Zoysa double propels SSC to victory

Chris Dhambarage

Former Sri Lanka paceman Nuwan Zoysa produced some of his old form to steer his club SSC to a morale boosting victory over Tamil Union in their SLC Premier limited overs Tier 'A' match played at Maitland Place during the weekend.

Zoysa who is on a comeback trail having recovered from a series of injuries struck form both with bat and ball as SSC bounced back into recognition following a shock defeat at the hands of Moors SC on the previous day.

Zoysa was among the runs as well as he made a fine contribution of 49 that helped SSC pile up a formidable 258 for 9 from their 50 overs. The bulk of the runs of course came from the bats of opener Tharanga Paranavithana and Avishka Gunawardena.

Even then Tamil Union were well on course to reach their target at one stage with Sajith Fernando and Ian Daniel leading the way. Nuwan Zoysa then made his presence felt with the ball too as he picked up three crucial wickets to turn the game in SSC's favour.

This was also SSC's second victory of the tournament and that certainly gave them some hopes of qualifying for the semifinals.

Meanwhile Bloomfield's unbeaten record came to an end at last when they were beaten by a solitary wicket at the hands of CCC in a thrilling encounter played at Reid Avenue.

Bloomfield of course badly missed the services of their star player Tillekeratne Dilshan who has been their matchwinner in all three earlier games. The middle order batsman in fact is the leading run getter in the tournament with a tally of 372 runs from four outings and has a stupendous average of 93.00.

But this time the Bloomfield batting line up looked pretty ordinary as they folded up for under 200 runs in 45 overs.

However CCC were made to fight for their runs and eventually they reached their target two overs to spare with Nuwan Perera guiding them following his four wicket haul earlier.

Moors Sports Club also had a successful weekend as they notched up two impressive victories to boost their chances of reaching the semifinals of the tournament. They first defeated the more fancied SSC team by two wickets and then followed up with another upset win over Chilaw Marians SC.

All rounder Dilhara Lokuhettige played a dominant role with both bat and ball as Moors SC brought down the strong SSC outfit with a splendid all round performance.

Lokuhettige captured two key wickets and hit a fighting 49 as Moors SC overtook SSC's total of 191 runs with nearly ten overs to spare.

Lokuhettige continued with his run of success with the bat scoring an unbeaten 42 runs as Moors SC toppled Chilaw Marians SC by five wickets in their match played at Braybrooke Place.

This was after pacemen Nandika Ranjith and Anil Rideegammanagedera had picked up three wickets each to reduce their opponents to 179 runs.

Colts CC moved into the second place of the latest points table with two back to back victories against Ragama CC and Chilaw Marians SC respectively.

Even their victory against Chilaw Marians SC was fashioned by their bowlers as they were dismissed for a modest 166 runs. The bowlers then hit back magnificently to bundle out Chilaw Marians SC for 133 runs with Nuwan Kulasekera and Angelo Mathews leading from the front.

In contrast they cruised to an easy nine wicket win against Ragama CC with Shantha Kalawitigoda stroking an unbeaten half century. This was after Angelo Mathews and Sajeewa Weerakoon had done most of the damage with the ball sharing seven wicket between them.