Dambulla Aura finished the league stage of the Lanka Premier League 2023 at the top of the table as they registered their sixth win yesterday (14th August) to beat B – Love Kandy in Match No. 19 at R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo.
After winning the toss, B – Love Kandy Captain Wanindu Hasaranga decided to bowl first as they made two changes, bringing back Dinesh Chandimal and Mujeeb Ur Rahman for Sahan Arachchige and Mohammad Hasnain. Dhananjaya De Silva took over the captaincy of Dambulla Aura for this game, giving their regular Skipper Kusal Mendis a rest. There were four other changes for them as well – opportunities were given to Lakshan Edirisinghe, Sachitha Jayathilake, Hayden Kerr, Pramod Madushan and Shahnawaz Dahani to play in place of Janith Liyanage, Noor Ahmad, Binura Fernando and Hassan Ali.
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Avishka Fernando and Sadeera Samarawickrama finished the powerplay on 53/0. After adding 61 runs for the 1st wicket, the keeper batter Samarawickrama was dismissed for 31 by Chathuranga De Silva. Fernando continued his good form in LPL with a 41-run knock at a strike rate of 151.85.
Aura fell apart after a good start as they slipped to 104/5, with Mujeeb and Pradeep scalping two wickets apiece. In-form Ben Mcdermott and Hayden Kerr smashed 38 runs off the next 19 balls before Hasaranga got the better of Mcdermott (37 off 23).
Kerr scored 26 runs off 16 deliveries, which helped Aura post 162/7 in 20 overs. Pradeep was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-1-35-3 while Mujeeb took two wickets.
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De Silva removed both the Kandy openers in the space of three balls in the 2nd over, to give their target defence the perfect start. Hasaranga tried to be aggressive once again, but this time he chopped on for 19 off the bowling of leg spinner Sachitha Jayathilake.
De Silva continued to do the damage as he got the wickets of Angelo Mathews (26 off 15) and Chathuranga De Silva in the same over. Asif Ali and Ashen Bandara failed to contribute, while Chandimal made 50 off 46, which was not enough to get Kandy over the line.
In 19.4 overs, B – Love Kandy were bowled out for 142 as Dambulla Aura finished the league stage at No. 1 in the Points Table. On the bowling front, stand-in Skipper De Silva was absolutely remarkable to record his career-best figures of 4/6 in 2 overs, which also gave him the Player of the Match award.
The decisive final match of the LPL 2023 group stage will take place today between the Galle Titans and the Colombo Strikers at the same venue from 7.30 pm onwards. Catch all the live action from that game on Sri Lanka’s No.1 Sports Hub – ThePapare.com.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avishka Fernando | c Wanindu Hasaranga b Mujeeb ur Rahman | 41 | 27 | 3 | 3 | 151.85 |
| Sadeera Samarawickrama | c Mohammad Haris b Chaturanga de Silva | 31 | 26 | 6 | 0 | 119.23 |
| Muditha Lakshan | b Mujeeb ur Rahman | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Ben McDermott | c Ashen Bandara b Wanindu Hasaranga | 37 | 23 | 3 | 2 | 160.87 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | b Nuwan Pradeep | 10 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 62.50 |
| Alex Ross | b Nuwan Pradeep | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Hayden Kerr | c Wanindu Hasaranga b Nuwan Pradeep | 26 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 162.50 |
| Sachitha Jayathilake | not out | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Extras | 7 (b 0 , lb 2 , nb 1, w 4, pen 0) |
| Total | 162/7 (20 Overs, RR: 8.1) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angelo Mathews | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 9.00 | |
| Mujeeb ur Rahman | 4 | 0 | 32 | 2 | 8.00 | |
| Isuru Udana | 3 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 10.00 | |
| Chaturanga de Silva | 4 | 0 | 21 | 1 | 5.25 | |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | 4 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 8.25 | |
| Nuwan Pradeep | 4 | 0 | 35 | 3 | 8.75 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohammad Haris | c & b Dhananjaya de Silva | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 28.57 |
| Fakhar Zaman | c Avishka Fernando b Dhananjaya de Silva | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 200.00 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | b Hayden Kerr | 50 | 46 | 6 | 0 | 108.70 |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | b Sachitha Jayathilake | 19 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 172.73 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Dhananjaya de Silva b | 26 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 173.33 |
| Chaturanga de Silva | c Dhananjaya de Silva b Chamikara Edirisinghe | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Asif Ali | run out (Dushan Hemantha) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Ashen Bandara | c Sadeera Samarawickrama b Shahnawaz Dahani | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Isuru Udana | b Pramod Madushan | 23 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 109.52 |
| Mujeeb ur Rahman | not out | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Nuwan Pradeep | b Pramod Madushan | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 7 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 0, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 142/10 (19.4 Overs, RR: 7.22) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pramod Madushan | 3.4 | 0 | 27 | 2 | 7.94 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 3.00 | |
| Shahnawaz Dahani | 4 | 1 | 25 | 1 | 6.25 | |
| Hayden Kerr | 4 | 0 | 35 | 1 | 8.75 | |
| Sachitha Jayathilake | 4 | 0 | 22 | 1 | 5.50 | |
| Dushan Hemantha | 2 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 11.50 | |
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 to beat B – Love Kandy in Match No. 19 of the Lanka Premier League 2023, played at R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo.){kind=link}