Dambulla Giants pull off thrilling one-run win
Dambulla Giants recorded their third win of the Lanka Premier League with a thrilling one-run win over Colombo Stars, who crashed to their third defeat in the match played at the R. Premadasa Stadium.
Despite a quick-fire knock by Dinesh Chandimal, Colombo Stars fell short of two runs behind their target, ending at 137-8, chasing a target of 139 runs. Colombo Stars needed 13 runs of the final over, but Chandimal played a lone battle despite hitting the first ball to a four, and another in the final ball, when the target was six.
It was dual purpose spinner Tharindu Ratnayake who put the Colombo Stars in their run chase into deep trouble as he bagged three scalps to have them struggling on 32 for 3 in the sixth over.
Skipper Dhananjaya de Silva and Chandimal steadied their innings with a brief stand of 32 runs for the fifth wicket. Later Chandimal associated in a 37-run stand for the seventh wicket with Seekkuge Prasanna, but it was insufficient as Chandimal’s unbeaten knock of 65 in 40 balls, that included four boundaries and three sixes, turned out to be in vain as they ended up short of one run.
Early proceedings saw Dambulla Giants skipper Dasun Shanaka won the toss and elected to take bat. Openers Niroshan Dickwella and Phil Salt gave a good start, putting on 48 runs in 31 balls. The pair separated with the dismissal of Dickwella, who made a brisk 30 runs in 16 balls falling victim to Seekkuge Prasanna, who succeeded with the wicket of Salt in the same over.
Sohaib Maqsood and Tharindu Ratnayake were making smooth progress and associated in a 35-run stand for the third wicket before Jeffrey Vandersay dealt a double blow with the score Dambulla Giants score on 88 with the wickets of the duo in successive balls but was unfortunate to miss out on a hat-trick.
Najibullah Zadran and skipper Shanaka put on 21 runs for the fifth wicket before Zadran fell victim to Vandersay, who bagged his third wicket as they slid to 109 for 5 in the 16th over.
Shanaka did not last long and was dismissed 11 runs later and from there on the late order batting failed to make any impression as they were lost wickets at regular intervals before ending with a score of 138.
Today two matches are down decision with Jaffna Kings meeting Kandy Warriors at 3.00 p.m. and Colombo Stars clashing Galle Gladiators at 7.00 p.m.
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