Tharanga and Malik steers Uva Next
Upul Tharanga and Shohaib Malik helped Uva Next to begin their Sri Lanka Premier League campaign on a winning note with the pair putting on an unbroken 79 run stand for the third wicket to steer the side to an eight wicket win over Basnahira Cricket Dundees in the fourth match played at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday. Uva Next chasing a target of 137 for victory reached the target with ten balls to spare with Tharanga making an unbeaten 65 in 58 balls with eight boundaries and Malik an unbeaten 31.Basnahira Cricket Dundees skipper T.M. Dilshan won the toss and elected to bat. However they were no where near their form of the first match and were made to struggle for runs. They lost the first wicket in the fourth ball of the first over that of Daniel Smith before he had opened scoring. First match hero skipper Dilshan too struggled and in the next six overs they lost two more wickets that of Dimuth Karunaratne and Brad Hodge sliding to 37 for 3 in seven overs.
Dilshan joined by Jeewan Mendis began a rescue act and went on to add 70 runs for the fourth wicket with Dilshan racing to his second successive half ton off a delivery of Seekkuge Prasanna. The separation of the pair with the dismissal of Mendis saw Basnahira Cricket Dundees losing their grip losing wickets at regular intervals.
Pacie Dilhara Fernando who made the breakthrough with the wicket of Mendis cleaned up the tail with a three wicket haul in his last over which was also the last of the innings. Scores: Basnahira Cricket Dundees 136 for 9 wickets in 20 overs (T.M. Dilshan 56, Jeewan Mendis 34, Jacob Oram 3 for 16, Dilhara Fernando 5 for 17)
139 for 2 wickets in T 18.2 overs (Upul Tharanga 65 n.o, Shohaib Malik 31 n.o.)