SSC beat tournament leaders

In a key group Premier Limited overs game Sinhalese Sports Club, who were beaten by three wickets by Singha CC yesterday, pulled off a good six wicket victory against table leaders, Tamil Union, at Maitland Place today.

SSC won the toss and sent Tamil Union into bat on what turned out to be an easy paced wicket. Tamil Union began their innings in aggressive fashion going after the SSC attack. Ranga Dias with a quick fire 29, which included a six and three fours, appeared to the danger man. Once he was dismissed the rest of the batting struggled to score freely against some tight medium pace bowling.

Nuwan Zoysa was the pick of the bowlers and picked up two wickets for 37 runs. He was accurate and bowled a consistent length throughout. He was well backed up by Dilhara Fernando, two wickets for 55, and Ranil Dhammika, two wickets for 32. The only other Tamil Unuion batsmen who impressed were Gayan Wijekoon with 46 and Niroshan Banadaratilleke who scored 36. Tamil Union were finally bowled out for 204 in the 50th over.

In reply, SSC found runs to come by in the early stages. However, Avishka Gunawardene was his normal belligerent self and scored a dashing 59 from 51 balls. With the dismissal of Gunawardene acting skipper, Mahela Jayawardene, came to the wicket and batted in an assured fashion. He was joined by former Sri Lanka captain, Arjuna Ranatunga. The pair batted cautiously and worked the ball into the gaps to pick up singles and twos, which maintained the pressure on the fielders.

Mutiah Muralitharan was always difficult to score from and was well supported by Upul Chandana. The pair made SSC work hard for their runs. Mahela Jayawardene was bowled by Chandana for 30 with the total on 168. However SSC were never in great danger and were guided home by Arjuna Ranatunga, who scored a mature 39 not out, which included two crashing boundaries off Mutiah Muralitharan. SSC eventually overcame the Tamil Union total in the 43rd over.