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Ashen Bandara did his best to get SLC Blues to a competitive total with an unbeaten 40
Maheesh Theekshana struck twice in the first power play taking 2 Blues wickets
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
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Kusal Mendis leads SLC Reds to victory with his 2nd consecutive 50
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Sri Lanka Reds skipper Kusal Mendis led his team to a comprehensive seven-wicket win over SLC Blues with his second successive half-century in the final of the SLC Skyexch Invitational T20 league played at the R Premadasa Stadium yesterday.
Chasing a target of 137, the Reds got home with 19 balls to spare to emerge champions of this four-team league organized by Sri Lanka Cricket as a forerunner to the Asia Cup after the much looked forward to Lanka Premier League (LPL) was postponed to December because of the country’s current economic situation.
Mendis was in prime form right throughout the tournament finishing unbeaten on a stroke-filled 56 off 45 balls comprising four fours and a six that saw him take the Player of the Match award. His innings followed the 86 he made against Blues two days ago. Wanindu Hasaranga with whom Mendis shared a century partnership in the final round-robin match against Blues, was unbeaten on 24 off 14 balls when victory was achieved.
The Blues total of 136-6 didn’t represent much of a challenge to the strong Reds batting. The Reds reliable opening pair Lasith Croospulle and Mendis made the task easy for their team by sharing a stand of 49 off the first five overs. After that it was plain sailing for the Reds as they milked the singles and twos and hit the odd four to overhaul what was hardly a challenging total.
Blues invited to bat first struggled against the Reds’ experienced and varied bowling attack that kept them on a leash from the inception of their innings hardly giving them any freebies to pounce on and score. In fact the Blues innings didn’t contain a single six but 15 fours which tells the tale of how much control the Reds bowlers had on the opposing batsmen.
Opener Lahiru Udara, a free scoring batsman took 40 balls for 37. Although acting skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (25 off 19 balls) and Ashen Bandara (40* off 30) tried their best to break the stranglehold, the experience of the Reds attack proved a tad too much in the end.
Maheesh Theekshana who opens the bowling in this type of contests put the Blues straight away on the back foot by snapping up two early wickets – trapping the big hitting Lahiru Samarakoon (promoted to open) lbw and then pulling off a brilliant return catch to send back one of their experienced batsmen Sadeera Samarawickrama to have them 34-2 in the first powerplay. From there onwards it was a struggle for the Blues batters. In comparison the Reds at the end of their first power play were 62-1.
Scores:
