Lanka Premier League Final | Jaffna top three shine again; post 202 as target

The top three of the Jaffna Kings were at it again, combining their efforts to post a huge total in the finals of the Lanka Premier League on Thursday, 23 December.

Choosing to bat first after winning the toss, the opening duo of Avishka Fernando and Rahmanullah Gurbaz wasted no time and put up a partnership of 50 runs within the first five overs.

After Gurbaz was dismissed in the last over of the powerplay, man in form Tom Kohler-Cadmore got into the act and scored a splendid half-century in 38 balls to put Jaffna in charge.

There were two phases of play for the Jaffna Kings in this game, one where the runs flew plentifully while Fernando was batting and then the one without him where Galle Gladiators did very well to squeeze a fight in.

However, after an initial burst, Kohler-Cadmore showed good composure and took Jaffna to a safe score along with Shoaib Malik who scored 23 runs off 11 balls before getting out in the 19th over to Mohammad Amir.

The bowling department did well in the second half of the innings. Medium-pacer Nuwan Thushara mixed his lengths and pace well to put a cap on the run flow. While his figures read 4-0-33-1, there were absolutely no doubters that he should have gotten more wickets. However, as has been the case throughout the day, Gladiators' fielding let them down.

The final over of the innings bore 19 runs for Jaffna Kings after Gladiators were forced to bowl part-timer Dhananjaya Lakshan in the final over. Thisara Perera capitalised the last over and scored 19 off 7 balls. At the end of the 20 overs, Jaffna put on 201 runs losing 3 wickets.

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Lanka Premier League Final | Jaffna Kings start strong in powerplay

The Jaffna Kings thrashed their way to xx runs inside the powerplay against team-to-beat Galle Gladiators in the final of Lanka Premier League on Thursday, 23 December. In a repeat of last edition’s final, Kings’ after winning the toss chose to bat first. With some luck in their favour, both openers - Avishka Fernando and Rahmanullah Gurbaz punished the pace bowlers for bowling wayward lengths. It’s not like the bowlers did not bowl good deliveries, but the edges seemed to fly by the keeper. Some really shoddy display in the field added to the misery of the Gladiators as Jaffna raked up 56 runs in the first five overs. The final over of the powerplay saw the first spinner in action and resulted in a wicket straightaway as Gurbaz looked to take on former England international Samit Patel. In an attempt to clear long on, Gurbaz failed to time the ball properly was was caught by Kusal Mendis. At the end of the powerplay Kings were bating on 61 for the loss of 1 wicket.

I'm disappointed not surprised: Ajaz Patel after being left out from squad for Bangladesh Tests

New Zealand had left out spinner Ajaz Patel who had created history against India after becoming only the third bowler to bag all ten wickets in an innings in Test cricket for the upcoming series against Bangladesh at home. Talking about his omission, Ajaz admitted that he was disappointed but not surprised after being dropped. "It was more just expressing my disappointment, because I think you still have to express yourself, and still be able to show that you're passionate about playing Test cricket for New Zealand at home. There's a good relationship there with Gary, as well, we had some honest conversations, sometimes they're not the most pleasing, but at the same time, we can be up front with each other and know where we stand," said Patel. Regular skipper Kane Williamson was also ruled out of the series due to his elbow injury and the selectors had named Tom Latham as the skipper of the side in his absence. "It's obviously disappointing not to have Kane available for this series but, as we noted in India, he is undergoing a sustained period of rest followed by rehabilitation, strengthening and gradual batting loading,” coach Gary Stead had said earlier. New Zealand and Bangladesh are slated to play a two-match Test series scheduled to begin on January 1 in Mount Maunganui. The second clash will be played in Christchurch from January 9, 2022.

Sourav Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of selection committee: Dilip Vengsarkar

Former India skipper and selector Dilip Vengsarkar has opened up about the captaincy saga that has been doing the rounds in Indian cricket after Virat Kohli was sacked from the ODI leadership as well. Vengsarkar has said that the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had “no business” of speaking on behalf of the selectors. “The thing is that Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of the selection committee. Ganguly is the president of BCCI. Any issue about selection or captaincy, it’s the chairman of the selection committee who should speak,” he said while talking to Khaleej Times. “Ganguly spoke about the whole thing, obviously, Virat wanted to make his case clear. I believe it should have been between the chairman of the selection committee and the captain. A captain is selected or removed by the selection committee, that’s not Ganguly’s jurisdiction at all.” Ganguly had said that the selectors weren’t not really happy to have a split captaincy in limited-overs cricket as Kohli had decided to leave the post in T20Is post the World Cup. The former left-handed batsman had further added that he had asked Kohli not to leave the T20I captaincy. However, Kohli, before departing for South Africa had revealed that he was informed of ODI captaincy sacking 90 minutes before the Test squad for South Africa was announced.

India blow away UAE; begin U-19 Asia Cup with ruthless win

The Indian junior national team blew away the United Arab Emirates to get their campaign going in the U-19 Asia Cup in Dubai on Thursday, 23 December. Riding on Harnoor Singh’s 120 runs off 130 balls, India registered a 154-run win against the hosts. Chasing a target of 283 runs, UAE failed to put up resistance and were not able to score freely. They needed a quick start to the innings if they wanted to chase the target down, however, they were stuck despite not losing wickets in the first 10 overs, scored just 30 runs. Getting stuck meant that wickets were going to come sooner or later and they ended up losing three in the next 10 overs. Medium pacer Garv Sangwan provided the breakthrough, cleaning up Dhruv Parashar and captain Alishan Sharafu. Once UAE were 88/3 in 19.3 overs, it started a downfall and the chasing side were reduced to 122/9 in 30 overs. They batted five more overs and got bundled out at 128 runs in 34.3 overs. Rajvardhan Hangargekar cleaned up the lower order and was the best bowler on the scoresheet having picked up three wickets in his nine overs giving away just 24 runs. Sangwan, Vicky Ostwal and Kaushal Tambe picked up two wickets each. Earlier in the day, a big partnership between Singh and captain Yash Dhull secured India to a good position. While Harnoor scored a century, Dhull began his tournament with a brisk 63 off 68 balls. In the lower order bowling hero Hangargekar scored a quickfire 48 off 23 balls to take India to a huge total. Having started their tournament on a brilliant note, India will now face Pakistan U-19 on Christmas morning and then Afghanistan on 27 December.