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Jaffna Kings openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Avishka Fernando during their partnership of 133
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Defending champions Jaffna Kings came up with a mind-boggling batting performance making the highest ever total in the history of the Lanka Premier League – 240-4, to crush Dambulla Aura by 51 runs in the second double-header played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
It was an excellent comeback from Jaffna after their last ball loss to Kandy Falcons on Saturday. The win saw them go level on points (6) with Kandy Falcons who held onto the lead on a superior net run rate with a game in hand.
Jaffna’s openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Avishka Fernando blazed a trail with firepower posting 133 off 64 balls that left the Dambulla bowlers powerless against their assault. It was pure carnage as Gurbaz and Fernando pummelled seven sixes and 13 fours between them. Gurbaz played an outstanding innings scoring 73 off 35 balls (5 sixes, 7 fours) reaching his 50 off 20 balls with a six after being dropped off the previous delivery.
Dambulla paid a heavy price for dropping both openers Gurbaz at 44 and Fernando at 14 as they feasted upon the hapless bowlers to lay the base for Jaffna’s record-breaking total which included the highest score made in the first power play (73-0), erasing the 62-0 scored by Galle Gladiators only a few hours before.
Fernando who scored 54 off 30 balls (6 fours, 2 sixes) was forced to play second fiddle to Gurbaz, as the Afghan went berserk hitting the ball to all parts of the ground. He was named Player of the Match.
The momentum was continued by Sadeera Samarawickrama (38* off 22 balls) and Shoaib Malik (32 off 15 balls) that saw Jaffna pass the previous highest total of 219 scored by Kandy Tuskers and Colombo Kings at Hambantota in 2020.
Dambulla without a win in the tournament faced a mountainous task chasing down such a massive target and finished on 189-8 with no significant contributions coming from any of the batsmen to make it a contest.
Shevon Daniel (29), an off-colour Bhanuka Rajapaksa (38) and skipper Dasun Shanaka (44) shone in patches but it was not enough to climb the mountain they lay ahead of them. Binura Fernando pushed Dambulla onto the back foot with two wickets in his opening spell and returned later to pick up two further wickets to end with career best figures of 4 for 22.
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