Angelo Mathews’ half-century was in vain as Dambulla Giants won the first Eliminator of LPL 2021.

It was an all-round performance by Dambulla Giants as they first restricted the Colombo Stars below 150 and then chased down the target in the 19th over with still 4 wickets remaining. 

Colombo Stars      20 overs      145-6

Mathews 50*(34)             Pradeep        2-23                                                                                                           Nissanka  42(39)               Tahir              2-25                                                                                                                                               de Silva    15(11)               Karunaratne 1-31

Dambulla Giants   18 5 overs   146-4

Liyanage   56*(47)           Chameera  1-24                                                                                                         Najibullah 34(28)             Naveen      1-26                                                                                                                    P. Salt        32(21)             Vandersay 1-34

Colombo Stars decided to set the target in the first Eliminator after winning the toss.

It was a bad start by the Stars as they lost Kusal Perera in the second over of the innings on just 3 runs.

The second opener, Tom Banton also didn’t last long on the crease as he was runout in the 6th over after scoring 13 runs off 13 balls.

Colombo Stars only managed to score 28 runs in the Powerplay with the loss of two wickets. 

Nissanka and Dhananjaya de Silva had a good 42 runs stand for the 3rd wicket.

The experienced Imran Tahir broke this partnership by dismissing de Silva.

He bowled a brilliant leg break that took enough turn to beat Dhananjaya as the ball pulled off the bails.

Mathews joined Nissanka after Dhananjaya’s dismissal.

The steady knock of Nissanka came to end in the 15th over when he tried to play a slog sweep against Imran Tahir but unfortunately he was caught at deep midwicket by Karunaratne. 

The skipper Angelo Mathews once again played a crucial knock for his side.

He scored a brilliant fifty in the end to give his side a respectable total on the board.

Mathews smashed 50 runs off just 34 balls including 4 fours and 2 sixes. 

The Dambulla Giants also didn’t start well as they lost their skipper Niroshan Dickwella on the very first ball of their innings.

Dickwella was caught and bowled by Chameera.

Sandun Weerakkody came to bat at no 3 but he was dismissed after scoring just 10 runs in the 4th over of the innings.

Dambulla Giants scored only 29 runs in the first 4 overs and also lost 2 wickets in that period but they smashed 16 runs off the last 2 hours to end the Powerplay with a score of 45-2

Phil Salt was dismissed in the 9th over after scoring an important knock of 32 runs off 21 balls(4 fours and 1 six).

After Salt’s dismissal, Najibullah Zadran and Janith Liyanage smashed a match-winning partnership of 61 runs.

Najibullah scored a crucial 34 runs off 28 balls (1 fours and 2 sixes).

He was sent to the pavilion by his countryman Naveen-ul-Haq but it was too late for the Colombo Stars at that time to turn over things.

Janith Liyanage remained unbeaten on 56 runs and he played patiently and firmly until his side got over the line.

Liyanage was given the Player of the Match award for his outstanding performance with the bat.

All the Colombo Stars bowlers picked up 1 wicket each except Karim Jannat who went wicketless today.