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Champion team Tamil Union
Asela Gunaratne (left) and Pathum Kumara scored a fifty apiece for Army SC
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
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| Tamil Union’s Sadeera Samarawickrama celebrates his half-century |
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| Santhush Gunathilaka rocked the Army SC’s top order batting with three early wickets |
Tamil Union led by Sri Lanka Test vice-captain Dhananjaya de Silva retained the SLC Major Limited-Over Inter-Club final for a second year when they defeated Army SC by seven wickets under the Duckworth/Lewis rain method at the SSC grounds yesterday.
Tamil Union were left with the task of chasing 199 for victory when they bowled out Army SC for 198, but at 62-1 in 14.3 overs there was a brief stoppage for rain and Tamil Union’s target was revised to 179 off 42 overs.
However, when they had reached 141-2 off 29.2 overs another shower of rain halted play and the target was reset for a second time to 153 off 37 overs. With only 12 required Tamil Union knocked the runs off losing the wicket of Navod Paranavithana for 32 to win quite comfortably with 34 balls to spare.
Key performer for Tamil Union in their run chase was vice-captain Sadeera Samarawickrama who led the team for a major part of the tournament in the absence of De Silva when he was away on national duty. Samarawickrama followed his knock of 74 in the semi-final against CCC with another attractive innings of 58* off 70 balls (4 fours) to see Tamil Union home adding 65 for the third wicket with Paranavithana.
Part time bowler Santhush Gunathilaka put Army on the backfoot straight away with an inspired spell of medium-paced bowling where he creamed off their top order with the first three wickets for 14 runs including that of Himasha Liyanage, the replacement for Dinesh Chandimal for a first ball duck to have them tottering at 44-3.
From that point onwards, Tamil Union took a grip on the match and never allowed the Army SC any freedom to come out of the mire they had fallen into after choosing to bat first on a new SSC pitch that had the usual early life on it.
Despite fighting half-centuries from former Sri Lanka cricketer Asela Gunaratne and the highly talented wicket-keeper/bat Mahesh Kumara, Army SC could score no more than 198 being dismissed one ball short of their quota of 50 overs.
Gunaratne made 59 off 88 balls (4 fours) and Kumara 57 off 78 balls (3 fours, 1 six). The pair produced Army SC’s highest partnership of the innings putting on 74 for the seventh wicket when they were hopelessly placed at 84-6 following the dismissal of their skipper Thisara Perera for a duck.
If Gunathilaka rocked the Army top order, another former Sri Lanka all-rounder lsuru Udana did the mopping up operation by cleaning up the tail to end with three wickets. Former Sri Lanka off-spinner Dilruwan Perera playing his 201st limited overs match completed a personal milestone by taking his 200th wicket when he bowled Suminda Lakshan for 28 and followed it up with a useful contribution of 37 opening the batting.
Tamil Union collected a cheque for Rs. One million as champions with Army SC receiving Rs. 750,000 as runner-up. Sadeera Samarawickrama won the Man of the Final award of Rs. 100,000, while the Player of the Tournament award of Rs. 250,000 went to Janith Liyanage (Ragama CC), the Best Batsman of the Tournament award of Rs. 150,000 to Kasun Vidura (Chilaw Marians CC) and the Best Bowler of the Tournament award of Rs. 150,000 to Duvindu Tillakaratne (BRC).
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