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That brings us to the end of our coverage for this encounter of LPL. Keep following Sportskeeda for more matches. Don't forget to tune into Sportskeeda football in about an hours time with the Fifa World Cup semi-final slated to get under way between Argentina and Croatia. But for this segment, this is adios from me (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) and my fellow commentator Pradeep. Cheers !!!!
Angelo Mathews, Colombo Stars captain: Yeah I mean it was a bit of a challenge for us playing four days in a row. We had to regroup and the boys responded very well. In the field, we have away 20-25 tuns more but we batted very well. It's a bit draining as well. It gets extremely hard to grip the ball once the dew sets in. The batters were brilliant. Chandimal has been batting brilliantly, since I came down the order we had a chance to put Chandinal up the order which has worked for us. Ravi was brilliant and so was Seekkuge towards the end.
Ravi Bopara is the Player of the Match! Here's what he has to say: The platform was set, there was only one way to go. We were always in the game. Wahab had an off day, it happens to everyone but he's one of the great bowlers at the death still.
Colombo Stars beat Galle Gladiators by 2 wickets (on the final delivery of the match)
Dinesh Chandimal 63(33), Charith Asalanka 46(38) | Naveen Ul Haq 2/33
The Colombo Stars needed to get off to a steady start if they had to get close to the target. However, they were pegged early with the wicket of Niroshan Dickwella as Thushara swung one back into the left-hander to dislodge his stumps. From there on, the onus was taken by experienced campaigner Dinesh Chandimal to get his side back on track.
In the company of Charith Asalanka, Chandimal gained in confidence and started finding the boundaries on a consistent basis which kept the required rate under check. Chandimal was the aggressor in the partnership and took on the Gladiators' bowlers with disdain. He scored a whirlwind 63 off just 33 deliveries before perishing to Wahab Riaz.
The 92-run partnership between Asalanka and Chandimal laid the foundation for the Colombo Stars but the required rate was quite steep when Angelo Mathews joined Asalanka in the middle. Asalanka was sedate in the middle overs but with Chandimal’s departure, he took the onus on himself to do the bulk of the scoring.
Just when he started hitting the ball well, he chanced his arms once too many and was holed out at sweeper cover. Benny Howell was sent up the order and he didn’t disappoint. He turned the game with an impactful knock of 22 off just 9 deliveries which shifted the momentum towards the Colombo Stars.
Nuwan Thushara bowled his heart out and changed his pace very well. He got the prized wicket of Angelo Mathews in his final over. Just when things were going pear-shaped for the Colombo Stars, Ravi Bopara turned it on for them in the penultimate over.
He smashed Wahab Riaz for 22 runs to bring the equation down to 8 required off the final over. Sekkuuge Prasanna then smashed a six of the very first ball to make things pretty easy. However, his dismissal again produced a twist and the Colombo Stars eventually managed to scrape through on the final delivery of the match.
Earlier, it was Angelo Mathews who won the toss and put the Galle Gladiators in. Courtesy of brilliant knocks by Kusal Mendis and Asad Shafiq, the Gladiators scored a more than competitive 193 in their allotted 20 overs. While Mendis scored 72 off 49 deliveries, Shafiq scored a brilliant 33 ball 58.
That's game set and match. The Colombo Stars almost made a mess of the run-chase in the final over but the experience of Ravi Bopara takes them through in the end.
20
overs
197/8score
6
W
0
W
1
4
runs
Ravi Bopara*
31(12)
Naveen-ul-Haq
1(1)
Anwar Ali
3/44
19.6 Anwar Ali to Ravi Bopara, FOUR! DONE AND DUSTED! COLOMBO STARS ARE HOME! What a thriller this turned out to be, Ravi Bopara sealing the game with a boundary, he was ice cool at the death. Back of a length into Bopara, presses and hoicks it over mid-wicket, runs away and picks out the ropes as Stars notch up their second win!
19.5 Anwar Ali to Kasun Rajitha, short into Rajitha, on the backfoot he turned it into the on-side for a quick single, that was smart from Rajitha, something that the last two batters should've done. SCORES ARE LEVEL NOW!
Kasun Rajitha, RHB comes out to the crease.
Another twist in the tale. Muditha Lakshan goes and now the equation comes down to 2 required off the last 2 deliveries.