ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2017

It was remarkable that Sinhalese should have emerged from these machinations to claim the overall title for a record eighth time. The club’s performance in the early stages was unimpressive; it qualified from Pool A only in second place and with the great majority of its points, and both its wins, garnered against the lesser sides destined for the Plate. In fact, only Colts carried forward fewer than Sinhalese’s 21.15 points into the Super Eights. But from this point, Sinhalese powered ahead with impressive wins in all four games at the second stage culminating, in the last two games, in an eight-wicket win against Pool B winners Ragama before the title was clinched in a dramatic two-day win against Colombo, with 24 wickets falling on the second day. Chilaw Marians, who had beaten Sinhalese on the way to winning Group A, could not match this run of form. An innings win against Colts (dismissed for only 39) gave them hope, but defeat at the hands of Ragama in the final game proved fatal to their chances. Defending champions Tamil Union, meanwhile, made little impression, finishing only third in Pool A and coming ahead only of Colts in the Super Eights. In the lower reaches of Tier A, competition for the wooden spoon was fierce: remarkably, five of the fourteen sides went through the entire season without a single outright win. Galle ultimately finished bottom of the Plate and will be relegated to Tier B. Their replacement, at least at the time of writing, will be Sri Lanka Ports Authority, who won six of their nine games in Tier B. The caveat is necessary because Panadura, also with six wins, actually had a better record and finished in first place; but in September 2017 SLC ruled that points gained from Panadura’s notorious game against Kalutara PCC should be struck from the final Tier B table, a decision that deprives Panadura of promotion and relegates Kalutara PCC altogether. Only one batsman exceeded a thousand runs in the first-class season, namely Sadeera Samarawickrama of Colts, who totalled 1209 at 63.63 in all matches and 1016 at 59.76 in the Premier Tournament alone: impressive figures by a promising young cricketer (21 years old) in a season where bowlers often held sway. And indeed there were some remarkable performances with the ball. For one, the 35-year-old Gyan Sirisoma currently of Panadura, who had been around the Sri Lankan first-class scene with various sides since 2002/03, was one of the chief beneficiaries of the elevated status of Tier B as he claimed 91 wickets at the extraordinary average of 12.28. In seven of the eight matches he played he claimed ten or more wickets, including as many as twelve ‘fivefers’ along the way. But over the season as a whole, even his tally, if not quite his average, was bettered by his fellow slow left-armer Malinda Pushpakumara (Chilaw Marians), who set a new record for a Sri Lankan season of 98 wickets, at 14.70 (77 at 13.79 in the Premier Tournament). He was rewarded with a Test cap in the 2017 ‘off’ season. (JCB) Sri Lanka Premier League Tier A 2016/17: Final tables Group A P W WInns L DWF DTF DLF ND BatBP BowBP Pts CF* 12 14 0 8 4 0 0 1 Chilaw Marians 6 3 1 1 0 0 1 0 15.420 17.10 82.520 27.580 2 Sinhalese 6 2 0 1 2 0 1 0 12.705 15.45 68.155 21.150 3 Tamil Union 6 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 12.660 14.40 67.060 33.395 4 Nondescripts 6 1 0 1 3 0 1 0 17.270 12.90 66.170 31.580 5 Badureliya 6 2 0 3 0 0 1 0 12.065 15.30 51.365 22.140 6 Bloomfield 6 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 13.900 12.90 42.800 26.600 7 Galle 6 0 0 3 1 0 2 0 11.640 12.45 32.090 8.780 452 Sri Lanka in 2016/17