Brotherly rivalry goes Tharanga’s way

Newly formed Lankan Sports Club came out on top against their compatriots Sri Lanka Lions at Happy Valley on Sunday.

The Lions have been a successful team in recent seasons, but with so many players wanting to play, the Lankan SC has been formed to compete in the Cyprus cricket leagues, and the two teams met competitively for the first time.

The Lions batted first but struggled to make any headway, as the only solid contribution came from their captain Nalin Pathirana who made 39. Saman Kumara (3-25) and Sujith Tennekoon (2-19 from 4 overs) were the leading bowlers as the Lankan SC kept the run rate in check and bowled the Lions out for 107.

In reply the openers weathered a tight opening spell by Kamal Raiz, and were guided to an 8-wicket victory by their captain Tharanga Pathirana (twin brother of the Lions’ skipper) who scored an unbeaten 38, with good support from Suresh Gedara (25 not out).

MSN Punjab Lions won a high-scoring game against Telugu 11 by 24 runs. Mangala Gunasekara (40) and captain Tejwinder Singh (38) led the Lions to 192-7 in their 20 overs, and then Taranjit Singh took 3-33 to restrict Telugu.

But their captain Srinivas Angerakkala (62) and Subareddy Alavala (30) achieved some respectability for their team by reaching 168-7 against the pre-tournament favourites.

Moufflons gained a big win over Cyprus Knight Riders, hitting 173-3 thanks to 62 from the in-form Lakhwinder Singh and 59 by Zeeshan Ahmad. Murtaza Yamin took 3-11 as the Riders subsided to 65 all out in reply.

The match featured a first appearance in the league by a female cricketer – Iresha Chathurani, who scored 1 not out and took a wicket for Moufflons.

Matty Hone scored a composed 38 for Akrotiri against Black Caps, but received little support from his teammates as the airforce team was downed for 98, with Caps’ Resham Singh taking 3-16.

Akrotiri made their opponents work hard for victory, as skipper Scott Burdekin took 3-30 with his off-spin, and but for a couple of lapses in the field the game might have been even closer. But Bhupinder Singh’s 38 enabled the Caps to reach their target with six wickets down.