Skipper Shanaka stars as Colombo Kings meet their waterloo

By M. Shamil Amit

Skipper, Dasun Shanaka continued his excellent form stroking his second successive half century to guide Dambulla Viiking to an easy 28-run win over the unbeaten Colombo Kings, in their Lanka Premier League (LPL) T20 Cricket Tournament encounter played at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Hambantota yesterday.

The Kings, in pursuit of 176 runs for victory lost opener, Dinesh Chandimal in the very first ball and they never recovered thereafter, and were eventually bowled out for 147 runs.   

The Kings lost their Skipper, Angelo Mathews and the key wicket of Andre Russell early and they were struggling at 63 for five at the halfway stage of the innings.

However, opener, Laurie Evans put in some stiff resistance with the bat and made a top score of 59 before he ran out of partners at the other end. 

Earlier, Viiking rallied around to reach a formidable total after they had won the toss and elected to bat first.
Their innings was built around a splendid half century from Skipper Shanaka who hit a top score of 56 from 34 deliveries inclusive of four sixes and three boundaries.

The dynamic all-rounder then took control of the situation and hammered the bowlers to all corners of the ground before racing to his fifty in 32 deliveries with the aid of three sixes and three boundaries.

The Viiking of course, had a very poor start to the innings as they lost both openers, Niroshan Dickwella and Paul Stirling with just three runs on the board.

However, Upul Tharanga and Samit Patel revived the Viiking innings with a third-wicket stand of 71 runs from six overs.

Both batsmen departed in the space of two overs before Shanaka took over and produced an outstanding batting performance with the support of Angelo Perera.