Jaffna and Dambulla lay early claims to enter final

Jaffna captain Sadeera Samarawickrama receives the Man of the Match award against Kandy from Match Referee Wendell Labrooy.

 Ranitha Liyanarachchi of Dambulla receives the Man of the Match award against Galle from Match Referee Graeme Labrooy.

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

It is early days in the ongoing National Super League 50-over cricket tournament, but Dambulla and defending champions Jaffna have in no uncertain terms shown that they mean business by winning both their matches played so far in the round robin league to be placed one-two in the standings.

It will be the top two teams that will qualify for the final, and these two sides have taken an early lead over the rest of the field to stake an early claim. Each of them have nine points with only net run rate separating the two, whereas for the rest of the field Kandy, Colombo and Galle, they all have yet to put points on the board against their names.

Jaffna skipper Sadeera Samarawickrama scored the tournament’s first century when he guided them to a remarkable win over Kandy three days ago. He began the tournament with a fifty and followed it up with his match winning century. Two bowlers from Jaffna – Pramod Madushan and Dilum Sudeera are the leading bowlers with five wickets apiece along with Galle’s Dilshan Madushanka. So it is easy to see why Jaffna are with their noses in front at the moment.

The same can be said of Dambulla for whom Ranitha Liyanarachchi scored 69 – which is the second highest individual score of the tournament so far, in their win over Galle, and Dushan Hemantha and Lakshan Sandakan with four wickets apiece are the second most successful bowlers in the tournament. 233 seems to be the benchmark total so far with Jaffna and Dambulla being the two sides that have reached that figure.

With Jaffna taking a break from the matches being played today, Dambulla have a chance to consolidate their position at the top when they meet Kandy at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium. In their opening match three days ago Kandy had Jaffna down on their knees at 94-6 chasing 228, but somehow allowed the game to slip from their grasp. 

They now come up against table leaders Dambulla, and cannot allow such frivolities creep into their game if they are to prove their worth as losing finalist of last year.

Colombo and Galle, the two teams at the bottom of the table, will be looking to open their account when they confront each other at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium. Star studded Colombo with white ball players in the caliber of national captain Dasun Shanaka, Kusal Perera, Avishka Fernando, Charith Asalanka, Ashen Bandara and Nuwan Pradeep were blown away by Dambulla in their opening match. 

With such a star-studded cast Colombo will need to lift their game and come out with all guns blazing against Galle for whom young Dunith Wellalage has been saddled with the task of leading the side till the return of appointed captain Ramesh Mendis, who is on national duty in New Zealand. Galle have lost both matches played so far and languish at the bottom of the pile.