Cricket Highlights, 02 Aug: LPL 2023 (Match 04) – Dambulla Aura vs Jaffna Kings

Dambulla Aura vs Jaffna Kings (Match 04) – Highlights

Towhid Hridoy’s start to the Lankan Premier League (LPL) was one to be remembered. However, his bat stopped before he could fire up in the second match. Hridoy’s team Jaffna Kings lost on this day as they could not collect a big capital due to the failure of the batters. Jaffna Kings lost by 8 wickets to Dambulla Aura at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday (August 1).

After winning the toss and batting first, Jaffna Kings collected 129 runs after losing 7 wickets at the end of the scheduled 20 overs. In reply, Dambulla Aura confirmed the victory losing 2 wickets and keeping 22 balls in hand.

Avishka Fernando put the team in the driver’s seat right from the start while coming down to bat for an easy target. He smashed 6 fours and 3 sixes to play his storming innings of 52 off 32 balls. When it came to an end, Dambulla Aura was 76 for the loss of 1 wicket in 8.1 overs. Avishka was also selected as the player of the match for his devastating innings.

Kusal Mendis, another opener of the team, scored 29 runs in 23 balls and returned to the dressing room for the team total of 85 runs. The team needed only 45 runs from 65 balls to win. The rest of the runs were picked up by Sadeera Samarawickrama and Kusal Perera for the third wicket pair very easily. Sadeera remained unbeaten with 12 runs off 22 balls.  

On the other hand, Perera hit 3 fours and 2 sixes and left the field after playing an unbeaten innings of 34 runs off 22 balls. Dunith Wellalage and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth took one wicket each for Jaffna Kings.

Earlier Jaffna Kings started well after winning the toss and batting. Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (14) was dismissed for the team’s 20 runs, but Towhid Hridoy made a 55-run partnership with Charith Asalanka for the second wicket.  

When the Tiger batsman was seemingly taken control of the match and put pressure on the opposition bowlers, he was caught at midwicket while sweeping. Hridoy played an innings of 24 runs off 20 balls with the help of 2 boundaries.

In the previous match, Hridoy scored 54 runs off 39 balls with 4 fours and 1 six. Jaffna capitalized on his fifty in that match against Colombo Strikers. The team also won by 21 runs. But in the second match, he could not shine properly.  

Asalanka scored 56 runs in 52 balls hitting 5 fours and 1 six, but it was not effective for the team. Because he slowed down the run rate by playing 52 balls. Besides, the rest of the team could not play any effective innings. David Miller played an innings of 14 runs off 18 balls. Captain Thisara Perera scored 6 runs off 5 balls.

Binura Fernando took the utmost number of 2 wickets for Dambulla Aura with 27 runs in 4 overs. Besides, Dhananjaya de Silva, Noor Ahmad, Shahnawaz Dahani, and Hayden Kerr took 1 wicket each.

With one win and one loss from two matches, Dambulla Aura moved up to the 2nd position in the points table with a good net run rate (+0.862). On the other hand, Jaffna Kings are in the 4th position in the points table with a lower net run rate (-0.267) with the same win-loss record after playing the same number of matches.  

The two teams will face off again next Friday (August 4) at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele.

Dambulla Aura vs Jaffna Kings Scoreboard

Jaffna Kings – 129/7 (20.0)

Dambulla Aura – 132/2 (16.2)

Result – Dambulla Aura won by 8 wickets

Player of the match – Avishka Fernando

Avishka Fernando

Dambulla Aura vs Jaffna Kings Playing Xis