• Source:JND
Add as a preferred

Sri Lankan veteran Angelo Mathews remained unbeaten to give B-Love Kandy the title of the fourth season of the Lanka Premier League by defeating Dambulla Aura in the final.

Mathews didn't play any fiery innings as his 21-ball 25 was enough for his team to pick up the victory by five wickets and a ball to spare.

Kamindu Mendis turned out to be the highest scorer with 44-run innings as he laid the foundation of the run chase for the Mathews-led side.

Kamindu first added 49 runs for the opening wicket with Mohammad Haris before he put up another 45 runs with Dinesh Chandimal before getting dismissed by Noor Ahmad.

Haris made a contribution of 26 runs with Chandimal getting 24 runs as well while Noor picked up three wickets with Binura Fernando getting two wickets for Dambulla.

Mathews for his short but effective innings was adjudged as the Player of the Match.

"I had to use all my experience from the past 15 years. I had to keep calm. We knew the wicket was good and the total was chaseable. We just had to keep calm. The latter batters, Asif Ali and Lahiru Madushanka were brilliant towards the end. God has been kind to us, we did it even with so many injuries. Credit to the support staff, they created an environment where we could go and enjoy the game even after losing a couple. The bowlers were outstanding, it was not a 147-wicket. It played very well, the odd one turned a bit and some kept low but it was good. Everyone had to put their hand up. The last 3 games were back to back for us and physically draining," he said at the post-match presentation.

Earlier, after opting to bat first Dambulla managed to put just 147/4 in their 20 overs, a total that was always concerning in the summit clash of a tournament.

A 63-run stand for the fourth wicket between Dhananjaya de Silva (40) and Kusal Perera (31*) helped their team reach the challenging total.

Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama made contributions of 22 and 36 respectively and kept things going in the middle but couldn't help the run rate rising.

Chaturanga de Silva picked up two wickets for Kandy while Nuwan Pradeep and Mohammad Hasnain picked up a wicket each as well.

After losing their last league game, Kandy came up brilliantly to win their last three games including the Eliminator, and second Qualifier to achieve the silverware.

Also In News