Dasun Shanaka’s Dambulla fights out against Kandy in the Thursday night encounter of Sri Lanka T20 League 2020. Dambulla takes the third spot in the table with the recent win, while Kandy stays in the top four despite losing the previous match.
Match Timings: Dec 03, 8 PM IST
Team Preview
After the break on Wednesday, Sri Lanka T20 League is back in action with double-header clashes, and in the night fixture, Dambulla will take on Kandy in Hambantota. After losing against Jaffna with a hefty margin, Dambulla bounced back in style and defeated Colombo, who were coming into the match with two back-to-back wins. On Tuesday night, Dambulla defended 175 against a top batting unit on a pure batting track. The skipper led from the front, scoring 56 off 34 balls, and somehow, they got a safe total. They got half-team in the pavilion in 10-overs, including the dangerous Russell. Laurie Evans fought for Colombo with 33-balls 59.
Dambulla started the campaign with a 4 runs victory by the D/L method, and in the next fixture, they lost to Jaffna by 66 runs. Dambulla’s batting unit is leading by its two prominent players Samit Patel and Dasun Shanaka. How Dambulla will perform in the league will depend on both players’ performance. Samit Patel also contributes with the ball. He has scored 129 runs in 3 matches and picked 4 wickets, while, Shanaka has aggregated 164 runs so far, the second-highest runs in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Kandy has played four matches, the most by any team, and they suffered three defeats from those. The only win was recorded against Galle, who is the weakest side of the season. Its top four qualifications might be in doubt if Galle manages to find victory against Jaffna in the first doubleheader on Thursday. In the last game, Kandy got a solid start by picking Jaffna’s top-order early, but they lost the momentum in middle-overs as Perera-De Silva fired with around 13 runs per over. They posted 185, and in the chase, Kandy played like a mediocre side. Jaffna bowled them out on 131, and they lost by 54 runs.
Kandy needs to bounce back if they want to finish in the top four. Brendan Taylor has been so consistent. After joining Kandy’s squad from the third game, he remained the top-scorer of the side in both previous games. Naveen-Ul-Haq has bowled well for Kandy. He is now the highest wicket-taker of this season with 8 wickets. Gunaratne is a big boost to the side who provides depth with both bat and ball. In the last outing, he picked two wickets and scored 31 while batting at number 6.
Pitch Report
Hambantota’s surface favors the batsmen more, and in night matches, it offers extra help to batting sides as the dew takes place. Batting first sides have won more matches this season, but this surface still back chasing sides.
Possible XI
Dambulla
Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Paul Stirling, Upul Tharanga, Dasun Shanaka (c), Angelo Perera, Samit Patel, Pulina Tharanga, Malinda Pushpakumara, Sachindu Colombage, Kasun Rajitha, Anwar Ali
Kandy
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Kusal Perera (c & wk), Kusal Mendis, Brendan Taylor, Asela Gunaratne, Kamindu Mendis, Seekkuge Prasanna, Dilruwan Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Naveen-ul-Haq, Munaf Patel
Key Players
Dambulla
Dasun Shanaka
SL T20 League – M: 4, Runs; 164, Avg: 54.67
Samit Patel
SL T20 League – M: 4, Runs: 129, Wickets: 4
Kandy
Brendan Taylor
Last outings: 46 (32), 51 (35)
Naveen-ul-Haq
SL T20 League – M: 4, Wickets: 8, Avg: 20
