Sri Lankan Major League Tournament

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Sri Lankan Major League Tournament

Postby The Professor » Sun Sep 04, 2022 1:31 pm

This has been quite a hard tournament to follow and update.

Firstly, as you can imagine, the coverage in Sri Lanka has been patchy. Also, there are so many teams and the fixtures are all over-lapping; for example, a round of matches has finished today but another started today as well…..problematic, at best. I will therefore take this arbitrary point to offer you some findings.

Moors are the team to beat so far. They are the only team with a 100% record which is even more impressive considering they have played 3 matches – whereas others have just played the one.

As ever in these competitions there are some huge gulfs in terms of the teams. On 6 occasions teams have been beaten by an innings. Moors success is underlined by the fact that they have beaten 2 teams by that margin. Fans of Kandy will be concerned that they have been beaten by an innings now fewer than three times.
The standout batter in the tournament remains Nishan Madushka. He registered a huge 300* in the last round of fixtures against lowly Sebastianites. With a score like that you will not be surprised to hear he is the highest tournament run scorer as well with nearly 200 more than anyone else.

This round of games has also seen the Sri Lankan domestic legend that is Malinda Pushpakumara land the outrageous figures of 8-27 in Colts innings victory over Lankan. This is the second eightfer of the tournament. The first was bagged by Sri Lankan Army’s Kamul Nanayakkara in a match against Bloomfied. Nanayakkara is the tournament’s best wicket taker with 24 @ 12.95.

Matches continue…..seemingly all the time.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Sri Lankan Major League Tournament

Postby The Professor » Sun Sep 11, 2022 2:45 pm

Another cycle of game shave been completed with many of the fixtures pitting teams off against each other that are right next to each other in the table.



One of these closely fought games was between Ragama and Burgher who were 3rd and fourth on the table. Ragama’s Nishan Madushanka got his third century of the tournament as Ragama only needed to bat first. His 107 helped bolster Ragama’s score of 413-9d. Burgher lost by an innings and 21 runs.

Another huge win could be found in the game between table-toppers Tamil Union who skittled the Sri Lankan Air Service all out for 87 in the final innings to claim a 270 run win.

The highest individual score for this round of matches came from Chilaw Mariams’ Gaurav Jathar who got 139 of the 391 first innings runs. Saracens were asked to follow on but played for time on the final day to claim the draw. Chilaw Mariams sit 4th.



Two seven wicket hauls were bagged in this round. The most economical of which was in a bottom of the table clash between Panadura and Bloomfield. Nimesh Vimukthu got 7-45 as Bloomfield were all out for 135 chasing down a first innings target of 426. They were asked to follow on but, like Saracens, batted out the day.

More impressive was Kamal Nanayakkara, who already lead the wicket taking tally but got a fivefer in his first innings and 7-56 in the second. The Army man now has 36 wickets across the competition.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Sri Lankan Major League Tournament

Postby The Professor » Sun Sep 18, 2022 3:17 pm

There were fewer results in this week’s round and those that were completed were more narrow victories than we have seen recently. The most comprehensive victory was Galle’s innings and 13 run beating of Kalutara Town which saw Galle move up to 7th place.

If high scoring draws are your thing, your fixture of this weekend’s round would have been Police Sports Club versus Ragama. The Police sit 5 places below Ragama and would have been happier for the draw. This can be seen in the batting of Heshan Dhanuskha who batted his hear tout for his 233 – the third highest individual score of the tournament. The tournament’s leading run-scorer, Nishan Madushka, also didn’t disappoint as he put on 125 in the first inning and 82 in the second. He has now scored 925 at an average of 185. This is 324 more runs than anybody else.

Not a round seems to go by without someone bagging an eight-fer. This time out it was the turn of Sonal Dinusha who got his in the drawn match between Colombo and Moors. This was another drawn match between the sides that are first and second in Group A. Whilst the game is officially down as a draw, Moors needed just 8 more runs to claim the victory with two wickets in hand before time run out.

The top wicket taker Kaumal Nanayakkara got 6 more wickets to take his total to 42 at an average of 13.78.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Sri Lankan Major League Tournament

Postby The Professor » Sun Sep 25, 2022 2:56 pm

There were more results this week – and some by quite considerable margins.

The most impressive victory came as 3rd place Nondescripts sunk the Sri Lankan Navy and won with 10 wickets in hand. The first innings lead of 167 was too much for the Navy to fight back from and it sees them drop down to 10th in Group B.

Whilst the game between Chilaw and Bloomfield was heading for a draw from a very earlier stage, it still proved entertaining thanks to no fewer than 5 centuries across both teams. The largest of which was from Vishua Cathuranga who scored 172 of Chilaw’s 552 runs. Bloomfield were 374-4 when hands were shaken.

In terms of the two most impressive players of the tournament, yet again they have played absolute blinders and, you would suspect, will be called up into the Sri Lankan side sooner rather than later. Nishan Madushka produced with the bat again, scoring 125 and 81 in the draw between Ragama and the Police Sports Club. The 23 year old now has 1025 runs. His nearest rival has 603. Equal consistency was shown by Sri Lankan Army’s Kaumal Nanayakkara who registered near identical figures of 12-3-33-6 and 12.3-2-39-6 as Ace Capital were bowled out for 85 and 105. He now has 54 wickets – 11 more than anyone else.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Sri Lankan Major League Tournament

Postby The Professor » Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:50 pm

It’s been a month since my last update and Colombo still impress in Group A. They are now undefeated across 10 games. This included a huge innings and 254 run victory over 7th placed Sebastianites that kick started their month.

Their success is largely built on their bowling. 4 bowlers have joined the 8-fer crew over the last moth but the most impressive was Colombo’s Ashan Priyanjan who got his in 21 overs and leaking just 51 runs. Even more impressively it means that the four best bowling figures in an innings all belong to three different Colombo players. Overall, however, the most devastating bowler continues to be Kaumal Nanayakkara who has got a further 12 wickets in October, taking his total to 66 @ 14.6
In terms of other stand out performances, Ahan Wickramasinghe scorched a 289 ball 234* in a draw between Nondescripts and Saracens to claim the third highest total of the tournament. Score all the double tonnes you want. Nobody is going to get anywhere near this tournament’s outstanding batter this season. Ragama’s Nishan Maduskha has now got 1161 @ 105.54 across his 9 matches. He has 327 more runs than anyone else.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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Re: Sri Lankan Major League Tournament

Postby The Professor » Sun Nov 20, 2022 4:53 pm

Another red ball domestic final brought to an ignominious end by the first innings lead rule.

After Tamil Union put on an absurd 558 in their first innings, Colombo exceeded that with 669 to win the trophy. Sadeera Samawickrama will feel aggrieved to have scored 231 runs in two innings (188 & 43) and still end up on the losing side. He did however propel himself up to third place on the run scoring table.

The best players of the tournament ended up being Ragama’s Nishan Madushka who got 138 runs more than anybody else in the tournament despite playing 2 fewer games whilst Prabath Jayasuriya pipped Kamal Nanayakkara to be highest wicket taker with 67 wickets @ 20.85.

Notable moments in the competition were Nishan Maduskha’s score of 300 for Ragama against Sebastianites in August whilst old favourite Malinda Pushpakumara registered the tournament’s highest of 8-27 for Colombo against Lankan at the start of September.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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