Galle to defend title against high riding Dambulla

• 4th National Super League tournament final at SSC tomorrow

Galle Captain  Ramesh Mendis

Dambulla Captain  Dhananjaya de Silva

Galle Head Coach  Dharshana Gamage

Dambulla Head Coach  Thilina Kandamby

Dambulla’s Akila Dananjaya, leading wicket taker with 35 wickets

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Following five weekends of hotly contested cricket the National Super League 4-day tournament has come to the stage where unbeaten Galle will defend their title against high riding Dambulla in the final which will take place at the SSC grounds commencing tomorrow.

A lot of Galle’s success has been attributed to having a good combination of experience and youth, a balanced batting and bowling line-up and a good environment within the team where every player appreciates the other’s performance.

“Individually Captain Ramesh Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal have performed and five players who left with the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team have also contributed immensely,” said Galle head coach Dharshana Gamage.

“Dilshan Madushanka, Milan Rathnayake, Pasindu Sooriybandara, Sadeera Samarawickrama and Dilum Sudeera all contributed towards us reaching the final before they left. Apart from them (Dunith) Wellalage has been performing consistently throughout the tournament.” 

“It is a big loss because we don’t have their experience to replace them. However, we managed to test out a few other players knowing that we would at some point lose some of our players to the ‘A’ team. To a great extent the players we’ve tried out have secured their places in the team. We have more or less replaced 90 percent. I have the confidence that they will do well.”

Gamage made special mention of his support staff. “They have been doing a splendid job. It is their contribution that has brought us to the final.”

Gamage is confident that Galle will be able to retain the title they won last year beating Kandy in the final.

“I have a great deal of hope that we can do it. It has been a big advantage playing these matches at international venues and on good wickets, we can actually gauge who are the players good enough to make it to the national side. As a result our plan is runs vs. runs in the final.”

“The turning point for us in the tournament was beating Dambulla in the league stage. Even if we don’t have some of our key players we are going into the final with the confidence of having beaten Dambulla once. We are unbeaten in the tournament and there are good things that we have done to remain unbeaten. We look forward to continuing that in the final. The team that makes fewer mistakes will win.”   

Since their loss to Galle in their first outing Dambulla have been playing some extremely good cricket to reach the final on a high. They have beaten Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna in their next three games to finish on top of the league standings.

“Our win against Colombo was a morale booster,” said Dambulla Head Coach Thilina Kandamby. “The next game against Kandy we chased down 392 and won. Basically Dhananjaya (de Silva) has been handling the side very well and the atmosphere is friendly and everybody can express their views. Because of that players are able to perform well. They have a free mind. They plan the games and do the debriefing. I have given 100 percent ownership to the captain and the players. Giving them a free hand has worked for us.”

“The youngsters who came in because we lost some players to the ‘A’ team also grabbed their chances. For example Inuka Karannagoda who has played only about 3-4 first-class games. When we ran out of fast bowlers we brought in Dulaj Samuditha. He is a good future fast bowling prospect. Dinura Kalupahana couldn’t get a place in the side so I gave him the opportunity to bat at 3. He took that challenge and scored a fifty in the last game. He has the potential and temperament to play on top of the order. Vishad Randika coming into form is also good ahead of the final because he had not scored runs earlier.”

Dambulla will be strengthened for the final with the return of fast bowlers Mohamed Shiraz and Vishwa Fernando. Shiraz is currently playing with the Sri Lanka ‘A’ side in Abu Dhabi and Vishwa has just completed his 3-match stint with English county Warwickshire.

Their return will suit Dambulla because the SSC track is known to assist the quick bowlers in the first couple of days.

“The main factor behind Dambulla coming to the final is undoubtedly Akila Dananjaya. He has been very consistent and is bowling really well. It doesn’t matter whether the wicket spins or not his lines and lengths are very consistent. Akila didn’t have the consistency earlier. He used to bowl 2-3 mystery balls and then a bad ball. Now with his experience he is at his peak,” said Kandamby.

In fact Dananjaya is easily the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 35 wickets at an average of 21.40. The next highest wicket-taker is Shiran Fernando of Kandy with 15.