Watch: Chamika Karunaratne almost pulls off a stunner against Kandy Falcons in LPL 2024

Chamika Karunaratne almost pulled off a stunner against Kandy Falcons in the Lanka Premier League 2024 match at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla on July 6.  Shadab Khan was delivering the eighth over of the game as Mohammad Haris played one towards extra cover and Karunaratne was stationed at the boundary line and ran towards the ball to pluck it out of thin air.

The bowling all-rounder stuck his hand out and managed to grab the ball before falling on the turf. The celebrations galore as the third umpire wanted to have a look at it. The replays showed that Karunaratne brushed the skin of the ball onto the turf while finishing the dive and the on-field decision was overruled. Thanks to the dropped chance, Haris 56 off 29 balls later on.

Here’s the video of Karunaratne's dropped catch effort:

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Strikers maintain unbeaten tag against Falcons in season

Before the dropped chance incident, Karunaratne played a crucial cameo for the Colombo Strikers smashing 13 runs off 5 balls. As the Falcon's chase boiled down to scoring 20 off the final over, Angelo Matthews pulled the game towards Falcons hitting two sixes and a boundary. The final ball demanded three runs and Thisara Perera engineered a brilliant run out as Falcons fell short by two runs.

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Colombo Strikers currently sit in the third spot in the points table with two victories in three games. They outclassed Kandy Falcons in the first game by 51 runs and succumbed to Galle Marvels by seven runs in the subsequent game. With a two-run victory over the Falcons again, they maintained an unbeaten tag against them in the season. On the other hand, the Falcons are reeling in the second-to-last spot with a sole win in four games.