Defending champions Tamil Union, Army SC qualify for final

Tamil Union’s Sadeera Samarawickrama celebrates his half-century

Lakshan Sandakan’s career best score of 62* was not enough to get CCC over the line

Tamil Union’s pacie Pramod Madushan took four wickets

 

Seekkuge Prasanna was in his element, steering Army SC to the final

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan hit a career best 62* off 72 balls and Sri Lanka leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga took four wickets for 37 for CCC, but their efforts failed to stop defending champions Tamil Union from pulling off a 16-run win in the first semi-final of the SLC Major Limited-Over inter-club tournament played at the SSC grounds yesterday.

The match was scheduled to be played on Saturday at the Colts grounds, but due to bad pitch conditions the semi-final was moved to the SSC yesterday.

Sandakan struck one six and seven fours as he made a valiant effort to turn the game around after CCC chasing Tamil Union’s total of 238 and slumped to 169-8 in the 41st over. Whatever hopes CCC had of winning was ended in the penultimate over when right-arm pacer Pramod Madushan bowled Asitha Fernando for 11 ending a threatening 39-run stand for the ninth wicket with Sandakan. Madushan was the pick of the Tamil Union bowlers finishing with four wickets for 51.

Earlier, Tamil Union winning the toss and batting first were powerfully placed to score over 300 runs at 176-2 in the 33rd over. But three run outs and some loose batting from the middle order saw them dismissed for 238 in the 49th over. 

Sadeera Samarawickrama top scored for Tamil Union with a stylish 74 off 82 balls (8 fours) before becoming the first run out victim. Useful knocks from Ron Chandraguptha (48 off 50 balls), skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (45 off 56 balls) and Navod Paranavithana (38 off 47 balls) contributed to Tamil Union’s top order batting.

Former Sri Lanka white ball cricketer Seekkuge Prasanna came up with a splendid performance with bat and ball as Army SC thrashed Ace Capital CC by 123 runs in the second semi-final played at the NCC grounds. Opening the batting, Prasanna slammed six sixes and an equal number of fours in a display of power hitting that saw him rack up 89 off 66 balls in Army SC’s total of 246. Then in the company of another leg-spinner Suminda Lakshan ran through the Ace Capital CC batting for 123 with each of them taking four wickets.  

The semi-finals saw the return of Sri Lanka Test cricketers following the completion of the series against Pakistan giving added flair and competition to the tournament. For Tamil Union Dhananjaya de Silva and Jeffrey Vandersay and CCC, Kamindu Mendis and Asitha Fernando along with Wanindu Hasaranga who played in the white ball matches against Australia. For Army SC it was Dinesh Chandimal and Maheesh Theekshana and for Ace Capital CC, Oshada Fernando.

The final will be played at the SSC grounds tomorrow.

SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:

• At SSC: Tamil Union beat CCC by 16 runs

Tamil Union 238 (48.4) (Ron Chandraguptha 48, Sadeera Samarawickrama 74, Dhananjaya de Silva 45, Navod Paranavithana 38, Ashan Priyanjan 2/47, Wanindu Hasaranga 4/37)

CCC 222-9 (50) (Minod Bhanuka 43, Ashan Priyanjan 25, Pavan Rathnayake 39, Lakshan Sandakan 62*, Pramod Madushan 4/51, Dilum Sudeera Thilakaratne 2/40, Isuru Udana 2/51)

• At NCC grounds: Army SC beat Ace Capital CC by 123 runs

Army SC 246 (48.2) (Seekkuge Prasanna 89, Suminda Lakshan 33, Mahesh Kumara 46, Lasith Croospulle 2/32, Chanaka Devinda 2/32, Pramud Hettiwatte 2/26, Thanuka Dabare 2/52)

Ace Capital CC 123 (27.4) (Lasith Croospulle 23, Oshada Fernando 31, Seekkuge Prasanna 4/26, Suminda Lakshan 4/42)