Nineteen-year old Kamil Mishara hogged the limelight with a brilliant 113 as NCC drubbed Ragama CC by 145 runs in the final to emerge the worthy champions of the Si Lanka Cricket Major Club Limited Over Cricket Tournament at the SSC grounds yesterday. Batting first on winning the toss, NCC made a formidable 286 for seven in 50 overs and shot out Ragama CC for 141 in 30.3 overs.
The lest-handed one drop batsman unleashed a truly remarkable champion innings that was more the remarkable having pulled his side out of the early rut of 2 for 20 with veteran batsman Upul Tharanga falling for 1 and Nimesh de Silva for 10. His 132-ball knock containing 9 boundaries which was his third century in the tournament, proved to be the cornerstone to NCC coming thumbs up in the final and pocketing the Man of the Final Award.
Mishara found great support from Kaveen Bandara who struck 65 (6×4) in a third wicket partnership of 137 runs as skipper Angelo Perera then added the classic partying celebrative champagne tempo to the contest with a 43-ball 61 hitting 4 boundaries and a six. The 98-run fourth-wicket alliance with Mishara proved to be the final toll for Ragama CC in the face of the run avalanche that was to put them out of the reckoning.
Ragama CC, in their turn caved in the face of the massive target losing wickets at regular intervals precipitating from 1 for 20 to 3 for 40 and 5 for 78 with pace bowler Lahiru Kumara accounting for the wickets of opener Nishan Madushka for 15 and Dineth Thimodya for 05 for figures of 3 for 30. From there Chamika Karunaratne took over the clean-up operation with the splendid figures of 4 for 37. Only Janith Liyanage offered resistance making 42 off 71 balls with 2 boundaries. Liyanage, who was last man out in that virtual lone resistance, had the consolation of walking away with the top Player of the Tournament award.The Best Batsman was SSCs Charith Asalanka and Best Bowler Ragama CCs Binura Fernando.
CHIEF SCORES:
NCC 286/7 (50 Overs)
(Kamil Mishara 113, Kaveen Bandara 65, Angelo Perera 61, Ishan. Jayaratne 3/52, Binura. Fernando 3/55)
RAGAMA CC 141 (30.3 Overs)
(Janith Liyanaga 42, Chamika Karunaratne 4/37, Lahiru Kumara 3/30)
