Butter-fingered Colombo suffer at the hands of Fletcher

Kandy Falcons skipper Wanindu Hasaranga celebrates first hat-trick in the LPL

• Hasaranga makes memorable debut as captain with a hat-trick

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Andre Fletcher of Kandy Falcons exults over his third T20 century

Pathum Nissanka scored a high class 71 in a record first wicket stand with Fletcher

Colombo Stars were made to suffer at the hands of West Indian Andre Fletcher when he pummelled his third T20 century making maximum use of four dropped chances as Kandy Falcons began their opening

match of LPL-3 with a resounding win by 109 runs in the second double header played at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium yesterday. It was the largest victory by margin of runs in the LPL.

Kandy invited to bat first ran up an imposing 199-1 largely to a record opening stand of 156 between Pathum Nissanka and Fletcher. The Colombo Stars batting was then left in shambles as they were shot out for 90 in 14.3 overs with Kandy captain Wanindu Hasaranga marking his debut as captain with the first hat-trick of the LPL.

Hasaranga dismissed Dinesh Chandimal (bowled), Benny Howell (lbw) and Seekkuge Prasanna (lbw) off successive deliveries in his first over and to cap it all added the wicket of Colombo captain Angelo Mathews – top scorer with 26, to end with figures of four for 14.

It was a masterly performance by Kandy, who with this staggering win sent out a clear warning to the rest of the teams in the tournament that they mean business.

Where it all went wrong for Colombo was when they allowed Fletcher the luxury of four dropped chances at 0, 8, 18 and 24 which the batsman seized eagerly with both hands to put the Colombo bowlers to the sword smacking 11 fours and three sixes in a 67-ball knock of 102* to take the Player of the Match award.

Equally impressive was Nissanka who outscored Fletcher in the partnership with a high class innings of 71 off 41 balls that included eight fours and two sixes. The assault of these two players on the bowling left Colombo with no answers.

It was not easy batting conditions in the middle with a lot of movement for the bowlers, but Fletcher and Nissanka overcame that period successfully with Nissanka striking the ball into the gaps, and Fletcher more or less bludgeoning his way to a hundred.

When they came out to bat facing massive odds of trying to chase down a target of 200, Colombo were simply overawed by the task they had ahead of them and simply crumbled without a fight.

Scores: 

nKandy Falcons 199-1 (20) (Pathum Nissanka 71, Andre Fletcher 102*, Carlos Brathwaite 20*)

nColombo Stars 90 (14.3) (Angelo Mathews 26, Keemo Paul 22, Wanindu Hasaranga 4/14, Fabian Allen 2/1)