Kings claim top spot, hold off fighting Mathews

Angelo Mathews

Shoaib Malik

The Colombo Stars fell seven runs short of completing a remarkable comeback win, their defeat by the Jaffna Kings instead moving the defending champions to the top of the Lanka Premier League points table yesterday.
The Stars appeared destined for a big defeat, crippled at 67 for 7 in the 13th over and needing a further 112 off the final 45 deliveries, before captain Angelo Mathews led a fightback that almost took his team across the line.
Having reverted back to a middle order batting position after his experiment opening the batting in the Stars’ first three matches failed, Mathews looked a completely different, dominant force, hammering three sixes and eight boundaries, finishing unbeaten on 73 off 38.

Mathews had already scored 11 of those runs when Benny Howell joined him in the 13th over, the point at which the Kings lost their seventh wicket, and the pair posted a 90-run partnership that left the Colombo team needing 22 off the last over.

Howell was dismissed off the first ball, his 20-ball 43 proving almost as important as Mathews’ hand, and a single the following delivery brought Mathews back on strike.

The former national captain cleared the straight and deep midwicket boundaries off consecutive deliveries, reducing the equation to nine off two, but South African James Fuller held his nerve to concede just two runs.
The defeat leaves the Stars with one win out of four matches, halfway through the group stage, with the winless Dambulla Aura the only team in their trail.

The Kings on the other hand move above the Kandy Falcons, albeit having played an extra game.
Yesterday’s win was fashioned by a complete batting performance, where all six of their batters made good contributions, led by Shoaib Malik’s unbeaten 35 runs that took him past 12000 T20 runs.

Avishka Fernando and Sadeera Samarawickrama were dismissed for identical scores of 32, though the latter made it in quicker time, with captain Thisara Perera adding 29 runs and Ashan Randika chipped in with 27 – all but one of the five partnerships above 33 runs.

That good work was backed up by their bowlers, as Colombo’s top order struggled to pick up the pace, managing just 48 runs in the first half of their innings.

The situation was almost turned on its head by Mathews and Howell, but the Kings would have been relieved to have avoided what would have been a spectacular comeback for the Stars.

Chief scores

Jaffna Kings 178/5 in 20 overs (Shoaib Malik 35 n.o., Avishka Fernando 32, Sadeera Samarawickrama 32, Benny Howell 2/37)

Colombo Stars 172/8 in 20 overs (Angelo Mathews 73 n.o., Benny Howell 43, James Fuller 2/32, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth 2/32)