All-round Dilshan stars for Basnahira

Basnahira Cricket Dundee 129 for 3 (Dilshan 66*, Tanvir 3-31) beat Kandurata Warriors 95 for 7 (Perera 35, Dilshan 2-26) by 34 runs

Tillakaratne Dilshan lit up a damp Colombo evening with a 39-ball 66 not out and two wickets to ignite Basnahira's SLPL campaign, as they defeated Kandurata by 34 runs in a 13-over match. Playing in front of a small but boisterous home crowd, Dilshan savaged the sometimes wayward Kandurata bowling either side of the wicket, before making the initial breakthroughs for his side with the ball. A direct hit run-out towards the end of the Kandurata innings completed his near-perfect night.

Having laboured to 10 from his first 18 balls, thanks largely to a fiery opening spell from Sohail Tanvir, Dilshan plundered 56 from his next 21. Two scoops to the boundary off Scott Styris' second over heralded the onslaught, before heaving two consecutive legside sixes two overs later. There were plenty of knee-high full tosses, and friendly short balls from the Kandurata bowlers, but in between dispatching the dross, Dilshan struck good balls to the boundary too.

Brad Hodge operated in Dilshan's slipstream to begin with, before playing a few bold strokes of his own to claim 27 from 20 balls. Having struck three consecutive boundaries from Tanvir's third over, he was the victim of his own flamboyance on the next ball, where he went so deep in his crease that his bat disturbed the stumps on its way down to hit the ball. The pair's third-wicket partnership of 70 though, was the bedrock for a good finish, which Dilshan duly provided, by clubbing Kosala Kulasekara's final four deliveries for three fours and a six.

Thilan Samaraweera was the surprise opener for Kandurata, and though his quick 24 promised a tight finish, a Dilshan double-strike in the fifth over dented the visitors' ambitions. Fired up from his innings, Dilshan even gave his Sri Lanka team-mate a sendoff - something the laidback Samaraweera seemed amused at, if anything. Nuwan Pradeep, Charl Langeveldt and Rangana Herath took a wicket a piece as Kandurata fell well behind the asking rate, and though Thisara Perera threatened a revival with a 21-ball 35, he was fighting a lone cause. His wicket, with Kandurata at 84 for 5 from 10.2 overs effectively secured the match for Basnahira.

Sri Lanka name 56 foreign players for SLPL

Sri Lanka Cricket has named 56 foreign players who will play in the inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League. There are no India or England players - apart from Azhar Mahmood - among the 56, who were picked by the seven franchises via a draft system in Colombo on Thursday. 

Shahid Afridi* was originally supposed to be the icon player for Nagenahira but all the franchises wanted to make sure their icon players were available throughout the tournament. Due to the recently announced Australia-Pakistan series that starts on August 28th, Afridi would potentially miss the semi-finals and finals of the SLPL if his team made it that far, leaving Nagenahira without their icon player at the business end of the tournament. With the agreement of the other franchises, Afridi was released by Naganahira in to the draft, where he was subsequently signed by Ruhuna. Lasith Malinga remains Ruhuna's icon, while Nagenahira's icon player will be named on Friday.