Fighting knocks by Shehan Jayasuriya (115) and Angelo Perera (84) paved the way for Colombo to win by three runs on the D/L method over Kandy to book a place in the final of the Sri Lanka Super Four Provincial Tournament at Pallekelle yesterday.
When rain and bad light halted play Kandy had scored 205 for five wickets in 39 overs in reply to 289 for six scored by Colombo.
Batting first Colombo made a poor start with Upul Tharanga being dismissed for just one run and Wishva Fernando retiring hurt on five runs. Thereafter, Chandimal and Shehan Jayasuriya halted the rot for a while. Chandimal was sent back for 35 runs with the total on 82.
Kusal Mendis also did not last long and was sent back for just 13 runs.
Jayasuriya was joined by Angelo Perera and the pair cruised along at a steady pace. They put on 138 runs for the fourth wicket with Perera looking the more aggressive batsman.
Jayasuriya’s knock of 115 runs was off 133 deliveries and included nine boundaries and two sixes while Perera faced just 82 deliveries and hit a six and nine boundaries. Those were the only two impressive scorers.
Kandy too made some useful progress in the run rate. Dimuth Karunaratne and Sanjeeth Cooray put on 87 runs for the second wicket after the early dismissal of Sadeera Samarawickrama for just four runs.
Karunaratne scored 44 runs off 58 deliveries with five fours and Cooray also batted cautiously to score 82 runs off a hundred deliveries and had nine fours while Pathum Nissanka scored 36 off 35 deliveries with only two boundaries.
Sachithra Senanayake tried to speed up the run rate and scored 23 runs off 23 deliveries.
But when Priyamal Perera and Thisara Perera got together in the middle the rain delayed the game and with that fell bad light.
It was then that the Duckworth/Lewis method was applied to decide the winners.
Scores:
Colombo: 289/6 in 50 overs (Dinesh Chandimal 35, Shehan Jayasuriya 115, Angelo Perera 84, Kasun Rajitha 2/74)
Kandy: 205/5 in 39 overs (Dimuth Karunaratne 44, Sangeeth Cooray 82, Pathum Nissanka 36, Sachithra Senanayake 23, S. Prasanna 2/55)