Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium hosted both halves of the Lanka Premier League’s Sunday double-header, and the two sides who lost are now the two sides at the bottom of the table.
Jaffna Kings took the afternoon game by 93 runs. Galle Gallants took the night game by 44, against the ground’s own tenants, and stayed top.
A 129-run opening stand, and Kandy never got near it
Kamil Mishara and Avishka Fernando gave Jaffna the tournament’s first century opening partnership, 129 of them, and the two innings looked nothing alike. Mishara took 53 balls for his 78 and hit six fours and four sixes. Fernando needed 36 balls for his 66 and found the rope ten times. Towhid Hridoy came in late and finished 35 not out from 21, which pushed Jaffna to 199 for 4.
Shaheen Shah Afridi was the one Kandy bowler who came out of it with anything, 3 for 27 including Mishara.
Kandy Royals were then bowled out for 106 in 18.2 overs. Lahiru Udara made 54, his third half-century of the season, and the next best score in the innings was Afridi’s 22 from down the order. Mohamed Shiraz took 3 for 18 and Dunith Wellalage 3 for 21.
“We were outplayed from ball one, unfortunately,” said Angelo Mathews, who was leading Kandy. “We were not up to the mark today.”
Mishara took the player of the match award and made the point that the pitch had behaved differently across the two innings, coming on nicely when Jaffna batted, soft and turning later on. Batting first, he reckoned, had been the right call on a fresh surface.
Chameera took five and it still cost Dambulla 220
Galle Gallants made 220 for 6 in the night game, and Chamika Karunaratne did most of it: 72 not out from 34 balls with four fours and six sixes, a strike rate north of 210. Sam Harper made 41, Charith Asalanka 31, Nurul Hasan 29 and Sahan Arachchige 28. Five scores of 28 or better in one innings is usually a sign that nothing went wrong.
Dushmantha Chameera finished with 5 for 55 for Dambulla Sixers, which is an odd line to read. A five-wicket haul in an innings that leaked 220 says the wickets were falling at one end while the runs came from the other.
Dambulla got to 176 for 7. Ramesh Mendis made 39 not out and Niroshan Dickwella 32. Sachindu Colombage, playing his first match of the tournament, took 3 for 17 and was the reason the chase never threatened.
Where that leaves the table
Galle Gallants lead on eight points from six matches, a fourth win from that run, with a net run rate of 0.848. Colombo Kaps and Jaffna Kings are level on six points from five each and separated by run rate, Colombo on 0.371 and Jaffna on 0.133. Dambulla Sixers and Kandy Royals share the bottom two places on four points from six, both with negative run rates.
Jaffna are the better placed of the two chasing sides in one respect. They have a game in hand on Galle, and Sunday added a good deal to a net run rate that had been the thinnest of the top three. They meet Colombo Kaps on 28 July, which is as close to a direct fight for second place as this stage of the tournament offers.