IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING
This is not a commercial for
ADIDAS, it is simply a belief among all who followed Royal College 1 st XI
cricket in the recent past.
12th March 2005. S. Thomas'
College beats Royal College by innings and 28 runs. It was the day that
broke us, it was the day that made us. This day made all Royal cricketers
and their supports wait in eagerness until 9th March 2006 for some payback.
A new coach, Mr. Chulaka
Amarasinghe, a former Royal Captain who led his side to victory in 1983 was
introduced for the following season (2005/2006). He drilled in to us,
firstly to let bygones be bygones and secondly that in the 2nd week of March
we would prove ourselves to everyone. On the very first day of practice for
the season the seniors had a chat with the squad and made a pact to win the
127th Battle of the Blues. You could say that it was a lethal combination: a
coach obsessed with winning and under him a bunch of cricketers who had one
collective goal, to beat the Thomians.
The matches got underway and Royal
performed reasonably well, though not outstanding. The bowling department
was most impressive. Out of the 15 games we played only Trinity managed to
score over 250 against us. The batting was good but lacked consistency. We
failed to reach 300 during the season, but our team policy was to declare
soon after reaching 250. This attitude I believe was the key ingredient for
our success. The Thomians too had a good season but unlike us, their main
worry was their bowling and the strong point was their batting. Yes you
guessed it right, the talk of the town was "The Thomian batting Vs. the
Royal bowling. We were silently confident since we knew that to win a game,
you need to have enough fire power in your attack to bowl a side out twice
and we were the team that had it.
The build to the match was just
amazing. The whole College was buzzing with excitement. The prefects of
2005/2006 should be applauded for creating this atmosphere at College. The
same team that lost the previous year was to play again but the prefects
motivated the school
boys to give their fullest support
to us, so much that it felt as if we were in to the match having won the
past 5 Roy-Thos on the trot. For this the team will forever be grateful to
the prefects.
The traditional one week camp
started on the 3rd of March. Though no games were played during this period,
the intense training sessions especially the fielding sessions helped to
keep us in top gear. The traditional General Assembly was held the day
before the match in front around 4000 students. This is one of the most
cherished moments for any 1st XI cricketer from Royal, when he is introduced
to the school.
The introduced XI were, Nadun
Punchihewa (Capt), Dulanjaya Wijeratne (VC) and in batting order, Sukitha
Senaratne, Malinga Maligaspe, Kusal Perera (WK), Dimitri Siriwardene, Dilan
Nanayakkara, Feroze Ahmed, Haroon Mawjood, Charith Fernando and Yasitha
Abeykoon. The reserves were Vinod Malwatte, Mahesh Moramullage, Kanishka
Boteju, Thilina Samarasinghe and Anjula Bandara. The strike bowlers were
Haroon and Dulanjaya while Charith, Yasith, Feroze (the three fast bowlers)
and Nadun to complete the attack.
At the final team meeting before
the match we sat prepared to listen to a long and complicated game plan.
Instead Chula Sir's words were simple yet made absolute sense. "Well boys...
.when we bowl lets get them out as soon as possible, and when we bat lets
score as many runs as we can. You already know what needs to be done. I'll
see you all tomorrow, get some rest now." Yes, that was our game plan. The
entire team including the youngsters showed great maturity and calmness even
though the pressure and anticipation of the coming three days would have
surely been weighing on everyone's mind.
The day had arrived, 9th of March,
day 1 of the Battle of the Blues. We got to the SSC early. Everyone looked
very positive and determined. Nadun and Chula Sir decided that we should
field first if we won the toss. The S.T.C Captain Naveen Perera won the toss
and decided to bat. We weren't complaining. This was the second time we
fielded first for the whole season, but we felt it was a good thing since it
would help us get accustomed to the atmosphere before actually having to bat
in the middle.
As we were ready to go out to the
middle it felt as if everything fell into place. By just looking at each
other's faces we could say that every single player was ready for this
moment. Everyone's mental strength, temperament, attitude, skill and
capability to cope with pressure was to be tested in the coming three days.
As Nadun led us to the grounds our eyes naturally focused on the Royal Boys'
Tent. It was absolutely packed and it was encouraging to see close to 3000
boys in the tent, wanting nothing but to see a Thomian batsman walk back to
the pavilion.
Charith was given the new ball and
in his second over got the wicket of Shashrika Pussegolla, the main batsman
in their side. A few overs later Feroze had Ashan Peiris caught at gully, 29
for 2. A dream start for Royal! Thereafter Naveen Perera and Mazahir put on
a good 75 runs for the 3rd wicked to take the initiative away from Royal.
