B-Love edge past Aura to clinch LPL title

They may have been without their talismanic leader who led them to the final, but the comeback kids B-Love Kandy beat the season’s dominant team Dambulla Aura by five wickets in the final of the fourth edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Sunday.

With two defeats to open their LPL campaign, it appeared improbable that this Kandy team would be contending for a title, but a Player of the Tournament-worthy contribution from their captain Wanindu Hasaranga helped them stage a remarkable comeback.

As fate would have it, they would need to win the title without Hasaranga, after he was injured in the second qualifier on Saturday, and in a final that turned into a slugfest, Lahiru Madushanka threw the final punch, scoring the winning runs with a ball to spare.

To their credit, Dambulla clawed themselves back into the game, defending a 148-run target, after Kamindu Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal had controlled the run chase, keeping Kandy ahead of the required run rate for the first 12 overs of the chase.

Mendis fell in the next over trying a reverse sweep, an unnecessary risk in that situation, that ultimately swung the game Dambulla’s favour.

With 53 runs needed off seven overs, Dambulla conceded 16 runs off the next three overs, picking up the wickets of Dinesh Chandimal and Chathuranga de Silva.

That left Kandy needing 37 off 24 balls, and with the momentum in favour of Dambulla, the team that was so dominant this season that they lost just two games, looked on course for victory.

It took just nine balls, however for that narrative to change Kandy’s way, as Asif Ali plundered 19 runs bringing that equation down to 16 from 12.

Ali fell on the first ball of the penultimate over, a final twist in the tale, but the experience of Angelo Mathews proved to be what Kandy needed, as he turned an innings that started out scratchy into a match winning hand, finishing unbeaten on 25 off 21 balls.

No team has suffered from the rigours of a tightly-packed LPL schedule like B-Love Kandy, having lost three of their best bowlers heading into the final – Dushmantha Chameera, Isuru Udana and their talisman Hasaranga all missing due to injury.

And while none of the Kandy bowlers could have had the impact that Hasaranga has on a match, all but one of the six bowlers used in their patched together bowling attack, conceded eight runs or less.

They did well to smother the strong Dambulla Aura batting line up at least until the 15th over before Dhananjaya de Silva unfurled a series of sixes.

That helped Aura plunder 47 runs in five overs, their best phase of the innings, having been kept to 40/1 in the Powerplay.

Aura lost their best batsman of the tournament early when Avishka Fernando was caught for 5, but a partnership of 57 off 47 balls between Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama ensured there would be no further breakthroughs until the midway point of the innings.

Samarawickrama played the aggressor hitting five boundaries for 36 off 30, but the dismissal of both batters in the 11th over meant Aura needed to rebuild again.

De Silva was the best of the batters but his wicket in the penultimate over meant Dambulla couldn’t quite post a score they were fully comfortable with.