15 February 2022 08:17 pm Views - 490
By M. Shamil Amit
The National Super League Limited Over cricket tournament has reached the final stages with two more matches to be played tomorrow at the Pallekele International Stadium and Rangiri Dambulla Stadium.
The matches down for decisions are Kandy vs. Galle at Pallekele and Jaffna vs. Colombo at Dambulla.
For Kandy the outcome of their match will be inconsequential as they have already qualified to the final having recorded five wins and are way ahead on top having accumulated 26 points. The battle for the other final slot is between Jaffna and Galle with one point separating them. Jaffna has 18 points from four wins while Galle is on 17 with the same number of wins.
Galle who are confronting table leaders Kandy will come into the game with confidence after their win against Jaffna but they will also be looking forward to avenge their 96-run defeat to Kandy when the two teams met each other in the first round clash.
On the other hand Kandy will be coming into the game after a considerable break as their previous match against Dambulla was abandoned without a ball being bowled. They will need to be on the lookout as Galle has come out victorious in their last three encounters.
In the encounter between Jaffna and Colombo the scale is in favour of Jaffna and even though they went down by eight wickets to Galle in the previous match on the Duckworth/Lewis method. They possess a talented outfit.
Jaffna will for sure be looking forward to come back to winning terms and also to repeat the six-wicket win they achieved against Colombo in the first round encounter.
Colombo on the other hand has been inconsistent and though they began the tournament with a positive approach they fell back at the latter stages lying fourth in the points table with 14 points and three wins needing to win the game with a big margin.