Shakib Al Hasan’s Galle Titans lost to Dambulla Aura by 6 wickets in the first qualifier of the Lanka Premier League (LPL). Shakib showed a good performance with the ball. Galle will have to fight in the second qualifier to have a chance to play in the final.

Dambulla won the toss and invited Galle to bat first at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Galle lost Bhanuka Rajapaksa in the first over. Lasith Croospulle, however, was playing good. Litton Das failed at No, 3. He departed after scoring 8 runs from 7 balls. Shakib Al Hasan could not do much with the bat even though he showed some glimpses. After playing an innings of 19 runs off 17 balls, he was dismissed.

Then Croospulle alone took Galle to a good fighting total as all other batters failed. Galle were bundled out for 146 runs in 20 overs. Croospulle scored 80 runs off 61 balls with 7 fours. Hayden Kerr took 3 wickets for Dambulla. Noor Ahmad got 2 wickets. Besides, Binura Fernando, Hasan Ali, and Dhananjaya de Silva picked up 1 wicket each.

Dambulla started well in reply. The two openers Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis were aggressive from the start. 33 runs came from the opening pair. Avishka was dismissed after playing an innings of 24 runs from 14 balls. Dambulla scored 44 runs losing 1 wicket from 6 overs of powerplay. Sadeera Samarawickrama was shaky at No. 3. He was out after scoring 13 runs off 15 balls.

But Kusal was progressing well. However, after playing an innings of 49 runs from 45 balls, he returned to the dressing room. The team's score was 133. Before this, Kushal Perera played a great innings of 53 runs off 35 balls.

Bangladesh's Shakib was excellent with the ball as always. Shakib took 1 wicket for 23 runs in 4 overs, where there were 12 dot balls.