Dambulla Giants take a giant stride, knock Colombo Stars out

Monday, 20 December 2021 03:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Player of the Match Janith Liyanage played a responsible innings to take Dambulla Giants over the line

Colombo Stars skipper Angelo Mathews’ unbeaten fifty was not enough to see his team through in the Playoffs

Dambulla Giants continued their dominance over Colombo Stars in the Lanka Premier League when they won the first match of the Playoffs – the Eliminator by six wickets at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota yesterday to qualify to play in Qualifier 2 of the tournament.

Having defeated Colombo in the two league games, Dambulla came to yesterday’s match on the back of three straight defeats from their last three matches, but those results did not hinder their progress to the next round of the playoffs when they came out best with an excellent bowling performance to keep Colombo down to a total of 145-6, and then reached the target in the 19th over with young Janith Liyanage, playing a responsible innings in only his third match producing a matured unbeaten half-century to carry them over the line.

Following acting captain Niroshan Dickwella’s first ball dismissal, Liyanage who took the Player of the Match award steadied the ship with a level-headed knock of 56 off 47 balls (5 fours), displaying good game awareness and ability to read a run chase. His partnership of 61 off 52 balls with Najibullah Zadran (34) eventually sealed the match for Dambulla after Phil Salt with 32 off 21 balls had set the stage for the run chase.

For Colombo who were poor on the field, they got it all wrong not getting their combinations right and continuing to change their batting line-up with every game. Colombo captain Angelo Mathews said that they were at least 20 runs short and had they not made a blunder by sending Seekkuge Prasanna ahead of their man in form Dinesh Chandimal, they could have achieved that total.

Prasanna wasted 11 balls for seven runs and when Chandimal came to the wicket he had only 13 balls to score and in trying to force the pace he was dismissed cheaply for two. If not for a six and four hit by Karim Janat off the last three balls of the final over Colombo’s total could have been even smaller.

With the tournament moving to Hambantota, the seamers came back into the game, and Nuwan Pradeep brought his experience into play picking up the wicket of Kusal Perera in his first over and conceding only 23 runs taking two wickets. Irishman Josh Little, although wicketless also kept up the pressure giving away only 24 runs in his four overs. Imran Tahir displaying his experience and guile of a leg-spinner kept the pressure on Colombo’s batsmen with two wickets for 25. Pathum Nissanka (42 off 39 balls) at the top and Mathews (50* off 34 balls) were the only two contributors to the Colombo innings that did not have any meaningful partnerships. Dickwella captained the side well with the bowlers responding to his call.

Dambulla proved to be the better team on the day even without their captain Dasun Shanaka (injured) and produced an efficient win against a good opposition. (ST)

Scores

Colombo Stars 145-6 (20) (Pathum Nissanka 42, Angelo Mathews 50*, Nuwan Pradeep 2/23, Imran Tahir 2/25)
Dambulla Giants 146-4 (18.5) (Phil Salt 32, Janith Liyanage 56*, Najibullah Zadran 34)

Najibullah Zadran (34) helped Liyanage in a stand of 61 to give Dambulla Giants the edge in the run chase