State Services Cricket Association emerged as the runner up at the Masters 5th edition T/20 Cricket tournament losing to Colombo Masters Cricket Association by 9 wickets in the final of the R.A.H. De Zoysa Shield, organised and conducted by the Colombo Masters Cricket Association, played at the Bloomfield ground, Reid Avenue Colomb- 07 on the 01st of May.
State Services CA met Mercantile CA, whilst Colombo Masters CA took on Nationalised Services CA in their semi final matches and the winners of these two matches met in the final.
State Services CA overcame Mercantile CA by 5 wickets to qualify for the final. It was Sanjeewa Jayasinghe and Dammika Rajapaksha with a solid 44 runs partnership for the 6th wicket guided State Services to win this game, where Mercantile CA batting first scored 154 for the loss of 6 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. State Services chasing this total, at one stage were 111 for the loss of 5 wickets and this pair Sanjeewa Jayasinghe and Dammika Rajapaksha with an understanding between the wickets took past the winning total with 8 balls to spare.
In the final, State Services Skipper winning the toss took the decision to bat first, the fall of the first wicket at 9 runs on board and their after wickets falling at regular intervals, State Services were all out for 108 runs and lost the final to Colombo Masters.
Scores – State Services CA 108 runs all out in 18.4 overs Chandana Danapala 26, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe 23, Mahesh Samarawickrama 13
Colombo Masters – 110/1 in 19 overs Swanji Madanayake 50 not out, Wijayananda Perera 46 not out
M.H.Yakeem