Lanka Premier League 2024

July 1st 2024 marked the beginning of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) season 5 and 24 matches later after 8,198 runs including six (6) individual hundreds, 304 wickets including hat-tricks, super overs, 582 fours, and 405 sixes later Jaffna Kings regained their grown by winning the LPL for the 4th time out of 5 seasons! Huge congratulations to them! That said, shall we now take a deeper look at how season 5 of the Lanka Premier League went, arguably the best season so far! 

The season began with the Kandy leg in which 5 matches were played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The curtain raiser of the season was between the defending champions Kandy Falcons (previously known as B-Love Kandy) and 2023’s runner-ups Dambulla Sixers (previously known as Dambulla Aura) in a high-scoring encounter with Kandy comfortably chasing Dambulla’s 179 in 17.2 overs thanks to Dasun Shanaka’s quickfire 46 of 15 balls with 5 sixes. The second match saw a classic LPL match-up with Jaffna taking on Galle in a thrilling game which went down to the last ball to give Galle the win chasing Jaffna’s 177 thanks to the 65 by the highly experienced Alex Hales! A power-packed Colombo Strikers took on Kandy for the third match in which they comprehensively beat Kandy by 51 runs after setting them a target of 198 on the back of a brilliant all-rounded performance by Shadab Khan who took 4 for 22 with the ball and scored a useful 22 off 17 with the bat. Jaffna took the honours in another last-ball finish chasing down Dambulla’s 191 on the back of a fiery knock of 80 off 34 balls by Avishka Fernando to take the 4th match! The 5th and final match in Kandy saw Galle prevail against Colombo by 7 runs thanks to the experienced Isuru Udana who produced a brilliant all-rounded performance of 52 runs with the bat and 2 for 34 with the ball to give his team the win! 

After the Kandy leg, the tournament moved on to Dambulla for 9 matches for the first time in LPL history and each game didn’t disappoint! The first game saw the classic rivals Galle and Jaffna take on each other again and this time Jaffna came out on top by 5 wickets with 2 balls remaining chasing Galle’s 187 thanks to the all-rounded performance by Azmatullah Omarzai who took 2 for 33 with the ball and scored the crucial 35 runs off just 13 balls! The next game was another thriller as well with Colomba coming out on top by just 2 runs defending their 199 against Colombo thanks to the young death bowler Mateesha Pathirana AKA baby Malinga who took 4 wickets for just 26 runs! The run feast in Dambulla continued for the 3rd game their as Jaffna posted 218 on the back of the brilliant 88 runs by Pathum Nissanka which proved too much to Dambulla as Jaffna took the game by 3o runs! Galle continued their good form by winning the next match by 6 wickets comfortably chasing down Kandy’s 175 with 17 balls left thanks to the 3 wickets for 30 runs by Isuru Udana! The next match saw Dambulla win their first game of the tournament on the back of 80 runs by the explosive yet experienced Kusal Perera chasing down Colombo’s 185 with 8 wickets in hand and 13 balls left! The 11th match of the tournament was a historical one as Kandy produced a record run chase in the LPL by chasing down Jaffna’s 224 with 10 balls left and 7 wickets in hand, this win was set up by fierce Dinesh Chandimal whose 89 off just 37 balls put the Jaffna bowlers under tremendous pressure! The next match saw Dambulla find their grove with home crowd support as they beat the team of the season Galle by 25 runs after setting them 160 on the back of the terrific 56 off 34 balls by Chamindu Wichramasinghe, he also picked up 2 wickets for just 1 run! The final 2 games in Dambulla saw Jaffna prevail over Colombo by 7 wickets chasing down their 188 thanks to Rilee Rossouw’s 108 runs of 50 balls and Galle prevail over Kandy by 8 wickets chasing down their 187 with Prabath Jayasuriya’s 3 for 30 instrumental in restricting Kandy!

The final leg of the tournament moved to the national capital where 10 games were played in the iconic R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo! The first match in the capital began with Kandy taking on Jaffna in a rain-effected 7 overs match where Colombo came out on top chasing down Kandy’s 78 thanks to the 3 wickets by Jason Behrendorff! The next game produced the first super over of the tournament with as Dambulla tied Galle’s 148 thanks to the brilliance of Maheesh Theekshan who’s 3 for 26 restricted Dambulla and allowed his team to take the game in the super over! Colombo prevailed over Jaffna in a low-scoring gaming chasing Jaffn’a 109 with ease thanks to the 4 wickets of Shadab Khan for just 10 runs, this game was followed by Kandy knocking out Dambulla from the tournament by 54 runs after setting them 222 as a target thanks to the heroics of their captain Wanindu Hasaranga who scored 25 of just 12 balls and took 4 wickets for 35 runs and 3 catches in the field! Galle failed to defend their 138 against Colombo in match 19, as the Colombo speedster Matheesha Pathirana took 4 for 20 restricting them to a below-par total! The final group stage game saw Colombo fall short of Dambulla’s 123 by 28 runs, this win meant that Dambulla finished the tournament on a winning note thanks to their skipper Mohammad Nabi who scored 40 runs with the bat and took 1 wicket with the ball!

The playoff began with the two best teams of the tournament going against each other in qualifier 1 with Jaffna taking on Galle and Dwaine Pretorius’s 4 for 23 with the ball restricted Jaffna to 177 which Galle chased down with 7 wickets in hand, securing their spot in the final! Qualifier 1 was followed by the eliminator with Colombo and Kandy playing to stay alive in the tournament and thanks to the calm and composed knock of 54 Kamindu Mendis, Kandy went over the line chasing down Colombo’s 159 hence knocking out Colombo and ending the championship hopes! Kandy then met Jaffna in qualifier 2 with the spot in the finals up for grab and both teams brought their A game resulting in a thrilling 1-run win for Jaffna as Kandy fell just short of Jaffna’a 187 set up by the 105 not out of 54 balls by Kusal Mendis! 

The finals were a repeat of the LPL 2020 and 2021 finals as old rivals Galle took on Jaffna! Batting first Galle was in early trouble but the experienced Bhanuka Rajapakse ensued they finished with a competitive total of 184 thanks to his 82 off 34 balls! Begin their chase, Jaffna got of to the worst possible start as they lost Pathum Nissanka of the first ball of the chase! However, little did we know that this was the last piece of success Galle would taste in the final as Kusal Mendis combined with Rilee Rossouw for a record 185-run partnership with Rilee going on to finish not out on 106 runs off just 53 balls becoming the first player in LPL to score more than 2 hundred in a season ensuring that Jaffna cruised to victory claiming their 4th title in just 5 season and handing Galle the runners-up yet again by their own hand!

Tournament awards:

• Emerging Player of the Tournament: Chamindu Wickramasinghe

• Red Cap (Highest Wicket Taker): Shadab Khan for his 17 wickets

• Pink Cap (Most Runs): Tim Seifert for his 400 runs

• Player of the Tournament: Rilee Rossouw

Overall, this edition of the Lanka Premier League was by far easily the best edition of the tournament as it has a good mix of local and foreign talent providing us with fun and exciting games! This edition further saw plenty of records and history being both broken and set significantly improving the quality of the league from its previous seasons! In conclusion, all the teams and players played good cricket and were equally well supported by the fans and everyone together contributed to another successful Lanka Premier League edition once again congratulations to this year’s champions Jaffna Kings! 

So with this said, what are your thoughts on this year’s LPL? How do you think your team and favourite player performed? And what improvements do you want to the next edition? 

Comment below

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