Galle Gladiators prove to be Jaffna Kings’ nemesis

It seems that Galle Gladiators are the nemesis of the team in form Jaffna Kings in the ongoing Lanka Premier League when they beat them for the second time in the league stage to finish second in the standing and thereby get two chances of making it to the final. In the first double-header played at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Galle beat Jaffna by 20 runs in a low scoring match and thereby repeated the success they had against the same opposition in the tournament opener when they won by 54 runs.

Galle’s total of 129-8 was not a match-winning one by any stretch of the imagination, but by playing five spinners in the side Bhanuka Rajapaksa, the Galle captain played his cards right. Galle needed to defend the lowest total in LPL history and they did it in emphatic fashion. Using the potential of his bowlers Rajapaksa made the most dangerous batting line-up in the competition wilt and bowled them out for 109 in the 19th over.

On a turning pitch where the bowlers held sway, all the batsmen struggled to get the ball off the square and Rajapaksa with 23 off 25 balls and two good catches in the slips coupled with his leadership qualities took the Player of the Match award. But Rajapaksa was quick to acknowledge the fact that it was his bowlers who won the game for his team.

“It was a good toss to win and the wicket was not the best to bat on. We planned to score 130 and credit goes to the bowlers, how they handled the pressure,” said Rajapaksa.

Left-arm spinners Samit Patel and Noor Ahmed with two wickets apiece in the middle overs and in support of the rest of the bowling unit strangled Jaffna’s strong batting line-up with only Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Shoaib Malik getting into the 20s. Jaffna were also poor in their running between the wickets that accounted for three needless runouts and contributed towards their defeat.

How difficult the pitch was could be gauged by the number of dot balls the two teams played down – an incredible 117 out of 251 balls bowled in the match.

By finishing one-two in the league standing the two teams will again meet for the third time in qualifier one of the play-offs at Hambantota tomorrow. “The team has been very positive and we are upbeat. It’s about confidence beating them twice in a row,” said Rajapaksa looking ahead to Sunday’s clash.

The defeat ended Jaffna’s run of six wins on the trot and having ensured themselves of finishing on top of the league they have been experimenting with some of the other players in their squad. For Thursday’s game, they made six changes, and Jaffna skipper Thisara Perera put down the defeat to it. “We made so many changes today, that was the issue, but we had to consider checking our bench strength as well. This is a wake-up call for us and we’ll come back strong in the next game,” he said.

Scores: Galle Gladiators 129-8 (20) (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 23, Wahab Riaz 2/31, Praveen Jayawickrama 2/13, Vijayakanth Vijaskanth 2/21)

Jaffna Kings 109 (18.3) (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 21, Shoaib Malik 23, Samit Patel 2/23, Noor Ahmed 2/12) (ST)