Wijesooriya’ masterful knock sees Ifield home, Crawley Eagles defeated by finest of margins

Ifield Cricket Club celebrate after the win against Burgess Hill | Picture: contributed

Ifield’s Raminda Wijesooriya hit a stunning unbeaten century to make it two wins out of two on their return to Sussex Cricket League Division 2.

Graeme Dean’s side were promoted from Division 3 West last season and started their campaign with a dominant nine0wicket win over Preston Nomads 2nd XI.

This win over Burgess Hill was quite as easy, but Sri Lankan Wijesooriya made batting look easy with his 107 not from just 69 balls.

Dean won the toss and elected to field but Burgess Hill made a solid start thanks to Tom Trowbridge (21) and Jack Smart (38) before the former was run after a smart bit of work from keeper Jack Groves.

When Smart went at 80-2, there was a mini collapse that saw them fall to 113-6 with Wijesooriya (2-33) and Fazlan Nizamdeen (2-29) turning the screw.

But Hill recovered thanks to a brilliant knock from their own Sri Lankan Prasansana Jayamanne and Niall Murphy.

Murphy hit some lust blows in his 51 not out from 48 balls while Jayamanne anchored the innings with 84 not out from 80 balls.

Ifield lost Mike Norris early doors for 18 but Dan Smith (40) and Wijesooriya steadied the ship. After Smith went Jayamanne bowled well and Mahad Ahmed and Dan Groves soon followed leaving Ifield in a bit of trouble.

But Wijesooriya took control with a masterful innings. He and Nizamdeen put on 106 with the latter contributing 18.

Wijesooriya hit the bowling to all parts and at one point hit Alec Llord for four consecutive sixes to help see Ifield home in the 41st over.

Ifield are one of three teams with two wins out of two, and face Buxted Park on Saturday.

Crawley Eagles had an exciting game at Billingshurst, where they lost by just one wicket. Batting first, Eagles scored 232/8. Razlan Razik (39), Rehan Hasan (54 not out) and Usman Bashir were the main contributors while Tom Ellis Cole took 4-66 for Hurst.

Isaac Thorneley gave Billingshurst a good start with 61 but Eagles chipped away to stay in the game but in the end Toby Alexander hit an unbeaten 76 to see the home sid e to victory with seven balls to spare.

Usman Bashir (4-36), Falah Uddin (2-41) and Muhammad Umar (2-32) were the pick of the bowlers. Eagles host Middleton 2nd XI on Saturday.