Opener Fahim Saleem anchored S. Thomas’ College innings with a historic rearguard action to get them out of the jaws of defeat as they post a record 411 runs before the important 130th Battle of the Blues ended in an exciting draw at SSC Ground on Saturday.

Thomians, who had been struggling when they were bowled out for a paltry 99 in their 1st innings, disappointed Royal College by staging a marathon 10-hour resilience in the 2nd innings that starved out any possible chance of a Royal win.

Saleem played the role of the savior of S. Thomas’ after his skipper Raveenthiraraja Nirushan departed for 104 runs, ending a valuable 209-run partnership. Batting with his head down, Saleem defied nine bowlers the Royal skipper used for nearly two days.

Ironically, Saleem was out for a duck in his debut innings in the 2008 Big Match and was second time out for a duck on the first day of the 130th battle but at the time of need in this historic encounter, he had left a mark that would be hard to erase for some time to come. Just one hour into the 2nd day’s play, Thomians were on the verge of suffering an innings defeat that had not come their way since 1938. But from then on, it was an act of rare resistance that has not seen in this battle for a long time.

When Saleem finally became an lbw victim to Kithruwan Vithanage, he had faced 426 balls and had stayed at the crease for 544 minutes. In his match-saving knock of 165, he had struck just 15 boundaries.

Saleem incidentally scored the second highest score by a Thomian in the Battle of the Blues overtaking Ashan Peiris (161) and Nizam Mazahir (162) to be placed second behind Duleep Mendis’ 184 runs.

The task of defying Royal bowlers fell heavily on Saleem’s shoulders when his companion Nirushan was caught at second slips by Sahan Hettiarachchi off the bowling of Abeykoon in the morning. Saleem then combined for two good partnerships with Chamod Pathirana and Sachin Peiris respectively.

Saleem and Pathirana had a 53-run stand for the 4th wicket. The dismissal of Pathirana triggered a sudden collapse as leg-spinner Haroon Mawjood struck thrice in his first two overs of the day for Royal to keep their chances alive for a grand victory.

After trapping Pathirana lbw for 22, Mawjood had Chamal Fonseka and Chulaka Kumarasinghe caught by wicket-keeper Kusal Perera and Banuka Rajapakse respectively in successive deliveries to set a wild Royal celebration. But the joy didn’t last long as another thick wall of resistance began to build gradually. Little Sachin Peiris playing in his debut Big Match proved what an asset he would be for the Thomians in the future as he joined Saleem for a 57-run partnership. Later he built a valuable 35 and 34 run partnerships for the 8th and 9th wickets. Peiris contributed with vital 58 runs facing as many as 172 balls in his dogged knock.

When the Thomian resistance came to an end, they had defied the Royalists for over 10 hours and they had thus seen three new balls getting old in intense heat and disappointment. Their massive total of 411 is now the Thomians’ highest innings total in this 130-year history of the Battle of the Blues.

With little more than an hour to go for the close, Royal were left with 21 overs to chase a highly unlikely target of 198 runs.

However, Royal came with a positive approach with their star batsmen Bhanuka Rajapakse and Kusal Janith opening ahead of the regular openers. But trying to slog out, their long top-order perished soon. With the first three batsmen gone for 42 runs Sahan Hettiarachchi and Ramith Rambukwella took bad light to bring the curtain down on the 130th encounter.

Royal came to the match as overwhelming favourites with nine outright victories under their belt and two batsmen who had scored over 1000 runs this season featuring in their line up. Disappointment was written on the faces of the Royalists as they lined up for the awards ceremony dominated by the Thomians.

S. Thomas’ were the underdogs and had suffered two defeats this season and they had all reasons to celebrate their feat on Saturday. They had been bowled out for low scorers this season but a week before, Thomians had received vital batting practice as they batted a whole day against St. Sebastian’s College to post a total of over 400 runs.

Incidentally, the two batsmen who scored centuries in the Big Match, R. Nirushan and Saleem, both scored centuries in that match too. It is argued whether the Thomians had sensed the imminent danger in the Big Match and had taken precautions early.

F. Saleem lbw Vithanage 165

Anuja F’do ct. H’arachchi b de Silva 04

Ashen Fernando ct. Perera b Abeykoon 11

R. Nirushan ct. S. H’arachchi b Abeykoon 104

C. Pathirana lbw Mawjood 22

C. Fonseka ct. K. Perera b Mawjood 01

C. Kumarasinghe ct. Rajapakse b Mawjood 00

S. Peiris run out 58

L. Peiris bowled Vithanage 21

D. Walpita lbw Rajapakse 11

A. Kerner not out 00

Extras: (1b, 3lb, 2w, 8n) 14

Overs: 165.1 in 644 minutes

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-21, 3-230, 4-283, 5-285, 6-285, 7-342, 8-377, 9-411

Bowling: Abeykoon 24-2-64-2, De Silva 9-1-28-1(1w), Rajaratne 18-1-53-0(5n), Rajapakse 9.1-0-29-1(1w), Mawjood 25-3-57-3, Rambukwella 11-3-25-0, Tantrigoda 46-18-81-0, Hettiarachchi 2-0-18-0 (2n), Vithanage 21-5-52-2(1n)

B. Rajapakse ct Anuj Fdo b Walpita 13

K. Perera run out 09

K. Vithanage ct. Perera b Walpita 00

S. Hettiarachchi not out 15

R. Rambukwella not out 00

Extras: (2b, 3lb) 05

Overs: 7

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-19, 3-42

Bowling: Walpita 4-0-17-2, Pathirana 3-0-20-0