Start of LPL-5; just what doctor ordered

Kusal Perera (Dambulla Sixers) – fastest 100 in LPLs

Avishka Fernando (Jaffna Kings) – leading run getter

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• First phase produced the fastest century, a hat-trick and two last ball finishes

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The fifth edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) is just five matches old and in that short period of time plenty has happened to make it a worthwhile tournament.

We have seen the fastest century of the LPL being scored, a hat-trick, only the second in its history being performed, two matches going to the wire and ending off the last ball, the emergence of new players which is what this tournament is all about and, players who were side-lined from the T20 World Cup making a statement.

The rule to play at least one player under the age of 23 is paying dividends as we saw in the opening game of the tournament between last year’s finalists Kandy Falcons and Dambulla Sixers. In the company of Hong Kong-born New Zealander Mark Chapman, 21-year-old former Sri Lanka Under19 all-rounder Chamindu Wickramasinghe caught the attention of everyone with his exceptional batting where he absorbed the pressure and started to dominate the bowling by playing a delightful knock of 62 off 42 balls laced with three sixes and eight fours in the unbroken partnership of 154 which helped Dambulla to recover from 25-4 and post a challenging score of 179-4. The manner in which Wickramasinghe took on some of the bowlers and put them to the sword showed that he was fearless in his stroke play and that he could clear the fence with ease. After such a fine recovery Dambulla were unlucky to finish on the losing side.

Another player under the age of 23 is 21-year-old Dunith Wellalage who has matured beyond his age and has already represented his country in Test and ODI cricket. Although yet to play in a T20I, Wellalage showed his all-round prowess in the shortest format by capturing four wickets to bowl Kandy Falcons to victory over Colombo Strikers and then almost single-handedly tried to win the game against Galle Marvels which they lost by seven runs, scoring a gallant 45 off 26 balls.

Other players to hog the limelight are two top order batters who were overlooked for the T20 World Cup Kusal Perera and Avishka Fernando. They roared back into form and made a statement with their personal contributions. Perera slammed the fastest 100 of the LPL off 50 balls for Dambulla Sixers displaying all his old flair, and Fernando, the only other Sri Lankan to score a century in the LPL has begun the 2024 tournament well with two back to back fifties for Jaffna Kings and a strike rate of 169. Fernando was the leading run-getter of the fourth edition last year with 339 runs from 10 matches and if he can maintain his form throughout the tournament there is nothing to stop him from repeating the feat.

Niroshan Dickwella is another Sri Lanka player attempting a comeback. Saddled with the responsibility of Captaincy Dickwella guided his club NCC to win the Major Clubs T20 title and is now leading Galle Marvels from the front with wins in their first two matches that has placed them on top of the standings. Dickwella’s two innings of 47 and 50 has come at a strike rate of 215.55, the highest by any batsman in the current tournament.

Dinesh Chandimal, whose vast talent has been restricted only to Test cricket, showed that he is capable of scoring freely in T20 cricket as well. His innings of 65 and 38 for Kandy Falcons has come at a strike rate of 156. Chandimal has the second best aggregate in LPL cricket after Avishka Fernando with 1172 runs from 40 innings at a strike rate of 134.    

Pakistani leg-spinner Shadab Khan stands head and shoulder above everyone else among the overseas recruitments. He made a memorable LPL debut for Colombo Strikers with a hat-trick against Kandy Falcons, and followed that up with another impressive bowling display against Galle Marvels, thus making him the leading wicket-taker so far with eight wickets at an average of 5.37.

Coming from a land of pace, swing and movement New Zealander Mark Chapman has quickly acclimatised himself to the hot, humid conditions and slow paced pitches of the subcontinent with two brilliant unbeaten innings of 91* and 33* for Dambulla Sixers. But unfortunately for Chapman he has finished on the losing side on both occasions.     

The Power Blast introduced in the 16th and 17th over of the innings with only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle has been successfully utilised so far by only one team so far - Kandy Falcons who scored 44 runs (4 fours, 4 sixes) in the opening match against Dambulla Sixers.

With the first stage of the three stage tournament complete at Pallekele, the entertainment moves to the Rangiri Dambulla Cricket Stadium for the next six days where eight matches are due to be played, commencing today at 7:30 pm with Jaffna Kings taking on Galle Marvels.