Sebastianites qualify to meet Tamil Union in final

Sebastianites’ ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake celebrates a Colt’s wicket on his way to a haul of four

 Tehan Schaffter, the Sebastianites spearhead made early inroads into the Colts batting with three wickets

Major Club Emerging 3-day tournament

Sebastianites earned the right to play Tamil Union in the final of the Major Club Emerging 3-day final at the SSC grounds from 22-24 April, when their semi-final match against Colts played at the P Sara Oval ended in a draw yesterday.

Sebastianites qualified to play in the final by virtue of gaining the all-important first-innings lead. Batting first, Sebastianites didn’t make much of an impression being dismissed for 142, a total that the Colts batsmen would have overhauled without much sweat. 

But on this occasion, the much-vaunted Colts batting failed, and credit to the Sebastianites bowlers for dismissing such a strong line-up for 113, giving them a slender 29-run lead on the first innings which ultimately proved to be to their advantage when rain washed out the third and final day's play.

The left-arm seam of Tehan Schaffter gave them the ideal start. He snared the wickets of Colts’ three leading run-getters: Shalin de Mel, Avishka Perera, and Ravindu Rasantha to have their batting wobbling at 31-3. 

Then spinners Tharindu Ratnayake and skipper Tharusha Fernando took over to wipe out the rest of the batting.

Colts gave themselves a chance of pulling back from their first innings debacle when they reduced Sebastianites to 53-6 in their second innings – an overall lead of only 82, but heavy rain on the final day wiped out whatever chances they had of staging a comeback and turning the result in their favour. (ST)

Scores: Sebastianites 142 and 53-6, Colts 113.