinda (101), Maliyadeva (122), St. Benedict’s (104), St. Joseph’s (165), Prince of Wales (129) and St. Peter’s (110) respectively.
“We have three players in the side who have taken over 50 wickets - two fast bowlers and one off-spinner - and if they can claim 20 wickets at the SSC, then we have a good chance,” Head Coach Dinesh Kumarasinghe told the Daily News yesterday.
Pacemen Nathan Caldera and Akash Fernando have always spearheaded the bowling attack quite effectively with Charuka Peiris, Abeeth Paranavidana, Kavindu Dias and Dineth Gunawardena providing the backup support.
Incidentally, Peiris and Fernando had the credit of capturing five wickets or more in an innings on three occasions as the Thomians look to emulate their heroics of 2019, where they triumphed by seven wickets under the captaincy of Sithara Hapuhinna.
Even then, Kumarasinghe was not ready to compare this year’s outfit with the champion 2019 side as the current set of players are still young and they could represent the school for two more seasons.
“I would not compare this side with the 2019 team because we have few youngsters in the line-up but when you look at the season performances they have certainly done well,” Kumarasinghe stressed.
The Thomian Coach, of course, did not have any regrets for missing out the opportunity of competing in the quarter-finals of the Inter-Schools Under-19 Tier ‘A’ Tournament despite their unblemished record. “We were a little bit unlucky because we had to play in a tough group compared to other groups and we lost the vital match against Richmond in the first innings by a mere two runs.”
“I have no regrets at all and in one way I am happy to play these tough matches rather than to play against some weak opponents and win the tournament,” Kumarasinghe emphasised.
“This is a very good all-round side, but I think the batsmen need to focus more on building big partnerships which is a key factor in putting up a good total,” he added. Skipper Romesh Mendis is the leading run-getter with a tally of 776 while Thisen Ehiliyagoda and Mahith Perera have also scored well over 500 runs this season.
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