Colts, Police SC grab full points on first weekend

SLC Major Club 3-day League tournament

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Colts and Police SC managed to grab full points with wins against Chilaw Marians CC and Panadura SC respectively in the opening weekend of the SLC Major Club 3-day tournament.

CCC, Ace Capital CC, and Tamil Union had to be content with first innings wins while the Moors SC-BRC game ended in a no-decision.

Versatile spinner Akila Dananjaya spun Colts to an innings and 31 runs win against Chilaw Marians CC at the P Sara Oval. Trailing Colts by 109 runs in the first innings, Chilaw Marians CC’s batting was dismantled for 78 by Dananjaya who went onto pick up his 27th five-fer of his career with 5/27. Colts scored 341 in their first innings and Chilaw Marians CC 232.

Police SC bounced back from an indifferent batting performance in the first innings where they conceded a lead of 41 to beat Panadura SC by eight wickets at Surrey Village, Maggona. Panadura SC were dismissed for 216 in their second innings with left-arm spinner Dilum Sudeera running through their batting with figures of 6/91 (match bag of 11/168). Left with the task of scoring 258 runs for victory, Police SC got to their target losing only two wickets. A feature of their run chase was the unbroken third wicket partnership of 171 between Dulash Udayanga (88* off 190 balls, 8 fours) and former Sri Lanka white ball cricketer Priyamal Perera who went onto score a near run-a-ball century (116* off 117 balls, 10 fours, 1 six).

Pulindu Perera, the former Kandy Dharmaraja College cricketer and prolific top order batsman for Sri Lanka Under-19 and Sri Lanka ‘A’ teams scored his maiden first-class century for Nugegoda SWC to deny CCC full points at the SSC grounds. Forced to follow-on after being dismissed for 238 in their first innings in reply to CCC’s tall score of 452-9 declared, Nugegoda SWC were inspired by the batting of Perera who went onto score a stroke-filled 129* off 131 balls (14 fours, 6 sixes). Thanks to Perera, Nugegoda SWC finished on 200-3 to draw the match. Earlier, Nugegoda SWC’s batting in the first innings was dismantled by Test off-spinner Nishan Peiris who took 7/67 off 33 overs.

A superb rear-guard fight back by Kurunegala YCC’s tenth wicket pair saw them avoid the follow-on and deprive Ace Capital CC of an outright win at the Galle Cricket Stadium. Replying to Ace Capital CC’s tall score of 406-9 declared, Kurunegala YCC were in trouble at 186-9, when last pair Randeera Ranasinghe (54 off 110 balls, 8 fours) and Lahiru Jayaratne (57* off 74 balls, 6 fours, 3 sixes) came together in a partnership of 112 to see Kurunegala YCC avoid the follow-on and end their innings at 298. Driven by that partnership Kurunegala YCC came storming in the second innings to capture seven Ace Capital CC wickets for 97 before the game ended. Left-arm spinner Chamika Edirisinghe did most of the damage taking 4/41.        

Tamil Union’s desperate attempt to grab full points didn’t work out the way they planned as Badureliya SC fought back after conceding a first innings lead of 142 to grab 9 Tamil Union wickets for 97 in the second innings at the CCC grounds. Tamil Union had to be satisfied with first innings points after Badureliya SC in their second innings finished on 56-2 chasing a target of 240. Leg-spinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth was instrumental in bowling Badureliya SC out for 205 in their first innings with figures of 4/45. In Tamil Union’s second innings spinners Alankara Asanka (3/23) and Malinda Pushpakumara (4/38) did the damage.

At the Colts grounds, Moors SC and BRC played out a drab draw with bad weather cutting down play on the first day and wet ground conditions delaying the start in the next two. Replying to Moors SC’s total of 336-8 declared, BRC made 211-3 with former Sri Lanka Test batsman Roshen Silva scoring his 28th first-class century, leaving him 65 runs short of completing 10,000 runs in his first-class career. Silva struck 11 fours and 1 six in his 220-ball knock for 100*. With Promod Maduwantha (52* off 198 balls, 3 fours) the pair put on an unbroken stand of 148.