Western Trooper wins their first match riding on Kulasekara’s innings - The Ultratech Super 4’s Twenty 20 tournament started today with the first match played between Western Troopers and Yaal Blazers. The Blazers under the captaincy of Thisara Perera elected to field first after winning the toss. While bowling first the Blazers successfully gave some early dents to the batting team. They took 2 wickets in the first 6 overs. It was Kithuruwan Vithanage the captain of the Troopers who successfully took all the pressure a guided his team to a respectable score while batting first. He in his batting endeavour scored 44 runs from just 31 balls. Kosala Kulasekara showed some great power hitting in the end of the innings as he scored 54 runs in just 23 balls. His innings of 54 runs proved to be a gold mine for the team as the Western Troopers scored 165 runs in the first innings after being forced to bat first. Alankara Asanka Silva was the best bowler for the Blazers as he took 3 wickets giving away only 22 runs.
While chasing the huge target of 166 the Yaal Blazers required a good solid start from the top order batsmen. But this never happened as in the first six overs the team lost 3 top order batsmen scoring only 30 runs. Sahan Wijeratne and Chamara Kapugedera brought in some hope for the team with some brilliant batting as they together took their team to a score of 93 in just 12 overs. In the 13th over Wijeratne lost his wicket at the score of 24. From the loss of the 4th wicket team never ever came back on track and lost wickets in quick successions. The Blazers were bowled out by the Troopers in the 18th over at a score of 121. Thus the Western Troopers won the match by 44 runs and earned the all-important 2 points. Kosala Kulasekara got Man of the Match award for his outstading 54 runs in 23 balls.