SRI Lankan import Carmen Mapatuna, above, rates his unbeaten 207 in turf 1 for North Dandenong against Narre Warren as nearly equal to his eight first-class career centuries.

It topped his previous best score of 203 he scored in Sri Lanka.

The hard-hitting right hander came in with his side in trouble at 4-35 against Narre and had to curb his natural aggression.

‘‘The first 50 was hard work, the second 50 was OK, and after I got a hundred, we were in a good position to dominate. After that I accelerated and got the second hundred in about 40-50 balls.

‘‘When I got 150 the next 30 runs came really quickly, and thought this was a good time to get a double hundred.

‘‘We needed a partnership and I told my partner Craig Gunawardana [132 not out] we couldn’t take any risks, and were lucky enough to put on 350 runs, which could be a club record.’’

Mapatuna and Gunawardana steered the Northerners to a potentially match-winning 4-384 against the 11th-placed Magpies.

In his third year with the club, Mapatuna rates his double hundred as his best innings in Australia and right up there with his eight first-class tons and a century he scored for Sri Lanka under 19s against England in England.

Junior winner

WHISPERING Jack Jessiman had a day to remember after taking six wickets in just 23 balls for Berwick to shoot out Hallam for 110.

Hallam started promisingly losing its first wicket with 67 runs on the board and was still in a reasonable position at 3-94 before ‘Whispering Jack’ came into the attack.

The Bears under 13-2 change bowler finished with the incredible figures of 6-6 off just 3.5 overs in the Hawks’ total of 110. Jessiman then showed his all-round ability by opening the batting and was 16 not out at stumps with his side 2-34.