MAS Unichela won the 21st Singer MCA Premier League championship when they defeated John Keells Holdings by 133 runs under the D/L rain rule in the final played at SSC grounds on Saturday.
John Keells skipper Janaka Gunarathne won the toss and elected to field first on a batting friendly pitch but his bowlers were astray due to some terrific batting by Kusal Janith Perera who made the life hard of the bowlers when he stroked 54 runs in 65 balls with 3 boundaries. The top order fell cheaply but Kusal and Chamara Silva resurrected the MAS Unichela innings scoring half centuries for their team. Skipper Chamara Silva batted with authority to score 79 runs in 94 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes included in his innings.
After another collapse in the batting order, Dilruwan Perera then stuck in there with an unbeaten 45 to take MAS to the decent score of 251/9 in 50 overs. Apart from Kusal, Chamara & Dilruwan none of the other batsman crossed double figures for the reigning champions. Right arm medium fast bowler Kanishka Alvitigala was the most impressive bowler for John Keells Holdings when he took 3 scalps but gave away 63 runs in his quota of 10 overs. Part time off spinner Shehan Jayasuriya took 2 wickets for 15 runs while Ishan Jayarathne took 2 wickets for 53 runs.
A target of 252 in 50 overs was set for John Keels Holdings but with the rains nearing, they struggled to gain momentum in their chase as disciplined bowling by the MAS Unichela bowlers tightened the screws on the chase, picking up wickets at regular intervals. Wicket keeper batsman Denuwan Rajakaruna top scored for the John Keells Holdings team when he made 25 runs in 31 balls with 4 elegant boundaries. As a massive rain storm was on the way, MAS Unichela hurried up the proceedings to bowl the necessary 20 overs in the 2nd innings of the 50 over contest to obtain a result and they did it perfectly by bowling off spinners TM Dilshan and Dilruwan Perera in tandem.
After sitting pretty on 63/2, John Keels collapsed to 89/8 and then came the rain to close off the deal for the day. Former Peterites, Lahiru Jayarathne and Sohan Boralessa took 2 wickets each for the winners and when the match was called off, D/L par score for John Keels Holdings were 222 and they were 133 runs behind and it meant the most dominant team, MAS – Unichela wins the 21st Singer-MCA Premier League 2013 knock out final.
Chief Scores :
MAS Unichela – 251/9 in 50 overs : Kusal Janith 54, Chamara Silva 79, Dilruwan Perera 45*, Kanishka Alvitigala 3/63, Shehan Jayasuriya 2/15, Ishan Jayarathne 2/53.
John Keels – 89/8 in 23.2 overs : Denuwan Rajakaruna 25, Dimuth Karunarathne 16, Sohan Boralessa 2/4, Lahiru Jayarathne 2/23
Individual Awards
Man of the Final – Chamara Silva
Emerging Player of the Year – Chathuranga De Silva
Man of the Tournament – Chathuranga De Silva
Best Bowler – Sajeewa Weerakoon
Best Batsman – Mahela Udawatta
