LPL title stays with Jaffna

By M. Shamil Amit reporting from Sooriyawewa

They may have come up against the only team they hadn’t beaten all tournament, but the Jaffna Kings made it count when it mattered most to win the second edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) against the Galle Gladiators by in the final at the Sooriyawewa Stadium yesterday.

The Gladiators had beaten the Kings thrice in this year’s LPL, twice in the Group Stage and in Qualifier 1, but in the final they ended that run of defeats with a 23-run victory. 

Just like they had done in Qualifier 2 against the Dambulla Giants, the Jaffna Kings set the opposition an imposing score, though conditions appeared to suggest a successful chase was more than possible as the Gladiators made a bright start in overhauling the 202-run target.

That start was sparked by a 19-ball half-century from Danushka Gunathilaka, before he fell for 54 at the start of the fifth over to the bowling of Wanindu Hasaranga, ending a 63-run opening partnership with Kusal Mendis that came off just 26 balls.

That proved to be as good as it got for the Gladiators, with Ben Dunk falling off the next delivery, though partnerships of 21 between Mendis and Mohammed Hafeez and 29 between Mendis and Bhanuka Rajapaksa kept them in the game.
With the score on 129 and their top five batters dismissed, the Gladiators slowly lost grip of the chase that they had done so well to keep up with, ending on 178 for 9 in 20 overs.

It was brothers Hasaranga and Chathuranga de Silva who did the damage and turned the game in favour of the Kings as they shared four wickets between them.
Maheesh Theekshana and Jayden Seales were expensive in the early stages of the Gladiators innings but they came back to take crucial wickets paving the way for the Kings victory, giving Jaffna a second successive LPL title. Earlier Jaffna Kings skipper Thisara Perera winning the toss and electing to take first lease of the wicket saw his openers Avishka Fernando and Rahmanullah Gurbaz starting soundly putting on 56 runs in 32 balls before the pair was separated with the dismissal of Gurbaz, who made a brisk 18-ball knock of 35 which included three boundaries and three sixes.

Fernando joined by Tom Kohler-Cadmore continued to torment the Gladiators’ bowlers and the former in particular was severe as he raced to his half ton in just 31 balls that included four boundaries and two sixes. At the halfway stage of the innings the Kings were on 96 for 1 before the pair posted the side’s 100 runs on the board two balls later and went on to bring up the 50-run partnership in 33 balls.

Fernando looked like he would repeat his previous innings against Dambulla Giants but was unfortunate as he mistimed a hook off Nuwan Thushara which saw his innings ending at 63 in 41 balls having associated in a valuable 63-run partnership for the second wicket.

From there on, Kohler-Cadmore found a reliable partner in Shoaib Malik and the pair continued to torment the Gladiators bowlers as the duo posted the Kings’ 150 runs on the board before Kohler-Cadmore reached his half ton that came off 38 balls. Mohammad Amir made the breakthrough for the Gladiators with the wicket Malik but not before he had put on a valuable 62 runs and taking the Jaffna Kings to 181 for 3. They added a further 20 runs before ending on 201 which was the second successive innings they made a score of over 200 runs.   The Kings went on the rampage in the last five overs as they tore the Gladiators bowling attack for 64 runs.