Colombo Strikers advance to next stage despite defeat

By M. Shamil Amit

Colombo Strikers despite undergoing a defeat to Dambulla Sixers in the last and 20th league encounter of the fifth Lanka Premier League tournament played under floodlights at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday advanced to the next stage.

On the other hand Dambulla Sixers if they were to qualify to the playoff had the daunting task to bowl out Colombo Strikers for a score of 47 runs or less which was not going to be easy.
Colombo Strikers in their run chase underwent the same fate as their opponents too lost their top five wickets with the score on 48 in the eighth over and wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals. Despite a top knock of 30 coming from skipper Thisara Perera they were bowled out for 95 as Dambulla Sixers prevailed with a 28 run win.

The match turned out to be a bowler’s paradise as both the teams found it tough with Dambulla Sixers invited to take first lease of the wicket found hard and was reeling on 38 for 5 in the eighth over and it seemed that they would find it difficult to get to three figures.

But thanks to the sixth wicket pair skipper Mohammad Nabi and Chamindu Wickramasinghe they managed to achieve that with the duo sharing a valuable 62 runs to help them to end with a respectable score of 123 runs.

The completion of the league segment will see Jaffna Kings and Galle Marvels meeting in the Qualifier 1 on July 18 and defending champions Kandy Falcons will confront Colombo Strikers in the Eliminator encounter July 19 which will be followed by the Qualifier 2 match between the loser of Qualifier 1 and the winner of the Eliminator encounter on July 20.  

Chief scores:

Dambulla Sixers: 123 for 6 in 20 overs (Mohammad Nabi 40: B. Fernando 3/15, D. Wellalage 2/18, M. Pathirana 2/25, I. Wijesundara 1/16)
Colombo Strikers: 95 in 18.1 overs (T. Perera 30: N. Pradeep 3/20, C. Wickramasinghe 2/13, D. Hemantha 1/2, M. Nabi 1/11, A. Dananjaya 1/18)