Vaas inspires Ruhuna to easy win

Basnahira North 104 for 3 (Silva 39*, Kandamby 31*) beat Ruhuna 102 (Jayasuriya 27, Vaas 3-11, Prasad 3-27) by seven wickets
Scorecard

The newly laid pitches at the tsunami-struck Galle International Stadium continued to intrigue batsmen when Basnahira North secured an easy seven-wicket win over Ruhuna in the Inter-provincial limited-over tournament match.

Sent into bat, Ruhuna were bowled out for 102 inside 38 overs with only Sanath Jayasuriya, their captain, able to stand off Basnahira's attack. He scored 27 off 33 balls - he had to retire hurt on one but the fall of a succession of wickets forced him to return - after Chaminda Vaas had tore through the top order. He captured three wickets in his third over to leave Basnahira reeling at 4 for 3 before Upal Tharanga's dismissal on 20 brought Jayasuriya back in the middle. He managed to somewhat steady the innings before edging behind with the score on 55.

Vaas' initial spell of five overs yielded three wickets for 11 runs and he was not needed further in the innings as Gayan Wijekoon and Dhammika Prasad cleaned up the rest of the batting sharing six wickets.

Basnahira North lost three wickets for 29 runs when they began their run chase, but the result was never in doubt as Kaushal Silva and Thilina Kandamby, with plenty of overs in hand, formed a 75-run unbroken fourth-wicket partnership off 18 overs to seal a comfortable victory.