Sri Lanka Clubs: Rain-free weekend produces only two outright wins (4 February 1999)

4 February 1999

Sri Lanka Clubs: Rain-free weekend produces only two outright wins

Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The defeat of pacesetters Moors SC by Bloomfield hardly brought about a change in the standings of the Premier championships which completed its fifth weekend of competition.

Although the victory bridged the gap between the two sides to less than nine points, there were no changes in the top four positions from the previous weekend.

Only two matches ended in outright decisions, while the remaining six resulted only in first innings points victories despite it being a rain-free weekend.

Moors unbeaten run of four matches was ended by Bloomfield whose young right-arm leg-spinner Priyankara Wickremasinghe is turning out to be match-winner for them. He returned career and season's best figures of 8 for 47 off 24 overs in the first innings, to spin out Moors for a paltry 148 in reply to Bloomfield's 236. Wickremasinghe ended with a match bag of ten when he picked up two more wickets in Moors' second innings run chase.

After being 77 for one at one stage, Moors middle order failed rather miserably against Wickremasinghe's spin. In the second innings however, with their captain Chandika Haturusingha blazing away, Moors put up a much improved batting performance (186/3) although their run chase (247 off 35 overs) proved to be unsuccessful.

Hathurusingha who revels in the responsibilities as captain hit a memorable hundred reaching the mark with a last ball six off 98 balls inclusive of five sixes and 10 fours. It was his second century of the season, and with his contributions with the ball as well, his performances are something which the national selectors can ill-afford to overlook.

True he did not perform to expectations in England last year, but the selectors needn't look all that far if they need an inspirational leader for the Sri Lanka 'A' team on their tour to England in July this year. What Hathurusingha has done for Moors this season is ample proof.

Apart from Hathurusingha's heroics, the match was a memorable one for Bloomfield's acting captain Kumara Dharmasena. He excelled in the role of batsman making two unbeaten contributions of 111 and 49. His requirement as a batsman in the national team is only secondary. What Dharmasena should impress upon is in his bowling, which currently is under a cloud due to certain reservations expressed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) over his bowling action. The quicker he rectifies it and gets among the wickets the better it is for him and Sri Lanka cricket.

Tamil Union at long last ended their winless drought by thrashing BRC by 150 runs on their home turf at Sara Stadium. The game turned out to be a low-scoring affair and Tamil Union, who are struggling this season after a eleventh hour cross over of some of their key players to Galle CC, had to bank on the wily off-spinners of Brijesh Jeganathan to bring them this rather belated victory.

Brijesh, whose father is the late Sritharan Jeganathan, a stalwart of NCC who went onto represent his country in Test and one-day internationals in the eighties, was playing his first match of the season for Tamil Union. Till then, he was a member of the club's division II side for whom he played a prominent role in taking them to the brink of qualifying for the final round.

The nature of the Sara Stadium pitch forced the club selectors to include Brijesh and it turned out to be a successful move when he returned with his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

While the Tamil Union first innings was held together by an unbeaten 75 from Gayan Wijekoon, the second featured half-centuries from Nayan Weeraman, a promising all-rounder and former captain of St. Aloysius, Galle and Sagara Kumara.

BRC's paltry first innings score of 94, proved to be the turning point of the match. It gave the home team a handy first innings lead of 105, and on a pitch assisting spinners, a target of 321 proved totally beyond the BRC batsmen's capabilities.

The only other club to obtain full points were Kurunegala YCC who pulled off a four-wicket win over wooden spoonists Matara SC at Matara. A feature of the match was the bowling of under 19 poolist Prabath Nisanka of St. Thomas' College, Matara, who took five wickets in the Kurunegala first innings.

In contrast to the low scoring games in the metropolis, two matches that produced a glut of runs took place in the suburbs. At Panadura, 942 runs were scored in three innings in the match between Panadura and Singha SC. The home team bolstered by a second wicket stand of 130 between Manjula Silva (108) and Buddhika Perera (67) managed to overhaul Singha's first innings total of 304, by 36 runs despite a fine bowling performance by R. Pushpakumara, who finished with five wickets.

The match turned out to be a personal triumph for Singha SC's captain Saman Jayantha. Although finishing on the losing side, Jayantha performed a superb batting double scoring 63 and a career best 180 which included the fastest century of the season off 66 balls. Janaka Kumudu, another experienced batsman made twin fifties, and with Jayantha shared a second wicket partnership of 164 in the second innings. Jayantha also chipped in with two wickets to round off a great match for him.

