Colombo bounce back for first win, beat Kandy by 27 runs

Babar Azam scored a half-century before the Colombo Strikers’ bowlers rallied to restrict B-Love Kandy’s batsmen in a 27-run win at the R. Premadasa Stadium today, bouncing back from their defeat on the opening day of the Lanka Premier League.

B-Love Kandy’s start to the 158-run chase couldn’t have had a much worse start than it was, losing 3 wickets in the Powerplay with 40 runs on the board.

Two of those wickets – Thanuka Dabare leg before wicket for 4 and Kamindu Mendis bowled for 15 – fell to Naseem Shah, who bowled an excellent opening spell of 2 for 13 in his first three overs.

Angelo Mathews top scored for Kandy with 25 off 22, but the former Sri Lanka captain appeared to be struggling with running between the wickets, and with the required rate slowly trending upwards, was forced to hit out.

He spooned a delivery from Jeffrey Vandersay to long off where Nuwanidu Fernando held onto the catch on the second attempt, before Vandersay breached the defence of Ashen Bandara in the same over, with a ripping leg-spinner, reducing B-Love Kandy to 75 for 5.

Sarfaraz Ahmed remained unbeaten on 16, but had little support from Kandy’s lower-order, as the innings fizzled out on 130 for 8 in 20 overs.

Earlier, Babar Azam hit 59 off 52 for the Strikers, with small contributions from the middle order batsmen pushing Colombo to total of 157 for 6 in their 20 overs.

The Strikers cracked 33 runs inside the first four overs, but also lost the wickets of captain Niroshan Dickwella, fresh off a half-century on the opening day of the tournament, and Pathum Nissanka.

An almost evenly split partnership of 60 off 57 between Azam and Nuwanidu Fernando set the Strikers up for a late flurry of runs, with 64 runs coming off the last 7 overs.

For Kandy, their spin combination of Hasaranga and Mujeeb Ur Rahman were miserly, conceding just 50 runs off the eight overs shared between them, but neither were able to pick up a wicket.

All-rounder Isuru Udana took a majority of the wickets but was expensive, giving up 39 runs for his 3 wickets, with Mohammad Hasnain claiming the two other wickets to fall for 27.

Chief scores:

• Colombo Strikers 157 for 6 in 20 overs (Babar Azam 59, Isuru Udana 3 for 39, Mohammad Hasnain 2 for 27)
• B-Love Kandy 130 for 8 in 20 overs (Angelo Mathews 25, Sarfaraz Ahmed 16, Matheesha Pathirana 3 for 24, Naseem Shah 2 for 19, Jeffrey Vandersay 2 for 32)