Battle of the Blues ends in draw

Rain proved to be a spoiler in what could have been an exciting finish to the 129th Battle of the Blues schools-cricket encounter between Royal College and St. Thomas' College played at the SSC grounds on Saturday.

A sporting declaration by Royal left the Thomians a target of 244 to chase in a minimum of 71 overs in the fourth innings. After a cautious start, the Thomians took up the challenge with their openers Jehan Thahir and Fahim Saleem posting an unbroken stand of 59 off 20.1 overs before rain put an end to what would have been an exciting run-chase.

The spectators, in true Royal-Thomian spirit, hung around hoping the rain would cease and the match would resume like it did on the first day but the contest was doomed to end in the 62nd draw of this time-honoured series. The game was stopped 20 minutes before tea on the third and final day and was never resumed.

The Thomian last pair, Dinesh Walpita and Nilshan Fernando, added 17 runs off 59 balls before being separated when play resumed on the third day. The Thomian innings, which stood at a precarious 141 for 9 with the threat of a follow on, was eventually terminated at 198, giving Royal a first-innings lead of 102.

Walpita was the last man out for 36, the top-scorer of the Thomian innings. The last-wicket stand was worth 57 runs in 76 minutes. Right-arm medium-pacer Bhanuka Rajapakse was the pick of the Royal bowlers with 3 for 32.

Batting in their second innings, Royal suffered an early set back, losing opener Chalaka Bogoda for a duck, and slumped to 60 for 3 before they were rescued by Kusal Perera, who scored 41 and first-innings centurion Fernando, who took the total to 141 off 26 overs before declaring at the fall of the sixth wicket.