CCC, Tamil Union battle for MAJOR CLUB TITLE

The CCC squad

The Tamil Union squad

By M. Shamil Amit

The Major Club cricket tournament will conclude this weekend with defending champions CCC and Tamil Union scheduled to face each other in the final at the SSC Ground starting today.
The final will be played over four days, opposed to the three-day format followed during the group stage.

The two teams came out on top of their respective groups last weekend with CCC leading Group ‘A’ with five outright wins from the 12 matches they played, securing 160.605 points while Tamil Union topped Group ‘B’ recording five outright wins for a points tally 143.34 points.

The defending champions are led by Lasith Abeyratne and he has in his ranks players in the calibre of Minod Bhanuka, Sonal Dinusha, Chamindu Wijesinghe, Nimesha Gunasinghe, Pawan Ratnayake and Pawan Pathiraja who all will be expected to chip in with their contributions with the bat while the bowling will be in the hands of Asitha Fernando, Dinusha, Devindu Kekirideniya, Yasaruwan Herath and Gunasinghe.

Tamil Union led by Sadeera Samarawickrama will bank on his top players in the likes of Navod Paranavithana, Santhush Gunatilake, Ron Chandragupta and Kamesh Nirmal in the batting department and will depend on Kavindu Pathiratne, Dulaj Sanuditha, Dilum Sudeera, Jeffrey Vandersay and Ravindu Fernando in the bowling.

However, going by the first round performances, the scale is in favor of CCC who has remained unbeaten with five outright wins, six first innings and one match being washed out while on the other hand Tamil Union has undergone an outright defeat and a first innings loss.

The Major Club cricket tournament is being played after a lapse of two years after it was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

CCC who has been the champions for the last two years the tournament was played, in 2018 and 2019, under the leadership of Ashan Priyanjan will be seeking to win the title for the third year.