Colombo crushes Dambulla by an innings and132

A toothless batting and six wickets shared between Lakshitha Manasinghe and Prabath Jayasuriya demolished Dambulla by an innings-and-132-runs with a day to spare yesterday at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Dambulla, batting in their follow-on, only exposed a deteriorated a batting, much worse than their respectable looking first-innings total in their National Super League four-day tournament.

Winning four-dayers, that too with a day to spare, takes an extra effort and the hosts’ mammoth total of 516, laid the foundation for that. Dambulla continued their poor run of form since the limited-over version and had two ducks, including a first-ball zero. Only Ashan Priyaranjan, the senior most player in the team, top-scored with a pathetic 23. Inexplicably, it came off briskly in 16 balls with a six. All four bowlers deployed by the home team found victims. But it is, Manasinghe and Jayasuriya, picking up three scalps apiece, kept their counterparts under check. Earlier, in laying the foundation, it was Nipun Dananjaya’s delightful century that set the tone. Their building was also steadied with solid knocks flowing from their middle- to lower-order.

Ashen Bandara was unlucky to get dismissed nine shy of what would have been only second first-class century. He fell to Malinda Pushpakumara, who toiled hard in a marathon 51-over spell, for his five for 141.

Three other batters also reached 50+ scores, in a dominated game by Colombo.