A nail-biting game of 50-over cricket was watched by the spectators at De Soysa grounds in Moratuwa when the Seylan Bank and Sampath Bank 22nd MCA Premier League match ended in a tie on Sunday.
Seylan Bank won the toss and elected to field first after the match was reduced to 45 overs due to the delayed start. Batting first, Sampath Bank posted an imposing total of 253/6 in their allotted 45 overs. Opening pair of Kaushal Silva and Rumesh Buddhika put on another 100+ partnership and excelled for Sampath Bank as they scored 73 runs and 62 runs respectively. Leader of the bowling attack Nuwan Kulasekara captured 2 wickets giving away 35 runs in his 9-over spell.
Chasing 254 runs to win, Seylan Bank was 227 for 6 at the end of 42 overs when the game was called-off by the umpires for bad light. As per the Duckworth and Lewis calculations the scores were level and the match was declared a tied game. Right-handed opener Ian Daniel made 60 valuable runs while middle-order batsman Chanaka Wijesinghe made a well-compiled half-century. Left-arm spin twins Rangana Herath and Suwanji Madanayake grabbed 2 wickets apiece.
Chief Scores:
Sampath Bank – 253/6 in 45 overs: Kaushal Silva 73, Romesh Buddika 62, Nuwan Kulasekara 2/35.
Seylan Bank – 227/6 in 42 overs: Ian Daniel 60, Chanaka Wijesinghe 50, Rangana Herath 2-23, Suwanji Madanayaka 2/31.
The other MCA match scheduled for the day was between Hatton National Bank and Commercial Credit at Bloomfield grounds and due to heavy overnight rains, the match officials abandoned the game without a ball being bowled.
