Wanindu made the difference says Galle coach Kalpage

Best Batsman of the Tournament Ahan Wickramasinghe of Kandy

Best Bowler of the Tournament Shashika Dulshan of Jaffna

Player of the Tournament award won by Ramesh Mendis collected by Galle captain Sangeeth Cooray

Champion team Dambulla

• Unfancied Dambulla upsets form book to win NSL 4-day final

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The presence of a match winner like Wanindu Hasaranga with Dambulla made the difference between the two sides as unbeaten Galle were eventually conquered going down by 75 runs to lose the National Super League 4-day final at the Galle Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Left with the task of making the highest total in the final - 257, Galle’s much vaunted batting succumbed to the wiles of Hasaranga’s leg-spin as they folded up for 182 after resuming at 93-5.

Hasaranga with four wickets in the first innings and figures of 5 for 44 in the second ended with a match haul of 9 for 108, taking him past a century of first-class wickets in his 44th match in a career spanning seven years.

He took four of the five wickets to fall on the final day that saw Galle add 89 runs to their total of which Dunith Wellage scored a fighting unbeaten half-century (52* off 79 balls, 5 fours).  

Providing an ideal foil to Hasaranga was the right-arm medium-fast deliveries of Lahiru Samarakoon who took four wickets in the second innings to go with his three in the first, for match figures of 7 for 102.

It was a truly disappointing end to Galle’s campaign which got off so well for them in the league stage and semi-finals, but were unable to deliver the knockout punch when it mattered most – the final.

“One man Wanindu made the difference,” was how Galle head coach Ruwan Kalpage, a former Sri Lanka cricketer put his team’s defeat down to. 

“There were other individual performances too but Wanindu is the highlight for me. He not only took nine wickets but held onto two top class catches in the slips, one above his shoulder to remove Hashan Dumindu on the second morning and the other, a one-handed effort to his left at ankle height to send back Sohan de Livera in the second innings.”  

“Right throughout the tournament we performed well. This was our lowest score in the tournament. We couldn't get to 200 in both innings. Batting was an utter failure. Everyone was disappointed with their batting and realised what their mistakes were. Even after keeping Dambulla down to 248 in the first innings we couldn’t capitalise on it. 

“We should have got a good first innings lead. In the few overs of the first day we lost four wickets. That was the turning point. We could never recover after that even though the bowlers were giving us opportunities to come into the game.”

Upul Chandana, the assistant head coach of Dambulla said even though his was not the strongest of sides in the tournament their success lay in not being afraid to take up challenges. 

“The biggest challenge we took was bringing in youngsters which eventually paved the way for our success. I had a lot of trust in the youngsters in taking up the challenge. We saw a lot of young talent emerging and they can be good cricketers who could make it to the national team. I must thank the selectors who were there and my support staff, they all played their roles well.”

“At the beginning of the tournament it was a big challenge because we didn’t have many good players. The national players weren’t available and we had a young side. Compared to all the other teams we were the weakest. We lost our first match to Galle by an innings and one of our matches (against Kandy) was washed out by rain. 

“We faced a big task of how we can get to the semi-finals. The arrival of Wanindu made a huge difference. We were able to balance the side, then (Minod) Bhanuka and others started contributing,” said Chandana, a member of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup winning side for whom this is his second successive title as coach, the first being with the SLC Greys team in 2021.

Commenting on the low scoring final Chandana blamed bad batting from both sides for it. 

“There were bad shots and if the batsmen had a bit more patience they could have got bigger scores. Even though we were bowled out for 248 we were confident that we could win because we had bowlers like Wanindu and Lahiru (Samarakoon) and others. Of course we had small shortcomings in our batting but we didn’t have any doubts about winning.”

As winners Dambulla captained by Minod Bhanuka collected a cheque for Rs. 5 million, while Galle led by acting captain Sangeeth Cooray picked up Rs. 2.5 million as runner-up. Ramesh Mendis, captain of Galle was named the Player of the Tournament and received Rs. 500,000, the Best Batsman’s award of Rs. 250,000 was won by Ahan Wickramasinghe (Kandy) and the Best Bowler’s award of Rs. 250,000 by Shashika Dulshan (Jaffna). 

The awards were presented by SLC vice president Ravin Wickramaratne and Tournament Committee chairman Samantha Dodanwela.   

Scores: Dambulla 248 and 196

Galle 187 and 182 (o/n 93-5) (Mahesh Kumara 36, Dunith Wellalage 52*, Kavishka Anjula 27, Lahiru Samarakoon 4/60, Wanindu Hasaranga 5/44)