The traditional rivals and neighbours SSC and the NCC will clash in the 2013/14 Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Inter Club Premier limited Overs cricket tournament final on December 28 (Saturday) at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The most significant feature in this high profile encounter is the fact that both teams have made it to the final from Group ‘B’ following some outstanding performances in their two respective semifinals worked off last week.
In fact the SSC are in a buoyant mood after their stunning two wicket victory over the defending champions Ragama Cricket Club at this same venue and the NCC earlier had the satisfaction of overcoming the unbeaten Colts Cricket Club in the first semifinal fixture. However, they will miss the services of Mahela Jayawardena who will be away on national duty having played two matches for the SSC scoring 90 off 80 balls vs Moors SC that helped them to victory.
Even then the NCC will have a psychological advantage going into this important final after having defeated the same opponents by a convincing margin of seven wickets during a group fixture played at the SSC ground in Maitland Place.
On that occasion the SSC who were put into bat managed to score only 206 runs from 44.5 overs but the NCC reached their victory target in style with wicket keeper opening batsman Niroshan Dickwella smashing a sparkling 80 runs and Sandun Weerakkody stroking an unbeaten 79 to steer them towards victory with more than 15 overs to spare.
However the SSC should be quite confident ahead of the final as they had the credit of knocking over the reigning champions and the more fancied Ragama Cricket Club with an improved performance in the second semifinal encounter.
Now they will be hoping that the team will continue the same form and add the finishing touches for a successful tournament where they managed to finish on top of group ‘B’ having recorded four good victories from their six outings.
In contrast the NCC finished in the second position in the same group where they also notched up four splendid victories but suffered two shock defeats at the hands of Tamil Union and Moors Sports Club respectively.
With both teams packed with some excellent stroke makers the final should no doubt turn out to be a high scoring encounter.
Incidentally the two top run getters in the tournament are from these two teams with NCC’s dashing opening batsman Niroshan Dickwella ahead with a tally of 430 runs from seven innings and he is followed by SSC’s Kaushal Silva who has an aggregate of 353 runs from six outings.
Middle order batsman Kaushal Silva is certainly in tremendous form having hit a match winning 102 not out in a vital semifinal encounter against Ragama Cricket Club on Monday at the R. Premadasa Stadium.
In the bowling department of course NCC’s Tharindu Kaushal is slightly ahead with a total of 15 wickets having done most of the damage with his accurate off spinners and boasting of a best effort of four wickets for 33 runs in a crucial semifinal encounter against the Colts Cricket Club.
Meanwhile the best bowler for SSC in this tournament has been their left arm fast bowler and former Sri Lanka youth cap Charith Jayampathy who has captured 14 wickets from seven outings.
In fact the 22 year old former schoolboy of D.S. Senanayake College will be looking to produce a repeat performance having snapped up three wickets for 55 runs in the group stage game against the SSC at Maitland Place.
