Injury-hit B-Love Kandy lifts LPL trophy 

Kamindu Mendis played a responsible innings of 44 off 37 balls for B-Love Kandy

Dhananjaya de Silva was the top scorer for Dambulla Aura with 40 off 29 balls

Chaturanga de Silva made up for his brother Wanindu Hasaranga’s absence with two Dambulla Aura wickets

• Acting Captain Mathews pulls rabbit out of hat to defeat Dambulla Aura

Stand-in Captain Angelo Mathews stood and delivered for B-Love Kandy

Former Sri Lanka Captain Angelo Mathews pulled a rabbit out of the hat to guide B-Love Kandy to win the Lanka Premier League (LPL) final beating Dambulla Aura by five wickets with a ball to spare in a closely fought game played to a full house at the R.Premadasa International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

Kandy played without their driving force – Captain Wanindu Hasaranga (right hamstring injury) and several other senior players like Dushmantha Chameera and Isuru Udana, also to injuries had to play out of their skins to win the final which went down to the wire.

The responsibility of leading Kandy fell on the shoulders of Mathews and how well he responded to the challenge using all his experience to keep Dambulla down to a total of 147-4 and then steering his team to victory under pressure scoring a valuable 25* off 21 balls in the company of Lahiru Madushanka who scored the winning runs top edging the penultimate ball of the match for four to third man.

Kamindu Mendis played a responsible innings of 44 off 37 balls (3 fours, 1 six) before he threw his wicket away going for a reverse sweep and skying the ball to backward point. Following his dismissal Kandy somewhat lost their way when Dinesh Chandimal (24) was held brilliantly on the fine leg boundary by Pramod Madushan and Chaturanga de Silva was dismissed without scoring. Asif Ali got the innings back on track with a quickfire 19 off 10 balls, but it was left to Mathews to finally seal the deal. Kandy in fact showed indomitable spirit to go and win the tournament, having started it with back-to-back losses.

One has to spare a thought for Dambulla Aura led by Kusal Mendis. They were on a six-match winning streak being the most consistent team in the tournament, but when it came to the crunch it was the experience of Kandy that prevailed.

In the absence of Hasaranga, his elder brother Chaturanga de Silva took on the responsibility to strangle the Dambulla batting taking two crucial wickets for 25 runs that of captain Kusal Mendis (22) and Sadeer Samarawickrama (36). A late spurt by Dhananjaya de Silva (40 off 29 balls, 3 sixes) gave the Dambulla batting some momentum with 47 being scored off the last five overs. But on a batting surface, the total proved insufficient as Jaffna was to prove.  

Scores: 

n Dambulla Aura: 147-4 (20) (Kusal Mendis 22, Sadeera Samara-wickrama 36, Kusal Perera 31*, Dhananjaya de Silva 40, Chaturanga de Silva 2/25)

n B-Love Kandy: 148-5 (19.5) (Mohammad Haris 26, Kamindu Mendis 44, Dinesh Chandimal 24, Angelo Mathews 25*, Asif Ali 19, Binura Fernando 2/31, Noor Ahmed 3/27)