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SLC Inter-Provincial limited overs cricket
tournament:
WC discard Jayasuriya blasts fluent 97
By Chris DHAMBARAGE
CRICKET: World Cup discard Sanath Jayasuriya hammered a rapid
97 to spearhead Ruhuna Province to a morale boosting 95 run victory on
the Duckworth and Lewis scoring method over Uva Province in their SLC
Inter Provincial limited overs cricket tournament match worked off at
the SSC ground in Maitland Place yesterday.
The dashing left hand opening batsman who was named Player of the
Series at the 1996 World Cup missed out a century by just three runs as
Ruhuna hit up an impressive 285 for 8 from their 50 overs after been put
into bat.
In reply Uva finished on 131 for 7 after their victory target was
revised to 227 runs from 30 overs following an interruption for bad
weather during the innings break.
Jayasuriya playing in his second match of this tournament got his act
together well and hammered the Uva bowlers to all parts of the ground
stroking ten boundaries.
In the first outing of the tournament he made 29 with five boundaries
and captured two wickets for 31 during a vain effort as Ruhuna went down
to Kandurata by 96 runs on the Duckworth and Lewis scoring method.
But this time he was more determined and came out with a splendid
batting performance after the early dismissal of his opening partner
Upul Tharanga. Thereafter Jayasuriya began to dominate the bowling and
put on 53 runs for the second wicket along with Gihan Rupasinghe.
He took complete control of the situation from their onwards and
added a further 115 runs for the third wicket together with Kaushal
Silva who made a useful contribution of 42 runs.
Uva in reply had the task of scoring 227 runs from 30 overs after
their target was revised due to bad weather. Opener Mahela Udawatte kept
their hopes alive to a certain extent with a 63 ball half century
inclusive of one six and five boundaries.
But thereafter Uva lost wickets at regular intervals and fell behind
the required run rate against some accurate bowling from Suranga Lakmal,
Chinthaka Jayasinghe and Sachithra Serasinghe.
The tournament will be continued today with Kandurata taking on the
defending champions Wayamba in another encounter at the same venue.
Ruhuna: 285 for 8 in 50 overs (S. Jayasuriya 97, G. Rupasinghe 26, K.
Silva 42, C. Silva 31, J. Mendis 37, C. Jayasinghe 22, M. Bandara 4 for
50).
Uva: 131 for 7 in 30 overs (M. Udawatte 50, T. Kandamby 24, C.
Jayasinghe 2 for 30, S. Lakmal 2 for 34, S. Serasinghe 2 for 31) |
