Mercantile 7’s – Dialog ‘A’ upset favorites to remain unbeaten

Dialog ‘A’ managed a huge upset as they beat cup favorites Access 21-10 and John Keells Holdings 17-12 to remain unbeaten in the 46th Mercantile 7’s tournament.

Day two of the tournament consisted of 37 games of which 14 were Bowl segment games, 18 Shield and 4 Cup category games.

The day kicked off with the bowl segment games as Kanrich Finance beat Kandurata ‘A’ 19 points to 07. CDB Reds beat NTB 12-7 as SLIC and Sampath Bank beat CDB Blues and HSBC respectively while keeping the losers score-less (SLIC 22-nil CDB Blues, Sampath Bank 28-nil HSBC) as the first set of Bowl segment games drew to a close.

In the Shield segment games PABC overcame Virtusa as they were beaten 31-nil in the first game. Commercial Bank and Brandix beat Amana Bank and NDB as both games took a similar score line of 26-nil in favor of the winner. The game of the first round of the Shield segment saw Expo Lanka beat Commercial credit 17- nil.

The single Cup segment game in the morning session saw Dialog ‘A’ surprisingly overcome Cup favorites Access by 21 points to 10.

The next round of Shield games saw Hidramani Beat Gestetner 17-5 while Janashakthi got the better out of HDPL winning 35-5. Millennium IT gave Ceylon Tobacco a hard time but Ceylon Tobacco proved to be the better side on the day as they came out winners 17-12.Kandurata ‘B’ beat Peoples Leasing 21-nil as the tournament moved back to the Bowl segment games.

Kanrich Finance proved to be no slouch as they surprisingly held JKH ‘B’ to a 5-all draw to begin the next set of Bowl segment games. Kandurata ‘A’ got back strongly from their first defeat as they came out on top against NTB 17-7. Dialog ‘B’ were made to work hard for their win against SLIC as they emerged winners by 14-7. Sampath Bank beat CDB Blues 24-5 as the attention moved back to the Cup segment game.

Dialog ‘A’ were made to work hard to keep their unbeaten tag alive as they came up against JKH ‘A’. 3 tries and 1 conversion from Dialog was enough to keep JKH ‘A’ at bay even though JKH ‘A’ scored 2 tries and a conversion. Winning the game 17-12 Dialog ‘A’ wrapped up their games for day two, remaining unbeaten in the process.

Moving back to the Shield segment games, Attune beat Amana Bank 12-7 as Amana Bank suffered their second loss of the day. PABC beat Commercial bank by the slightest of margins as 1 converted try saw PABC home to their second win of the day.

JKH ‘B’ overcame NTB with ease as they scored 22 while holding NTB scoreless as Kandurata ‘A’ and CDB Reds played out a competitive 19 all draw in the Bowl Segment.

Brandix and Expo Lanka beat Commercial Bank and NDB as both games registered a similar score line of 17-5 in favor of the winners in the Shield category.

Dialog ‘B’ were unpredictably toppled by Sampath Bank as they beat Dialog comprehensively 33-nil and HSBC got a walk over from the CDB Blues in the Bowl segment.

Moving back to the Cup category favorites Access bounced back from their loss to nail Nation Lanka to an enormous 38-5 win. Richard Dharmapala was one of the scorers of their 6 tries and 2 went unconverted. Janith Chanaka scored for Nation Lanka as he put on the after burner to go past Vishwamithra Jayasinghe to score the single unconverted try for Nation Lanka.

Virtusa faced their second big loss of the day as Commercial Bank beat them in style scoring 41 points while holding Virtusa Scoreless. Furthermore PABC racked up the points as they beat Amana bank 43-nil. HDPL and Hidramani were made to work hard as they defeated Gestetner and Janashakthi respectively 12-7 and 7-nil.

Kanrich Finance beat CDB Reds in a competitive affair as the score line read 7-nil in favor of Kanrich Finance. SLIC wrapped up the Bowl segment games for day 2 as they beat HSBC as the score line read 14-nil in favor of SLIC.

In the final three Shield segment games Kandurata ‘B’ Ceylon Tobacco and Attune beat Millennium IT, Peoples Leasing and Virtusa respectively. The score line of the games read as follows:

The Final Cup segment game saw Nation Lanka finance the young gun in the Cup segment make a comeback to defeat JKH ‘A’. Janith Chanaka continued to impress in this year’s tournament as he made a try saving tackle to stop JKH ‘A’ taking the lead in the game. But a few minutes later Vimukthi Rahula of JKH ‘A’ stepped and weaved his way through the Nation Lanka defense as he set up an easy dot down for Rehan Silva under the post. Reeza Rafaideen converted to add the extras for JKH ‘A’. (JKH 7-0 Nation Lanka)

Tharinda Ratwatta extended the lead further as scored for JKH ‘A’ even though Reeza failed to convert the try. (JKH 12-0 Nation Lanka)

Nation Lanka managed to strike back just before half time as Gayantha Iddamalgoda stepped and scored under the post as the conversion went over to cut the deficit in the game. (JKH 12-7 Nation Lanka)

JKH ‘A’ looked tired and lost the rhythm of the game as Shamri Burah threw a dummy and crossed the white wash (try was converted) as Nation Lanka gained the lead in the game for the first time. (JKH 12-14 Nation Lanka)

Nation Lanka held on to the the two point lead to end day 2 on a winning note.

Day three of the tournament will commence tomorrow (17/7) at 10am. The Cup Semifinal will kick off at 3.45pm as Dialog ‘A’ will play JKH ‘A’ in the first semifinal while Access will play Nation Lanka in the second Semifinal.

Score Summary: