Skipper Dickwella, Udana steer Galle Marvels to second win

BY M. SHAMIL AMIT REPORTING FROM PALLEKELE

Half tons by skipper Niroshan Dickwella and Isuru Udana laid the foundation for Galle Marvels to record a sevenrun win over Colombo Strikers in the fifth match of the Lanka Premier League tournament played under floodlights at the Pallekele Stadium yesterday.

The win saw Galle Marvels chalking up their second successive win of the tournament to remain the only unbeaten team after the completions of two matches played by the five teams.

Colombo Strikers in pursuit of 180 runs were made to struggle for their runs and with no significant contributions coming from the top order batting and also there were no partnerships which could keep them in contention.

They were in a spot of bother on 85 for 4 at the halfway stage of the innings and despite an unbeaten knock of 45 coming from Dunith Wellalage at the latter part of the innings it came too late with no support from the other end before the side was restricted for a score of 172.

Galle Marvels taking first lease of the wicket had fluctuated fortunes after openers skipper Niroshan Dickwella and Alex Hales gave them a solid start of 71 runs in 32 balls before pacie Binura Fernando made the breakthrough for Colombo Strikers with the wicket of Hales.

But within the space of 15 balls they lost four wickets for the addition of just 15 runs which included skipper Dickwella who made a 18-ball knock of 50 with six boundaries and three sixes, as they succumbed to right arm spinner Shadab Khan who grabbed three of those. They recovered thanks to Sahan Arachchige and Isuru Udana as the pair put a stop to the debacle and made merry of the Colombo Strikers bowlers.

The pair put on a valuable 79 runs for the seventh wicket before Arachchige fell victim to Matheesha Pathirana and Galle Marvels score at that stage being 173 for 7.

Udana did not last long as he followed six runs later having made a valuable contribution of 52 in 34 balls which had five boundaries and three sixes. They folded up after losing the remaining two wickets at the same score.

The tournament will now shift to Dambulla with five matches scheduled to be played starting with the match between Galle Marvels and Jaffna Kings slotted to be played tomorrow at 7.30 p.m.

Result:

At Pallekele Stadium – Galle Marvels won by seven runs

Galle Marvels 179 in 20 overs (Isuru Udana 52, Niroshan Dickwella 50, Sahan Arachchige 35: Shadiab Khan 4/21, Binura Fernando 3/22)

Colombo Strikers 172 for 9 in 10 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 29, Glenn Phillips 26, Thisara Perera 18, Mohammad Waseem 16, Sadeera Samarawickrama 16, Dunith Wellalage 45 n.io.: Maheesh Theekshana 2/20, Sahan Arachchige 2/21, Isuru Udana 2/34)