Royal Won by 62 Runs:

Rarely in the recent past has a team collapsed from such a safe

position and even rarer has it been that a team had such a fantastic last hour of play. When the scoreboard read 50 for the loss of 2 wickets most of the Royal spectators were starting to get worried wondering whether the home side would face their first defeat for the season. No reasonable man would have placed his bet on Royal to come out trumps and it was indeed a fantastic performance by the lads from Reid Avenue to simply demolish the Nalanda batting line up in their second essay. Royal beat Nalanda by 62 runs and it took nearly 41 years for Royal to beat Nalanda with the last win coming way back in 1968.

The match was throughout on the balance with both teams having an equal chance of winning and it was simply the last hour of the game that really decided which team got the better of the other and it was fitting that Royal did win the match considering the fact that they played better cricket throughout. Royal who had previously beaten three other teams during the third term had the hunger and the ‘know how’ to keep calm in testing situations whilst the Nalandians who have had a poor season found themselves in unfamiliar territory.

The first day was an eventful day with the Nalandians refusing to start play due to the wet nature of the wicket. While the Nalandians were negative Royal were positive to go ahead with the match and they decided to take first lease of the wicket. Batsmen found it difficult to cope with the two paced nature of the wicket and it was only Kithuruwan Vithanage and Yasitha Abeykone who managed to chip in with some worthy contributions. Royal huffed and puffed their way to a formidable 178 runs and by the time the last man departed the awkward two paced nature had fairly subsided and batting had become easier. It was left for The Nalandians to post a good total but they failed in their task due to some penetrative swing bowling by Bhanuka Rajapakse. Chethan Silva who came in at number 4 played some innovative strokes in his brief knock of 45 and n Jayaratne chipped in with 33 but it wasn’t sufficient to go past the total of Royal. In the end Nalanda managed only to score 155 runs gifting Royal a lead of 23 runs. Bhanuka was the chief wrecker capturing four wickets for 33 runs.

Royal faired miserably in the second essay. Their batsmen threw away their wickets trying some unnecessary shots. Their openers failed yet again and it was the ever so consistent Bhanuka who managed to score a fifty with kusal contributing 33 runs. The pitch wasn’t a terror but it was the appaling batting display that helped Nalanda take wickets.the skipper of Nalanda Nipuna bowled a nagging line and length to capture 4 wickets for 31 runs and Adeesha took three important wickets.

Nalanda had 159 runs to score in nearly 40 odd overs and nay other team would have achieved it easily and almost everyone on the ground were worried provided they were Royal supporters  but what transpired the last few hours was simply unimaginable for them. Maneesha Tantrigoda who had previously not got more than three wickets in a first eleven match struck Gold. When he came in to bowl Nalanda had only less than 100 runs to score with 8 wickets in hand. The Nalandians found him too hot to handle and lbw’s became a common sight. The skipper Nipuna who was expected to fire lost his wicket trying to heave him out of the ground. By this time Haroon had started bowling well and both of them were troubling the batsmen and it looked as if they were in a ballet. The batsmen fell like nine pins at it was surprising to see that not a single batsmen was able to play a proper defence or even play out a few deliveries without losing his wicket.

In the end Nalanda fell short by 62 runs thus granting Royal their fourth win of the season and their fourth consecutive win on home ground. Royal have thus far beaten Nalanda 13 times out of the 62 matches played so far with Nalanda recording 8 and the rest ending in draws. Nalanda will have to do a lot of soul searching if they are to pose any threat to the strong Ananda team who have recorded their fifth outright win while Royal will be looking for another win when they take on St Joseph College in their next outing.

Royal: 178 and 136 (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 50, Kusal Perera 33, Adeesha Nanayakkara 3 for 32, Nipuna Karunanayake 4 for 31).
Nalanda: 155 (Chetan de Silva 45, N. Jayaratne 33, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 4 for 31) and 97 (Maneesha Thanthirigoda 5 for 12).