Ruthless Jaffna Kings go to the top of the table with win against Colombo Stars

Maheesh Theekshana of Jaffna Kings returned career best figures of 4/25

Jaffna Kings skipper Thisara Perera was in brutal form, pummelling five sixes in his unbeaten fifty that won him the Player of the Match award

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Defending champions Jaffna Kings went to the top of the Lanka Premier League table with a brutal display of batting from their skipper Thisara Perera that made it a no-contest game against Colombo Kings at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

In the second match of the day, Jaffna beat Colombo by a resounding margin of 93 runs after running up the highest total of the ongoing tournament – 207/6 off 18 overs. Colombo, who had a mountain to climb, surrendered meekly to be dismissed for 114 with Sri Lanka’s white-ball spinner Maheesh Theekshana returning career best figures of 4/25, and seamer Wahab Riaz also taking 4/26 towards the back end of the innings.

Jaffna didn’t get off to the best of starts, losing both openers for 10 in the first two overs, but still ended up scoring over 200 plus at 11.50 an over.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore (40 off 21 balls, three sixes, three fours) and Shoaib Malik (44 off 24 balls, two sixes, four fours) set the stage for Perera to come and flay the Colombo bowling to all parts of the field especially on the leg side.  

Dushmantha Chameera, Sri Lanka’s white-ball spearhead, was at the receiving end of Perera’s broad bat, being pummelled for 54 runs off his four overs, including 23 off an over that included three sixes and a four.

Perera raced to his second consecutive fifty of the tournament off 20 balls and finished on a powerful 57* off 23 balls inclusive of five sixes and three fours to take the Player of the Match award.

Inspired by his captain, young Ashen Bandara played some authoritative strokes to score a pleasing 42 off 30 balls, making it a rare occasion where four batsmen had made scores of over 40 in a T20 innings. So ruthless was Jaffna’s hitting that the last five overs produced 78 runs. 

Result:

Jaffna Kings 207/6 (18) (Tom Kohler-Cadmore 40, Shoaib Malik 44, Ashen Bandara 42, Thisara Perera 57*, Seekkuge Prasanna 3/31) beat Colombo Stars 114 (15.5) (Ashan Priyanjan 35, Dinesh Chandimal 28, Maheesh Theekshana 4/25, Wahab Riaz 4/26, Wanindu Hasaranga 2/17) by 93 runs.