Skipper Sadeera Samarawickrama played a superb knock of 188 as Tamil Union ended the first day’s play in a strong position with 356 for 5 wickets against CCC in the Major Clubs Four-day cricket final played at SSC grounds yesterday.
The day belonged to Sadeera, a right-hand opener, who hit his career-best knock in 243 balls which contain 18 fours and a six. He shared a superb 103-run opening partnership with young Navod Paranavithana who scored 54 in 70 balls.
Vishwa Fernando of CCC broke the opening partnership as he took Paranavithana’s wicket. Number three batsman Ron Chandraguptha made a fine knock of 48 of 97 balls and struck six boundaries to build up the team’s innings with skipper Samarawickrama.
Samarawickrama batted right through the first day in the innings and got out in the 81st over which was bowled by Vishwa Fernando who finished day one with 2 for 77 while leg spinner Lakshan Sandakan took 2 for 47 when bad light stopped play six overs before the scheduled close.
Earlier, at one stage Tamil Union were 281/2 but CCC bowlers fought back with three quick wickets before stumps.
Chief scores:
Tamil Union: 356 for 5 wickets in 84 overs (Sadeera Samarawickrama 188, Navod Paranavithana 54, Ron Chandragupta 48, Santhush Gunathileka 15, Kamesh Nirmal 16, Dilum Sudeera 10*, Ravindu Fernando 14*, Vishwa Fernando 2/77, Malinda Pushpakumara 1/91, Lakshan Sandakan 2/47) vs CCC