Awful Dambulla Aura kiss goodbye to chance of qualifying

Ashen Bandara top scored for Kandy Falcons with an improvised knock of 37

Oshane Thomas rocked the Dambulla innings with three top order wickets 

• Kandy Falcons finish on top of league with seventh win

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Dambulla Aura kissed goodbye to their chances of making it to the play-offs with their 39-run defeat at the hands of high-riding Kandy Falcons who secured their seventh win in eight matches to remain on top of the table and ensure they finish one-two with defending champions Jaffna Kings in the third edition of the Lanka Premier League at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

In yesterday’s second double-header Dambulla managed a rather disappointing 121-9 in reply to Kandy’s total of 160-7 to suffer their sixth defeat in seven matches.

Even if Dambulla beat Galle Gladiators in their final league match today and draw level on four points, their poor net run rate won’t allow them to finish ahead of Galle.

Dambulla has been let down by their key players like Bhanuka Rajapaksa and skipper Dasun Shanaka failing to deliver and that has hurt them badly. To add to their woes Shanaka split the webbing between his finger of his right hand and had stitches inserted. He however came to bat but made 14 off 11 balls before being dismissed.

It was once again a poor display of batting with so many tame dismissals that brought about their downfall. Only Zimbabwean Sikhander Raza with 45 off 33 balls, his best performance with the bat for Dambulla stood out, as the rest of the batters simply succumbed to the hostile pace and bounce generated by West Indies pacie Oshane Thomas (3/15) picked as Player of the Match and the subtle variety of spin and seam that Kandy possess.

Dambulla did extremely well to keep the strong Kandy batting down to 160-7, but found they lacked the batting power against a varied bowling attack to challenge that score. Kandy, who looked promising for a much bigger total, faltered towards the latter part of their innings. Top scorer was Ashen Bandara who played some skilful cricket to score 37 off 31 balls.  

Scores: Kandy Falcons 160-7 (20) (Kavin Bandara 27, Ashen Bandara 37, Najibullah Zadran 22, Kalana Perera 2/27, Matthew Forde 2/16, Dilum Sudeera 2/19)

Dambulla Aura 121-9 (20) (Sikhander Raza 45, Dilum Sudeera 21*, Oshane Thomas 3/15, Fabian Allen 2/23, Chamindu Wijesinghe 2/17)