RANITHA, KOSHAN FASHION BMS SRI LANKA TRIUMPH
Red Bull Cricket Campus Final 2016
Individual brilliance of Ranitha Liyanaarachchi and Koshan Jayawickrama paved the way for the Business Management School Sri Lanka to emerge the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Cup champions. The duo exhibited two superlative performances to help BMS Sri Lanka defeat University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh by 24 runs in the final played at the Galle International Cricket yesterday.
The performances of the duo was equally significant with Ranitha slamming a blistering 27 ball knock of 52 inclusive of six boundaries and two sixes when BMS Sri Lanka was in a spot of bother on 108 for 6 in the 14th over and Koshan with his spin wrecking the UOLA Bangladesh batting when they were right on top on 93 for 1 in the tenth over in their run chase.
BMS Sri Lanka came in to the final with the inclusion of two Sri Lanka national players in Dhananjaya de Silva and Dasun Shanaka which no doubt was going to be a big advantage for the side. The ULOA Bangladesh side on the other hand came into the game having recorded two shocking wins against defending champions ATC UOP South Africa and University of Punjab Pakistan who was one of the favourites for the title due to the fact of having ended their campaign in the round robin matches with an unbeaten record.
Dhananjaya and Dasun shared a partnership of 31 runs for the fourth wicket after BMS Sri Lanka taking first lease of the wicket was making smooth progress.
However they lost three quick wickets for the addition of 16 runs and slid from a healthy 92 for 3 to 108 for 6 when Ranitha walked into the crease and associated in fruitful partnerships of 39 for the seventh wicket and 38 runs for the eighth wicket with Thilaskha Sumanasiri and Madushan Ravichandrakumar enabling BMS Sri Lanka to end with a challenging score of 191 for 9.
In UOLA Bangladesh’s run chase saw Ranitha making the early breakthrough picking up the wicket of Sabit Hossain but Avishka Mitra and skipper Hasanuzzaman denied BMS Sri Lanka any success for a considerable period. The pair tore the bowling to all parts of the field but their separation having added 88 runs for the second wicket with the dismissal of Mitra saw them falling back as spinner Koshan came into the act.
Koshan’s first scalp was that of skipper Hasanuzzaman and later he ran through the middle order and their late order batsmen were unable to make any noteworthy impression.
BMS Sri Lanka 191 for 9 in 20 overs (Ranitha Liyanaarachchi 53, Dhananjaya de Silva 32, Dasun Shanaka 19, Geshan Wimaladharma 17, Manoj Saratchandra 14: Arifur Rahman 3 for 20, Mohammad Islam 2 for 22)
UOLA Bangladesh 167 for 8 in 20 overs (M.D. Hasanuzzaman 39, Avishek Mitra 28, Maraj Niloy 20, Arifur Rahman 15 n.o.: Koshan Jayawickrama 4 for 27, Chamika Karunaratne 2 for 17)