Bloomfield, Ragama clash in Under 23 final

Chris Dhambarage

Bloomfield will take on Ragama CC in the inaugural SLC under 23 division one limited overs cricket tournament final which will be worked off at the R. Premadasa Stadium today.

Ragama CC captained by former Sri Lanka under 19 vice captain Shameera Zoysa will start as the favourites after having defeated the same opponents in a preliminary round match played at Kandana. On that occasion Bloomfield were bundled out for just 125 runs from 39.2 overs and Ragama CC reached 94 for 3 from 23 overs to win the match by 40 runs on the Duckworth and Lewis scoring system. Ragama CC of course will miss the services of paceman Lahiru Jayaratne of St. Peter's College who is currently touring Australia with the Sri Lanka under 19 squad.

But still they have some talented players with them who could come out with a match winning performance. In fact Ragama CC finished on top of their group with a total of six victories while Bloomfield were the runners up.

The team from Reid Avenue came back strongly to win the second semifinal match by a close margin of four runs on the Duckworth and Lewis scoring system.

The Bloomfield batting will revolve around hard hitting batsman Dilshan Munaweera who has the credit of scoring the highest individual score in the tournament having made a magnificent 172 from 122 balls against Saracens SC The teams:

Ragama CC (from): S. Zoysa (captain), L. Thirimanna, N. Mazahir, S. Ranasuriya, L. Buddhika, P. Kumara, D. Wijesekera, G. Dilruk, T. Peiris, H. de Silva, S. Kumara, C. Jayan, N. Premaratne, L. Cooray, M. Jayaratne, H. Mawjood.

Bloomfield (from): A. Katapearachchi (captain), N. Karunanayake, N. Nonis, C. de Silva, R. Rupasinghe, M. Warnapura, K. Gunatilleke, S. Lakmal, C. Amarasiri, A. Atapattu, C. Kularatne, R. Fernando, T. Danushka, M. Rimzan.