Tamim, Kamran rampage crush Uthura

Dilanka MANNAKKARA

It looked like the Uthtura Rudras had posted a match winning score of 179 in their 20 overs against the star studded Wayamba United team but the Wayamba opening pair of Tamim Iqbal and Kamran Akmal made mincemeat out of the Uthura bowlers and steamrolled in to a crushing nine wicket win at the R.Premadasa grounds yesterday.

Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal who was surprisingly overlooked in the IPL looked in blistering form,stroking clean hits all over the ground.Tamim was just ruthless in his stroke play, lofting medium pacers Farveez Maharoof and Chathura Peiris by coming down the track for huge sixes.

Tamim scored the winning runs of a stunning lofted off drive for another six of Uthura skipper Jehan Mubarak and ended up with 93 not out of just 61 balls with seven fours and six massive sixes.

Tamim hit spin wizard Muthiah Muralitharan for his biggest six which went in to a second tier in the stands and was a humungous 102 meter one. Wicket keeper batsman Kamran Akmal provided able support for Tamim and played second fiddle during the first few overs but once he got his eye in, Kamran played some delightful pull shots which raced in to the boundary ropes like thunderbolts.

Kamran ended up with a whirlwind 79 of just 55 balls before he holed out to Kevin Cooper.

Kamran stroked seven fours and three sixes in his innings.Kevin Cooper was the most impressive bowler for the Uthura Rudras bowling his slow ball variations and ending up with one wicket for 26 runs of his 4 overs.Muralitharan who was dealt easily and dominated by Tamim gave away 36 runs of his 4 overs.

Earlier during the day Wayamba skipper Mahela Jayawardena won the toss and invited the Uthura team to take first lease of a great batting wicket.

The Uthura Rudras were off to a flyer as opener Imran Farhat took the Wayamba bowlers to the cleaners during the powerplay overs.Farhat scored his fifty of just 20 balls and had to depart for a power packed 51 of 22 balls with four 4s and five 6s.With the fall of Farhat’s wickets the spinners of the Wayamba side Milinda Siriwardena and mystery spinner Akhila Dhananjaya kept the runs to singles.

Akile Dananjaya who was virtually unheard of when he was parachuted in to Sri Lanka’s 30 man squad for World T 20 2012,bowled impressively using his flight,variations and more importantly used his stock ball which was the off break alot.

Out of form Chamara Kapugedara looked busy at the crease,scored an aggressive 38 of 24 balls and more importantly showed plenty of intent at the crease.

Farveez Maharoof played some well timed lofted sixes at the end to lift the Uthura team to post a score of 179.

Scores – Uthura Rudras – 179 for 7 wickets in 20 overs (Imran Frahat 51,Chamara Kapugedara 38,Isuru Udana 2 for 38)

Wayamba United – 180 for 1 wicket in 19.2 overs (Tamim Iqbal 93*,Kamran Akmal 79,Kevin Cooper 1 for 26)