SSC win easily as Duckworth Lewis causes confusion

Sinhalese Sports Club beat Burghur Recreation Club by 61 runs in a rain affected game that was reduced to 26 overs per in their Premier Trophy Limited Over cricket encounter played at Maitland Place today.

Play finally got underway at 11:30 am. BRC won the toss and put SSC into bat. The SSC openers started well as Avishka Guanawardane once again blazed his way to 48 from just 41 balls in an opening partnership of 76 runs made in 13 overs.

SSC eventually scored 153 for 3 from their 26 overs. Upeka Fernando scored 35 in 51 balls, Mahela Jayawardene chipped in with 21 from 23 balls and Hemantha Wickramarathne compiled a quick fire 30 from 29 balls.

Chasing an increased victory target of 175 thanks to the idiosyncrasies of the Duckworth Lewis system, the BRC batsmen were always likely to struggle. They found runs difficult to come by as the SSC opening bowlers maintained a good line and length.

Nuwan Zoysa, bowling from the Pavilion End, soon made inroads into the BRC batting and picked up 3 early wickets. Pramodya Wickramasinghe went wickless but bowled tightly and always kept the pressure up on the BRC batting.

BCMS Mendis opening the Batting for BRC batted with confidence to make a useful 20 runs from 31 balls. However, after 17 overs, the scoreboard did not make good reading for BRC: they were 31 for 5. BRC fell well short of the target and were clearly not happy with the Duckworth Lewis system.