LNP – Spinners dominate in Dambulla Viikings win

Dambulla Viikings skipper Dasun Shanaka smashed a half-century as his side beat Colombo Kings in the LPL at Suriyawewa yesterday.

Colombo Kings had gone about their business with little fuss in the Lanka Premier League but yesterday Dambulla Viikings exposed a few chinks in their armoury with a comfortable 28 run win at Suriyawewa. It was Colombo’s first loss in the competition.

Colombo have a well balanced side but on a track that kept low and favoured spin bowling their batting was exposed – chasing a target of 176, they were shot out for 147 without using the full quota of their overs.

The thing with games being played in one venue back to back – that too with double headers – is that it becomes a logistical nightmare as curators have little time produce quality tracks – particularly in T-20 format where people expect belters. But we are living in difficult times dealing with a pandemic and there’s little alternative. The track offered spin bowlers lot of assistance and that’s the last thing we should be complaining.  

Dambulla lost their openers in the first two overs and the rebuilding was done by the experienced Upul Tharanga (25) and Samit Patel (30), who added 71 runs for the third wicket. Skipper Dasun Shanaka then cashed in with his big hitting posting a half-century His 56 came off 34 balls with three fours and four sixes.

It looked at one stage that Dambulla would go onto score beyond 180 but Andre Russel polished up the tail with three wickets to restrict the opposition to 175 for nine.

But it was Russel’s big hitting that Colombo were country on but this time he failed to produce.

Laurie Evans with 59 runs guided them through in the run chase but he received little support as Dinesh Chandimal (0), Thikshila de Silva (5) and Angelo Mathews (11) all were dismissed cheaply.

Russel fell for five runs and Colombo never recovered from thereon and were bowled out in the 19th over.

Their choices for the game will be in question as well particularly their spin option in Jeffrey Vandersay. The leg-spinner let his side down again conceding 17 runs in his solitary over that included a few wayward deliveries which were called wide.