Unbeaten Dambulla and Jaffna clash for top spot

Kandy’s stand-in captain Lahiru Udara (109) receives the Man of the Match award against Galle from Match Referee Pradeep Jeyapragash

The last cluster of matches to be played outside Colombo in the ongoing National Super League 50-over tournament commences today at two venues.

From Sunday 26 March onwards, the remaining round robin league matches including the final will take place in Colombo at the SSC grounds, the P. Sara Oval and the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Having lost a golden opportunity to take over the leadership of the standings from leaders Dambul-la on Monday when their match against bottom of the table Colombo was ruined by rain, defend-ing champions Jaffna will get another opportunity when they clash with Dambulla at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium in a top of the table clash.

Dambulla and Jaffna are the two unbeaten sides in the tournament and the end of this game will see one of the teams losing that status. Jaffna trail Dambulla by three points and need to win if they are to head the standings. A win brings four points and a win with a bonus point brings five points.

It’s not that it matters at the moment because the top two sides will make it to the final. Currently, Dambulla and Jaffna occupy the two spots. Both these teams are head and shoulders above the rest of the field and at this point of time look assured of finishing one-two. But it is still early days for when the tournament moves to Colombo, the three teams languishing at the bottom have the ability to make amends and make a comeback and mount a challenge to the two pace-setters.   

Following the No-Result against Jaffna, Colombo who are without a single win so far collected their first points when they shared the four points with Jaffna. Colombo meets Kandy at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium in the second game today. The two teams are the worst hit being shorn of many of their white ball players who have taken flight to New Zealand for the ODI and T20I series. Kandy broke the shackles on Monday when they pulled off an exciting eight-run win over Galle and moved to third position. 

They are level on four points with Galle with only the net run rate separating them. Now that they have found the momentum, last year’s finalists Kandy will want to keep it going with a win over Colombo who have yet to hit their straps. Even with the national stars in their side Colombo have been unable to win a single game, now without them their problems have more or less been com-pounded. Last year Colombo failed to make the cut finishing second from the bottom of the table with three wins out of eight matches. 

Dambulla on the other hand, who finished at the bottom have made giant strides towards qualify-ing for the final on this occasion by winning their first three matches and head the table. (ST)