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.