Kandurata v Combined Provinces: Sri Lanka Cricket Inter-Provincial Twenty20 Tournament – Match Recap
Kandurata crushed Combined Provinces by 10 wickets and 14 balls remaining in a match of the Sri Lanka Cricket Inter-Provincial Twenty20 tournament, at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo in Sri Lanka, on Saturday, July 23, 2011.
The match started with a delay, as it had rained before the start of the game and the outfield was wet. The bad news for both teams and the spectators was that it was still drizzling and conditions were not ideal for cricket.
However, the weather cleared after some time and the ground staff did a terrific job to get the field ready for action; however, the game was reduced to nine overs per side.
Combined Provinces batted first and managed 61 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their innings. There were only two batsmen in the team who managed to reach double figures with the highest score coming from middle-order player Chaturanga de Silva. He
collected 27 runs in the match.
There were no problems for the Kandurata batsmen once they walked out to bat in the middle. The team achieved the target without losing a single wicket. Sri Lanka’s former skipper Kumar Sangakkara top scored the innings and the match with an unbeaten 37
runs.
The toss was won by the Kandurata’s captain, Tharanga Paranavitana, who opted to field first. The Colombo pitch is normally good for the spinners, but the rain had left some dampness, which assisted the seam bowlers as well.
Combined Provinces’ start was disastrous, as they lost three wickets for just one run on the board. Sri Lanka’s star all-rounder opened the innings alongside Gihan Rupasinghe, but both failed to make an impression. They got out for one and zero respectively.
The team’s captain, Jeevan Mendis, was the next man to be dismissed after failing to open his account. He was followed by Ashan Priyanjan, who managed just five runs in his short stay at the crease.
Silva and Sachith Pathirana gave some sort of momentum to their team, scoring 27 and 15 runs respectively. Their effort guided the team’s total to 61 in the end.
Kandurata’s Jehan Mubarak stunned the opposition, picking up four wickets in the match. The team’s openers also backed the bowlers well, chasing the target down in just 6.4 overs.
Sangakkara top scored with 37 runs off 19 balls whereas the Kandurata’s captain ended up with 15 runs.
None of the Combined Provinces’ bowlers managed to pick up a wicket in the match.