Colombo Strikers stayed in the hunt in the Lanka Premier League with a thrilling seven-wicket win over Galle Titans at Pallekele yesterday.

Galle the table toppers faced bottom-paced Colombo yesterday and a defeat could have made things extremely difficult for Niroshan Dickwella’s side to make it to the knockout stage. But a thrilling win gave them some breathing space although they need to do a bit of work with their Net Run Rate.

Colombo owed it to their star performer Babar Azam, who made a terrific hundred to enable his side to chase down the stiff target of 189.

Babar may not be one of the modern-day greats of T-20 cricket where he takes bowlers to the cleaners, but he has proved that with proper cricketing strokes and a bit of smartness, you can dominate the shortest format of the game as well. How Sri Lankans fans will be wishing that their young stars too remain grounded like the Pakistan skipper.

How Dickwella skippers this team ahead of Babar remains one of the great mysteries of LPL. Or for that matter how Kusal Mendis captains Dambulla over Dhananjaya de Silva is another mystery. This indeed is a funny game.

Batting with Babar, was a good learning experience as well for young Sri Lankan cricketers like Pathum Nissanka, who shared a 111-run stand for the first wicket, and Nuwanindu Fernando, who added 55 runs for the second wicket.

Babar’s 104 came off 59 balls with eight fours and five sixes.

The game was evenly poised with Colombo needing 75 runs in the last seven overs. The 14th over bowled by Akila Dananjaya proved to be a game-changing one as Babar targeted the off-spinner by smashing 20 runs off that over making the equation 56 needed from the last six overs.

Babar was dropped on 89 by Richard Ngarava off his own bowling. He completed the hundred and was dismissed in the last over with Colombo needing 14 runs.

Mohammad Nawaz was promoted up to the order and he scored 14 runs off the next four balls including a six and a four off Kasun Rajitha to seal the game in Colombo’s favour.

Amidst Babar’s heroics, the efforts of Pathum Nissanka were overshadowed. The opening batter posted 54 off 40 with five fours and one six.

Galle started off well with the openers adding 87 runs in 47 balls. After such a prolific start, they should have looked to score something in the region of 200 but there wasn’t much firepower in the batting.

Colombo’s spinners Mohammad Nawaz, Lakshan Sandakan and Ramesh Mendis did well to pull things back.

It was Lasith Croospulle (36) and Shevon Daniel (49) who had given their team a terrific start. Both look terrific prospects for the future, particularly the left-handed Daniel. But both of them are also sloppy fielders and unless they improve their fielding they should not make it to the senior side although anything is possible under the current selection panel.

Daniel and Croospulle aren’t alone. It’s sad to see that so many young players neglecting the vital aspect of fielding. SLC has introduced several steps to address the issue, but the desired results haven’t been there and maybe they should introduce attractive cash prizes every game for the best fielder.

Brief Scores:

Galle Titans

188-3 (20)

(Lasith Croospulle 36, Shevon Daniel 49, Tim Seifert 54*, Lakshan Sandakan 1-29)

Colombo Strikers

189-3 (19.5)

(Pathum Nissanka 54, Babar Azam 104, Tabraiz Shamsi 2-27)

Result:

Colombo Strikers beat Galle Titans by seven wickets