Herath's all-round show guides Moors to finals

Premier Limited Over Tournament

On a rain-hit day, SSC and Moors qualified to meet in the Tier A final, beating fancied Bloomfield and Colts in the semi-finals. Both matches never went the full distance and were affected by bad weather.

At the R Premadasa Stadium , in a match reduced to 41 overs-a-side, SSC made the highest total of the day reaching 174 for 9 against Colts, whose target was revised to 117 from 21.5 overs under the D/L rule. But Colts could manage only 93 for 6 in the allotted overs and lost by 24 runs. Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekera picked up four wickets, but finished on the losing side. However another former fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa along with Shalika Karunanayake shared the six Colts wickets to fall between them.

In the other semi-final at the Nondescripts Cricket Club , reduced to 45 overs-a-side, Moors put up a fighting display to defeat Bloomfield by four wickets. The match-winner for Moors was former Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for his all-round efforts. He captured three wickets - including that of top scorer in the match Saman Jayantha for 45 - and shared an unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 26 with wicketkeeper Dasun Randuka to help steer the side to victory after they slipped to 105 for 6 chasing 131. Bloomfield used eight bowlers in a bid to prevent Moors from topping their total. The two sides meet in the final on December 23 at the SSC grounds.

The semi-finals of Tier B, at Bloomfield were both washed out without a ball bowled. One of the finalists, at Bloomfield , was decided by a toss of a coin because the two semi-finalists Burgher Recreation Club and Army SC were equal on the number of wins and also on the number of bonus points in the preliminary round. Therefore the third option to decide the winner was the toss. Burgher called correctly and went through to the final. Deciding the other finalist, at Colts , was straightforward as Lankan CC had more wins than Panadura SC in the preliminary round and sailed through. Burgher and Lankan play their Tier B final on December 21 at the NCC grounds.