Roshen Silva stars in Galle's title triumph

Roshen Silva's extended his stretch of outstanding batting form, hitting 168 and a 112-ball 89 for Galle in the third and final round of Sri Lanka's Super Fours Provincial first-class tournament. Those runs, against Kandy, brought his tournament tally to 535 from five innings. He finished 220 run clear of the next best batsman, Niroshan Dickwella.

As Sri Lanka begin preparations next month for their Test tour of West Indies, Silva's place in the top order will not only be safe, he may also begin to be viewed as a key batsman, on current form.

Elsewhere in the competition 19-year-old Pathum Nissanka struck perhaps the innings of the round, with his fourth-innings 188 not out against Galle helping secure what had seemed an unlikely draw, for Kandy. In the other match, wicketkeeper-batsman Manoj Sarathchandra hit a hundred for the Dambulla side, who claimed the only victory of the whole tournament.

Once more, the only bowlers to claim five-wicket hauls in the round were seamers - Lahiru Madushanka taking 5 for 43 for Dambulla in the first innings, and Chamika Karunaratne taking 5 for 63 for Kandy.

Very few frontline Sri Lanka bowlers were in action in this round, Suranga Lakmal was expected to play, but had not recovered sufficiently from injury. Nuwan Pradeep, Dushmantha Chameera and Shehan Madushanka were also unavailable.

Despite Dambulla's victory, it is the Galle side led by Dasun Shanaka that won the month-long competition. Though all three of their games had ended in draws, they had secured sufficient points to top the table. Shanaka himself also hit 90 off 145 balls in the final round.