Colombo Stars decimated Dambulla Aura by nine wickets in the 14th encounter of Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2022 played on Wednesday (14) at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

Colombo Stars Skipper Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to field first. Dambulla Aura were taken by storm with some splendid seam bowling from Kasun Rajitha. Dambulla Aura lost seven wickets for 54 runs inside the first six overs with Rajitha picking up openers Lasith Croospulle and Shevon Daniel in the first over. Then he picked up Tom Abell in the third over with an absolute peach which jagged back off the pitch to clean his stumps. In the fifth over, he picked up Jordan Cox and then went on to dismiss Paul van Meekeren to complete his five-for. Skipper Mathews played it smart by giving Rajitha four overs on the trot while the ball was still hard and new. 

Rajitha ended with figures of five for 22, which also marked his best bowling figures in T20s. Right-arm leg spinner Jeffrey Vandersay chipped in with two wickets for 10 runs in his four-over spell, while the Aura batters kept falling one after the other like dominoes. Only two batters reached the 20-run mark. Skipper Dasun Shanaka was middling the ball well while he was in the crease, but a horrible miscue off a short delivery saw him walking back for 20. Right-arm seamer Pramod Madushan ended up being the top scorer with an unbeaten 23. 

The response was an easy task for the Stars. Despite losing Dickwella in the first over of the innings, Dinesh Chandimal and Charith Asalanka added an unbeaten partnership to finish off the chase in the 12th over. Asalanka registered his first half-century of the league while Chandimal remained unbeaten on 31. 

Brief scores:

Dambulla Aura – 89 (13.5)

(Pramod Madushan 23*, Dasun Shanaka 20; Kasun Rajitha 5/22, Jeffrey Vandersay 2/10)

Colombo Stars – 90/1 (11.3)

(Charith Asalanka 58*, Dinesh Chandimal 31*)