National Super League Limited Over Tournament Second Round at Pallekele, Dambulla from today

By M. Shamil Amit

The National Super League Limited Over cricket tournament which is in full swing will now shift towards the Central Province where the second round of matches are scheduled to be played at the Pallekele International Stadium and Rangiri Dambulla Stadium.

At the completion of the first round matches the five teams Kandy, Jaffna, Colombo, Galle and Dambulla played four matches each with Kandy and Jaffna registered three wins. Colombo and Galle won two matches each and Dambulla ended winless.

Kandy took the top slot securing 15 points with Jaffna in second securing 14 points while Colombo and Galle scored nine points to sit in the third and fourth slots.

There are two matches down for decision today with Jaffna meeting Dambulla at the Pallekele International Stadium and Colombo clashing with Galle at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium with both matches scheduled to be played from 9:45 a.m. onwards.

In the match between Jaffna and Dambulla the scale will be in favour of Jaffna who in the first round match coasted to a convincing 176 run win and while Dambulla are yet to see the winning post and will be aiming to chalk up their first win.

The match between Galle and Colombo should be a close tussle. Galle came out victorious when the teams last met but faltered in the latter stages while it was the other way for Colombo who improved and was the team to inflict the only defeat of table leaders Kandy.

Meanwhile Oshada Fernando from the Kandy team leads the batting averages having scored 238 runs which includes a top knock of 138 and incidentally is the only century scored by anyone in the tournament so far. Sadeera Samarawickrama of Jaffna (182), Sahan Arachchige of Kandy (163), Santhush Gunatileke of Jaffna (160) are the other leading scorers of the tournament.

In the bowling department spinner Pulina Tharanga is the top wickets taker of the tournament so far having taken 11 wickets followed by Dhananjaya Lakshan of Galle (8), Dhananjaya de Silva of Jaffna (7), Akila Dhananjaya of Galle (7), Lahiru Samarakoon of Dambulla (7), Muditha Lakshan of Galle (6) and Lakshan Sandakan of Dambulla (6) being the other successful bowlers so far.

The other matches scheduled 
to played are:
February 7- Colombo vs. Dambulla at Pallekele and Kandy vs. Jaffna at Dambulla
Februaty 10- Kandy vs. Colombo at Dambulla and Galle vs. Dambulla at Pallekele  
February 13- Jaffna vs. Galle at Pallekele and Kandy vs. Dambulla at Dambulla  
February 16- Kandy vs. Galle at Pallekele and Jaffna vs. Colombo at Dambulla  
February 19- Final.