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Under-23 final
Varna spurs Bloomfield
By Marlon Fernandopulle
Skipper Udara Varna snared five wickets to lead Bloomfield to a rousing six wicket victory over Chilaw Marians on the second day in the Under 23 final played at the SSC grounds yesterday.

After twenty wickets tumbled on the first day ,Chilaw Marians who were trailing by 57 runs needed to put up a formidable second innings total to challenge the fighting Bloomfield unit. However the Reid Avenue lads led by their skipper Udara Varna were equal to the task. Varna picked up his opposite number Ishan Muthalip when he bowled him for 14 and gave his team a head start.

The defending champions – Chilaw Marians who were looking to win the championship for the third successive time never recovered from the early loss of their skipper and soon slumped to 87 for 5 wickets. At this stage Isuru Perera and Chandana Aravinda stringed together a useful 48 run partnership for the 6 th wicket to help them to reach a respectable 135 for five wickets.
However as skipper Varna brought himself on again the equation changed. The medium pacer bowled Aravinda(19) and picked up two more wickets before picking up Isuru Perea to send Marians crashing to 176 all out. Left hander Perera who compiled a fine 78 off 154 balls hit nine boundaries and two sixes in an innings that proved to be the cornerstone for the Chilaw Marians. Varuna finished with a fine spell that earned him five wickets and eventually broke the back of the opposition.

Bloomfield were left to score 120 runs for victory lost opener Pubudu Perera in the 4th ball of the innings, but later recovered to easily reach the target for the loss of four wickets in only 16.3 overs. Wicket keeper batsman Gehan de Silva finished the match in style as he hit a four ,six and four in successive deliveries off medium pacer Perera to hail an emphatic Bloomfield victory with over a day remaining.

Mahela-that’s not cricket!
An ugly incident was witnessed just before the conclusion of the U-23 final when Chilaw Marians batsman Mahela Udawatte was surprisingly asked to bowl with only 10 runs needed for a Bloomfield victory.

Udawatte, a former captain of Ananda College , in his bowling attempt made a ‘deliberate throw’ at the batsman in his very first ball, but was noted by the head umpire Ranmore Martinez who correctly no balled the delivery and warned the bowler. Udawatte who later admitted that he threw the delivery instead of bowlig it is expected to be reported by the two umpires.

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