MCA ‘G’ Division 25-over league tournament semi-finals this weekend

Maliban Biscuits, Avery Dennison, Sri Lanka Telecom and HNB ‘B’ vie for big final

Maliban Biscuits, Avery Dennison, Sri Lanka Telecom and HNB ‘B’ advanced to the semi-finals of the MCA ‘G’ Division 25-over League Tournament 2017 for the 7th Honda Trophy, sponsored by Stafford Motor Ltd, which continued last weekend. 

In the quarterfinals that were played on Saturday, 22 July, Maliban Biscuits scored a comfortable eight-wicket win over Deutsche Bank AG. 

In a low-scoring affair, Avery Dennison pipped the Aitken Spence Group by 19 runs. 

Debutant Pyramid Wilmer went down fighting to Sri Lanka Telecom by nine runs in a high-scoring game. The experienced HNB ‘B’ had to work hard for their three-wicket win over A Baur & Co.

First quarterfinal: The three right arm medium fast bowlers Tharindu Siriwardena (5-19-2), Dilan Chathuranga (5-20-2) and Lahiru Dushantha (5-1-23-2) proved simply unplayable as they shackled the bankers, enabling to score a paltry 103 for 9 in 25 overs. Maliban shed little sweat in reaching 104 in just 18 overs, losing only two wickets. 

Second quarterfinal: The bowlers dominated this game too. Aitken Spence bowlers Nisal Aponsu (3-17-2), Vimukthi Perera (5-22-2) and Kavishka Jayasinghe (3.3-22-3) did good to restrict Avery Dennison to 128 in 23.3 overs. 

But the Aitken Spence batsmen did not use this to their advantage as they were completely at sea against Avery Dennison’s three-pronged right arm medium pace attack of Samantha Fernando (3-13-2), Iresh Kasun (5-21-1) and Dhanuka Dinesh (4-12-3); three were run out (109 for 9 in 25). 

Third quarterfinals: In contrast to the two top half quarterfinals, the batsmen dominated this game.  SL Telecom batting first scored 199 for 7 in 25 overs, riding on a splendid opening stand of 96 runs in 66 balls by Sudam Jayawardena (33 runs in 34 balls, inclusive of a six and 4 fours) and Nirushan Ramachandra (43 in 37 balls with 8 fours) and the valuable, unbroken eighth wicket stand of 46 runs in 33 balls between Lahiru Ranathunga (23 not out) and Deshaja Yukthi (30 not out) and a good dose of extras (38 runs). The bowlers who stood out for Pyramid Wilmer were the two Fernandos – Lasith (4-35-2) and Shanaka (5-24-5). Pyramid Wilmer, making their debut in Mercantile Cricket, gave a spirited chase through Subodha Lakmal (32) early in the innings and Dinuk Nuwan (33 not out in 17 balls with 7 fours), later in the innings but fell desperately short by nine runs (191 for 8 in 25).

The two bowlers who restricted the rampaging Pyramid Wilmer batsmen were Kalpa Bandaranayake (5-40-3) and Suranga Wijeratne (5-42-1). Ultimately the 30 runs, including 26 wides that that were gifted by Pyramid Wilmer, caused their downfall. 

Fourth quarterfinal: Two good batting performances by opening batsman Chaminda Sampath (42) and No. 7 batsman Dinesh Rajendra (47) helped A Baur & Co. to put up a challenging 169 in 24.4 overs Banker’s Asiri Hewage proved a thorn in the flesh for Baur’s as he made early inroads into the top order and coming back later, polished off the tail to finish with impressive figures of 4.4-32-5. HNB in reply were in a spot of bother, losing their top order for 88 runs (88 for 5 in 11 overs); they got back on track through a 70-run stand in 54 balls for the sixth wicket between Theekshana Dilhan (47 in 42 balls with six fours) and Malindu Perera (32 not out in 29 balls, 1 six and 2 fours), thus reaching their target of 170 for 7 in 22 overs. Baur’s gave away 27 runs in extras. 

Chief scores of the quarterfinals

QF 1, MCA (morning): Maliban Biscuits beat Deutsche Bank AG by eight wickets 

DB – 103/9 (25) (G. Ratnayake 49, T. Siriwardena 2/19, D. Hathurusinghe 2/20, L. Dushantha 2/23)   

Maliban - 104/2 (18) (G. Anuruddha 30, T. Siriwardena 32 not out) 

QF 2, MCA (afternoon): Avery Dennison beat Aitken Spence Group by 19 runs. 

Avery D. 128 (23.3), (C. Wijeratne 35, Aruna Shantha 25, D. Dinesh 25, N. Aponsu 2/17, V. Perera 2/22, K. Jayasinghe 3/22);

Aitken Spence – 109/9 (25) (N. T. Madushanka 29, M. Samarasekera 30, S. Fernando 2/13, D. Dinesh 3/12)

QF 3 (Kotahena, morning): SL Telecom beat Pyramid Wilmer by eight runs. 

SLT – 199/7 (25)(S. Jayawardena 33, N. Ramachandra 43, K. Bandaranayake 25, L. Ranatunga 23 not out, D. Yukthi 30 not out, L. Fernando 2/37, Shanaka Fernando 5/24)

Pyramid Wilmer - 191/8 (25) (S. Lakmal 32, B. Paul 28, A. Warnakulasuriya 21, D. Nuwan 33 not out, K. Bandaranayake 3/40, S. Jayawardena 2/20)

QF 4 (Kotahena, afternoon): HNB ‘B’ beat A. Baur and Co. by three wickets 

Baur’s - 169 (24.4), C. Sampath 42, J. Wanniarachchi 25, D. Rajendran 47,  Anush Perera 2/18, Asiri Hewage 5/32);

HNB ‘B’ – 170/7 (22) (N. de Silva 21, D. Panditharatne 22, T. Dilshan 47, M. Perera 32 not out, J. Wanniarachchi 2/47, T. de Silva 2/40, D. Hasitha 2/28)

The semifinals will be worked off this weekend as follows.

Saturday, 29 July – Top half semi-final: Maliban Biscuits vs. Avery Dennison at MCA morning (the afternoon session has been kept as a reserve day) 

Sunday, 30 July (bottom half semifinal) – Sri Lanka Telecom vs. HNB ‘B’ at MCA (morning) (the afternoon session has been kept as a reserve day). 

The final is scheduled to be played on Saturday, 12 August at the MCA grounds.