First round of the MCA tournament produces one-sided cricket

The Mercantile Cricket Association Division A tournament started today, but failed to live up to the high expectations of competitive cricket, as all the matches were hopelessly one sided and most of the cricketers were able to rest there not so tired legs well before dusk.

Hatton National Bank, the defending champions breezed to a six wicket victory over Singer Sri Lanka, Seylan Bank cruised to a six wicket victory against John Keels Group, Access Group lost just three wickets as they chased a low East-West Information total, and Sampath Bank went on a run spree against Janashakthi Insurance.

Singer Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 62 by HNB, lasting only 27 overs. Kumar Dharmasena's off breaks proved too hot to handle and he claimed five wickets for just 13 runs. Although HNB then lost Avishka Gunawardene, Prassana Jayawardene, Chintaka Jayasingha and Saman Jayantha they cruised to victory in just 11 overs.

John Keells made a promising start against Seylan Bank as Michael Vandort and Dilan Ramanayake added 64 runs for the first wicket. Then, in the 14th over of the innings, Dilhara Fernando clean bowled Ramanake before ripping out the heart of the top order. He finished with five wickets and took three wickets in one over. John Keels lost five wickets whilst on 82 and could only muster 111. Naweed Nawaz saw Seylan Bank home with an unbeaten half century.

After losing four early wickets Sampath Bank's middle order batsmen gorged themselves on the Janashakthi Insurance bowling, which has been weakened by the loss of Muttiah Muralitharan this season. They scored 309 in their allotted overs with Marvan Atapattu scoring 82, KAS Jayasinghe making 53, and KADJ Siriwardene smashing six sixes in his quick-fire 85 off 56 balls. Janashakthi were bowled out for 173.

In the final match of the day East-West Information were bowled out by Access International for 146. Ishara Amerasinghe, a young fast bowler who has impressed this season for Nondescripts Cricket Club, picked up four wickets, Ruwan Kalpage continued his good form with three wickets, and the recently recalled Niroshan Bandaratillake grabbed a brace. Access powered to victory thanks to a half century by Indika de Saram and an unbeaten 32 by Aravinda de Silva.