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Friday Apr 26, 2024
Tuesday, 8 February 2022 01:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Kandy came out on top in a top-of-the-table clash with Jaffna to wrest the lead in the ongoing National Super League Limited Overs Tournament that was continued at Dambulla and Pallekele.
In yesterday’s matches Kandy beat Jaffna by five wickets to regain top spot in the table with 20 points with a game in hand. Jaffna who have played one match more than Kandy are second with 18 points. Colombo defeated Dambulla by 107 runs to move to third place with 14 points.
For the hapless Dambulla side who are without a win, this was their fifth straight defeat. Galle who were without a match yesterday dropped to fourth place with Dambulla bringing up the fifth and final position. The top two teams in the league standings will qualify to play in the final.
Off-spinner Ashian Daniel took only his second five-for in his brief career to spin out table toppers Jaffna for 109 and give Kandy a comfortable win by five wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium.
Put into bat first Jaffna struggled throughout their innings against Kandy’s spin quartet of Daniel, Lasith Embuldeniya, Pulina Tharanga and Sahan Arachchige who took all nine wickets to fall to the bowlers. Opener Sadeera Samarawickrama top scored with 31 off 30 balls in an opening stand of 42 before getting run out in the seventh over to trigger a collapse.
Skipper Niroshan Dickwella thumped 45 off 34 balls (8 fours) to lead Kandy’s run chase as they reached their target of 110 with 23 overs to spare, but lost five wickets in doing so.
Maiden one-day centuries from Sithara Gimhan and Nuwanidu Fernando saw Colombo come up with a powerful batting performance, their best in the tournament so far scoring 317-6 to beat Dambulla by 107 runs at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
Gimhan and Nipun Dananjaya (47) laid the foundation for Colombo’s big total with an opening partnership of 129 in 25 overs after Dambulla had invited them to bat first. Following Dananjaya’s dismissal, Gimhan and Fernando carried the total to 191-1 before a mild middle order collapse saw Colombo lose three wickets for 26 runs to the leg-spin of Dushan Hemantha who took the wickets of Gimhan, skipper Sammu Ashan and Roshen Silva.
Ashen Bandara (24) joined Fernando in consolidating the innings putting together a stand of 86 that saw Colombo to their final total. Fernando scored exactly a hundred off 82 balls inclusive of four sixes and seven fours, and Gimhan had three sixes and 13 fours in his 104-ball knock of 110. The previous highest score of these two batsmen in a limited-over game was 68.
After losing four wickets for 32 within the first power play, Dambulla were always struggling to keep up with the required run rate and eventually folded up for 210 in the 49th over. Lasith Abeyratne and Sameera Sadamal struck half-centuries apiece but there was hardly much contribution from the rest against seamers Kalana Perera, Mohamed Dilshad and Lahiru Madushanka who took eight wickets between them.
The first 10 matches of the 21-match tournament was played in Colombo before moving to Kandy and Dambulla for the remaining 11 games that includes the final which will be played at Pallekele on 19 February.
The Tournament Committee’s idea was to play all the matches at venues used for One-Day Internationals so as to give the players the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge and experience of playing at such venues, because this tournament will in future be used as a yardstick for national selections.
The first half of matches took place in Colombo at the P. Sara Oval and the SSC. The SSC was preferred because the R. Premadasa Stadium was undergoing repairs and was not available to host the matches.
Results
At Dambulla: Kandy beat Jaffna by five wickets
At Pallekele: Colombo beat Dambulla by 107 runs
Friday’s results
At Pallekele: Jaffna beat Dambulla by 51 runs
At Dambulla: Galle beat Colombo by 44 runs
