Indoor cricket masters off to a great start in South Africa

SRI LANKAN Master's Indoor Cricket team in South Africa started the tour in great fashion by winning the two warm up games against some stiff opposition.

After their long flight the Masters geared up for their first warm up game against Eastern Province. But the Masters came up with all guns blazing as they scored mammoth 141 runs in 16 overs. Sanjeewa Weerasinghe and Lasantha Perera Captain and Vice Captain led the way by scoring 33 and 26 runs respectively.

Eastern Province never recovered from this early set back and could manage only 52 runs in their allotted 16 overs. T Selvaratnam was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 5 for 10 and Sanjeewa Weerasinghe with 5 for 3 runs was clearly best on ground for the match.

Although the first game was a one sided affair the second warm up game was an absolute thriller. Home Town Heroes Port Elizabeth were more than an opposition for the Masters with 107 runs to their credit after batting first, but the Masters were dead and buried after 12 overs with only 61 runs.

But never say die last pair Sanjeewa Weerasinghe and Chandana Guruge started their stint with 46 to get off the last 4 overs.

They built the score slowly but steadily with 18 runs to off the last over required for a win. Pulverizing Weerasinghe scored the necessary 4 runs in the last ball of the match to secure a moral boosting ball win for the Sri Lankans ahead of their first game against England in the World Cup.

Details of the warm up games:

Sri Lanka beat Eastern Province by 89 runs

Sri Lanka 141

(S. Weerasinghe 33, Lasantha Perera 26, T. Selvaratnam 17, Atula Wickramatilleke 17.)

Eastern Province 52 runs

(S Weerasinghe 5 for 3 runs, T. Selvaratnam 5 for - 10, L. Perera 3 for 12 runs.)

Sri Lanka beat Port Elizabeth by 1 run

Port Elizabeth 107 runs,

Sri Lanka 108 runs in 16 overs

(S. Werasinghe 27, T. Selvaratnam 22, Chandana Guruge 19.)