Left-arm spinners to the fore as 3 teams grab first-innings points 

Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya returned to form with 7 wickets for NCC / Sri Lanka’s new-found match winner Prabath Jayasuriya took a match bag of 11 wickets for SSC

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Defending champions CCC, SSC and Badureliya SC grabbed first innings points in a rain-truncated three days of cricket in the SLC Major League inter-club tournament matches concluded yesterday. A feature of the matches was the dominance of left-arm spinners, who had immense success with the ball. 

CCC was denied an outright win by Lankan CC last pair Heshan Madhushanka (9*) and Ratnarajah Thenurathan (9*), who defied 11.3 overs to force a draw at the CCC grounds. When play resumed yesterday after a blank second day due to bad weather, CCC added a further 42 runs in five overs and declared their first innings at 196-8, with captain Kamindu Mendis making a top score of 72 off 105 balls (7 fours, 1 six).

Trailing by 129 runs in the first innings, Lankan CC put up a determined batting effort inspired by a half-century from Deshan Dias to end on 131-9. Malinda Pushpakumara, the former Sri Lankan left-arm spinner who destroyed the Lankan CC’s first innings with eight wickets, took a further four wickets to finish with match figures of 12 for 86 – his 24th ten-fer in a remarkable career.   

Sri Lankan left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya who lost his Test place in the recent Australia and Pakistan home series roared back to form with a seven-wicket burst (7/40) for NCC against Badureliya SC but was unfortunate to finish on the losing side when the visitors narrowly took first innings points finishing ahead by one run in the drawn match at the NCC grounds.  Replying to NCC’s first innings of 152, Badureliya SC resuming at 70-2, managed to squeeze past to be all out for 153, despite Embuldeniya’s spirited effort. It was a tight game to grab first innings points after the second day was washed out by bad weather. Opening the bowling Embuldeniya kept the pressure on the Badureliya SC batting, reducing them to 110-7 at one stage before some resolute batting by the tail enders, especially glovesman Ranesh Silva (22* off 69 balls), saw them finish narrowly ahead.

NCC was 151-9 in their second innings with Parvez Rasool, the off-spinner from India’s politically-troubled Kashmir valley, capturing five wickets for match figures of 8 for 77. Left-arm spinner Chalana de Silva who destroyed the NCC’s first innings with five wickets finished with a nine-wicket haul (9/122), adding a further four in the second innings.

Sri Lanka’s new match-winning left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya who has more or less taken the place of Embuldeniya in the Test side had a match bag of 11 wickets for 76 - his sixth ten-fer in first-class cricket but SSC had to be content with first innings points in the limited time available against Police SC that ended in a draw at the SSC grounds.

After SSC had declared their overnight total of 319-6, Jayasuriya ran through the Police SC batting for 140 and taking 7 for 40. Forced to follow on, Jayasuriya captured a further four wickets as Police finished on 66-7 in their second innings. 

The match between Saracens SC and Panadura SC at Maggona ended in a draw, with no play for the second, successive day. On the first day, Saracens SC put into bat first and were 70 without loss in 27 overs.