Seekkuge special gets Colombo Stars over the line

Kennar Lewis makes a powerful strike for six on his way to a top score of 62 for Kandy Warriors

Dushmantha Chameera was back to his best for Colombo Stars with four wickets

Seekkuge Prasanna, the former Sri Lanka all-rounder, produced an astonishing innings hitting five sixes off six balls to see Colombo Stars over the line by five wickets with two balls to spare in a tight finish to

Player of the Match Seekkuge Prasanna exults after making the winning hit for Colombo Stars

a crucial Lanka Premier League game against Kandy Warriors played at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Kandy invited to bat first scored 146-9 and Colombo replied with 150-5.

When the last of Colombo’s recognised batsmen Dinesh Chandimal was dismissed for a well-crafted 44 off 27 balls, they required 31 off the final two overs, and the odds lay heavily in favour of Kandy to pull it off. The equation was brought down to 16 off the final over but Shane Rutherford who was completely out of sorts was on strike.

Lahiru Kumara, the Sri Lankan quick who was not given to bowl a single over in the match up to that point was brought on for the final over by Kandy Captain Angelo Perera and everything went horribly wrong for them from there onwards.

Rutherford took a single off the first ball, and Prasanna smacked the next three for six to provide an incredible finish to a match that Kandy should have won easily on a tricky surface. On a pitch when everyone had struggled to score, Player of the Match Prasanna made batting look so easy smacking those balls all over the park. 

The key to that was all those who had gone before him hardly got to face pace, they all struggled against spin. But having exhausted all his specialist spinners Perera had no option but to bring on Kumara, his quickest bowler. Kumara just could not get the ball in the right areas and one had to feel sorry for him as Prasanna simply took him to the cleaners.  

Not for the first time Kandy had thrown away a game from a winning position. They were given a flying start by West Indian Kennar Lewis and Sri Lanka’s Charith Asalanka scoring 61 in the first power play. 

Lewis dropped at one took nine balls to get off the mark but reached his 50 in the next 27 with his fifth six of the innings. He struck three consecutive sixes off an over from Prasanna and looked in dangerous form when the pressure of good bowling in the middle overs got to him and he succumbed for 62 scored off 44 balls (6 sixes, 2 fours).

Instead of building on the opening stand of 77, Kandy simply blew everything away as they kept on losing wickets constantly to end up with a below-par total of 146-9. A lot of credit should go to Angelo Mathews who handled the situation well. Initially Colombo went all over but by making good bowling changes he managed to pick up wickets and put a break on the Kandy scoring. 

It took nine overs for Colombo to break the opening partnership and after that they took control of the game grabbing eight wickets for 43 and it was all one-way traffic as Kandy’s batting collapsed in a heap. Dushmantha Chameera, the Sri Lanka fast bowler who was at the receiving end against Jaffna Kings the other day, regained his form to pick up four wickets for 35 aided by the spinners.

With only two games left Kandy are in danger of finishing again at the bottom of the pile and failing to qualify for the play-offs where only the top four teams will qualify. The maximum points Kandy can gain is six if they win their two remaining matches, and hope for one of the other teams to lose theirs. (ST)  

Scores

Kandy Warriors 146-9 (20) (Kennar Lewis 62, Charith Asalanka 28, D Chameera 4/35)

Colombo Stars 150-5 (19.4) (Angelo Mathews 29, Dinesh Chandimal 44, Seekkuge Prasanna 32*, Nimesh Vimukthi 2/11)