Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Wednesday, 18 December 2024 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
The final day of the inaugural Lanka T10 league matches at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday had plenty of action. Kandy Bolts qualified as the fourth team in the playoffs, Hambantota Bangla Tigers joined Jaffna Titans in Qualifier 1, Kasun Rajitha performed the second hat-trick of the tournament and Kusal Mendis scored the second fastest fifty.
The line-up for today’s playoffs:
Pace setters Jaffna Titans came up with a complete team performance to outplay Colombo Jaguars by nine wickets and consolidate their position at the top of the table with 12 points from 7 matches (5 wins) and keep their unbeaten record in the tournament intact.
It was a make-or-break game for Colombo who came off second best against a Jaffna outfit who was formidable in every department of the game. Invited to bat first, Colombo struggled against some quality bowling and could muster only 99-8. Player of the Match Dunith Wellalage broke the back of their batting with two wickets in two balls in his first over and then picked up his third in his final over to end with exceptional figures of 3/5.
Lahiru Kumara playing his first game took a wicket off the first ball of the match trapping Jason Roy lbw for 0, and then came back to rattle Najibullah Zadran’s stumps to finish with 2/19.
Colombo lost half their side for 28 and it was some late lusty blows from Ramesh Mendis (28* off 16 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes) that saw them get close to a hundred.
Kusal Mendis then made a mockery of the run chase with a dazzling knock of 79* off 23 balls (11 fours, 5 sixes), reaching his 50 off 17 balls with his third six to equal the second fastest 50 of the tournament.
Colombo had no answer to Mendis’ tremendous onslaught, and the ridiculous ease with which he dispatched the ball to the boundary. He dominated an unbroken second wicket partnership of 98 off 34 balls with Charith Asalanka whose share was 16*.
Colombo’s poor form right throughout the tournament continued failing to win a single match. They became the first team to go out with their loss to Jaffna.
In a crucial knockout match that went to the wire, Kandy Bolts edged out Nuwara Eliya Kings by 5 runs to fill the fourth and last slot of the play-offs.
Nuwara Eliya Kings fast bowler Kasun Rajitha’s feat of performing the second hat-trick of the tournament proved a vain effort as Kandy Captain Thisara Perera outshone him to take his team into the next round. Rajitha took 4/16 to keep Kandy down to a total of 111-9 picking up the wickets of George Munsey (caught) and Thisara Perera (lbw) off the 5th and 6th balls of his first over and then returning for his second over later in the innings, to have Chaturanga de Silva caught off the first ball to complete the hat-trick. Rajitha seemed to be unaware of his feat and hardly celebrated the occasion.
Kandy was off the blocks in emphatic fashion with Pathum Nissanka racing away to 41 off 14 balls (5 fours, 3 sixes) out of an opening partnership of 47 with Munsey (3) before Rajitha made his mark dismissing Munsey and Thisara Perera off successive deliveries to have the opposition at 49-3. Shehan Jayasuriya struck some lusty blows (33 off 11 balls, 2 fours, 3 sixes) to take the total to 93 before the rest of the innings fell apart. Kandy lost their next 6 wickets for 18 runs.
Kyle Mayers and Avishka Fernando got Nuwara Eliya off to a flying start posting 42 off 20 balls when Thisara Perera broke the stand with the wickets of Mayers and Lahiru Madushanka off successive balls. Nuwara Eliya struggled from there onwards to maintain the required run rate as they lost wickets in the middle slipping to 73-5. Fernando tried to win the game on his own completing a half-century off 26 balls (3 fours, 4 sixes), but the effort proved beyond him. Perera taking the responsibility of bowling the crucial last over with Nuwara Eliya needing 14 to win defended it successfully keeping it down to 8 runs.
In a low scoring third game for the day Hambantota Bangla Tigers beat Galle Marvels by 5 wickets to grab the second spot and make it to Qualifier 1 pushing Galle to third spot to play in the Eliminator.
Results
