KDW vs CLS 2nd Qualifier Match Prediction

KDW vs CLS Team Previews

Kandy Warriors

The Falcons have been in spectacular form this season. After finishing at the bottom of the points table in the previous two seasons, most cricket pundits had written them off for this season too. But the Falcons had an excellent run in the league stage and topped the table.

The team faced the Jaffna Kings in a rain-marred Qualifier-1 on Wednesday. The Falcons chose to bat first and ended at 143-8 in their quota of 20 overs. Andre Fletcher, who is the leading run-scorer for the Falcons this season, got out cheaply but Pathum Nissanka and Kamindu Mendis once again came to the rescue, putting up a 61-run partnership to stabilize the innings.

Ashen Bandara had been pretty consistent with his batting in the league stage, failed to convert his start to a big score and the Falcons fell about 30 runs short of what they would have liked. Isuru Udana was quite expensive in his opening spell as he gave away 31 runs from his 2 overs. Carlos Brathwaite, while being expensive, took important wickets of Gurbaz and Avishka Fernando.

Just when the Falcon bowlers seemed to be pulling things back, the rain forced an abandonment, and the Kings were declared winners based on the DLS method. All eyes will be on Braithwaite and Fletcher in Qualifier-2 as they have been instrumental in getting the team so far in the competition.

Chamika Karunaratne has emerged as a reliable all-rounder this season and he too will play an important part. 

Colombo Stars

Despite losing the last 2 matches of the league stage, the Stars managed to limp through to the playoffs, finishing 3rd on the points table. They faced the 4th placed Galle Gladiators in yet another rain-affected match in the Eliminator.

Opting to bowl first in a shortened match, the Stars restricted the Gladiators to just 108-9 from 18 overs. Kasun Rajitha, who is the leading wicket-taker for the Stars, produced a superb spell of 9-2 in 4 overs, while Benny Howell picked up 3 wickets for 17 runs. Despite losing a couple of quick wickets at the top of the order, Ravi Bopara and Angelo Mathews ensured that the Stars’ kept their hopes of reaching the finals alive by seeing them through with 7 wickets in hand.

Dinesh Chandimal, along with Mathews and Bopara, has been the pick of the batsmen for the Stars. However, the others, including Nishan Madushka, Niroshan Dickwella, and Charith Asalanka have failed to have a significant impact on the proceedings.

The bowling effort to has been pretty average so far. The Stars have tried as many as 16 bowling options throughout the series but none of the bowlers have been consistent enough for them.