Pan Asia Bank wins MCA “C” division cricket championship

The victorius MCA “C” division Champions Pan Asia Bank team with the Director/CEO Dimantha Seneviratne. Also in the picture are Pan Asia Bank sports club officials, DGM - Marketing and Card Products Nalaka Wijayawardana, AGM – Operations and Credit Administration Unit Harsha Nayanath Kurukulasuriya, Head of Consumer and Credit Cards Credit Jeganathan Umaharan and Manager – Central Operations Asanka Theodore

After an intensely fought battle for supremacy, Pan Asia Bank overpowered McLarens Group in the Final of the fifth Prestige Automobile Ltd. sponsored ‘BMW-Hyundai’ Cup, MCA “C” division 50 Over League tournament 2016, held at the MCA grounds on Saturday.

Both teams that met at the finals had remained unbeaten in the tournament which set the stage for an entertaining final match. 

McLarens who won the toss and chose to bat, scored a challenging 257 for eight in 50 overs, with their inning anchored by opener, Mahel Gerom (80 in 117 balls) and Sandaruwan Hettiarachchi (63 in 75 balls).

Pan Asia Bank, chasing a victory target of 258 runs in 50 overs (RPO 5.16) managed to score the winning runs in a nail biting finish with 8 balls to spare and 2 wickets in hand. A crucial fifth wicket partnership of 70 runs in 61 balls between Saman Fernando (76 in 65 balls) and Nimanda Subasinghe (46 in 40 balls), gave the edge the Pan Asia Bank needed to prevail in this exciting final that remained an open game for most part of the play.

Match Referee, A.J. Samarasekera picked Pan Asia Bank’s Saman Fernando, as the Man of the Match. The other three special awards went to Piyal Dissanayake from McLarens, the best bowler; Shaminda Fernando from McLarens, the best batsman and Aruna Henryson from Std Chartered Bank, the Man of the Series.

The awards were presented by Christian Reuter (Chief Guest) and Viola Karunaratne (Guest of Honor) – both Directors from Prestige Automobile Ltd.; Niran Mahawatte, President, Nalin Wickremasinghe, General Secretary and Sanjaya Wijesinghe, Secretary/Tournament Committee – all from MCA.

Scoreboard:

McLarens – 257 for 8 in 50 Overs (Mahel Gerom 80, Shaminda Fernando 17, Sandaruwan Hettiarachchi 63, Basheer Bongso 26 not out, Randima Maduwantha 21, Anju Perera 4/45, Savindra Amaradasa 3/46)

Pan Asia Bank – 258 for 8 in 48.4 overs (Chamika Sansaka 28, Kanishka Prashan 42, Saman Fernando 76, Mahesh Kumara 17, Nimanda Subasinghe 46, Sachin Peris 2/50, Tharindu Rukshan 3/53).