da doce： The Mercantile Cricket Association Division A tournament started today, butfailed to live up to the high expectations of competitive cricket, as allthe matches were hopelessly one sided and most of the cricketers were ableto rest there not so
Charlie Austin19-May-2001The Mercantile Cricket Association Division A tournament started today, butfailed to live up to the high expectations of competitive cricket, as allthe matches were hopelessly one sided and most of the cricketers were ableto rest there not so tired legs well before dusk.Hatton National Bank, the defending champions breezed to a six wicketvictory over Singer Sri Lanka, Seylan Bank cruised to a six wicket victoryagainst John Keels Group, Access Group lost just three wickets as theychased a low East-West Information total, and Sampath Bank went on a runspree against Janashakthi Insurance.Singer Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 62 by HNB, lasting only 27 overs.Kumar Dharmasena’s off breaks proved too hot to handle and he claimed fivewickets for just 13 runs. Although HNB then lost Avishka Gunawardene,Prassana Jayawardene, Chintaka Jayasingha and Saman Jayantha they cruised tovictory in just 11 overs.John Keells made a promising start against Seylan Bank as Michael Vandortand Dilan Ramanayake added 64 runs for the first wicket. Then, in the 14thover of the innings, Dilhara Fernando clean bowled Ramanake before rippingout the heart of the top order. He finished with five wickets and took threewickets in one over. John Keels lost five wickets whilst on 82 and couldonly muster 111. Naweed Nawaz saw Seylan Bank home with an unbeaten halfcentury.After losing four early wickets Sampath Bank’s middle order batsmen gorgedthemselves on the Janashakthi Insurance bowling, which has been weakened bythe loss of Muttiah Muralitharan this season. They scored 309 in theirallotted overs with Marvan Atapattu scoring 82, KAS Jayasinghe making 53,and KADJ Siriwardene smashing six sixes in his quick-fire 85 off 56 balls.Janashakthi were bowled out for 173.In the final match of the day East-West Information were bowled out byAccess International for 146. Ishara Amerasinghe, a young fast bowler whohas impressed this season for Nondescripts Cricket Club, picked up fourwickets, Ruwan Kalpage continued his good form with three wickets, and therecently recalled Niroshan Bandaratillake grabbed a brace. Access powered tovictory thanks to a half century by Indika de Saram and an unbeaten 32 byAravinda de Silva.