Ton up Banuka Rajapakse ignites old form: Dambulla upset Colombo; Galle down Kandy
SLC Super Provincial Tournament – Day 5 Results
Dambulla’s Banuka Rajapakse, the former Royal College, SSC, and Chilaw Marians fiery batsman, did fire straight from the hip in a scorching three figure innings of 117 in mounting an upset 44-run win over Colombo on Monday, the fifth day’s proceedings of the Super Provincial Tournament. Rajapakse was in full cry reviving memories of his hey day Royal College batsman ship that made him quite a batting sensation at that level. It was Man of the Match rewarding stuff for the 25-year old Rajapakse. He set up the base for a huge Dambulla total of 316 for 8 wickets in 50 overs having figured in a productive 155- run third wicket alliance with Ashan Priyanjan who made 70. Sri Lanka player Milinda Siriwardena chipped in with 68.
Colombo found the asking rate far too much, and was all out for 272 with Dilshan Munaweera once again among the runs with 85 and Dinesh Chandimal stroking 70.
Meanwhile, Galle too pulled off an upset win over table leaders Kandy. Batting first, Galle posted 313 for 9 in 50 overs on the back of half centuries from Dimuth Karunaratne 89, Sadeera Samarawickrama 61and Dasun Shanaka 49. Kandy’s batsmen had no answer to the bowling trio of Malinda Pushpakumara, Sammu Ashan (3/22), S Lakmal (2/41) and S Ashan (2/53) handing Galle a 70-run win. Karunaratne carried away the Man of the Match award.
CHIEF SCORES:
Dambulla beat Colombo by 44 runs.
Dambulla 316/8 (50 overs) – B Rajapaksa 117, A Priyanjan 70, M Siriwardana 68: S Jayasuriya 4/29, T Perera 2/31, S Senanayake 2/53 vs
Colombo 272 all out (47.5 overs) – D Munaweera 85, D Chandimal 70: A Priyanjan 4/41, AM Fernando 4/44.
RESULT – DAMBULLA WON BY 44 RUNS
MAN OF THE MATCH – BANUKA RAJAPAKSE
Galle beat Kandy by 70 runs
Galle 313/9 (50 Overs) – D Karunaratne 89, S Samarawickrama 61, Dasun Shanaka 49*: N Pradeep 3/58, T N Sampath 2/31 vs
Kandy 243 all out (46.1 Overs) – S Pathirana 73*, M Udawatta 54: M Pushpakumara 3/22, S Lakmal 2/41, S Ashan 2/53
RESULT – GALLE WON BY 71 RUNS
MAN OF THE MATCH – DIMUTH KARUNARATNE
By Srian Obeyesekere