Kandy Warriors live to fight another day

Player of the Match Ravi Bopara guided Kandy Warriors home with an unbeaten fifty

Kandy Warriors skipper Angelo Perera is delighted as Al-Amin Hossain picks up a wicket

Binura Fernando who took three wickets for Kandy Warriors in action

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Kandy Warriors kept their playoff chances alive in the Lanka Premier League when they pulled off a six-wicket win over Dambulla Giants in the second double-header of the day played at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

It was a huge game for Kandy and they came out on top to secure their second win of the tournament.

On a slow pitch that offered the spinners a lot of turn and bounce, all Kandy had to do was knock the ball around into the gaps to reach the target of 131 which was not a challenging one.

However, it required a professional performance from former England all-rounder Ravi Bopara to get them over the line in the final over with four balls to spare. It was Bopara’s experience that secured the game for Kandy and it was fitting that he ended the match with a winning hit for six off fast bowler Marchant de Lange to finish on an unbeaten 59 off 50 balls (3 fours, 2 sixes) to take the Player of the Match award.

Kandy skipper Angelo Perera (29* off 22 balls) stuck it out with Bopara in an unbroken stand of 60 to see Kandy through.

It will be another challenging game for Kandy today when they take on Colombo Stars which they have to win to draw level on points with Colombo and then allowing the net run rate to decide on who should be the fourth team to go through for the Play-offs.

Dambulla winning the toss and batting put up an under-par score of 130-9 and that too thanks to some adventurous batting by no. 8 Ramesh Mendis who made a top score of 41 off 28 balls, while Sachitha Jayathilake struggled to score 34 off 40. It was Kandy’s seamers who tied down the Dambulla batting with Binura Fernando and Bangladesh’s Al-Amin Hossain picking up three wickets apiece.

A matter of concern for Dambulla was that their captain Dasun Shanaka had to leave the field while batting with a lower back injury with his score of four. Niroshan Dickwella led Dambulla in his absence. 

Scores:

Dambulla Giants 130-9 (20) (Sachitha Jayathilake 34, Ramesh Mendis 41, Binura Fernando 3/22, Al-Amin Hossain 3/32)

Kandy Warriors 135-4 (19.2) (Kennar Lewis 27, Ravi Bopara 59*, Angelo Perera 29*, Imran Tahir 2/17, Ramesh Mendis 2/19)