Bloomfield, who had to share the Under-23 Inter-Club 2-day title with CCC last year in a high scoring final, will be looking to win it outright this year when they take on Moors SC in a semi-final match starting today at the Surrey grounds, Maggona.
They will of course bear in mind that in their group match Moors SC had the upper hand when they beat them in the first innings by a narrow margin of 16 runs.
Bloomfield’s build up towards the knockout stage has been extremely good having piled up a massive 586-9 declared in their quarter-final game against Negombo CC four days ago and dismissed their opponents for 197. One of the keys to Bloomfield’s success has been that they bat very deep till number 10. With runs on the board they have the bowlers to do the job for them.
Moors SC come into the semi-finals having knocked out SSC with a faultless display. They defended their modest total of 258 splendidly through their bowlers to dismiss SSC for 162. In the second innings Moors SC got some good batting practice for the semi-finals with their top three batters scoring fifties apiece.
BRC come on the back of defeating last year’s joint champions CCC in the first innings when they meet Kurunegala YCC at the CCC grounds. It was a thoroughly professional approach that BRC adopted, bowling out CCC for 268 and then going onto pile up 328-8 in reply. That performance should give them enough confidence for today’s game.
On the other hand Kurunegala YCC cannot be underestimated. In the quarter-final against Chilaw Marians CC it was their captain Lakvin Abeysinghe’s innings of 171 that made up 75 percent of their total of 227 after they were six down for 96. Kurunegala YCC did well to keep Chilaw Marians CC down to 200, but will need to pull up their socks and perform better than that if they are to give BRC a good run. – [ST]