Sri Lanka Premier League 2012: Kandurata v Basnahira

The Sri Lankan Premier Leagues looks to receive the start that it is hoping for as a double-header greets the fans at Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday.

The second match of the opening day will feature Kandurata Warriors take on Basnahira Cricket Dundee in the evening.

Bought for $4.98 million, Kandurata Warriors are a team leading the hopes of the Central Province.

The hopes may have dimmed slightly following the injury to Kumar Sangakkara who was also originally supposed to lead the team. He suffered an injury in the ODIs against India and has been ruled out of the entire season.

Besides the setback, the Warriors squad looks like an old school unit as several of their players are on the higher side of 30. Sanath Jayasuriya is the oldest player at 41 while Misbah ul Haq, Thilan Samaraweera and Jeevantha Kulatunga are all above 35.

The bowling department looks strong with Saeed Ajmal at their disposal together with Johan Botha and Sohail Tanvir.

The Western Province will be represented by Basnahira Cricket Dundee team that was bought for $4.33 million by Indian Cricket Dundee Limited earlier this year.

The team will be captained by Sri Lanka’s star all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Dilshan did not achieve much success as the national captain but will be hoping to write a different story in the Sri Lankan Premier League.

The team has experienced players in Dirk Nannes, Marlon Samuela and Brad Hodge who have appeared in several T20 leagues.

The firepower in the bowling will come through Clint McKay who has the ability to extract pace out of even the most unresponsive wickets.

The team will be without Adam Voges who has been retained by Nottinghamshire as they insisted on his full appearance in England’s FLt20 tournament.

The match will be played at Premadasa in Colombo with action getting underway at 8.00pm local time.