Sandakan and Karunaratne restrict Kanrich
The fickle weather once again played spoil sport on the ongoing 3rd ‘Emerald Ceylon Tea’ Cup, MCA ‘B’ division 50 over league tournament 2016.
Textured Jersey and John Keells ‘B’ advanced to the semi-finals along with DIMO and Mobitel defeating Kanrich Finance ‘A’ and LB Finance ‘A’ respectively in the bottom half quarter-final matches played on Poya Day.
Lasith Abeyratne of DIMO fails to make his ground during their match against Commercial Bank. Pic by Anuradha Bandara
After Lakshan Sandakan (8-2-33-4) and Nipun Karunaratne (7-1-46-3) restricted the strong Kanrich Finance to 151 in 32 overs, opening batsman Nilukshan Nonis carried his bat, hitting a swashbuckling century (107 n.o. in 87 deliveries inclusive of six towering sixes and eight fours), as Textured Jersey reached the winning target of 152 runs in just 24.1 overs without losing a wicket.
John Keells pacies Sasindu Perera (5-0-19-4) and Imran Khan (8-3-18-3) rattled the fancied LB Finance ‘A batting line-up to dismiss for 72 runs and John Keells shed little sweat in reaching the target of 76 for the loss of three wickets in 14.2 overs.
The two top half quarter-finals played on last Saturday were abandoned due to rain. The 1st quarter-final was between DIMO vs. Commercial Bank ‘A’ and 2nd quarter-final was between Mobitel and MAS Linea Aqua ended in no-results.
Results:
Chief Scores Top Half:
At MCA: DIMO 239/9 (50) (Matheesha Perera 44, Aravinda Premaratne 25 not out, Nipun Karunaratne 27, P. Madushan 38, S. Gunaratne 4/41, R. Ekanayake 3/31)
Commercial Bank 46/1 (6.5) when rain halted play (A. Rajapaksa 20 not out, C. Wanniarachchi 22 not out)
At FTZ Katunayake; Match commenced, being reduced to 43 overs a side due to wet ground conditions.
MAS Linea Aqua 133/6 (34) when rain halted play (D. Wickramanayake 35 not out, I. Buddhika 34, C. de Silva 27, E. Ratnayake 3/20, L. Jayasinghe 2/29)
Bottom Half on Poya Day:
At MCA: Textured Jersey beat Kanrich Finance ‘A’ by 10 wickets
Kanrich Finance ‘A’ 151 all out (32) (Shehan Fernando 43, Sahan Wijeratne 26, Saranga Rajaguru 30, Lakshan Sandakan 4/33, Nipun Karunaratne 3/46)
Textured Jersey 152/0 (24.1) (Nilushan Nonis 107 n.o., Kavindu Kulasekera 38 n.o.)
At FTZ Katunayake: John Keells ‘B’ beat LB Finance ‘A’ by 7 wickets
LBF ‘A’ 72 all out (22.4) Sasindu Perera 4/19, Imran Khan 3/18, Tharindu Ratnayake 2/4)
JK ‘B’ 76/3 (14.2) (Samith Fernando 25 n.o., R. Weerasinghe 2/38)
According to the tournament structure, DIMO and Mobitel advanced to the semi finals by virtue of them holding the higher position in the league table; DIMO (Group ‘A’No.1) and Mobitel (Group ‘A’ No. 2)
On November 1, in the first semi-final DIMO meet Mobitel at the MCA Grounds while the other semi-final Textured Jersey and John Keells ‘B’ will be played at the FTZ Grounds, Katunayake on same day.