Battle for the top berth as Jaffna, Colombo and Dambulla qualify for semis

Colombo Kings

• Kandy and Galle fight for fourth place in My11Circle LPL

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Three of the teams that have qualified for the semi-finals of the My11Circle Lanka Premier League tournament will battle it out to finish on top of the league when the round robin matches recommence today following yesterday’s rest day.

Jaffna Stallions, Colombo Kings and Dambulla Viiking the one, two and three teams in the standings have all qualified to play in the semi-finals with similar records (4 wins and 1 loss) from 5 matches and eight points each. Only the nett run rates separate the three teams.

According to the tournament rules the team finishing on top of the league plays the team finishing fourth in one semi-final, and the team finishing second plays the team finishing third in the other semi-final. The fourth team could be either Kandy Tuskers or Galle Gladiators – two of the weakest sides in the competition. 

Of the double-headers taking place today at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium second placed Colombo Kings has probably the easiest game when they take on bottom of the table Galle Gladiators – the only team without a win so far.

The manner in which Colombo have picked themselves up after their defeat at the hands of Dambulla Vikings showed that along with Jaffna Stallions they are the two teams to beat although Dambulla cannot be ruled out as they are also playing some extremely good cricket extracting themselves from difficult positions to win, which is a sign of a good team.

Angelo Mathews, the Colombo Kings skipper, said: “You know it happens, you tend to have a bad game every now and then. But it’s all about coming back strongly and not doing the same mistakes that we did in the last game. It was a learning curve for us from the last game. We are not happy, we will look to do lesser mistakes in the next game and obviously win it.”

Win they did. Colombo came back roaring by registering back to back victories against table leaders Jaffna Stallions and the hapless Kandy Tuskers. They can regain the top position if they beat Galle today with a healthy run rate.

The second match of today’s double header is between table toppers Jaffna and third placed Dambulla which is going to be a close contest. Jaffna simply dismissed Dambulla in their first meeting by 66 runs, but since then Dambulla has come back strongly beating Colombo, Kandy and Galle and look a vastly improved side. 

They will still be hurting from the damage done to their bowlers by Jaffna skipper Thisara Perera who smote them all over the park for the tournament’s highest score – 97 not out off 44 balls and will want to avenge that defeat. They would certainly have done their homework and watched how Colombo cramped up Perera with a series of short balls that eventually led to his downfall for 18.

What separates the top three teams from the rest is that each of them has several match-winners in their line-up that teams like Kandy and Galle are struggling to find.

While there is a battle for the top spot in the league, another one that is taking place is between fourth placed Kandy Tuskers and wooden spoonist Galle Gladiators. The two sides don’t meet each other for the second time until 10 December, but leading up to that game they have tough matches against Colombo, Jaffna and Dambulla. Kandy at present has their nose ahead having beaten Galle in their first encounter by 25 runs. 

Dambulla Viikings

Jaffna Stallions