Sri Lanka domestic round-up

Bloomfield fall to first defeat in thriller

Sa'adi Thawfeeq

November 27, 2007

Premier Limited Over Tournament

High-riding Bloomfield, without their prolific scorer Tillakaratne Dilshan who was leading a Sri Lanka President's XI against England, suffered their first defeat of the season when Colombo CC won by one wicket during an exciting encounter at the Bloomfield ground. Allrounder Laknath Perera was Bloomfield's adversary taking four wickets with his gentle medium-pace and then showing a cool head to score an undefeated 25 off 29 balls to enable CCC to pass the target of 198 in the 48th over. Despite the defeat Bloomfield continue to head the points table hotly pursued by Colombo Colts.

Colombo Colts kept pace with NCC by defeating Ragama CC by nine wickets at the Colombo Cricket Club. Angelo Mathews, the former Sri Lanka Under-19 captain, knocked out the top and bottom of the order with four wickets. Colts made short work of the modest target, cruising home in the 23rd over mainly through an opening stand of 100 by Shantha Kalavitigoda and Dilruwan Perera, who made his ODI debut against England last month.

Player of the week - Riki Wessels
Although there were a number of closely fought matches, the overall standard of batting has been disappointing with many young players failing to play straight. But one player who has stood out is Riki Wessels, the 22-year-old son of former Australian and South Africa cricketer Kepler Wessels.

An Australian by birth Wessels, who plays for English county Northamptonshire and has set his sights of representing England in the future, signed up for one season with Nondescripts CC. According to the club's vice president Ranjith Fernando he has making a good impression. "Riki's fitted into the system very well. The way he is batting he's certainly shown that he is enjoying himself."

Having started the season with an impressive knock of 83 against Tamil Union, Wessels has shown consistency as an opener averaging 53 from five matches. Last weekend he hit back-to-back half-centuries - 61 and 53 against Bloomfield and Chilaw Marians. However, despite Wessels' contributions NCC are struggling to keep pace with the rest of the clubs. They are lying sixth and need to lift their game in the remaining four matches to have any chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage.

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