CCC and Ace Capital battle for Major Club LO supremacy
The curtains of the Major League Limited Over Cricket Tournament will come down today with the final battle for supremacy between CCC and Ace Capital scheduled to be played at the SSC from 9:45am.
In the run up to the final, both teams ended in the top of the two groups with Ace Capital, led by Thanuka Dabare, recording six wins against Negombo CC, SSC, Tamil Union, Chilaw Marians, Bloomfield and Panadura SC. They suffered their sole defeat against NCC in the last match. CCC, led by Lakshan Sandakan, remained unbeaten with wins against BRC, Police SC, Moors SC, Kurunegala YCC, Kandy Customs and Colts, while the two matches against Badureliya SC and Nugegoda S&WC ended in no results. In the two semi-finals that followed Ace Capital defeated Moors SC by 98 runs while CCC crushed SSC by 8 wickets.
This will be first time Ace Capital reached a top division final since the club was formed as Seeduwa/Raddoluwa CC in 1998 and later changed to Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) in 2011, before adopting its present name Ace Capital. CCC, on the other hand, has won the title on one occasion in 2017 when they defeated Colts.
The performance of Ace Capital is something special as they succeeded without any big names in the cricket. They possess a young outfit with some of them being young schoolboy cricketers of the recent past, but their dedication and determination saw them through.
Skipper Dabare ended up as the highest scorer of the side and he along with Sammu Ashan, Sakuna Liyanage, Pawantha Weerasinghe and allrounder Wanuja Sahan will be the players to take note of and much will be expected from them.
CCC, on the other hand, possess a strong batting line up with Pavan Ratnayake leading the way. He has been their top scorer of the side having notched up 489 runs inclusive of three tons with a best of an unbeaten 157 against SSC in the semi-final. They have Nishan Madushka who has scored over 330 runs, Ashen Bandara, the experienced Isuru Udana, Chathranga de Silva and Ashan Priyanjan to name a few.
The match, no doubt, will be a closely contested affair and with Ace Capital having some giant killing performances. They will make CCC pull out all the tricks out of the bag if they are aiming to lay their hands on the title. This being the major final Ace Capital are not going to be easy nuts to crack and will be aiming to bag their first major title.
| Squads | |
Danal Hemananda, Wanuja Sahan,
Lasith Croospulle, Sandun Mendis, Sonal Dinusha, Chamindu Wijesinghe, Pavan Ratnayake, |