Dambulla, Galle battle for supremacy in NSL final

The final of the National Super League Provincial four-day cricket tournament between Dambulla and Galle will begin today at the Galle International Stadium. The two teams made it to the final with Dambulla recording an outright win by 132 runs over Jaffna and Galle registering a first innings win against Kandy. 

Incidentally Kandy and Jaffna were the champions and runners up respectively at the previous edition of the tournament.

The encounter is no doubt going to be a closely contested affair, but on paper Galle, led by Sangeeth Cooray,who is deputizing for Ramesh Mendis, will have the edge having finished as table leaders and also prevailing over Dambulla by an innings in the league stage. 

Mendis will miss the final as he is part of Sri Lanka’s squad for the tour of New Zealand this month. Dambulla will be led by Minod Bhanuka.

Looking at the strength of the sides, Galle will pin their batting hopes on skipper Cooray, Lakshan Edirisinghe, Sohan de Livera, and Pasindu Sooriyabandara who have all scored centuries. 

Sooriyabandara is in top form as he slammed a career-best unbeaten knock of 214 against Jaffna in the semi-final encounter last week while the bowling will hinge on foursome Wanindu Hasaranga, Kavishka Anjula, Asanka Manoj and Mohamed Shiraz from whom they will be expecting a lot.

On the other hand, Dambulla will bank on skipper Bhanuka, Pavan Ratnayake, Ashan Priyanjan and Gayan Maneeshan to guide them along with Sanoj Dharshika, Lahiru Samarakoon and Dushan Hemantha who will also be expected to spearhead the bowling along with Chalana de Silva, and Priyanjan.  Dambulla will be sans two key players in Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando, who are also in Sri Lanka’s Test squad currently in New Zealand.
(MSA)