Asela Gunaratne’s Army ties match in rare occurrence

By Shamil Amit

In an extremely rare occurrence, a Premier inter-club cricket match ended in a tie over the weekend at a venue in Panagoda.

The match was between two teams Negombo Cricket Club and Army Sports Club in what is called the Major Club first class tournament. Despite batting in both innings without any interruptions or restrictions, neither team was able to go past collective totals of 435.

Army SC needed to get 241 to win outright and despite a top score of 92 from former Sri Lanka allrounder Asela Gunaratne the home team ended up all out on 240.

Scores:
Negombo CC 288 and (115/4 overnight) 147 (Umesh Lakshan 53, Kaveen Fernando 22, Dulaj Ranatunga 20, Angelo Jayasinghe 19 n.o.: Gayan Chandrabose 6/67, Shehada Zoysa 4/49)

Army SC 195 (Tharindu Dilanka 46, Ratnarajah Thenurathan 43, Gayan Chandrabose 24, Ashan Sudarshana 21, Ishara Mendis 20: Shehan Pramod 5/49, Sheshan Fernando 2/31, Sandeepa Perera 2/31) and 240 (Asela Gunaratne 92, Chrishen Aponsu 87, Pathum Dilshan 26: Shehan Pramod 4/80, Sandeepa Perera 3/72, Dhanushka Sandaruwan 2/51)