The unique rearguard action by skipper Raveenthiraraja Nirushan and opener Fahim Saleem at the 130th Royal - Thomian encounter booked them a special place in the history of the Battle of the Blues.

And their gritty action could be the pick of this Big Match season that saw almost all Big Matches end in draws over the past one month. From the prominent Big Matches of the country, only the Battle of Jaffna saw a result this year. A valuable back-to-back half tons by Central College skipper Kulendran Shelton (78 and 76) and a gritty 75, in 160 balls, by Masilamani Haripraveen for St. John’s College –only to delay the opponent’s win-- were the highlights of that match.

In Colombo’s Big Matches, it was all the time stories of underdogs. Royal and Ananda, who went in to their Big Matches as overwhelming favourites against both S. Thomas’ and Nalanda, saw the underdogs robbing off what it deemed cakewalks for them before the toss of the coin.

Going to the 80th Battle of the Maroons, Ananda had a massive 12 outright victories under their belt while Nalanda had a mixed bag of fortunes during the season. But contrasting performances by the two captains meant that the two schools sharing honours even. Ananda felt a sudden jolt collapsing to 140 runs. Their skipper Dinesh Chandimal, who has a massive tally of over 1,400 runs, couldn’t deliver the goods in the 1st innings while opponent skipper Nipun Karunanayake came up with a mesmerising spell to pick up six wickets. In reply, they made 140 to share the honours. However Chandimal managed to get his name on the list of the Big Match centurions in the 2nd innings.

The next weekend at the SSC saw what was probably the best rearguard action seen in Big Matches of recent times as Nirushan and Fahim Saleem combined for a massive 209-run partnership for the 3rd wicket batting for over 80 overs for the Thomians to stave off from defeat which looked inevitable just one-and-half hours into the 2nd day’s play.

Forced to follow on, after being bowled out for 99 runs in reply to Royal’s 313, they were 21-2 in the 2nd day morning. But their partnership and Saleem’s nine-hour-long innings (165 runs facing 426 balls in 544 minutes) took the game away from the Royal. And their draw finally looked a victory. And the S. Thomas’ administration went out-of-the-way to declare a post match Monday holiday. In the hype of the Thomians’ resilience, hardly anyone could remember that Kusal Janith had struck a brilliant century (142) for Royal on the 1st day of the match.

St. Peter’s who went in as favourites against St. Joseph’s in their Platinum Jubilee ‘Battle of the Saints’ encounter saw the opponents getting the better of them in the 1st innings. There were several cricketers who had impressed during the season in the Big Match. There was a thousand-run scorer in Angelo Perera, opponent skipper Shameera Weerasinghe was close to 1000 runs and 100 wickets, Chathura Peiris had picked up over 75 wickets but the greatest uncertainties of the game had reserved the best prize. That might be the thought of the Josephian deputy skipper Hareen Silva. Silva who had not scored a single half century during the entire season cracked the highest individual score by a Josephian ever in a Big Match amassing an unbeaten 141 in the 1st innings before following it up with a 56 n.o. in the 2nd. Peterite opener Andry Berenger too played to his potential scoring back-to-back fifties. Meanwhile Angelo Perera’s bowling action came in for questioning. He was stopped from bowling for suspect action on the 1st day but later he bowled two overs on the 2nd day without being called.

The Big Matches between Kingswood - Dharmaraja, Richmond - Mahinda, St. Thomas’ - St. Servatius’, Thurstan - Isipatana, St. Sebastian’s - Prince of Wales, Maliyadeva - St. Anne’s, Dharmasoka – Devananda, all ended in draws but many of them had their fair share of individual brilliances.

Pranama Sri Vimukthi had a century against his name for Isipatana in Colombo’s 1st Big Match of the season. Shehan Dammalage scored an unbeaten 107 for the Cambrians while spinner Anuk de Alwis established an all-time record for the best haul of wickets in their Big Match series picking up 8 for 53 for St. Sebastian’s. But neither of them could put an end to the long series of draws.

Opening stand of 124 between Buwaneka Ekanayake and Ramesh Yapa Bandara for Dharmaraja College was the highlight of the 103rd Battle of Maroons encounter against Kingswood.

There were three 50s in the Battle of the Blues of Matara but a notable feature was the fewer number of wickets to fall in the match. Despite being a 3-day match, only 23 wickets fell in the match.

At least there were four pairs of brothers featuring in Big Matches played so far. Dharmaprema brothers, Chalitha (team Captain) and Hasitha, featured in the Kingswood outfit in their Big Match. Their father Mangala Dharmaprema had also captained the College. And it was the first occasion for Kingswood that a father and a son have captained the College in their Big Match series.

The Ekanayake brothers, Buwaneka and Rahula, featured in the Dharmaraja team with the former playing a prominent role.

In Colombo, Perera brothers, Angelo and Denham, featured in the St. Peter’s team in the Battle of the Saints while Shameera Weerasinghe followed his brother Rajeewa to captain St. Joseph’s in their annual battle.

There was a pair of twins to feature in the Battle of Jayewardenepura (March 27 and 28) when this edition was going to press. While Priyangith Karunatunga captained Ananda Sastralaya, his twin brother Priyankara was his deputy.In the Battle of the Rock at Kurunegala, orthodox spinner Chamikara Edirisinghe, who featured in St. Anne’s College team last year, came to play against his former alma-mater in the Big Match as he played for Maliyadeva this year.

One cannot count how many cricketers have left their outstation schools to play for prominent schools in Colombo. But there was a notable presence of such players in Ananda outfit this season. Prominent players in the Ananda team, Dinesh Chandimal, Ruwinda Shamen and Madumal Jayaratne, were from Ambalangoda. They had played in the Battle of the Blues of Ambalangoda couple of years back. Meanwhile, Kusal Janith, who scored a century for Royal, was a product of Dharmapala College, Kottawa.

However, the mass exodus of junior crickets from Ambalangoda to Colombo doesn’t seem to have affected the Battle of the Blues of Ambalangoda. The remnants of the exodus played an exciting match over the weekend. A Sri Lanka Under-19 player Imesh Udayanga impressed in the match for Dharmasoka picking up six wickets while a couple of future prospects played for Devananda too. Pulina Tharanga, a tsunami victim who had lost both his parents, played a prominent role for Devananda in the 1st innings.

Meanwhile Richmond - Mahinda Big Match saw a pair of cricketers who had changed schools four times during the last two years. Dananjaya de Silva and Irosh Samarasooriya, who played in the Big Match between D.S. Senanayake College and Mahanama last year, were recruited by Richmond this season to brace up their team. The duo, who started their cricket from Debarawewa MV, played for Mahanama in their last Big Match before returning to their former school for the U-17 tournament. Just after playing for Debarawewa, they found Richmond as their final destination.

Scores of the only Big Match that produced a result -

Central College, Jaffna, beat St. John’s College, Jaffna, by 252 runs at Central College Grounds. The match ended before lunch on the 3rd day.

Scores:

Central 236 all out in 52.5 overs (Kulendran Shelton 78; Sridharan Piriyatharshan 3/19) and 274 for 8 wkts decl. in 52 overs (K. Shelton 76; S. Piriyatharshan 4/74, Rajanayagam Kajeeban 3/37)

St. John's 105 all out in 34.5overs (R. Kajeeban 21; Ravishandran Kobigan 3/24, Santhalingam Alankumar 3/21) and 184 all out in 66 overs (Masilamani Haripraveen 75; Jerric Thushan 4/28).