LPL 2023 – Babar Azam Fails To Score As Colombo Strikers Faced First Defeat Of The Season

LPL 2023: Babar Azam Fails To Score As Colombo Strikers:

Pakistani captain, Babar Azam failed to score in his debut match of the Lanka Premier League as Colombo Strikers lost the first match by 21 runs against Jaffna Kings.

Colombo Strikers won the toss and opted to bowl first in the first match of the Lanka Premier League 2023, probably because of the dew factor that seems to be taken into account before making this decision.

Naseem Shah opened the bowling for Colombo Strikers and got the wicket of dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz who scored quick-fire 21 runs on just 11 balls with one four and two sixes in the powerplay.

The right-handed Pakistani pacer, Naseem Shah bowled three overs in the match, he didn’t complete his quota of four overs but still picked up 1 wicket and gave away 30 runs in the match.

The left-arm Pakistani spinner, Muhammad Nawaz came back from a finger injury and was featured in the first match since that injury playing for Pakistan.

Even though Muhammad Nawaz failed to get any wickets in the match but bowled the most economical spell of four overs in the match for Colombo Strikers. He gave away 24 runs in his quota of four overs in the first match of the Lanka Premier League 2023.

Jaffna Kings posted a good total to defend against the Colombo Strikers on the back of some brilliant batting performances by Towhid Hridoy, who scored the first half-century of the tournament and some support from the lower order helped Kings to reach a total of 173 runs in the first match of LPL 2023.

The captain of the Pakistan team, Babar Azam opened the batting for Colombo Strikers with Niroshan Dickwella, the captain of the Colombo Strikers.

In a chase of 174 runs, which was not that big as well but still he doesn’t seem to be comfortable at all in his short stay on the ground, he scored 7 runs on 8 balls before getting bowled by Thisara Perera.

Babar Azam was bowled out by Thisara Perera for just 7 runs off 8 deliveries, with the help of one four which he smashed to Perera and failed to judge the length on the next ball which resulted in him losing his wicket.

Niroshan Dickwella played a beautiful hand as he scored a magnificent half-century in the run chase. He scored 58 runs off just 34 deliveries with the help of nine fours and one six, but this simply wasn’t enough as there was no support from the middle order in the run chase.

Hardus Viljoen was the pick of the bowlers from Jaffna Kings in this first match of LPL 2023. He bowled his quota of four overs and picked up three wickets in the match while giving away just 31 runs which resulted in restricting Strikers to get over the line.

Colombo Strikers failed to get over the line in the last over of the match and they lost the first match of the 2023 season from Jaffna Kings by 21 runs.