A comprehensive victory for the Sri Lankan Lions who start their title defence in style with a clinical performance with the bat as well with the ball plus on the field too.
Napa Kings had a steep task on their hands and they got off to more than a decent start as Gurdip Sharma got them off to a flier taking Kamal Riaz to the cleaners. They raced off to the 50-run mark within the powerplay but right at the end of it Gurdip was dismissed by Riaz.
Post that dismissal, none of the batters could really get going as the bowlers strangled the innings and bowled some good hard lengths to avoid any big overs that the Kings wanted. Gunasekara got 2 wickets but they key was every bowler going at well under par after the powerplay which gave the Lions a comfortable win. They would have like the bonus point as well but the Kings did enough to get one point out of this encounter.
10
overs
122/5score
0
1
6
4
1
w
runs
Sanaullah Safi*
27(22)
Kamaljit Singh
18(6)
Roshan Siriwardana
1/22
9.6 Roshan Siriwardena to Sanaullah Safi, length delivery angling in, Safi backs away and tries to heave it to the leg-side but he gets a leading-edge which is caught by the keeper.
Sanaullah Safi c Nalin Pathirana b Roshan Siriwardena 27 (22b, 3x4, 1x6).
9.5 Roshan Siriwardena to Kamaljit Singh, yorker outside-off, Kamaljit backs away and digs it out to long-off. Single taken.
9.4 Roshan Siriwardena to Kamaljit Singh, FOUR! Short and wide of off, Kamaljit cuts it over backward point for a boundary.
9.3 Roshan Siriwardena to Kamaljit Singh, SIX! Full and angling in, Kamaljit heaves it over deep mid-wicket for a maximum.
9.2 Roshan Siriwardena to Sanaullah Safi, yorker outside-off, Safi squeezes it to long-off for a single.
9.1 Roshan Siriwardena to Sanaullah Safi, length delivery outside-off, Safi has a wild slog but he misses the ball completely.
Roshan Siriwardena [1.0-0-10-0] to bowl the last over
The result is a foregone conclusion now and with just one over remaining Kings will want to get as much as they can to minimize their margin of loss, also 3 runs needed for them to get a single point.
9
overs
110/4score
1wd
0
6
0
0
4
1
runs
Sanaullah Safi*
26(19)
Kamaljit Singh
7(3)
Srinath Rajith
0/23
8.6 Srinath Rajith to Sanaullah Safi, short of a length and angling in, Safi works it to deep square-leg for a single.
8.5 Srinath Rajith to Sanaullah Safi, FOUR! Short and angling down leg, Safi pulls it behind square for a boundary.
8.4 Srinath Rajith to Sanaullah Safi, full and slow outside-off, Safi clears his front leg and swings hard but only misses it.
8.3 Srinath Rajith to Sanaullah Safi, full outside-off, Safi tries to slog but he misses.
8.2 Srinath Rajith to Sanaullah Safi, SIX! Short outside-off, Safi slaps it over deep cover for a maximum.
8.1 Srinath Rajith to Sanaullah Safi, length delivery outside-off, Safi tries to slog it over mid-wicket but he misses it.
8.1 Srinath Rajith to Sanaullah Safi, full and down the leg-side, WIDE called!
Srinath Rajith [1.0-0-11-1] comes back into the attack
It looks like that the Kings will get one point out of this, they are just 15 runs away from it and they have 2 overs to get them. The Lions would want to keep them under that.
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Napa Kings
Sanaullah Safi
*
Roshan Siriwardana
Video
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