The Colombo Strikers bagged their first win against B-Love Kandy in their second encounter of the Lanka Premier League 2023 in a stunning manner on Monday at the R. Premadasa Stadium. Having scored 157-6 in the first innings, the Strikers restricted Kandy to a meager score of 130-8 thanks to the stunning bowling performances of Naseem Shah and Matheesha Pathirana, who bagged five wickets between them while giving away only 43 runs in eight overs. While with the bat, it was Pakistan Captain Babar Azam who proved to be the star as he held the Strikers’ innings together, scoring 59 off 52 balls on a difficult batting track.

 Speaking about his team’s performance, Babar Azam said, "When we started the inning, the pitch was behaving a bit two-paced. I then realized that it would be better to build a partnership. I thought that the pitch would also start supporting the spinners after 10 overs, and after 15 overs we would try to charge the opponents." "For me, the standout performance was from Naseem Shah. His first spell set the tone of the whole innings and helped us gain the advantage," added Babar.

 The all-out pace and tight spells from both spinners proved really difficult to deal with for the team from Kandy. The star pacer from Pakistan, Naseem Shah, seemed really happy with the first win and said, "It was our first win of the tournament, and certainly it gives us the momentum we need for the rest of the tournament. We hope to continue with this from here on." Colombo Strikers will be playing their next match against Dambulla Aura on August 5, 2023.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)