B-Love Kandy ends Jaffna Kings 3-year reign of LPL

B-Love Kandy opener Mohammad Haris on the attack during his aggressive knock of 79 off 49 balls

B-Love Kandy captain Wanindu Hasaranga was unstoppable as he ran through the Jaffna Kings batting taking a career best 6/9

• Harris, Hasaranga demoralize the champions

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The Lanka Premier League (LPL) will have a new champion after B-Love Kandy ended Jaffna Kings three-year reign in the tournament when they beat them by 61 runs in the Eliminator played at the R Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Kandy will now play Galle Titans in Qualifier 2 on Saturday for a place in the final.

Jaffna playing an extra batsman for a bowler paid the price as Kandy racked up an imposing 188-8 with Mohammad Haris coming up with a match-winning knock of 79 off 49 balls (8 fours, 4 sixes). Then Kandy skipper Wanindu Hasaranga ran through the Jaffna batting for 127 with career best figures of 6 for 9 off 3.2 overs.

Haris took the Jaffna attack by the collar with a good mix of defence and aggression as Jaffna felt the heat for the first time in the tournament. He was in such a belligerent mood that he created carnage while he was in the middle which made a huge difference to the result of the match.

Harris figured in two half-century stands – 68 off 39 balls with Dinesh Chandimal (41 off 24 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) and 55 off 33 balls with Kamindu Mendis (17). During his innings Chandimal passed 1,000 runs becoming the third batsman to do so in LPL after Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis.

Jaffna came back into the game rather late in the last two overs when they managed to pull back Kandy by restricting them to just eight runs while picking up three wickets. But by then the damage had been done.

One of the main problems that Jaffna had in this tournament was that their top order had struggled in the power plays, and there was no improvement shown yesterday either when they lost their first three wickets for 48 in 6.3 overs.

If Harris was the star with the bat, Kandy skipper Hasaranga was the star with the ball. Bringing himself on to bowl the seventh over he sent back Dunith Wellalage (3) and Chris Lynn (19), and dented the Jaffna batting further by picking up a further two wickets – David Miller (26) and Asela Gunaratne (0) in the 13th over. Hasaranga was simply unstoppable as he waded through the rest of the Jaffna batting cleverly using his variations by taking a further two wickets in the 18th over to wrap up the innings and end with the stunning figures of 6 for 9 – his best performance in T20 cricket and the best figures in the history of the LPL improving on 6/25 by Jeffrey Vandersay for Colombo Stars against Kandy Warriors at the same venue in 2021.

When he took the wicket of Wellalage, Hasaranga also became the first bowler to reach 50 wickets in the LPL. Scores: B-Love Kandy 188-8 (20) (Mohammad Haris 79, Dinesh Chandimal 41, Nuwan Thushara 4/40, Maheesh Theekshana 2/37, Asela Gunaratne 2/41)

Jaffna Kings 127 (17.2) (Shoaib Malik 31, David Miller 26, Wanindu Hasaranga 6/9)