Kandy craft their first win
Ravi Bopara top scored for Kandy
Ravi Bopara’s undefeated 34 and Kamindu Mendis’s three wickets finally helped Kandy Warriors draw first blood as they convincingly beat Galle Gladiators by 5 wickets in the first of the Lanka Premier League double header yesterday at the R. Premadasa Stadium.
Kandy Warriors were never troubled in their chase though they sporadically lost wickets. But British player Bopara had the final say scoring the winning runs off a boundary with little more than an over to spare.
The tone was set by the swing merchant of the Warriors Mohammed Amir delivered as to what was exactly needed, striking in the last ball of the first over. He trapped Tillakaratne Sampath for a first ball zero off a leg-before-wicket.
Amir nearly returned with a second scalp only for Danushka Gunathilake to spill a catchable low take at point. Charith Asalanka took time to get going, but his catch taken by Ben Dunk at mid-on, taught his team-mate Gunathilake on how to complete comfortable low catches.
Despite the dismal batting show by the Galle Gladiators batters, their bowlers kept their counterpart batters under check, when Nuwan Thushara collected his first and the team’s third. His straight line and length ball beat skipper Angelo Perera for a dozen.
Ambidextrous Mendis, having earlier dealt the damage with the ball, failed to convert into an all-round show, throwing his wicket at deep backward square leg.
A stand of exactly 50 runs stopped and steadied falling of wickets at regular intervals. But before the partnership could take them home, English bowler Samit Patel separated the association, removing Tom Moores for 28.
The call of the Gladiators to bat first backfired, when they got off only to a rocky start losing their top-order cheaply, except for Kusal Mendis. The worst was Sadeera Samarawickrama, sent off packing for zero.
However, Kusal Mendis, the only top-scorer of their entire innings, also gifted his wicket to Vimukthi, increasing the slow left-arm orthodox’s tally to three for the match. In fact, their innings never got back on track after Gunathilaka’s cheap wicket for five. Wickets continued to tumble and the Gladiators only dug their own grave.
Dhananjaya Lakshan, approaching the death over’s, attempted to accelerate to give his bowlers a target to bowl for, but instead was caught at deep mid-wicket, finding Bopara taking a comfortable catch at the edge of the boundary line.
However, though, much to the relief of his bowlers, Patel found desperately needed runs when he hit successive boundaries and a six in the penultimate over giving them 13 runs.
Nevertheless, he failed to repeat the same hitting in the final over, eventually managing to muster only a modest target of 128 for the loss of seven wickets. Pick of the bowlers for the Warriors was that of Mendis finishing the evening with 3 for 25.
| Chief Scores | |
| Galle Gladiators 127 for 7 (20) (Kusal Mendis 44, Samit Patel 36n.o., Kamindu Mendis 3/25, Nimesh Vimukthi 2/17, Shafraz Ahmed 2/23) Kandy Warriors 131 for 5 (18.4) (Charith Asalanka 21, Ravi Bopara 34n.o., Tom Moores 28, Samit Patel 2/20) |