LPL 2023: B-Love Kandy Win Their First LPL Title — Angelo Mathews Leads as Stand-In Captain After Wanindu Hasaranga's Final Injury

B-Love Kandy won the Lanka Premier League 2023 on 20 August 2023 at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, defeating Dambulla Aura by 5 wickets. Dambulla Aura scored 147/4 in 20 overs; Kandy chased it, reaching 151/5 in 19.5 overs. Angelo Mathews scored 25* off 21 balls as Player of the Match — leading the team as stand-in captain after regular captain Wanindu Hasaranga was ruled out of the final through injury. Hasaranga still won the Player of the Tournament award for his 279 runs and 19 wickets across the competition — becoming the first player to win the LPL Player of the Tournament while absent from the final. It was B-Love Kandy's first LPL title, ending Jaffna Kings' three-year run as champions.

Angelo Mathews as Stand-In Captain: Leading the Team When It Mattered Most

Angelo Mathews stepping into the captaincy for the 2023 LPL final — after Wanindu Hasaranga's injury ruled out B-Love Kandy's regular leader — and winning both the final and the Player of the Match award was one of the more striking stand-in captaincy performances in franchise cricket's recent history. Mathews, the experienced Sri Lanka all-rounder whose career had been built across Tests, ODIs, and T20Is with a leadership pedigree at international level, delivered exactly the calm and composure that a final without the regular captain required. His 25* off 21 balls — the match-winning innings that took Kandy to 151/5 in 19.5 overs chasing 148 — was the contribution that completed what Hasaranga's bowling and batting had built across the tournament's group-stage phase.

Wanindu Hasaranga: Player of the Tournament Without Playing the Final

Wanindu Hasaranga winning the 2023 LPL Player of the Tournament — 279 runs and 19 wickets across the competition — from the sidelines of the final (injured and unable to play) is one of franchise T20 cricket's more unusual individual award circumstances. Hasaranga, who had previously won the LPL Player of the Tournament in 2020 as the Jaffna Stallions' leading wicket-taker, had built another dominant tournament-long performance for B-Love Kandy across the group stages and knockout rounds — accumulating the runs and wickets that gave him an unassailable lead in the award criteria. His injury before the final meant he was absent from the match that completed the campaign he had driven — a circumstance that gives the 2023 LPL an unusual footnote: the Player of the Tournament watched the title-winning match from outside the playing arena.

LPL 2023 in Context

The Lanka Premier League 2023 was the fourth edition of Sri Lanka's franchise T20 competition — the first time the competition changed hands from Jaffna's multi-year dominance to a new champion franchise. B-Love Kandy's title gave the LPL its second champion in four editions, and gave the Kandy franchise — representing Sri Lanka's central highland city — the competition's top prize that had been Jaffna's exclusive possession since the inaugural 2020 edition. Dambulla Aura reaching the 2023 final as Kandy's opponents gave the LPL a final without Jaffna Kings for the first time in the competition's history, confirming that the LPL's competitive landscape was broadening beyond the single-franchise dominance of its early years. The R. Premadasa Stadium, hosting its second consecutive LPL final (after the 2022 edition), cemented its status as the competition's preferred final venue.