Galle will face Dambulla in Saturday’s first fixture in Sri Lanka T20 League 2020 to find the season's first victory. Galle is the only side who lost all four games, while Dambulla is going towards the semifinal berth with three victories from the first four.
Match Timings: Dec 05, 3:30 PM IST
Team Preview
Galle’s struggling story continues as they lost the fourth consecutive game on Thursday. Danushka Gunathilaka is the only man who is taking charge of this struggling unit. Bhanuka Rajapaksa will lead the side for one more game as Afridi will miss the next couple of games due to personal reasons. In the previous game against Jaffna, Galle got a good start from the top-order, but they finished on 170 due to the middle-order hoax. Walton smashed 31 off 14 balls to achieve an imposing total. Jaffna made this chase a pure cakewalk as Galle failed to draw any attention with the ball.
Gunathilaka has been so consistent for Galle, but he is not getting enough support. The left-hander has amassed 206 runs this season so far at an average of 68.67 and SR of 145.07. Apart from Gunathilaka and Afridi, not a single player has scored a half-century from the top-order. Galle’s main bowlers are giving more than 10 runs per over, and this economy is hurting its campaign. Semifinal’s qualification is not a tough task as five teams compete for the four spots, but Galle still needs to draw points from the remaining four matches.
Meanwhile, Dambulla added the third victory of the season on Thursday night to assure the semifinal spot. One more win will give them an official qualification. Dambulla’s bowlers put an excellent display for a second straight match. They restricted Kandy on a good score of 156. Rajitha and Pushpakumara scalped two wickets each. Dambulla was in trouble after losing three wickets on 56 at the halfway mark of its chase. Angelo Perera paced the chase by scoring 67 off 49 balls and guided Dambulla home.
The Shanaka-led side now has six points from a possible eight. Its only defeat was recorded against the table-topper Jaffna. Samit Patel and Dasun Shanaka are charging Dambulla. Samit Patel has scored 140 runs in 4 innings and picked 5 wickets too with less than the economy of 8, while, Shanaka has scored 197 runs so far, and the skipper has played an important role in two wins.
Pitch Report
Hambantota’s surface is changing its behavior after back-to-back matches on a used surface. It’s a batting-friendly wicket, but we would expect a slight downfall in the scoring. It's a track of 160-170, and seamers can take help from this surface.
Possible XI
Dambulla
Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Upul Tharanga, Samit Patel, Dasun Shanaka (c), Angelo Perera, Ramesh Mendis, Samiullah Shinwari, Anwar Ali, Malinda Pushpakumara, Sachindu Colombage, Kasun Rajitha
Galle
Danushka Gunathilaka, Ahsan Ali, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (c), Dhananjaya Lakshan, Azam Khan (wk), Chadwick Walton, Shehan Jayasuriya, Lakshan Sandakan, Mohammad Amir, Akila Dananjaya, Asitha Fernando
Key Players
Dambulla
Dasun Shanaka
SL T20 League – M: 4, Runs; 197, Avg: 49.25
Previous outing: 33 (23)
Samit Patel
SL T20 League – M: 4, Runs: 140, Wickets: 5
Previous outing: 3-0-18-1 & 10 (10)
Galle
Danushka Gunathilaka
SL T20 League – M: 4, Runs: 206, Avg: 68.67
Previous outing: 56 (44)
Ahsan Ali
Last T20I outings: 29 in SL T20, 42 in National T20
