By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Dhananjaya de Silva

Charith Asalanka

Chamika Karunaratne

Three players who figured prominently in Sri Lanka’s T20I series win over India, Dhananjaya de Silva,

Chamika Karunaratne and Charith Asalanka, are expected to add more glamour and intensity to the ongoing Dialog SLC Invitational T20 league when they mark their return to competitive cricket after being rested along with a few others, some due to niggling injuries, as the tournament resumes today after a day’s rest at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The players joined their respective squads in Kandy yesterday.

Vice-captain of Sri Lanka’s white ball team and the captain of SLC Blues Dhananjaya de Silva will take over the leadership of the Blues from his deputy Angelo Perera for today’s top of the table clash with SLC Greys in the second double-header game commencing at 7 p.m. 

In De Silva’s absence, Perera did a good job leading the Blues to back-to-back wins, and they are now sitting pretty on top of the table with 4 points and a healthy net run rate of 1.529. The Blues displayed their all-round batting strength even in the absence of De Silva by chasing down a target of 181 against SLC Greens on Saturday to win by 5 wickets without any batsmen completing a half-century.  

Greys who also have the same number of wins and points as Blues, but a lower net run rate (0.900), have so far been greatly indebted to their skipper Dasun Shanaka, also the national team’s white ball captain. Shanaka has on both occasions come to the rescue of his side with eye-catching knocks of 84 off 41 balls and 48 off 38 balls to help his team put up decent winning totals from positions of 61/4 and 78/6. Then their two spinners Ashian Daniel (off-break) and Pulina Tharanga (leg-break) have defended the totals well, sharing eight wickets between them.

Shanaka has more than compensated the batting for the absence of his vice-captain Charith Asalanka, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa. While Asalanka returns for today’s contest, Rajapaksa is virtually out of the tournament as he recovers from a thumb injury; he was kept out of the tournament as a precautionary measure. He is most likely to miss the tournament altogether as the next date to test his injured thumb is scheduled for 27 August – three days after the final on 24 August. Rajapaksa underwent a test on his injured thumb on Saturday and found that it had not healed as quickly as anticipated. He suffered multiple fractures on his right thumb and the healing process has been pretty slow. Greys will also miss the services of middle-order bat Milinda Siriwardana who has been ruled out with a hamstring strain.

SLC Greens and SLC Reds, both teams without a win after two matches, will play in the first double-header of the day at 2:30 p.m.

Greens were somewhat unlucky having posted what seemed like a competitive total, 180-2, but still finished on the losing side to the Blues. They had also lost their opening match of the tournament to the Greys by just one run.

The Greens batting has revolved around two youngsters, Pathum Nissanka and Kamindu Mendis, who have so far figured in two lucrative century partnerships in their matches against the Greys and Blues. Along with Shanaka, they are so far the only three batsmen to have crossed the 100-run mark in the tournament.

On form, the Greens look to be favourites against the Reds, who are struggling to come to terms in the contest with below par totals of 92 and 119/9. For today’s game, the Reds will be strengthened with the return of promising white ball all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne, who played a leading role in Sri Lanka’s 2-1 win against India in the recent T20I series. Reds will however still miss the services of fast bowler Binura Fernando, who is recovering from an injury and is not expected to join the team till 18 August.

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