KANDY AND DAMBULLA
BATTLE IT OUT FOR 3RD SPOT
Kandy and Dambulla will play for third place when they face off at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium today, in the penultimate match of the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Super Provincial 50-over Tournament
Both teams were eliminated from title contention after losing their first two games, but Kandy were comfortable winners in the dead-rubber played on Monday.
Key to that win was Thisara Perera, who bagged four wickets for 25 runs in seven overs, while on the batting front Dimuth Karunaratne, the Kandy captain, has all but booked his place in the Sri Lanka World Cup squad with the 86 he scored on Monday.
Meanwhile Dambulla will heavily depend on their skipper, Angelo Mathews, who bounced back from a poor first game to register scores of 78 and 47 in the two subsequent games.
Concern still remains about the performances of their deputy
skipper Niroshan Dickwella who is yet to find his form.
The bowling of Jeewan Mendis and Vishwa Fernando too will be under watchful eyes of the selectors both being good prospects for the national teams ICC WC squad to England next month.
Kandy: Dimuth Karunarathne (Captain), Thisara Perera (Vice-captain), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Pathum Nissanka, Priyamal Perera, Roshen Silva, Asela Gunaratne, Jeffrey Vandersay, Malinda Pushpakumara, Kasun Rajitha, Nuwan Pradeep, Chathuranga De Silva, Sachithra Senanayake, Dilesh Gunaratne, Manoj Sarathchandra.
Dambulla: Angelo Mathews (Captain), Niroshan Dickwella (Vice-captain), Danushka Gunathilake, Oshada Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jeewan Mendis, Dasun Shanaka, Lakshan Sandakan, Prabath Jayasuriya, Isuru Udana, Ishan Jayaratne, Sachithra Serasinghe, Vishwa Fernando, Ashen Bandara, Ramesh Mendis.