By M. Shamil Amit reporting from Dambulla

An unbeaten knock of 86 in 55 balls with seven boundaries and four sixes by Alex Hales helped Galle Marvels beat Kandy Falcons by eight wickets and bounce back from the previous day’s defeat to the Dambulla Sixers, in 14th match of the fifth Lanka Premier League tournament played under floodlights at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium yesterday.

Galle Marvels, in pursuit of a challenging score of 188, raced to the target with four balls to spare which
came on the back of Hales associating in two fruitful partnerships – the first an opening wicket stand of 76 runs 42 balls with skipper Niroshan Dickwella and the other an unbroken 81-run stand for the third wicket with Bhanuka Rajapakse, who hit 46 in 26 balls with five boundaries and two sixes – which paved the way for the Marvels to chalk up their fourth win of the tournament.

Kandy Falcons invited to take first lease of the wicket were guided by opener Andre Fletcher who hit a 43-ball knock of 69 with six boundaries and four sixes as he associated in two valuable partnerships, first an opening wicket stand of 54 runs in 26 balls with Dinesh Chandimal who made 32 in 14
balls with two boundaries and three sixes.

The other was a 60-run stand for the fourth wicket, coming in just 33 balls, with Angelo Mathews before he was dismissed.

But with the separation of the pair Kandy Falcons fell back as they lost three wickets for four runs, sliding from 144 for 4 to 148 for 7. The Falcons recovered thanks to Ramesh Mendis who along with Kavindu Pathiratne put on a brief stand of 35 runs for the eighth wicket for them to end with a formidable score of 187.

The Lanka Premier League will now shift to Colombo with all the matches scheduled to be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium from July 13.

• Result:

At Rangiri Dambulla – Galle Marvels won by eight wicket Kandy Falcons 187 for 9 in 20 overs (Andre Fletcher 69, Dinesh Chandimal 32, Angelo Mathews 29, Ramesh Mendis 28: Prabath Jayasuriya 3/30, Dwaine Pretorius 2/37)
Galle Marvels 188 for 2 in 19.2 overs (Niroshan Dickwella 25, Alex Hales 86 n.o., Bhanuka Rajapakse
46 n.o.)