Kandy prevail in low scoring game at Dambulla

By M. Shamil Amit

Kandy prevailed with a comfortable five-wicket win over Jaffna in a low scoring second round match of the National Super League Limited Over tournament played at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium yesterday.

Jaffna, invited to take first lease of the wicket, were given a solid opening wicket partnership of 42 runs by openers Sadeera Samarawickrama and Lahiru Thirimanne but with their dismissal Jaffna lost wickets at regular intervals and slipped to 72 for 5 in the 17th over with spinner Ashian Daniel doing the early damage bagging four scalps.
From there on they never recovered as Sahan Arachchige along with Daniel, Lasith Embuldeniya and Pulina Tharanga ran through the lower order and bunded Jaffna out for a low score of 109. Spinner Daniel ended with impressive figures of 5 for 27 while Arachchige bagged two in the only over he bowled.
Kandy in their run chase were guided by skipper Niroshan Dickwella who made a top score of 45 in 34 balls with eight boundaries which followed with Arachchige remaining unbeaten on 20 taking the side to victory in the 27th over for Kandy to chalk up their fourth win to take the top slot.

Meanwhile in another match played at Pallekele, Colombo coasted to an easy 107-run win over Dambulla who crashed to their sixth successive defeat.

Colombo taking first lease of the wicket made a formidable score of 317 for 6 which came on the back of two quick-fire tons coming fom Sithara Gimhan, who made 110 in 104 balls inclusive of 13 boundaries and three sixes, and Nuwanindu Fernando who cracked 100 in 82 balls with seven boundaries and four sixes.

Added to that they were steered by three valuable partnerships with Gimhan being involved in two of those. He first struck up an opening wicket stand of 129 runs with Nipun Dhananjaya and the other of 62 runs for the second wicket with Nuwanindu Fernando. Later Fernando shared an 86-run stand for the fifth wicket with Ashen Bandara.
Dambulla in pursuit of the formidable run chase fell into deep trouble as they lost the top four wickets with the score on 32 in the eighth over.

Despite half tons coming from Lasith Abeyratne and Sameera Sandamal, and two fifty-run partnerships  they were able to only muster a score of 210 for Colombo to record their third win of the tournament.

Results:
At Dambulla – Kandy won by five wickets
Jaffna 109 in 30.2 overs (Sadeera Samarawickrama 31: Ashian Daniel 5 for 27, Sahan Arachchige 2 for 3)
Kandy 110 for 5 in 27 overs (Niroshan Dickwella 45, Sahan Arachchige 20 n.o.: Nuwan Pradeep 2 for 19)
At Pallekele – Colombo won by 107 runs
Colombo 317 for 6 in 50 overs (Sithara Gihan 110, Nuwanidu Fernando 100, Nipun Dhananjaya 47, Ashen Bandara 24: Dushan Hemantha 3 for 56, Lahiru Samarakoon 2 for 41)
Dambulla 210 in 48.3 overs (Lasith Abeyrtane 57, Sameera Sandamal 57, Lahiru Samarakoon 34: Kalana Perera 3 for 30, Lahiru Madusanka 3 for 50, Mohamed Dilshad 2 for 45)