Major Club 3-day tournament SSC find going tough against Moors SC

Saturday, 1 February 2025 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Lasith Croospulle and Pavan Rathnayake scored centuries and shared a double century stand for CCC

Sri Lanka Under-19 Captain Sineth Jayawardena scored his maiden first-class fifty for Tamil Union

Defending joint champions SSC struggling hard to avoid relegation had a tough day in office when Moors SC hit up a first day total of 277-3 in their SLC Major Club 3-day match at the P Sara Oval before bad light ended play yesterday.

Fifties from the bats of Janishka Perera (87 off 154 balls, 12 fours), Lasith Abeyratne (68* off 152 balls, 7 fours) and Pasindu Sooriyabandara (58* off 79 balls, 6 fours) saw Moors SC invited to bat first reach their score. SSC used 7 bowlers but only 3 were successful. Moors SC who are second in the table are fighting for the top spot in Group B with NCC.

Table toppers NCC were at the receiving end at the NCC grounds when CCC powered by centuries from Lasith Croospulle (128 off 142 balls, 16 fours, 6 sixes) and Pavan Rathnayake (136* off 212 balls, 10 fours, 6 sixes) scored 328-3. Croospulle and Rathnayake shared a double century stand (210) after CCC had lost their first two wickets for eight runs.

Ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake took 6/45 to place Tamil Union within touching distance of a first innings lead against BRC at the BRC grounds. Mohamed Shiraz (5/63) and Malinda Pushpakumara (5/123) dismissed Tamil Union for 224 (Sri Lanka U19 captain Sineth Jayawardena top scoring with a maiden first-class fifty – 72 off 41 balls, 4 fours, 7 sixes), but BRC found themselves in trouble at 147-7 with Roshen Silva 50*, and trailed by 77 with three wickets in hand.

Group A table leaders Colts were on top against Ragama CC at Colts grounds rattling off 333-4 courtesy a century from Sanoj Darshika (101 off 137 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) and 92* off 141 balls (6 fours, 4 sixes) from Dhananjaya Lakshan who put on 121 for the fourth wicket. Negombo CC, another club fighting hard to avoid relegation, did well to bowl out Ace Capital CC for 228 (left-arm spinner Upul Indrasiri 4/44) but in reply lost 3 for 45, to trail by 183 runs.

Chilaw Marians CC, not too happily placed in the table in Group A finished day one on 243-6 (Shehan Jayasuriya 93* off 170 balls, 7 fours, 1 six) against Panadura SC at Hambantota.

Opener Gayan Maneeshan hit a century (112 off 192 balls, 11 fours, 2 sixes) to help Kurunegala YCC finish day one on 228-7 against Nugegoda SWC at De Soysa Stadium, Moratuwa. All matches continue on their second day today.

Defending joint champions Police SC needed a further 226 runs on the final day today to beat Bloomfield at Police Park. In reply to Bloomfield’s first innings of 216 (Isitha Wijesundara 54, Dilum Sudeera 5/80) Police SC were shot out for 112 with off-spinner Ravindu Fernando taking 4/33. Bloomfield in their second innings crumbled for 127 (off-spinner Nalin Priyadarshana 6/58) leaving Police SC 232 to chase. They finished the day 6-0. – [ST]