‘Chalo iss baar koi dusra winner dekhne milega’ – Fans react as B-Love Kandy beat Jaffna Kings by 61 runs in LPL 2023 Eliminator

Jaffna Kings and B-Love Kandy clashed against each other in the eliminator match of the ongoing Lanka Premier League (LPL) at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Thursday, August 17. Kandy delivered a one-sided dominating performance to eliminate Jaffna from the tournament as they defeated them by 61 runs.

Talking about the match, Jaffna won the toss and elected to bowl first and the decision proved right initially as they dismissed Kandy’s star opener Fakhar Zaman on a duck. However, Mohammad Haris and Dinesh Chandimal didn’t get affected by the early dismissal and stitched a 68-run stand for the 2nd wicket.

Chandimal departed after scoring 41 runs which included 6 fours and 1 six. The middle-order batters couldn’t contribute much but Haris batted brilliantly as he scored 79 runs off 49 deliveries. During his knock, he smashed 8 fours and 4 sixes and helped the team to achieve a massive total of 188 runs in the first innings. Nuwan Thushara was brilliant with the ball for Jaffna as he picked up 4 wickets and conceded 40 runs in his 4 overs quota.

Brilliant bowling performance by B-Love Kandy

Chasing the target, the Kings started horribly as they lost their opener Charith Asalanka on the score of just 1 run. But Jaffna suffered a major setback when they lost the Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the 5th over on 19 runs. Gurbaz was looking good in the middle but he unfortunately got run out.

Jaffna’s most experienced batters Shoaib Malik and David Miller tried hard and stitched a 52-run stand for the 5th wicket but after their departure, the Kings were unable to make a comeback from there. Kandy bowlers delivered a brilliant bowling performance and wrapped the Kings on the score of just 127 runs.

Kandy skipper and star allrounder Wanindu Hasaranga was the star of the night as he picked up 6 wickets in just 3.2 overs and conceded only 9 runs. Kandy will now face Galle Titans in the Qualifier 2 match on August 19 and the winner will face Dambulla Aura in the finals on August 20.

Here’s how fans reacted: