Sebastianites Cricket and Athletic won by 154 runs

Sebastanites Cricket and Athletic Club won their first ever BCCSL tournament when they defeated Panadura SC by 154 runs in the final of the Under 23 cricket tournament at Sinhalese Sports Club today.

Panadura, who cruised to the final after beating the favourites, Colombo CC, convincingly in the semi final, failed to show their prowess, with all three days of the match being dominated by the Sebastanites.

20-year-old left arm fast bowler, Sujeewa de Silva finished with a match bag of 11 wickets to become the highest wicket taker in the tournaments history with 42 wickets. Sujeewa, who is a product of Kalutara Vidyalaya, is surprisingly not yet in the BCCSL development squad.

Resuming on the overnight score of 196 for six, Sebastanites added 78 more runs in the morning session, when their last wicket fell in the last over before lunch, when de Silva edged the ball to the slip cordon after making a valuable 33. The overnight batsman, Janaka Siriwardena, went onto score 85 runs. Pandura SC were thus set a victory target of 316 from a maximum of 61 overs.

However, Panadura struggled from the beginning of their innings, when they lost two early wickets and were left reeling at nine for two in the eigth over, when their skipper, Chamara Silva, departed without scoring.

Thereafter, Sebastanites appeared to relax. The fielding became sloppy and three catches were dropped. However, they got back into their rhythm after the tea break and bundled Panadura out for 163.

Speaking afterwards, Chamara Silva, pointed to the failure of his batsmen as the key to their defeat: "We missed a good opportunity to grab the initiative when, after bowling out Sebastianites for just 125, we failed to post a decent first innings score."

The Sebastianites captain attributed his team's success to having a balanced team and to everyone in the team contributing at some stage: "I think every body did their part, and it was a team effort which earned us victory."