Colts clinch Premier League Title

Chris Dhambarage

Colts Cri-cket Club lifted the SLC Premier League Tier A title and the biggest prize money in the domestic scene when they defeated Baduraliya CC on the first innings in their final match of the tournament concluded on their home grounds at Havelock Park yesterday.

Colts CC put up a tremendous batting performance to rattle up an imposing 426 runs in their first innings and then dismissed their opponents for 347 runs with Sajeewa Weerakoon, Chaminda Vaas and Rajiva Weerasinghe sharing the wickets.

Colts CC batting the second time reached an impressive 354 for 8 with skipper Malintha Warnapura leading the way. The elegant middle order batsmen scored an unbeaten century with eleven boundaries following his knock of 95 in the first innings.

Their success had a great amount of significance considering the fact that they were really up against it at the beginning of the season after having suffered a humiliating outright defeat at the hands of Tamil Union.

This was followed by another setback where they lost on the first innings against the defending champions SSC. But Colts CC picked up their form during the latter stages of the tournament and ended with a total of five outright victories to their credit.

Colts CC had the better of Moors Sports Club, CCC and Sri Lanka Army SC outright and also recorded first innings victories against Chilaw Marians SC, Ragama CC and Baduraliya CC. But it was their successive outright victories against Bloomfield and NCC that really brought them closer towards the title.

The most significant fact in these two victories was that on both occasions they were able to pull off the game with more than a day to spare. This was also the fourth occasion in the history that Colts CC had clinched the Premier League title having emerged victorious in 2000, 2002 and 2005.

In fact their success this year turned out to be quite an emotional one for their coach and former Sri Lanka opening batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana who was the captain of the Colts CC team when they triumphed during the 2004/2005 inter club season.

Colts CC: 426 and 354 for 8 (D. Perera 40, I. Muthalib 55, C. Vaas 32, J. Kulatunga 22, T. Perera 35, M. Warnapura 100 n.o, N. Bandaratilleke 3 for 72)

Baduraliya CC: 347

Ragama beat NCC

Ragama CC after conceding first innings points came back magnificently to beat NCC outright by 149 runs in their SLC Premier League Tier A tournament match concluded at Maitland Place yesterday.

Set to make a challenging 343 runs for victory NCC lost wickets at regular intervals and were dismissed in the last over of the day. Spinner Ruwan Dilruk snapped up four wickets to cause the damage with Malinga Bandara and Dharshana Gamage providing the back up support.

This victory also helped Ragama CC to finish the tournament in the third position behind last year’s champions SSC while Bloomfield had to be satisfied with the fourth position in the league.

Ragama CC: 155 and 346 for 9 decl (I. Daniel 62, I. de Saram 147, M. Bandara 31, D. Perera 35, D. Gamage 25, T. Kottahewa 4 for 53)

NCC: 158 and 194 (K. Gunawardena 27, S. Dias 31, C. Wijesinghe 24, M. Gajanayake 39, U. Chandana 29, D. Gamage 2 for 30, R. Dilruk 4 for 41, M. Bandara 3 for 31)