Chilaw Marians out to create history by winning Premier League title

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Chilaw Marians Cricket Club look set to create history and win the Premier League title for the first time when they confront Moors Sports Club in a deciding SLC Tier tournament match which begins at Braybrooke Place today.

Chilaw Marians CC have done all the hard work and they need only a first innings victory to achieve their goal and become the first outstation team to lift the Premier League title. They will start the match while trailing by just seven points from the table leaders NCC who have of course already completed their full number of matches.

This means that Chilaw Marians CC will need to make sure that they obtain at least the first innings points to head the points table and to complete a memorable tournament. On present form they are very much favourites to add the finishing touches having maintained an unbeaten record throughout the tournament.

The only concern of course is the unpredictable weather which has spoiled some of their earlier matches to a great extent. However captained by Sri Lanka opening batsman Mahela Udawatte the team is brimming with confidence and will be determined to make the maximum from this final outing.

This is in fact the second time that Chilaw Marians CC had come so close of winning the SLC Premier League Tier title after they emerged runners up during the 2004/05 inter club season. In the same year they emerged joint champions along with the Tamil Union in the SLC limited overs Tier tournament. This is a tremendous achievement considering the fact that they were promoted to the top division in the year 2000 after they had dominated the division two and P. Saravanamuttu Trophy tournaments. And since then Chilaw Marians CC have always been in the forefront and now they are just one step away from winning the SLC Premier League title.

Apart from this deciding game there will be two other matches Colts CC v Baduraliya CC at Havelock Park and Ragama CC v Saracens SC at the NCC grounds in Maitland Place.

The Points Table
Teams		Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn  Points 

NCC		11	5	0	  6	103.46
Chilaw Marians	10	4	0	  6	96.45
SSC		11	1	0	 10	79.9 
Colts CC	10	4	1	  5	79.34
Tamil Union	11	1	2	  8	76.31
Bloomfield	 1	2	2	  7	73.8
Baduraliya CC	10	2	3	  5	67.68
CCC		11	2	2	  7	62.64
Saracens SC	10	2	3	  5	61.86
Ragama CC	10	0	3	  7	60.56 
Army SC		11	1	5	  5	41.43
Moors SC	10	0	3	  7	36.41

Note: Tabulated under matches, won outright, lost, drawn and total points.