Chandimal rescues Galle with 35th first-class century

Dinesh Chandimal is congratulated by Galle skipper Ramesh Mendis on reaching his 35th first-class century

The tournament’s leading run-getter Ravindu Rasantha of Jaffna is all smiles after completing his third century

Angelo Mathews drives during his 131-run stand with Ravindu Rasantha for Jaffna

• Jaffna start well against table-topper Dambulla
• 4th National Super League Tournament

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

At one time, it seemed that Colombo had Galle in their grip when they had them five down for 102, but former Sri Lanka Captain Dinesh Chandimal, renowned for his heroic batting feats, came to their rescue with an excellent century – his 35th in first-class cricket – to see them end the first day of their National Super League 4-Day match, played at the Rangiri Dambulla Cricket Stadium yesterday, on 265-7.

The tournament resumed after a break for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and the matches that began yesterday are the final ones of the League stage.

Chandimal struck 14 fours and a six in his 195-ball innings for 132. With skipper Ramesh Mendis, Chandimal figured in a face-saving stand of 119 for the sixth wicket for Galle, who were invited to bat first, ending with a respectable total.

All-rounder Mendis, who has scored two hundreds in the tournament including one in his last game against Jaffna, is unbeaten on 56 (158 balls, 4 fours) and has the ability to take Galle to a substantial first innings total with the support of the late order batters.

Colombo is the only team in the tournament with a chance of upsetting the odds if they can produce a big win against Galle. They trail second-placed Galle by 15 points.

Ravindu Rasantha, the tournament’s leading run-getter, scored his third century and shared an unfinished third wicket partnership of 131 with Angelo Mathews (63* off 113 balls, 8 fours) to place Jaffna in a strong position at the end of the first day of their match against Dambulla at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium.

Rasantha reached his century off 196 balls (10 fours) before bad light ended play early with 28 overs remaining to be bowled for the day. Jaffna, winning the toss and choosing to bat first, were 206-2.

Regardless of the result of this match, table-toppers Dambulla are already through to the final. For bottom-of-the-table Jaffna, it is a case of redeeming themselves of the ignominy of not recording a single win so far by trying and outperforming Dambulla. Last year’s finalists Kandy failed to make it this time, having completed all their matches and finishing third in the standings. Their failure was put down to unfortunate injuries occurring to two of their main bowlers in their opening match of the tournament against Galle, who went on to pile up a massive score of 602-9 declared.

“In the first game, we had two bowlers short because Wanuja Sahan broke his finger in the first session and after the first day, Chamika Gunasekara injured his knee. We were without two of our main bowlers. That’s to start with and it was a big loss,” said Kandy Head Coach Avishka Gunawardene.

“The second thing is, we could have won the game against Jaffna outright (197-4 chasing 361), and even the last game against Dambulla, we gave them a decent target and they were good enough to chase that down. In that game, we had six players out to the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team. Kandy suffered the most from the recalls.”

Both matches will continue on their second day today.

Day One scores

At Dambulla: 

Galle 265-7 at close (Dinesh Chandimal 132, Dunith Wellalage 21, Ramesh Mendis 56*, Dhananjaya Lakshan 3/51) v Colombo

At Pallekele: 

Jaffna 206-2 at close (Ravindu Rasantha 100*, Thanuka Dabare 33, Angelo Mathews 63*) v Dambulla