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North Central Province trounce Central Province inside three days
By Marlon Fernandopulle
North Central Province trounced Central Province by seven wickets inside three days to register their third outright victory in the inter provincial tournament game at Maitland Place yesterday.

By virtue of this win NCP led by Mahela Jayawardene finished on top of the table at the end of the league stage of the tournament with Central Province led by Muttaih Muralitharan finishing in second place. However both teams will meet once again this week at the R Premadasa Stadium in the final.

After taking a 81 run first innings lead NCP bowled out their opponents for 180 runs yesterday with medium pacers Gayan Wijeykoon (3/42) Akalanka Ganegama (3/36) doing most of the damage. For the Central Province it was once again Kumar Sangakkara who stood out in defiance. Sangakkara who struck a century in the first innings top scored for CP with a stylish 78 that included eight boundaries and two sixes and came off 120 deliveries.Bhatiya Perera(36) and Jeevan Mendis(33) chipped in with useful contributions but the rest of the CP batsman failed to make any substantial contributions.

NCP requiring 99 runs for victory reached the target and finished on 103/ for 3 wickets to record a resounding victory. Central Province - 305 & 180 (Kumar Sangakkara 78 Bhatiya Perera 36 Jeevan Mendis 33 Gayan Wijeyakoon 3/42 Akalanka Ganegama 3/36 Praneeth Jayasundera 2/21)

North Central Province- 386/8 decl & 103/3(Gayan Wijeyakoon 32 Lanka de Silva 21 Praneeth Jayasundera 26 n o) Moors enter Plate final. Moors SC entered the finals of the Premier Plate Champioship when they beat Chilaw Marians by 10 wickets at the Kadirana grounds in Negombo yesterday.

Chilaw Marians who were shot out for 91 in the first innings and were trailing by 212 runs fared better in the second innings to get up to 223 with Arosha Perera (67) and I Muthalib(70) making good knocks.However that left Moors just 12 runs for an outright victory and the Braybrooke Place club faced no obstacles in reaching their target and booking a place in the final.

Chilaw Marians - 91 & 223 (Arosha Perera 67 I Muthalib 70 D Niroshan 23 S Wijeratne 38 T Abeyratne 3/60 S Jayawardene 3/41)
Moors SC-303 & 12 for no loss

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