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Pathum Nissanka top scored for Colombo Strikers with a half-century
Nipun Dananjaya impressed everyone with a quickfire 40 in his first game for Colombo Strikers
Wanindu Hasaranga played another cameo innings of 40 but it was not enough to get B-Love Kandy over the line
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Bottom-of-the-table Colombo Strikers kept their chances of qualifying for the Play-offs alive when they ended B-Love Kandy’s four-match winning streak with a thrilling nine-run win in the second double header of the Lanka Premier League played under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.
The win saw Colombo draw level on points with Jaffna Kings and Galle Titans on six points each with only net run rate making the difference. While Jaffna have completed all their league games, Galle and Colombo have a game in hand to play when they meet on Tuesday.
Chasing a target of 170, Kandy was kept down to a score of 160-8 by some brilliant bowling by Colombo’s young bowlers especially Matheesha Pathirana, Naseem Shah and Jeffrey Vandersay whose final figures don’t reveal how well he bowled.
B-Love Kandy’s batting was not getting anywhere when they lost two wickets for 27 in the first powerplay which saw the skipper Wanindu Hasaranga promote himself up the order to number four. With a strike rate of over 200 in the tournament Hasaranga soon got the innings moving racing to 40 off 21 balls (6 fours, 1 six), but Vandersay struck two vital blows for Colombo by getting rid of the dangerous Hasaranga caught in the deep and then the wicket of experienced Angelo Mathews for 11 to keep Colombo in the game.
Kandy however fought till the end with Asif Ali (33 off 15 balls, 2 fours, 3 sixes) and Ashen Bandara (22 off 18 balls, 3 fours) trying to make a game of it. However, Pathirana who is renowned for bowling at the death removed them both with sizzling yorkers to swing the game Colombo’s way. Naseem though picking up only one wicket bowled at great pace to concede just 28 runs in his four overs.
Earlier Colombo winning the toss and batting first were pushed back by Mathews’ magical arm doing the trick for Kandy like he had against Jaffna when he took the first two Colombo wickets for 23 which included that of inform Babar Azam for 9.
However, Pathum Nissanka (51 off 38 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) and Nipun Dananjaya (40 off 29 balls, 3 sixes,1 four) put together a stand of 69 off 46 balls to see Colombo finish on a challenging total of 169-9. Dananjaya playing his first game made an impact batting intelligently. He started off slowly and started to change gears hitting Nuwan Pradeep for two successive sixes before being dismissed. Nissanka at the other end played a solid innings.
Kandy, having assured themselves of a place in the qualifiers, rested three of their top three players, bowlers; Dushmantha Chameera and Mujib Ur Rahman and batsman Dinesh Chandimal and replaced them with Ashen Bandara, Mohammad Hasnain and Chaturanga de Silva. For the second time in the tournament Colombo Captain Niroshan Dickwella (hand injury) was not available and the captaincy on this occasion passed to Chamika Karunaratne. In the earlier match Babar Azam led the side.
Scores:
