The first semifinal of the inaugural edition of Lanka Premier League was played between the Colombo Kings and Galle Gladiators. The captain of Galle Gladiators Bhanuka Rajapaksa won the toss and chose to bowl first. Gladiators proved their decision right to choose bowling as they restricted the Kings to 150. For Kings, no major contribution came out with bat apart from Daniel Bell-Drummond as he alone carried the Kings innings to a respectable total at the end of 20 overs. Most of the batsmen failed to go to two digit figures. Udana’s cameo helped the team to get to 150. Daniel scored 70 off 53 deliveries with 7 boundaries and 3 maximums.
For Gladiators, it was a great bowling performance as almost every bowler got a wicket except Amir. Every bowler was economical in their 4 over quota. The pick of the bowlers from the Gladiators was Lakshan Sanadakan as he picked 3 crucial wickets and gave 32 runs in his 4 over quota.
The Gladiator chase was pretty interesting as it had many small contributions which helped them just get over the line in the very last over. The captain Bhanuka Rajapaksa was the lead scorer for the team in this match as scored 33 off 17 deliveries with 3 boundaries and 2 maximums. They had few contributions from Azam Khan, Shehan Jayasuriya but the most important contribution came from Dhananjaya Lakshan as he scored vital 31 runs at the back end of the innings which helped the team get over the line.
The Kings bowled well but just couldn’t grab opportunities at the right time. Dhananjaya Lakshan who provided finishing touch to the Gladiator’s chase was dropped twice by Qais Ahmad. The captain of Kings Angelo Mathews had great day with the ball as he got a wicket and gave only 17 runs during his stay on the field. He couldn’t complete his spell as he went back to pavilion while bowling his 4th over.
It was closely contested game as it went down to the very last over. Galle Gladiators have now qualified for the finals and they become one of the first team to be playing the LPL final.
