Ruhuna, Basnahira complete routs

Ruhuna surged to the top of the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 Tournament table with a 84-run hammering of Combined Provinces at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Ruhuna put in a team batting effort, led by Sanath Jayasuriya's 44, to reach 174 and their bowlers then skittled Combined Provinces for 90. Jayasuriya scored at a strike-rate of 169.23 and got his team off to a flier. Ruhuna had reached 87 in 7.1 overs before Jayasuriya was dismissed. Jeevan Mendis helped Combined Provinces pull things back with three wickets.

But Ruhuna's innings had one final surge when Chinthaka Perera came in at No. 10 and smashed 19 off 7 balls. The target of 175 was always going to be a stern task for the Combined Provinces line-up, but to capitulate in 13 overs would have disappointed them. Chanaka Welegedara struck twice early, before Suraj Randiv and Perera ran through the rest of the batting with six wickets between them, consigning Combined Provinces to their third-straight defeat in the tournament.

Basnahira also completed a thumping win on the day, chasing Kandurata's 120 all out in just 14.1 overs without losing a wicket. Ishara Amerasinghe and Tillakaratne Dilshan combined to restrict Kandurata to a low total. Amerasinghe struck in his first over, and when Rangana Herath removed Tharanga Paranavitana, Kandurata were struggling at 18 for 2. There was bit of a recovery from there, with Chanaka Wijesinghe scoring 42 and putting together a 50-run stand with Farveez Maharoof. But Tillakaratne Dilshan chipped away at the wickets, finishing with figures of 3 for 23 and then Amerasinghe ran through the lower order to finish with 4 for 18.

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dilshan Munaweera made light work of the target, the former racing to 56 not out off 34 balls and the latter getting 57 not out off 51 balls.