Defending champs SSC's chances of pulling off an outright win over CCC was spoilt by a brilliant maiden first-class century from Hemantha Boteju. It was Boteju along with N. Rupasinghe who made SSC struggle to obtain a slender first innings lead of 36 by sharing eight wickets. But after CCC had slumped to 77 for 4 in their second innings, Boteju batted superbly to put the match beyond SSC's reach by scoring 117. CCC eventually finished on 340 batting out the entire final day. SSC's top scorer was Upekha Fernando (48), who is tipped to lead the Sri Lanka under 19 team to India later this month.

Sebastianites recovered from their defeat at the hands of Kurunegala YCC a fortnight back by running up their second total in excess of 400 for the season. It was their batting that let them down on that occasion. However, they rectified that to a great extent largely through the batting talents of Nimesh Perera, who went on to complete his second first-class century, sharing with Chamara Liyanage (81), a fourth wicket stand of 117. Liyanage was also among the wickets capturing three to assist Marlon Peiris (4/20) in restricting Galle CC to a total of 283.

Colts were again let down badly by their batsmen. Despite a fourth wicket stand of 141 between acting captain Duleep Samaraweera (90) and Sujith Jaanaka (70), Colts could total only 215. NCC went past that total by 60 runs following a century opening partnership by Russel Arnold (52) and Pradeep Hewage (43). Naveed Nawaz weighed in with a half-century. Colts could total only 230 the second time round with half-centuries from Sajith Fernando and Jeevantha Kulatunga. NCC left with the task of scoring 171 for an outright victory, began positively, but had to put up shutters when wickets started to tumble. Fernando had a good game finishing with a match bag of eight wickets with his off-spin, while for NCC, spinner Ruwan Kalpage (5/47) and Malinga Bandara (4/75) were successful.

Police SC also ended their barren run for the season with a first innings points win over Antonians. Antonians put up a good fight in their attempt to reach the Police total of 285, but fell short by 27 runs despite half-centuries from skipper Thushara Kodikara and P. Siriwardena. Police bowlers Vajira Ranaweera and P.K. Serasinghe took four wickets apiece. In the Police second innings of 280, Ravindra Wimalasiri missed out on a maiden first-class century when he was left undefeated on 90. Udaya Hettiaratchi, the former BRC all-rounder, who had previously taken only 27 first-class wickets with his leg-breaks, came up with a career best performance of 10 for 118 for Antonians which included 6/81 in the second innings. PREMIER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

The following are the Premier Championship standings at the completion of the fifth weekend of matches on Jan 31:

Moors SC 5 3 1 0 0 0 8.060 8.2 60.260 Bloomfield 5 1 3 0 0 1 8.900 6.6 51.500 Panadura SC 5 1 2 0 1 1 10.490 6.6 45.090 SSC 5 0 3 1 1 0 9.465 9.4 42.865 Sebastianites 5 1 2 0 1 1 9.020 5.7 42.720 Kurunegala YCC 5 1 2 1 0 1 6.335 6.5 40.835 Galle CC 5 1 1 1 1 1 7.025 7.4 34.425 CCC 5 0 2 1 1 1 8.545 7.2 31.745 NCC 5 0 2 1 1 1 8.460 6.6 31.060 Singha SC 5 0 2 0 2 1 8.465 4.4 28.865 BRC 5 1 0 3 1 0 7.750 7.7 27.450 Tamil Union 5 1 0 0 3 1 8.370 5.4 25.770 Antonian SC 5 1 0 1 2 1 7.170 6.6 25.770 Colts 5 0 1 0 3 1 7.425 7.0 22.425 Police SC 4 0 1 0 2 1 6.050 3.3 17.350 Matara SC 4 0 0 2 1 1 4.630 5.0 9.630

Note: The Police SC v Matara SC match scheduled for Jan. 22-24 was not played.

(Subject to confirmation)

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL INNINGS: 203 (n.o.) - Hemantha Wickremaratne, SSC v Tamil Union at Maitland Place on Jan. 10.

FASTEST CENTURY: 66 balls - Saman Jayantha, Singha SC v Panadura SC at Panadura Stadium on Jan. 31.

BEST INNINGS ANALYSIS: 8/47 - Priyankara Wickremasinghe, Bloomfield v Moors SC at Reid Avenue on Jan. 30.

BEST MATCH ANALYSIS: 11/108 - Rangana Herath, Moors SC v BRC at Havelock Park on Jan. 16.

HIGHEST INNINGS TOTAL: 462/6 decl. - Sebastianites v Singha SC at De Soysa Stadium on Jan. 9.

LOWEST INNINGS TOTAL: 88 - Antonian SC v Galle CC at Galle Stadium on Jan. 17.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)