Brittle B-Love batting bowled over

Kasun Rajitha celebrates a wicket with Shakib Al Hasan

It’s still early days in this season’s Lanka Premier League but B-Love Kandy may already be sweating about their chances in the tournament after a second successive defeat exposed their brittle batting, in a 83-run loss to the Galle Titans at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday. 
A 181-run target was always going to be hard to chase on a difficult batting surface, but whatever hope Kandy might have had quicky disappeared after they found themselves on 36 for 5 by the end of the Powerplay, as B-Love struggled to stitch together anything resembling a match-winning partnership.

 
From there it was an exercise of patience for everyone involved as the Kandy innings meandered for 11 more overs before being bowled out for 97.
Earlier, New Zealander Tim Seifert, like Avishka Fernando had earlier in the day, played through the conditions to score a rapid half-century, the Titans by extension exploding for 117 runs in the last 10 overs of their innings. 
It was a complete contrast to the position the Titans found themselves at the midway point of their innings on 63 for 3, but the second-half charge spearheaded by a 95-run partnership between Seifert and Shakib Al Hasan propelled Galle to an above-par total of 180 for 5.

Chief scores 
Galle Titans 180 fpr 5 in 20 overs (Shevon Mendis 25, Tim Seifert 74, Shakib Al Hasan 30, Wanindu Hasaranga 1-27, Mohammad Hasnain 1-26, Aamer Jamal 1-43)
B-Love Kandy 97 in 17.1 overs (Ashen Bandara 27, Kasun Rajitha 2-8, Shakib Al Hasan 2-10, Richard Ngarava 2-15, Tabraiz Shamsi 2-20, Lahiru Samarakoon 1-8, Akila Dananjaya 1-21)