The second edition of ‘Red Bull Campus Cricket 2013’, Sri Lanka’s first ever inter-university T20 tournament, was worked off on 26th January at the P. Sara Oval
‘Japura Kings’ of Sri Jayewardenepura University squaring off with ‘Moratuwa Sharks’ of the University of Moratuwa in the Final.
The soon-to-be-crowned National Champions of ‘Red Bull Campus Cricket 2013’ will then face the champions from the best campuses of 12 other nations, including the 10 Test-playing nations, in the ‘Red Bull Campus Cricket World Series Championship’ to be held in India later this year. This would be the first Red Bull World Series featuring the sport of cricket.
After winning the toss J’pura Kings’ captain invited Moratuwa Sharks to bat on the wearing P. Sara pitch. However early luck was on Sharks’ side when Nisitha Wijewantha top edged and bottom edged two P.K Perera deliveries for four passing Kings’ keeper Kishan. At the 4th over Sharks’ opener Sameera Marasinghe in full form gave superb display of power play taking 3 consecutive boundaries. It was against the bowling of S. Edirisinghe where the first lofted drive over extra cover, then the best of the lot, cut though the covers and finally flicked towards square leg rope. Marasinghe hit all over the ground. At the end of the power play Moratuwa Sharks scored 57 runs for no wicket.
S Marasinghe out in the 7th over for 39 for a quick fire 39 . Then Sahan Perera, the vice captain joined Nisitha Wijewantha and added some valuable runs by singles and two’s until Nisitha was bowled by a superb full length delivery of King’s bowler Edirisinghe. Before that Sharks were marching towards a big total when they were 75/1 after 10 overs
Sharks’ expectation of a big total was lowered to some extent when their power hitter, Captain Rumesh Madushanka was bowled by Edirisinghe. He tried to smashed it to leg side but completely missed it. Despite giving away 14 runs in his first over, Edirisinghe did well to take 2 wickets in his 2nd and 3rd overs. Things got worse for Sharks when Kings claimed a team hat trick by running out Vimukthi Gunathilake, then taking top edged catch of DamindaDhananjaya, and clean bowling JaninduArukgoda.V.Gunathilaka gone for the 4,MS batsman tried to run a quick single but AS edirisinghe came with direct hit to prevent it. It was Kings’ left arm orthodox bowler whose efforts were able to take 2 wickets for 18 runs.
Then wicket keeper batsmen Gagith Abeysekara joined Lalitha Prasanga when the score was 127/7 and took some valuable runs in the last over by collecting 2 fours, the first by Gagith, lofted drive for one bounce four and the next by Lalitha. At the end of 20 overs Moratuwa Sharks had taken 137/9 leaving J’pura Kings a possible but difficult aim
J’pura Kings showed their courage and pushed the game their way. Moratuwa Sharks setting up a victory target onf 138 runs seemed a good yet achievable total on a wearing pitch at P Sara oval. J’pura openers, Thilina Samarasinghe and Roshan Cooray eased towards the total by grabbing full advantage of some missed chances. They put pressure on Sharks’ bowlers by finding occasional boundaries and showed great professionalism by taking singles and two runs regularly. J’pura openers Thilina Samarasinghe, one of the most aggressive batsmen in university cricket and captain Cooray made a sensible partnership with their experience at this level of cricket. At the end of the powerplay they were well settled with 34/0. It was a fortunate moment for the Kings at the 6th over when Sharks captain RumeshMadushanka missed a rare chance of a runout at short extra cover giving Kings captain new life. At very next delivery Sharks paid the price for the missed run out when Cooray flicked the ball over the mid wicket rope
End of 10th over Japura kings 55/0-MPRM coorey 35*,TM Samarasinghe 17*
TM Munasighe brilliant with his timing pushed the ball through the gaps beautifully. J’pura skipper Cooray completed his half century with brilliant six. He was run out in the 14th over having made a brilliant 56. At the end of the 15th over| JK 101/1
But after removing the openers Sharks started to believe and gave their best efforts to grab the title of their life. Their never say die attitude seved them well taking them towards the victory.
Then came the most important moment of the tournament, Thilina Samarasinghe played an on drive finding diving K. Munasingha at short midwicket who took a superb catch. Thereafter the Sharks had some brilliant fielding efforts to stop singles and boundaries.
J’pura made a good effort to chase down the highest total at the P. Sara wicket but eventually failed to do it due to superb coming back of Moratuwa Sharks. Sharks took the first ever Red Bull interuniversity T20 title and will represent Sri Lanka at Red Bull World University T20 tournament in Bangalore. They will now contest along with campus teams from Pakistan, England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Canada, UAE and hosts India.
Results:
Moratuwa Sharks 137 for 9 in 20 overs (M.S. Marasinghe 39, S.U. Perera 28: S.M. Karunaratne 3 for 22)
Sri Jayewardenepura Kings 127 for 4 in 20 overs (R.M. Cooray 56, T.M. Samarasinghe 38: M.U. Gunatilleke 2 for 26)
