Dambulla Aura finish on top of the league

• Dhananjaya de Silva destroys B-Love Kandy’s batting

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Dambulla Aura finished the round robin league stage of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) as the top team when they defeated B-Love Kandy by 20 runs in a night match played at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

By virtue of this win Dambulla assured themselves of playing in Qualifier 1 of the tournament with six wins and 12 points, but as for Kandy (4 wins and 8 points) who are currently lying second, they will have to await the result of today’s final league game between Galle Titans and Colombo Strikers to know whether they are to play in Qualifier 1 or Qualifier 2.

At the moment Kandy with a plus net run rate look like they are almost there because both Galle and Colombo (each on 6 points) with minus run rates have a lot to work on to get within striking distance of Kandy.

On the other hand, defending champions Jaffna Kings who are currently lying third with six points will be hoping that today’s game does not end in a no-result because that would end all their hopes of qualifying for the Playoffs as Galle and Colombo would each get a point and go above them on seven points.

Today’s game between Galle and Colombo is crucial for both sides for whoever wins will go through to the Playoffs.  

Yesterday Dambulla displayed their bench strength by resting five of their key players including captain Kusal Mendis and yet beating a full-strength Kandy side.

Dambulla’s match-winner was their acting captain Dhananjaya de Silva who destroyed the Kandy batting with stunning figures of 4/6 off two overs of off-spin which was his best in T20 cricket. In each of his two overs de Silva picked up two wickets as Kandy kept losing wickets in clusters.

Any chance of Kandy making a match of it disappeared with their captain Wanindu Hasaranga’s early exit for 19. Kandy chasing a target of 162 were dismissed for 142 in the final over with only Dinesh Chandimal making any sort of impression with a hard fought fifty of 46 balls (6 fours).  

Despite not having the big names as other sides in the tournament Dambulla were able to suffocate the opposition playing more as a team. A good example being leg-spinning allrounder Sachitha Jayathilake, playing his first LPL game of the tournament bowled a good spell conceding 22 runs for the wicket of Hasaranga.

Dambulla openers Avishka Fernando (41 off 27 balls, 3 fours, 3 sixes) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (31 off 26 balls, 6 fours) pounced on every loose delivery and played proper cricket strokes to get their team off to a solid start putting on 61 off 47 balls. Although Kandy pulled back by reducing Dambulla to 104-5 in the 15th over, with Nuwan Pradeep put the skids on their scoring by getting the wickets of Dhananjaya de Silva (10) and Alex Ross (0), the latter wicket being his 100th in T20 cricket, a destructive 37 off 23 balls (3 fours, 2 sixes) from Ben McDermott and a late flourish from Hayden Kerr (26 off 16 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) saw them end up with a decent total of 162-7, which gave their bowler something to bowl at.

Scores: Dambulla Aura 162-7 (20) (Avishka Fernando 41, Sadeera Samarawickrama 31, Ben McDermott 37, Hayden Kerr 26, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/32, Nuwan Pradeep 3/35)

B-Love Kandy 142 (19.4) (Dinesh Chandimal 50, Angelo Mathews 26, Isuru Udana 23, Pramod Madushan 2/27, Dhananjaya de Silva 4/6)