Moratuwa Sharks emerge ‘Red Bull Campus Cricket 2013’ champions

Red Bull Campus Cricket 2013 Sri Lanka Finals got off to a cracking start with two formidable teams battling it out with each other for the pride of representing their country in the World Finals. University of Moratuwa emerged victorious in their bid to be crowned Sri Lanka Red Bull Campus Cricket Champions.

In a day filled with its share of twists and turns the Japura Kings won the toss and elected to field. The Moratuwa Sharks got off to a good start with N.S. Marasinghe top scoring with a quick fire 39 runs off 23 balls. He was ably supported by S.U. Perera who steadied the innings with 28 runs off 34 balls. S.M. Karunaratne was the pick of the bowlers for Japura Kings taking 3 wickets for just 22 runs. The Sharks finished their allotted 20 overs with 137 runs for the loss of 9 wickets.

The second innings got off to a blistering start with a flurry of sixers and boundaries scored by the Kings’ opening pair. R.M. Cooray top scored for the Kings with a nifty 56 off 51 balls and his opening partner T.M. Samarasinghe scored 38 off 40 balls. The loss of the opening batsmen slowed things down with the new batsman struggling to keep up with the required run-rate. They finished their quota of 20 overs 10 runs short of the total.  

The newly crowned National Champions of ‘Red Bull Campus Cricket 2013’ will now face the champions from the best campus teams of other test playing nations, in the ‘Red Bull College Cricket World Series Championship’ to be held in India next month. This would be the first Red Bull World Series featuring the sport of cricket.

The 2013 edition of ‘Red Bull Campus Cricket 2013’ Sri Lanka Finals witnessed 14 local universities battle it out to be crowned National Champions. The 14 local universities were divided into 4 groups – named Wijaya, Gamunu, Bahu and Kashyapa – with the matches being played in two rounds at four separate locations across the island.

The Series caught the local social media scene by storm with the first ever sports blogging competition in Sri Lanka. Approximately 20 bloggers published close to 50 posts prior to the finals in an attempt to win a spot to witness the World Finals.