Tamil Union emerge Under 23 champions
Defending champions Tamil Union retained their Under 23 Division One title by virtue of their first innings win against Moors SC in the final concluded at the Colts ground yesterday.
The third and final day’s play was marred by bad weather with the umpires forced to call off the match without a ball being bowled. Tamil Union were assured of the title when play ended on the second day after Chamod Pathirana and Mateesha Perera took over from Madusanka Ekanayake as the duo put on a valuable 108-run stand for the ninth wicket to take Tamil Union closer to clinching the title. The pair cracked half tons with Chamod making 63 inclusive of two boundaries and two sixes while Mateesha made a 55 with a boundary and a six which enabled Tamil Union make a formidable score of 298 after bowling out Moors for a low score of 116.
Moors batting the second time were left with a daunting task of first erasing a deficit of 182 runs and ended day two on 111 for 3 when the match was called off early due to bad light.
Moors SC 116 (Nipuna Kariyawasam 49 n.o., Madusanka Ekanayake 5 for 33, Chamod Pathirana 2 for 40) and 111 for 3 (Isham Ghouse 20, Ashan Priyanjan 59 n.o.)
Tamil Union (204/8 overnight) 298 (Chamod Pathirana 63, Mateesha Perera 55, Sajith Kelumpriya 39, Ashen Silva 31, Chathuranga de Silva 31: Nipuna Kariyawasam 3 for 34, Shehan Jayasuriya 3 for 54, Chamikara Edirisinghe 2 for 73)