Lakmal records maiden five-wicket haul; Dimuth fails

Suranga Lakmal leads the Derbyshire team to the dressing room after taking five wickets in the first innings against Glamorgan  

Former Sri Lanka spearhead Suranga Lakmal took his first five-wicket haul for Derbyshire in their county championship match against Glamorgan which ended in a thrilling draw at Derby on Sunday.

The county’s twitter account commented: “A thrilling contest between #DCCC and Glamorgan ends in a draw. A fantastic advert for County Cricket, with drama down to the very last ball.”  

Lakmal ended the match with seven wickets that included a maiden haul of five for 82 off 29.4 overs in the first innings and two for 65 off 14.5 overs in the second.

In reply to Derbyshire’s first innings of 368, Glamorgan replied with 387 with Lakmal among the wickets which included that of the number one ranked Test batsman Australian Marnus Labuschagne for 130.

Derbyshire declared their second innings at 349-3 leaving Glamorgan 331 to chase for victory. They finished on 310-8, falling short by 22 runs with two wickets in hand.

Lakmal gave his county an early breakthrough by striking with his fourth ball. He later came on to pick another wicket, but Glamorgan with eighties apiece from Labuschagne and Sam Northeast held onto a draw.  Lakmal is on a two-year contract with Derbyshire.   

Reflecting on Lakmal’s bowling performance, Derbyshire’s assistant coach (bowling lead) Ajmal Shahzad commented: “We see the efforts Suranga puts in a day in and day out, and how he’s helping out the younger players in the team by supporting them in their roles and what they’re doing. We knew that at some point he was going to come good and we are just so pleased for him because not only is he a good man, he’s very skilful and his record speaks for itself and at some point, it was always going to come into play.”

Both teams collected 14 points each from the drawn game which kept Derbyshire in second place behind Nottinghamshire in the County Championship Division Two table.

Things didn’t go so well for Sri Lanka Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne who is playing for Yorkshire. In their Division One county match against Kent at Leeds which ended in a draw, Karunaratne batted for more than an hour and struggled for 48 balls for five runs before edging a catch behind the wicket. Yorkshire hit up a massive 571 runs to which Kent replied with 291 and 393. Yorkshire is fourth in the table. (ST)