Colombo make early start to reach NSL 4-day final

Thursday, 20 March 2025 03:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Dambulla come out for first time today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Colombo who have never won the National Super League 4-day title let alone reach the final made an early start to put the record straight in the ongoing fourth edition when they beat Jaffna by 87 runs in the opening weekend of the tournament to take full points.

Although they didn’t top 400 runs in either innings they managed to bowl Jaffna out twice under 400 to grab two bonus points to take an early lead by topping the table with 17.748 points, which gives them a seven-point advantage over second placed Galle.It is still early days to pinpoint which of the two teams out of five will end as the top two in the league, but Colombo’s made a positive beginning ahead of their rivals.

Defending champions Galle failed to make use of piling up a massive score of 602-9 declared by not enforcing the follow-on in their match against Kandy after dismissing their opponents for 350. Instead, they batted again and made it a drab contest and had to be satisfied with only first innings points, which on this occasion is six points compared to the eight given for Major Club 3-day matches. They batted 79 overs in the second innings which would have been enough time for them to get Kandy out a second time and grab full points. Kandy’s first innings lasted 88 overs and their total was made up largely by one man – Kamil Mishara who scored 158*.

While Jaffna will have a free weekend, Colombo will confront Kandy in their second game commencing at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Hambantota from today. Colombo will be keen to extend their winning start with a win against Kandy while two-time finalist Kandy will want to open their account after their first innings loss to Galle.

Winners of 2023 Dambulla come out for the first time when they play Galle at the Galle Cricket Stadium in the other match commencing today. Led by Test Captain Dhananjaya de Silva, the most interesting aspect of Dambulla’s line up is that they have three batsman vying for the opener’s berth created by the retirement of Dimuth Karunaratne in the Test team, namely Vice-Captain Nishan Madushka, Lasith Croospulle and Ron Chandraguptha. It will be the captain’s and the team management’s responsibility to ensure that all of them get equal opportunities to press forward their claim. Dambulla’s Head Coach is Thilina Kandamby who is also the Batting Coach of the national Test team.

Galle will have to show more enterprise in this contest and try to grasp as many points as they can, especially when they are on top and calling the shots. With the weather being dicey every point will count.

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