A wet beginning to the season

The opening weekend of a new season of Premier League Tier A matches was affected by bad weather with only defending champs Colombo Colts and Nondescripts CC managing to squeeze out victories. The season got off to a wet beginning with not a ball being bowled in any of the matches on the opening day.

On the second day the Colts immediately made their intentions clear by bowling Ragama CC for 117 Havelock Park. Put into bat on a wet surface, Ragama's batting succumbed to the medium-pace of Harvin Baidwan, a 22-year-old Indian-born Canadian, who on his first-class debut captured 4 for 16 off 12 overs of tight seam bowling. Facing a deficit of 160 after Colts had declared at 277 for 6, Ragama put on a better batting display in the second innings with Indika de Saram missing out on a century by ten runs. The rest of the batting order fell to the offbreaks of Dilruwan Perera who picked up 6 for 78. The Colts were left with the formality of chasing 73 which they achieved after losing a couple.

Nondescripts CC, on the verge of elimination last season, started this season in a determined manner thrashing Badureliya CC by an innings at Maitland Place. They scored 251 and made Badureliya follow-on, dismissing them for paltry totals of 131 and 107. Akalanka Ganegama, the former Sri Lanka fast bowler, with six wickets, proved a handful for the Badureliya batsmen to handle.

Bloomfield fell nine runs short of overhauling Saracens' total of 194 and obtain first-innings points finishing on 186 for 8 in Colombo, while Chilaw Marians were also unlucky against Army SC. Having declared at 173 for 3, Chilaw had Army struggling at 73 for 7 when the match ended at Panagoda.

The SSC-CCC and Moors SC-Tamil Union matches ended with the first innings in progress. SSC made 138 for 4 in 41 overs and Moors 244 for 6 in 69.3 overs.

Lankan CC took an early lead by recording the only win despite the inclement weather that affected the remaining four games. Having conceded a first-innings lead of 54, Lankan CC came back strongly in the second innings to route Singha SC for 101 and record a four-wicket win at Katunayake. Offspinner Thamara Abeyratne was their match-winner with nine wickets.

Sebastianites had to rely on the experience of Pasan Wanasinghe to pull them through to first innings points in their drawn game against Burgher RC. Chasing Burgher's first-innings score of 168, Sebastianites slumped to 31 for 4 before Wanasinghe's century gave them the leverage to claw back.

Seeduwa Raddoluwa CC gained first-innings points over Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club at Welisara and Panadura SC gained first-innings points over Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club at Rifle Green on a weekend where most of their rivals could not make much headway due to the weather.