By M.H.Yakeem
Lanka Cavaliers win in Jaffna
Lanka Cavaliers is the first Masters team to play in Jaffna after many years and overcame host Northern Masters by 5 wickets in a 30 over game, which was played for the S.Illangaratnam trophy recently at the Hindu College grounds.
Lanka Cavaliers with many past known Cricketers in their team, displayed their Cricketing talents and skills to the loving fans in Jaffna, where they enjoyed by witnessing the game and with the initiative movie taken by the Director of Cricket in Jaffna Harry Vaheesan to invite Lanka Cavaliers could be a start for the development of the game in the Northern Province .
Lanka Cavaliers winning the toss and electing to bat, made a comfortable total of 223/5 in their allotted 30 overs with opener Wasanthalal Fernando displaying his talents stroked a blistering knock of 59 runs and brilliant knocks played by Carman Mapatuna and Suranjith Dharmasena’s and useful contributions from Sajeewa de Silva , Varuna Waragoda and Tony Gunawardena took them to a commanding position. K.Nathan was the pick of the bowlers capturing 2 vital scalps for 38 runs.
In the run chase, Northern Masters openers S.S .Baskaran and S.Thileepan took up the challenge and the pair together put up a solid partnership of 114 runs with S.Thileepan playing a marvellous innings stroked a fluent 62 runs in 54 balls and with the dismissals of these two batsmen and the fall of wickets at regular intervals slowed down the run rate and the only batters to reach the double figures were N. Jeyaraj and K. Selvarasa who scored a hurricane knock of 20 runs in just 15 balls, could not reach the target and were bundled out for 178 runs in 28.1 overs. Krishan Dharmasena with 3 scalps , Sirosha Gunathilake and Mahesh Wijenayake claiming 2 wickets apart were the bowlers, who brought them this win.
Nalliah Devarajan , an experienced player and turned to be a match referee was appointed to lead the Northern Masters who could encourage the lads with his knowledge in this field .
Scores:
Lanka Cavaliers 223/5 in 30 overs
Wasanthalal Fernando 59, Carman Mapatuna 52, Suranjith Dharmasena 37, Varuna Waragoda 18, Sajeewa de Silva 15, Tony Gunawardena 14, K.Nathan 2/38
Northern Masters 178 all out in 28.1 overs
S.Thileepan 62, S.S.Baskaran 25, K.Selvarasa 20, N.Jeyaraj 10, Krishan Dharmasena’s 3/24, Sirosha Gunathilake 2/17, Mahesh Wijenayake 2/25
