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After 20 days of intense cricketing action, it's the B-Love Kandy who has been crowned the new LPL champions. The celebrations will go on late in the night. Dambulla Aura finished at the top of the points table and also won the first qualifier but just when it mattered the most, Kandy produced some thrilling cricket and won three back to back games to lift the trophy. Cricketing action continues as we are in for a massive day tomorrow with several T20 and T10 matches lined up right from 4:30 AM but for now this is myself (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) signing off also on behalf of my fellow commentators and good mates Pragadeesh and Sooryanarayan Sesha. Goodnight! Cheers!
Wanindu Hasaranga now walks up to collect the Lanka Premier League 2023 trophy. A new winner is officially engraved against it and it's B-Love Kandy who reign supreme. The rest of the team joins their inspirational skipper and bask in the glory of it. These celebrations will certainly go long and hard into the night as they should! What a performance and what a moment for them. They will savor this for a long, long time indeed.
And here's what Wanindu Hasaranga, the tournament-winning skipper of B-Love Kandy has to say: We should thank the support staff and the players who came. The foreign players did a really good, I should thank them first. After the first two losses we bounced back well. We won three out of three in Kandy and then played sensible cricket here. We started playing good cricket in Kandy. Our batters took responsibility and the bowlers did well.
Now, it's time for the B-Love Kandy players to receive their medals. So many setbacks including losing their talisman and skipper for the final. But like a true champion team, they've put it all behind them to rise to the occasion. Deserving winners? Oh you bet they are!
Kusal Mendis (Dambula Aura captain as translated by Roshan Abeysinghe): He was not happy with the score they put up after batting first. He felt that Dambulla should have gotten around 169. He also felt that despite the defeat, he can't blame his bowlers. He also thanked the crowd and hope they will support Sri Lanka in the upcoming Asia Cup as well.
The players from the Dambulla Aura team come up to collect their medals. So close, yet so far for Kusal Mendis and Co. But they've had a great campaign and should be proud of how they've fought. If they keep this unit intact and continue to get most things right, you'd think that glory isn't far away in the seasons to come!
Lasith Croospulle of Galle Titans walks away as the Emerging Player of the Tournament!
Wanindu Hasaranga now collects a host of awards - for topping the run-scorers' charts, the wicket-takers' charts and scoring the most sixes. One man ruled this tournament didn't he?
Time for the Player of the Tournament...surprise surprise - it's Wanindu Hasaranga. Who else but him! And here's what he has to say as he collects the award: I'm very happy because I contributed with the bat. I tried to do my best whether I was batting or bowling. It came from our head coach Mushtaq Ahmed - he asked me to bat at the top of the order. I said I'm ready to do that. At that time I also wanted to do something with the bat. I tried to do my basic thing. (Batting, bowling and captaincy - does that add pressure?) Of course not like that because when I play for my team I try to do my best whether I'm captaining or not. I was the Player of the Tournament in the first edition of the LPL but this was special since I contributed with the bat too.
B-Love Kandy's stand-in skipper Angelo Mathews is the Player of the Match for his all-round contribution! Here's what he has to say: Body's feeling very good. The schedule was very demanding but we had to rise to the occasion. Unfortunate that we missed out so many players and it was a bad day for Wanindu as well because he single-handedly brought us to the final and we had to do it for him today. Not that I didn't want to (bowl) but I tried to give 100 per cent with whatever I can. Wanindu asked me if I could bowl a few overs and I happily said yes. I trained for it and had the workload under my belt. It was a pleasing performance that I could contribute in all three departments. Credit should go to Dambulla as well, they had a fantastic series right throughout. It happened to be our game today. I thought it was a good toss to lose because I was going to bat first as well. But I thought the bowlers did brilliantly - to keep their strong batting lineup to 147 was a special effort. Every single game (was special). Mushtaq Ahmed our coach and our bowling coach also created a great environment. Just want to thank the fans - we played in Kandy but the finals were in Colombo. But it was so pleasing to see Kandy supporters in large numbers so thank you very much guys!
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R.Premadasa Stadium, Khettarama, Colombo
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