The Thomian lost Mazahir just before lunch to go in at 121/3. The Thomians
kept on losing wickets after lunch to be 199/7 at one point but rebuilt
their innings to declare at 278/8. Charith, the main destroyer taking 4 for
70. It was fair to say that they had the better of the exchanges so far and
now it was up to Malinga and me to go out there and just bat out the
remaining 20 overs for the day.
Though there were only 20 overs
remaining we were certainly not going to get tied down, we were determined
to play our normal game. Runs came at an impressive rate and we ended the
day at 104 for no loss. The final 20 overs of the day had just turned the
game on its head and we ended up walking away with 1st day honours.
The 2nd Day of the Match. The SSC
pitch would seam around early on so we, the two openers had to wait there in
the middle for at least another hour for Royal to make maximum use of the
very batsman-friendly wicket. The SSC wicket is best to bat on the second
day so it was a golden opportunity for us to pile up a mammoth score. At the
beginning we batted fairly cautiously but then gained momentum. We went on
to make 218 for the 1st wicket. At 104 I completely lost my concentration
and lost my wicket. Malinga was on 98 and I still regret not being there in
the middle for his 100. He went on to make a brilliant 140. We were placed
at 299 for 3 with the help of a 40 courtesy of Dimitri but then lost our way
briefly to be 309 for 6. However Feroze and Dulanjaya got together to build
a very good partnership of 123. While doing this, both batsman scored
fifties. We declared at 432 for 7, which is the highest total scored in the
series by either team in its 127 year old history. This score was achieved
in only 101 overs. Our aggressive attitude was obvious.
The Thomian went in to bat again
but after a few overs the remaining day's play was called off due to bad
light. This meant that play would start 30 minutes earlier than usual time
on the 3rd day which was an advantage for us.
We had another good start on the
third day when we had them at 28 for 2. Perera who made 58 in the 1st
innings and Peiris were back to the pavilion. Once again the Thomians lost
wickets at regular intervals until a gritty partnership of 43 in almost 20
overs. This could not stop Royal bowlers from finishing off the tail.
Charith, Dilan and Haroon captured 2 wickets each. Pussegolla (73).
Colombage (81) and Thahir (50) made noteworthy performances for S. Thomas.'
There were 142 runs standing
between Royal and a Big Match victory. We had to get these runs in 23 overs
and light was getting worse by the minute. But even if the target was 200
runs in 20 overs we would have got it because the intensity and
determination of everyone had reached a peak. No one for a second thought
that we should back away and just play down the overs.
Malinga and I went into bat once
again and amazingly we were there in the middle even before the umpires!
This positive and aggressive attitude was beaming from all the players in
the team. We put on 32 quick runs. Then the match winning partnership of 60
came from Kusal and Dimitri. (both scoring brilliant 40s) Kusal lost his
wicket at 121 and thereafter Dulanjaya, together with Dimitri took us to the
score room with 2 overs to spare. THE IMPOSSIBLE HAD BEEN ACHIEVED. It look
15 years, a bit too long actually, to win a Roy-Tho it was finally done. The
team showed immense character and mental strength to achieve what we set out
to achieve for College and I firmly believe that we thoroughly deserved to
win this match. The Thomians had an aggregate of 573 for the match but our
positive attitude would have
even enabled us to chase a score
of 700 till the final; ball was bowled.
Our gratitude goes out to Chula
Sir who moulded and fine tuned us perfectly for this big event and for
turning a bunch of boys into men. Our beloved M.I.C. Mr. E. M. G. Rajakaruna
who gave us immense support on and off the field, our physio Capt. Hiran
Wimalaratne and our ground manager Mr. H. N. De Silva. Our ground boys who
prepared the wickets at Reid Avenue must also not be forgotten.
We also thank our Principal Mr.
Upali Gunasekara, our Senior Games Master Mr. A. Rauf, our beloved parents,
the Cricket Advisory Committee and all the Old Boys who kept their faith in
us and every single student at Royal for believing in us.
The glory days of playing cricket
for Royal is over for 5 of the 11 players. It was a roller coaster ride for
most of us. But one thing is for me, after our recent experience whatever
life throws at us, all we will do is smile and take it head on, because we
know that IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.
Sukitha Senaratne
Writer's note : Please note that I
purposely refrained from calling S. Thomas' Thora because I believe that no
matter how bad a school is, it does not deserve to be called by a creature's
name.
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