John Keells grab place in Mercantile Semi-finals after dramatic East-West collapse

John Keells grabbed an unexpected place in the semi-finals of the Mercantile Cricket Association Division `A' tournament when they defeated Commercial Bank by 6 wickets at NCC Grounds in Colombo.

East-West, who had started the day one point ahead of John Keells, would have progressed to the Semi-finals if they defeated Seylan Bank at Colombo Colts Cricket Club. However a dramatic late order collapse meant they were defeated by just 9 runs.

John Keells now join Access, Hatton National Bank and Sampath Bank in the Semi-finals, the date of which is to be announced in the near future. First placed Hatton National Bank will play Sampath Bank whilst John Keells will take on second placed Access Group.

Janashakthi v Bartleet - Altaf Junaid

Janashakthi thrashed Bartleet by 108 runs in their Mercantile Division A match played at Bloomfield CAC, Colombo today.

Janshakthi won the toss and elected to bat, scoring a decent 211 for the loss of 6 wickets in their 50 overs. Oshadha Warnapura was the main stay of the innings, scoring a patient 52 off 75 balls. He was well supported by Sampan (42), Rogers Fernando (24) and Sagara Kumara's quick 31 off 35 balls.

Nalin Guruge was the pick of the bowlers for Bartleet; he picked up 2 wickets and gave away just 34 runs in his 10 overs. Ashan Ranaweera also bagged 2 wickets. Sanjaya Rajapakse was the most economical; he did not give anything away, conceding only 28 runs in his 10 overs.

Bartleet never looked as if they would reach the target. They were bowled out for a mere 103 runs. It was a pathetic display of batting by Bartleet. At one stage they were 6 down for 57 runs and then lost the last 3 wickets for just 1 run. Nalin Guruge (31) was the only batsman who came to terms with the bowling.

The bowlers for Janashakthi did a brilliant job, considering the fact that their main strike bowler Muthiah Muralitharan was not available for the match as he was representing Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup. Ranga Dias and Ikram Abdeen picked up 3 wickets each while Carmen Mapatune bagged 2 in his single over.

East West Information v Seylan - Leonard Ratnayake

A fighting knock of 41 runs by East West all rounder Dinusha Fernando was not enough to salvage his team from a 8-run defeat against Seylan Bank in their crucial preliminary round match of the Mercantile "A" division limited over cricket tournament at Colts cricket grounds today.

Chasing a target of 172 runs which would have seen them qualify for the semi-finals, East West were bowled out for 163 runs in 46.3 overs. Coming in at number seven when his team was in dire straits, having lost all their five top order batsmen for 57 runs in just 17 overs, Dinusha compiled a sixth wicket stand of 37 with Sajith Fernando (26)..

Sajeeka Abeynaike (3/37) had destroyed the top order with a fierce opening spell.

After the dismissal of Sajith Fernando, Marlon Peiris joined Dinusha to make a quick-fire 21 runs for the seventh wicket, before he was out for 18 runs off 15 balls. Indika Ramachandra (2/33) was the bowler who removed both the batsmen to keep Seylan Bank in contention.

Asela Ekanayake joined Dinusha next to put up a valuable 45-run stand for the eighth wicket to take East-West on to the verge of victory. However disaster struck when Dinusha was dismissed in the 44th over, needing just 12 runs for victory. However East-West lost their last two wickets for just 3 runs to leave them an agonising 9 runs short.

Earlier Seylan Bank, who took the first lease of the wickets, were restricted to 171 run in 45 overs. Seylan openers got off to a good start with a first wicket stand of 55 runs between skipper Lanka de Silva (35) and Sampath Perera (28). De Silva was out in the 10th over and Naweed Nawaz (43) joined Perera to put up another 40 runs for the second wicket. Thereafter wickets went tumbling at regular intervals, with Nishitha Rupasinghe (3/25) and Sajith Fernando (3/23) doing the damage.

John Keells v Commercial Bank - Altaf Junaid

John Keells progressed through to the semi finals after beating Commercial Bank by 6 wickets in their Mercantile Division A match, which was played at the NCC Grounds in Colombo today.

The decision to bat first by Commercial Bank backfired after they lost their opening batsmen with no runs on the board. They were eventually bowled out for a disappointing 162 in their 49th over. None of the batsmen, with the exception of Tissera (80), who scored almost half the total, were able to take charge of the bowling.

All 8 bowlers used by Janashakthi, except for Ruwan Kalpage and Punyakantha Abeygunasekara took wickets. Roshan Weerasinghe was the pick of the bowlers, claiming 3-22 from his 9 overs.

John Keells were soon in trouble, slumping to 33-4 before their captain, Ruwan Kalpage (63), and Mahesh Paliyakkara (63) ended the match with a brilliant fifth wicket partnership of 130 runs. Ruwan Kalpage's patient innings came off 146 balls, with 2 fours and 2 sixes. Mahesh Paliyakkara innings came off 75 balls.

Only the opening bowlers were able to take wickets. Trishan Nonis bowled brilliantly, he bowled his 10 overs for just 24 runs and picked up 3 of the 4 wickets that fell. The other bowlers were expensive, going for at least 5 runs an over.