Police SC put themselves in line for Major League honours

• Powerful SSC other likely contender

Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Police SC who has never won the SLC Major League has put themselves in line to have a tilt at the title by heading Group B with powerful SSC who have several national cricketers in their side as the other likely contenders from Group A. 

The two group leaders will qualify to meet in the 4-day final to be played at the NCC grounds from 7-10 December.

With only two weekends of cricket left, these two clubs have put themselves in contention to play in the final, notwithstanding any late upsets that could change the group leadership.

Police SC head Group B with 90.005 points followed by Ace Capital CC (82.775) off whom they took first innings points in a crucial tie last week which ended in a draw at Police Park. Spearheading the Police SC campaign are national cricketers Ashen Bandara, the leading run-getter for Police SC with 586 runs (avg. 73.25) and four centuries and, Malinda Pushpakumara, the leading wicket-taker with 53 wickets (avg. 14.96), Kusal Perera, Priyamal Perera and Nuwan Pradeep, who has not played since getting injured in the LPL. Kusal Perera who represented Sri Lanka in the recently concluded Cricket World Cup in India is the Police SC skipper. He played for Police SC on his return and will lead them in the remaining games. During his absence former Sri Lanka players Malinda Pushpakumara and Chamara Silva (who is also their head coach) led the side.

Police SC’s two remaining games are against fourth placed Moors SC at Moors grounds starting today and ninth placed Kurunegala YCC at Police Park the following weekend.

Their closest rivals Ace Capital CC who trail by only 7.23 points have two tough games against seventh and eighth placed Tamil Union at BOI grounds, Katunayake starting today and Chilaw Marians SC at CCC grounds from 1-3 December.

In Group A, SSC led by former Sri Lanka U19 captain Nipun Dananjaya have in their ranks national white ball captains Dasun Shanaka and Kusal Mendis, national Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne, and national players Asitha Fernando, Nuwanidu Fernando, Prabath Jayasuriya and Shevon Daniel. SSC are well placed to consolidate their position at the top as their final two matches are at home (SSC grounds) against fifth placed Kandy Customs SC commencing today and fourth placed BRC on 1 December.

Second placed Colts in their 150th year have a tough task of qualifying for the finals. They trail SSC by 13.420 points and need to get maximum points from their remaining matches against sixth placed Negombo CC beginning today at Colts grounds and against third placed Ragama CC at Thurstan College the following weekend.

Ragama CC also have a similar task as Colts if they are to oust SSC from the table top. They lag behind by 14.285 points and need to take full points from their remaining matches against CCC at CCC grounds beginning today, and Colts.

The latter part of the tournament since August has been hit by bad weather which still persists and gaining maximum points in a match is the challenge that contenders for the group top spots face.

The tournament this year had several stop-starts. After a break at the end of August due to a clarification regarding structural changes with the Sports Ministry, the tournament resumed on 22 September only to be halted again after 3 October due to bad weather conditions which made it impossible to prepare pitches. The tournament resumed again on 5 November and has since continued.

While most of the clubs lost points due to their matches being affected by inclement weather conditions during this period, Police SC in that aspect were lucky winning three of their four matches grabbing full points from Sebastianites and first innings points from Bloomfield and Ace Capital SC one of the teams in the running for the top position from Group B.

Several national white ball players are likely to miss next weekend’s matches as they will be participating in the Abu Dhabi T10 franchise league tournament which runs from 28 November to 9 December.  

Other matches commencing today: Galle CC v Army SC at Galle, Badureliya SC v Bloomfield at Maggona, Sebastianites v Chilaw Marians CC at Army grounds Dombagoda, BRC v Panadura SC at BRC and Air Force SC v NCC at Katunayake.