Colts Cricket Club brought an end to Ragama CC’s unbeaten record with a stunning 40 run victory in their SLC Premier limited overs knock out cricket tournament group ‘A’ fixture worked off at Havelock Park yesterday.
Colts CC put into bat piled up a formidable 268 runs for 8 wickets from their allotted 50 overs and then bowled out the defending champions for 225 runs in 47.3 overs.
The match winner for Colts CC was undoubtedly their middle order batsmen Roshen Silva who hit a composed 104 not out from 119 deliveries with the help of two sixes and seven boundaries.
The dynamic all rounder played the sheet-anchor role while holding the middle order together through some excellent batting with the back up support coming from Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Milinda Siriwardena and Sachith Pathirana.
In fact the 71- run seventh wicket partnership between Roshen Silva and Sachith Pathirana really helped the home side to build up a match winning total after they had suffered an early setback while losing both openers within the first five overs of the innings.
Ragama CC of course maintained the required run rate during the first half of the innings mainly due to a splendid half century from Ian Daniel who went on to make a top score of 64 from 74 deliveries with the aid of nine boundaries.
However after his departure, the Ragama CC innings fell apart where they lost wickets at regular intervals while making a desperate attempt to accelerate the scoring rate.
Medium paceman Kanishka Elvitigala struck two early blows during his opening spell but it was the two spinners Sachith Pathirana and Dilruwan Perera who really caused the damage while capturing three wickets each.
In fact Sachith Pathirana returned superb figures of three wickets for 17 runs from his ten overs which included the key wickets of Chanaka Wijesinghe and skipper Sameera de Soysa.
Colts CC: 265-8 in 50 overs (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 20, Milinda Siriwardena 28, Roshen Silva 104, Sachith Pathirana 51, Kanishka Elvitigala 27 n.o, Lahiru Jayaratne 2/70, Nilanka Premaratne 2/59, Asanka Silva 2/33)
Ragama CC: 225 in 47.3 overs (Dhananjaya Silva 22, Lahiru Milantha 24, Ian Daniel 64, Chanaka Wijesinghe 25, Malinga Bandara 31, Kanishka Elvitigala 2/43, Sachith Pathirana 3/17, Dilruwan Perera 3/30)
