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Sadeera Samarawickrama and Praveen Jayawickrama were involved in a nasty collision in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2023 clash on August 5. The Dambulla Aura players called for a catch but ended up making a mess of it and found themselves on the ground struggling to get up.
The incident took place in the 11th over of Colombo Strikers' run chase. In the 11th over, Afghan spinner Noor Ahmad was bowling to Nuwanidu Fernando who went for a slog-sweep. Fernando did not time the shot well and the ball went up in the air for a long time. Samarawickrama from deep mid-wicket and Jayawickrama from square leg converged and collided with each other.
Samarawickrama would have taken Fernando's catch had it not been for the collision. Jayawickrama's shoulder hit Samarawickrama's chin and a stretcher was called. However, both fielders got up and walked off the field.
They did not suffer major injuries and were back on the field. Fernando was batting on 11 when his catch was dropped and the ball went for a boundary. He went on to score 56 runs from 39 deliveries including four fours and as many sixes. But Fernando's unbeaten 56 could not take Dambulla over the line as they lost the game by 10 runs.
Earlier in the run chase, skipper Niroshan Dickwella got out after hitting three fours in the 16-run cameo. Babar Azam scored 41 runs from just 24 balls. Pathum Nissanka struggled and scored 22 runs from 28 balls in the tricky run chase. In the end, the required run rate was too high for Colombo’s finishers. Jayawickrama bowled two overs and conceded 16 runs. He was not given the ball after the collision.
Dickwella had won the toss and opted to field first. After the early wicket of Avishka Fernando, the partnership between skipper Kusal Mendis and Samarawickrama helped Dambulla post big. Mendis scored 87 runs from 46 balls including as many as eight sixes and four fours. Samarawickrama's 35-ball 59 helped Dambulla post 192/6.
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