Mercantile Indoor Cricket Open 2014 braces for grand final on Saturday
Wednesday, 7 May 2014 00:00
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The Mercantile Indoor Cricket Open 2014, conducted by the Ceylon indoor Cricket Association, which got underway on 28 March, saw 14 teams slotted into three groups competing in the first round of the tournament with much enthusiasm.
The eight teams that qualified to the quarter finals were Zeus Corporation, Expo Lanka, PABC Bank, HNB, Ceylinco Insurance, SSS Garments, Austasia and Aitken Spence.
In the quarter final game between PABC and SSS Garments, new comers SSS garments came out with a superlative performance restricting the defending champs PABC to a meagre 20 runs in 16 overs. However, SSS Garments in their run chase after being a healthy 33 off 14.1 with skipper Shezad Yoosuf and Shakoor yoonus at the crease were dismissed no less than five times in nine balls by Saman Fernando (2/-1) and Thrishan Fernando (4/-13), thus handing over a win to PABC which seemed quite unlikely up until the very last moments of the game.
Captain Thrishan Fernando bowled excellently, and took PABC to the Semi Final in remarkable fashion.
The quarter final game between Expo and Austasia was a lopsided affair with Expo Lanka thrashing Austasia by 45 runs. Austasia batting first could muster only four runs in their 16 overs due to some accurate bowling, backed by sharp fielding by the lads from Expo. Even the strong pair of Andy Solomons and Dinesh Nilanga were kept in tight check with two tidy overs bowled by Nishan Dilip (2/0) after the first three pairs only made a total contribution of minus 3 in 12 overs. Expo in their turn made 49 runs with Sameera Udyanga top scoring with 14 runs in addition to capturing 3/-5 earlier on. The best partnership of this innings came from Nishan Dilip and Isham Ghouse who made 20 runs a piece.Ghouse also contributed with the ball capturing 3/-9.
In another quarter final game between HNB and Ceylinco Insurance, Ceylinco won the toss and were able to muster only 39 runs with only the experienced Sameen Wijesinghe (16) making a worthy contribution the total. National skipper Chrishantha Peries bowled superbly to bag figures of 4/-16 off his 2 overs. In return HNB batted sensibly to post a final score of 76 runs and once again the much experienced Peries contributed substantially by scoring 27 runs. The Semi Finals between Expo Lanka and PABC which promises to be an exciting game is scheduled for Wednesday 7 May commencing 7 p.m. at Austasia Sports Club, Thalawathugoda.
The second Semi Final between HNB and the winners of the game between Zeus Corp and Aitken Spence will be played on Friday 9 May at 7 p.m.
The Grand Finals will be played on Saturday 10 May at 6:30 p.m. followed by the awards presentation.
The Plate Finals between MBSL Insurance and Citi Health will precede this game at 5 p.m.
