Posted by Gareth Parry Added on: August 17 2012
Wayamba United 147 for 9 (K Akmal 36, Oram 3-6) beat Uva Next 127 (Kumara 3-33) by 20 runs
Wayamba United and Uva Next met in the 7th match of the Sri Lanka Premier League 2012 as the tournament moved to Pallekele for the second round of fixtures. Both sides had won their opening matches comfortably and were in a position to take the SLPL top spot with another win.
Wayamba united were put into bat by Uva and within 3 overs their innings looked to be in tatters. They lost Tamin Iqbal, Mohammad Hafeez and Mahela Jayawardene in those overs with Wayamba reduced to 19 for 3.
Jacob Oram was the Uva bowler who was most dangerous with his opening spell going for remarkable figures of 3-0-6-2. He took the wickets of Tamin and Jayawardene with deliveries that swung and seamed in to the right handed batsmen to leave the Wayamba top order in a precarious situation. Oram followed this spell with a wicket maiden to finish the innings with superb figures of 4-1-6-3.
Wayamba continued to lose wickets with only Kamran Akmal providing any resistance in their top order. Kamran was the Wayamba top scorer with just 36 runs. He scored at a relatively sedate pace with his runs coming in 32 balls which was a strike rate of 112.5. Kamran fell in the 12th over but his contribution was vital in steadying the Wayamba innings and putting them in a position to at least post a reasonable score.
Siriwardana and Weeraratne were able to build on Kamran's efforts and their partnership of 41 in just 4 overs was crucial in the context of the game. From having looked like capitulating Wayamba were now on their way to posting a competitive total.
Wayamba were aided in their cause by wayward spells from Umar Gul and Dilhara Fernando. These two are Uva's premier bowlers and between them conceded 91 runs in 8 overs. In spite of each man taking two wickets their bowling was generally poor and they served up far too many bad deliveries that were despatched to the boundary. The pairs disappointing display was all the more surprising when contrasted with the rest of the Uva attack with no other bowler conceding more than 6.5 runs per over.
The lower orders rearguard action combined with Uva's wayward bowling took Wayamba to a defensible score of 147 which, at 19 for 3, had looked an unlikely prospect.
It transpired that the total was better than defensible as the Wayamba bowlers reduced Uva to 67 for 5 in the 11th over before bowling them out for just 127. Chathuranga Kumara, who finished with figures of 4-0-33-3, was the pick of the Wayamba bowers. He bowled with accuracy and swing which had the Uva batsman regularly playing and missing. He was backed up by Udana, whose figures of 3.1-0-19-2, underscored the quality of the Wayamba bowling with no bowler conceding more than 8.25 runs per over.
The Uva batsmen also contributed to their demise with several of the top order playing indifferent shot as none of them went past 26. There were also incidents of poor running as Wayamba picked up two run outs with both being occasions the batsmen had set off in search of a single that wasn't available.
Wayamba, winning by 20 runs and moving to the summit of the Sri Lanka Premier League, played tremendously well to recover from their terrible start but the reality of the match was that Uva surrendered a winning position with a combination of poor death bowling and an indifferent display with the bat.
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