Central province made it 3 out of 3 on the final day of the round robin games of the Sri Lanka Cricket womens under 26 inter provincial tournament yesterday(12th).
In the other game, Western Province managed to record their first victory of the tournament as they overcame North Central by 39 runs. A wet outfield meant that the game was reduced to 45 overs and Western made 199 for 6 in their allotted overs after being sent in by North Central. Nilakshi Silva stroked a classy 88 while she got good support from the skipper, Nipuni Hansika, who made a useful 46 runs to push them to a defendable total on a majestic batting track at the Moors grounds, in Colombo. In reply, North Central were well below par for the most part of their innings as they could muster only 160 for 7 at the end of the 45 overs. Ama Kanchana kept their hopes alive with an unbeaten 49 but it was never going to be enough as the required rate kept rising. Nimali Perera was the pick of the bowlers for Western as she ended up with 3 for 40 to put the smiles back on the Western Province girls after a couple of bad losses.
Southern Province were so close but yet so far as they fell short agonisingly against Central who made only 139 after batting first at the MCA grounds in Colombo. Nilangika Sanjeewani was impressive once again as she picked up 3 key wickets to restrict the Central Province batting line up to just 139. Mihiri Madushani led the come back for Central as she bowled beautifully to have returns of 4 for 16 in her quota of overs. Once again the openers Anushka(38) and Kushanthi(36) got their team off to a great start but the middle and lower orders couldn’t capitalise on the start given as the folded up for a paltry 120 runs.
Chief Scores
Game 1-
Western Province U26
199-6 in 45 overs (Nilakshi Silva 88, Nipuni Hansika 46, Sathya Sandeepani 2/35)
Vs
North Central Province U26
160-7 in 45 overs (Ama Kanchana 49*, Hansima Karunarathna 45, Nimali Perera 3/40)
Game 2-
Central Province U26
139-9 in 50 overs (Ruchini Samarasinghe 38, Iresha Shyamali 25, Nilangika Sanjeewani 3/24, Achini Kulasuriya 2/18)
Vs
Southern Province U26
120 in 48.1 overs (Anushka Sanjeewani 38, Kushanthi Liyanage 36, Mihiri Madushani 4/16)
