• Royal regain Mustangs Trophy after two years

Left-handed opener Hirun Liyanarachchi cracked a superb 105 off 123 balls, as Royal romped to a morale-boosting four-wicket win over traditional rivals S. Thomas’ in their 48th limited overs match at SSC grounds yesterday (15).

Set a target of 220 off 50 overs, the lads from Reid Avenue coasted home with 20 deliveries to spare to regain the Mustangs Trophy after 2023, having controlled the game from start to finish.

Liyanarachchi thus became only the first centurion for Royal on debut and fifth overall in the one-day series, as Royal avenged their five-wicket loss to the Thomians at the 146th ‘Battle of the Blues’ three-day encounter the previous week.

The Royal opener forged decisive stands (67 runs) with Vimath Dinsara for the third wicket and a match-turning 60-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Anush Polonnowita (23).

Those partnerships deflated the lads from Mount Lavinia, who were defending a subpar score on a batting wicket.

Liyanarachchi, whose innings was spiced with 15 fours and a six, also etched his name into the record books by becoming the first batter from his school to post a 100 in the Mustangs Trophy series after 13 years.

The last batter from Royal to do so was Hashen Ramanayake who struck 116 in the 2012 encounter.

Although the opener holed out 24 runs shy of the target off the persevering STC Captain Kavindu Dias, his mates got them across the line, to round out the big match season on a winning note.

The Thomians tried hard to claw their way back into the game, with Dias bowling his heart out to return figures of 3-57, but they lacked the cutting edge on that front to price out the Royal batters on a docile strip.

Earlier S. Thomas’ after being inserted were bowled out for a modest 220 with five deliveries to spare, despite opener Jaden Amaraweera top scoring with a painstaking 123-ball 70.

The Thomians at one stage were 3-150 and looked on course for a total in excess of 250, but crumbled losing seven wickets for 50 runs to be restricted to a below-par score as Royal bowlers tightened the screws.

Once the big guns of the Thomian batting card – Sadev Soysa (32), Dineth Goonewardene (25), and Reshon Solomons (27) – perished without making any sizeable contributions, the Royalists came roaring back into the contest.

However, Amaraweera, top-scoring for the school by the sea and having struck eight fours, struggled to rotate the strike throughout his knock.

Despite the opener adding 58 runs for the second-wicket with Soysa and a further 59 runs for the third wicket with Goonewardene, the Thomians struggled to add impetus to their innings.

The game-changer was the run out of in-form left-hander Goonewardene, with the batter having gone into the one-day encounter fresh from his big-match heroics, which included a 100 and an unbeaten half-century.

The dismissal of Goonewardene derailed the Thomian innings big time and despite a 21-ball 27 from 15-year-old Solomons, they were strangled by the Royal bowlers who bowled tight spells throughout.

Skipper and leg-spinner Ramiru Perera was the pick of the Royal bowlers with figures of 3-45, while he was well backed up by pacer Ranuka Malaviarachchi’s 2-41 and spinner Khalid Rahimdeen, who claimed 2-24.

In a calculated move, Royal brought on fast bowler Malaviarachchi as first change and his clever change of pace and good line and length bowling stifled the Thomian batting lineup midway through their innings.

Royal’s fielding, which was of a mixed bag, also played its part in keeping their rivals to a chaseable score.

The runout of Goonewardene by Liyanarachchi off a direct hit and the one-handed catch by Dinsara off Malaviarachchi to dismiss Mithila Charles were the highlights of their fielding effort, which was interspersed with a few dropped catches and misfields.

(JK) 

Brief scores

S. Thomas’ 220 all out in 49.1 overs

(Jaden Amaraweera 70, Sadev Soysa 32, Reshon Solomons 27, Dineth Goonawardene 25, Ramiru Perera 3/45, Ranuka Malaviarachchi 2/41, Khalid Rahimdeen 2/24)

Royal 223/6 wkts in 46.4 overs 

(Hirun Liyanarachchi 105, Vimath Dinsara 30, Thevindu Wewelwala 24 not out, Anush Polonnowita 23, Kavindu Dias 3/57) 

Awards

Best Bowler (Royal): Ramiru Perera

Best Bowler (STC): Kavindu Dias

Best Batter (Royal): Hirun Liyanarachchi 

Best Batter (STC): Jaden Amaraweera

Best Fresher: Hirun Liyanarachchi (Royal)

Player of the Match: Hirun Liyanarachchi (Royal)