WATCH: Naseem Shah’s aggressive celebration after dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz in JK vs CLS clash in LPL 2023

On 30 July, the LPL 2023 began as Jaffna Kings (JK) locked horns with Colombo Strikers (CLS) in the opening game in Colombo. CLS skipper, Niroshan Dickwella won the toss and opted to bowl first. He said: “We’re going to bowl first, it’s a fresh pitch. Don’t think the pitch will change a lot. We haven’t played on this wicket for a couple of days, want to have a look at what it does. We have 6 batters, 4 bowlers and 2 all-rounders.”

While the JK skipper, Thisara Perera said: “Jaffna Kings is like a family, that’s the most important thing. Hopefully, we can continue it this year as well. Happy to bat first, it’s the first game and we can put up a good score. We’re going with 7 batters and 4 bowlers.” Naseem Shah was in action for CLS and he did not disappoint his fans.

Here is the shared video:

Naseem Shah took one wicket for 30 runs in three overs against JK

On the fifth delivery of the third over, Shah took the wicket of JK’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 21 runs off 11 balls, including one four and two sixes. All those boundaries came against the Pakistan pacer only and hence, he was seen fully pumped up and aggressive after taking the wicket of the Afghanistan wicketkeeper. Speaking of the match, JK scored 173 runs for five wickets in 20 overs.

Towhid Hridoy was the highest scorer with 54 runs off 39 balls, including four fours and one six. Apart from him, only three batters managed to cross the 20-run mark. After Priyamal Perera’s wicket, both Hridoy and Dunith Wellalage put up a partnership of 50 runs for the fifth wicket. For CLS, Lakshan Sandakan, Chamika Karunaratne, Matheesha Pathirana, and Naseem took one wicket each.    

Speaking of Naseem Shah’s international career so far, he has played 44 matches so far across all three formats. In those games, he has taken 89 wickets, at an economy of 4.17 including three fifers. Recently, he was in action in the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka and Shah grabbed nine wickets in three innings (three wickets in each innings).