Dambulla Sixes out to put up a good fight against Galle Marvels
Dambulla Sixes’ inform opener Kusal Janith Perera hope to repeat his performance ( pix courtesy SLC)Dambulla Sixes’ inform opener Kusal Janith Perera hope to repeat his per
Dambulla Sixes led by Mohammad Nabi is expected to put up a good fight against Galle Marvels in their LPL cricket fixture which will be played at Dambulla International Cricket Stadium today at 7.30 pm.
After recording their first win against Colombo Strikers the team has more confidence to continue the winning mentality said Dambulla Sixes opener Kusal Janith Perera the inform batter having scored century and 80 in previous matches. we have a strong side especially batting strength is very high and we were looking to get win as soon as possible to gain confidence. The first three matches we couldn’t win but our batters did well and bowlers had few issues and restricting opponents below 200 runs on this type of wicket always a plus point to win the game. We restricted Colombo team for 185 at Dambulla wicket and that was a good achievement on this type of surface. After I got a century in previous game against Jaffna Kings at Pallekele once again made match winning 80 in the last game against Colombo Strikers at Dambulla. Both myself and my opening partner Reza Hendrikas intention was always attack the ball during the power play and then continue innings and easy to find the gaps to make runs and that really worked out said Kusal He is having fastest LPL century record this time while his aggressive mood during power play is big challenge for opponent bowlers.
In fact Kusal Perera was not sold at the LPL auction earlier finally got chance to enter Dambulla Sixes. He is now in top form and this wicket keeper and left hand batter is playing an important role for Dambulla Sixes. They have three more matches and already in fourth place with 2 points after losing three matches and they wanted to repeat performance to get wins to go forward.
Our skipper Mohammed Nabi is a veteran in this white ball format and give good freedom to all players while our supporting staff headed by Rangana Herath and mentor Roshan Mahanama give good support to the team.
Especially on this type of wicket batsmen can get runs to build up innings and bowlers’ performance are very vital to restrict opponents, said Perera.
I think foreign players service and mixed with our local players always very vital from this LPL and most important is to maintain good momentum during the matches. Getting first win at Dambulla Stadium was very good . The foreign players Reza Hendrikas, Mark Chapman are in good form while the paceman like Mustafizur Rahman always strength to Dambulla and young Chamindu Wickrmasinghe also an asset to them.
Meanwhile Galle Marvels led by Niroshan Dikwella having 3 wins out of 4 matches having services of two foreign players Tim Seifert and Alex Hales who always power their batting department. All rounder Isuru Udana who was last Kandy Falcons game man of the match used his experience especially during the power play. Udana already retired from International cricket plays active role in franchise cricket this time as a Galle Marvels key player. I think year by year LPL get good developments and we hope few players can be found from this franchise tournaments said Udana mixing with foreign players is extra benefit for young players to share their experience. Our coach Graham Ford had good knowledge about these wickets as well as our players as he was the former Sri Lanka coach. We wanted to maintain winning momentum to go forward said Isuru Udana.
Meanwhile Kandy Falcons will meet table leaders Jaffna Kings in their game at 2.30 pm. Jaffna led by Charith Asalanka having best net run rate (0.516) with 6 points on top. Batting is key strength of Jaffna having services of Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis,Avishka Fernando and skipper Asalanka while Azmatullah Omarzai the all rounder from Afghanistan is in good form. Kandy Falcons led by Wanindu Hasaranga couldn’t make good performance while they are looking to come back in this game. Experienced Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka and skipper Wanindu Hasaranga have big responsibility to put up a good challenge while Dinesh Chandimal also has to come from as a opener.
Galle Marvels also having 6 points with 0.369 run rate on second after four matches while Colombo Strikers having 4 points in third place and both Dambulla Sixes and Kandy Falcons having only 2 points each with a solitary win are fourth and fifth while Dambulla who got 8 wickets win over Colombo Strikers having better run rate ahead of Kandy Falcons.