The 27th annual big match between CIS and Wycherly was held on Saturday, 23rd March 2024 at the MCA grounds.

The match was played under ICC rules. Infaz, the captain of Wycherly, won an important toss and elected to bat first.

Aaron and Lisath opened the bowling and gave CIS a fantastic start, conceding just 23 runs in the first 10 overs. The middle overs were tough and CIS had to toil hard to restrict run scoring. Despite their best efforts, the final 10 overs were some of their weakest as they made a few too many mistakes leaking 78 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Wycherly were 213 all out after their allotted 50 overs.

Lisath Semika bagged 3 wickets for just 21 runs in 10 overs which was the standout performance for CIS with the ball.

Aaron and Bosith opened the CIS inning with a 40 run partnership that seemed promising until Bosith’s wicket was lost to an impressive catch. The loss of two quick wickets immediately after put immense pressure on Chakshu and Aaron who put up a crucial partnership of over 50 runs until Chakshu was unfortunately run out. This brought Nikhil Peris to the crease. Another crucial 50 run partnership between Aaron and Nikhil took the game close enough for the tail end of CIS to finish. The tail end batters ran hard between the wickets and ultimately sealed the win for CIS with a glorious cover-drive that sped to the boundary.

The celebrations that followed were almost surreal as hundreds of supporters chanted ‘CIS’ in unison. CIS had finally regained the shield after a year of hard work with over 200 hundred hours of practice.

Bringing the Lalith Athulathmudali Challenge Trophy home in the 27th Battle of the Lions was truly a commendable effort by CIS.