Sinhalese Sports Club squeezes through to final

The Sinhalese Sports Club squeezed through to the final of the Premier Division Limited Overs tonight with a two run victory over Colombo Cricket Club. The game was another low scoring affair but the encounter was a much tenser semi final than the first and Colombo Cricket Club had aspirations of winning the game right into the final over.

This is the eve of Ramzan and the Premadasa pitch has adopted its own form of abstinence during the last two games. The surface was again pedestrian in pace and the batsmen found runs hard to come by. Indeed, SSC won the match despite scoring just 184 runs in their first innings.

CCC appeared to have a good chance of defeating an SSC outfit crammed full with international stars. However, despite Roshan Manhanama scoring a cultured 42 from 72 deliveries - an innings that included one princely lofted cover drive - and Polonnowita top scoring with 46, they fell cruelly short.

Fifteen runs were required from the final over. Polonnowita threw caution to the wind and reverse swept the first delivery for four. To the second delivery he shimmied down the wicket to launch Ranil Dhammika to straight boundary. Seven were now required from four deliveries and SSC's wizened pro 's converged to debate the best course of action.

Whatever was decided appeared to work as Pollonnowita was smartly smartly stumped the next ball. The task then proved too much for Mario Villavarayan and Indika Gallage, who were unable to dispatch Dhammika to the boundary.

Earlier in the day SSC had won the toss. Unsurprisingly they choose to bat, aware that the reused wicket could only deteriorate more. However, they lost early wickets. Avishka Gunawardene (1), who has been in sizzling touch so far in the tournament, was clean bowled by Hemantha Boteju in just the second over.

The same bowler then picked up the wickets of both Marvan Attapattu (14) and Upeka Fernando (4): both batsmen caught at short mid wicket as they played too early. SSC were 28 for three.

Thankfully for them, Arjuna Ranatunga (36) is yet to hang up his domestic boots. In partnership with Mahela Jayawardene (20) he calmly repaired the damage that had gone before. Like he as done on so many occasions before, he quietly and skillfully maneouvered the ball into the gaps and the pair added 48 for the fourth wicket.

When Jayawardene groped forward to Dalugoda and was stumped, Wickramaratne came to the wicket to play the deciding innings of the match. The left-hander scored 49 from 78 balls and hit two boundaries in his industrious innings. With a useful undefeated 28 from Tilan Samaraweera, SSC would probably been satisfied with their final score considering the circumstances.

They would not though have been happy with the number of extras that they gave away in the opening overs. Dilhara Fernando was in the most generous mood as he conceded nine wides and six no balls in his opening six over burst.

Luckily for him his fielders mucked in with two run outs; the first of Mubarak (20) and the second a spectacular direct hit by Attapattu from backward point to dismiss the dangerous Lanka de Silva (3) to leave CCC three wickets down for 46.

They recovered under the guidance of Vandort, Mahanama and Polonnowita but were ultimately were always chasing the game. With the SSC spinners - Tilan Samaraweera and Ranil Dhammika - bowling so well in the later stages of the game they just didn't quite have the firepower to overhaul SSC in that last dash for the line.