Splendid performances from the Old Royalists enabled them to clinch the Wiji Weerasingha Memorial Trophy after beating Old Thomians at the 9th “Battle of the Blues in Qatar” Cricket and Rugby encounter held on 03rd November 2017 at the Mesaieed grounds in Qatar.
1st XI Cricket Match
This was 15 overs a side match in which the Old Thomians skipper Prasanna Fernando won the toss and invited the Old Royalists to bat first. The Old Royalists lost both their openers early including Prasantha Senarathna, who was dismissed with the very first ball of the match. Nevertheless, elegant left-handed batsman Imal Liyanage scored a brilliant half century which included three massive sixes and six boundaries and Rajeeve Gunawardena scored an unbeaten 31 which helped the Old Royalists post 155. Hemakumar Ganesan was impressive with the ball for the Thomians and he finished his three overs with a figure of 3/22. While chasing a target of 155, the Thomians kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were bowled out for 84 runs. Thomian skipper Prasanna Fernando, Ifthikar Hanas and Dilshan Gunawardena managed to record double digit scores but the other Thomian batsmen failed to perform. Old Royalist Danushka Ranasinghe finished his three overs with a figure of 5/11.
1st XI Cricket Match: Old Royalist won by 71 runs
Old Royalists: 155/8 in 15 overs
Old Thomians: 84 all outLadies’ Match: Royal Ladies won by 5 Wickets
Thomian Ladies: 21/2 in 5 overs
Royal Ladies 25/1Veterans Match: Old Royalists won by 9 wickets
Old Thomians: 99/6 in 10 overs Nishyanden Kandavel 30, Niroshan Wijethilake 2/9
Old Royalists: 102/1, Mohamed Husnee 52*
Rugby Encounter
The touch rugby 7’s encounter added glamour to the day as the Sri Lankan schools’ rugby giants met each other on foreign soil. The Old Royalists continued their winning momentum as they managed to cross the touch line six times while the Old Thomians managed to do so just once.
Final scores: Old Royalists 6 (Dakshina Wickramatunga 3 tries): Old Thomians 1
