Angelo, Farveez shine as NCC lift title
Angelo Perera and skipper Farveez Maharoof shone with match-winning performances after Niroshan Dickwella and Upul Tharanga gave NCC a solid start to record a comfortable 77-run win over Colts in the final of the AIA Premier League limited over tournament played at R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday, which helped lift the title after a lapse of eight years.
Colts in pursuit of 256 runs fell into trouble as Maharoof sent shock waves to leave them reeling in the first over of the innings as he took a hat-trick with the wickets of Shehan Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama and Shehan Jayasuriya in the fourth, fifth and sixth balls with just two runs on the board.
Colts despite making a recovery thereafter through a 105-run stand for the fourth wicket between Hashan Dumindu and Angelo Jayasinghe, faltered again in the latter part of the innings as none of the batsmen made an impression.
Apart from Hashan who made a top score of 72 and Angelo’s stand there was only another brief 42-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Angelo and Priyamal as no other batsmen was able to reach the double-figure mark with Colts folding up for a poor score of 178.
Maharoof was unable to play the full match as he underwent an injury whilst bowling his second over but had already done the damage. The morning session of play saw skipper Maharoof winning the toss and electing to take first lease of the wicket being given a flying start by openers Dickwella and Tharanga who together put on 86 runs in 92 balls before being separated.
They underwent a set back with spinner Dilruwan Perera taking three quick wickets as NCC slid from a strong position of 86 for 1 to 102 for 4 in the 21st over. Angelo Perera came to the rescue of his side as he put on three valuable partnerships, first of 30 runs for the fifth wicket with Jehan Mubarak followed by 55 runs for the sixth wicket with skipper Maharoof and the third of 37 runs for the seventh wicket with Isuru Udana before he became the eighth NCC wicket to fall having made a valuable half ton.
Later useful knocks coming from the tail end saw NCC end their innings with a formidable score of 254 for 8. Dilruwan who ended with impressive figures of 6 for 29 from his ten overs in the end proved to be in vain