Bloomfield, Moors take honours in Premier League

Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club, and Moors Sports Club have won the Premier Tier A and Tier B League titles for the 2010-'11 season.

The final round of matches concluded on Sunday, and Bloomfield won the title ahead of Colombo Colts CC, who finished second on the back of a 10-wicket win against Chilaw Marians in their final fixture. Bloomfield and Colombo Colts had five wins apiece from 10 matches, but Bloomfield had picked up more bonus points along the way, finishing four points in front. Bloomfield had last won the Premier Tier A league in 2003-'04.

Bloomfield coach Tharanga Dammika put the title down to a collective effort. "We relied heavily on the offspin of Suraj Randiv for the season, but we missed him during the latter part of the tournament [when he was called up as injury cover for the World Cup final and then travelled to the IPL]," Dammika said. "We realised the only way forward was a collective team performance to match Randiv's contribution, and subsequently Tharanga Lakshitha and Tyron Gamage excelled."

Randiv picked up 52 wickets at 21.21 apiece in the seven matches he played for Bloomfield. With the bat, Bloomfield were steered by their hard-hitting captain, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, who topped the club's run-scorers' chart with 717 runs at 42.17.

The tounament's top run-getter was Dinesh Chandimal, who will travel to England with the national Test side as the reserve wicketkeeper this summer. Chandimal was the only batsman to go past 1000 runs in the league, getting to the landmark with an unbeaten half-century for Nondescripts CC in their final league match. His season included four centuries and an impressive average of 81.41.

Singhalese SC finished third in the league, but the biggest shock of the season was the relegation of one-time champion Colombo CC (CCC) to Tier B along with Saracens SC. CCC suffered seven defeats and won only one match out of 10 to finish one from last in standings, while Saracens - who also had just one win this season - were bottom of the table.

Moors SC under the leadership of Bathiya Perera gained promotion to Tier A. They recorded seven victories out of nine matches and remained unbeaten through the season. Sri Lanka Army finished runners-up in Tier B, despite the limited appearance of their champion bowler Ajantha Mendis, who spent most of the season on national duty.