COLOMBO: Avishka Fernando played a swashbuckling 70-run knock in the run chase and powered Dambulla Aura to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Galle Titans in the 14th match of the Lanka Premier League (LPL).
Set to chase a modest 134, Dambulla Aura comfortably amassed the total for the loss of just three wickets and 14 balls to spare, thanks to Fernando’s unbeaten and match-winning knock.
Avishka Fernando alongside his captain Kusal Mendis scripted a decent start to the run chase as the pair added 47 runs before the latter perished in the eighth over.
Mendis played a cautious 18-run knock from 24 balls, hitting a boundary.
Fernando spearheaded Aura’s pursuit single-handedly and received meagre support from Sadeera Samarawickrama (25), Kusal Perera (5) and Dhananjaya de Silva (6*).
The right-handed opener carried his bat all the way through and top-scored for the Aura with a 49-ball 70 which featured three boundaries and three sixes.
Lahiru Kumara led the bowling attack for the Titans with 2/31 while Shakib Al Hasan picked one.
Put into bat first in the 14th match of the ongoing LPL, the Galle Titans’ batting lineup failed to put a defendable total on the board as a combined bowling effort from Dambulla Aura restricted them to 133/9 in 20 overs.
Titans’ captain Dasun Shanaka waged a lone battle with a counter-attacking knock. He top-scored for his side with a 26-ball 36, smashing five boundaries before Hasan Ali got rid of him in the 19th over.
Besides him, Chad Bowes (22), Tim Seifert (15), Shakib Al Hasan (13) and Sohan de Livera (12) were the other notable run-getters.
The rest, however, failed to make it into the double figures.
A dominant seven-wicket victory propelled Dambulla Aura to the top of the LPL standings with eighth points in six matches while Galle Titans remained at the bottom with four points in as many matches.
The leaders next face fourth-placed Colombo Strikers in Saturday’s second fixture while the Titans will square off against defending champions Jaffna Kings on Sunday.
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