Avishka delivers knockout punch to Dambulla Giants

By Roscoe Thattil from Suriyawewa

A stunning Avishka Fernando century delivered the knockout punch to Dambulla Giants, as they went down by 24 runs to the Jaffna Kings in Hambanthota on Tuesday.

Giants skipper Niroshan Dickwella played into the hands of the Kings when he opted to field first after winning the toss. Batting first and posting big totals has been a strength of Jaffna throughout the tournament.

A couple of early dropped catches by the Giants proved to be very costly as the opening duo of Fernando and Rahmanullah Gurbaz posted 122 for the first wicket. Gurbaz pulled up a hamstring just after reaching his half-century before he was eventually dismissed for 70 runs which came off just 40 balls.

Fernando wasn’t done though as he continued on his merry way before reaching his century off his 63rd ball as the Kings went past the magical 200-run mark. His knock included ten fours and four towering sixes as Jaffna finished on 210/4 in their twenty overs.

The Dambulla Giants’ bowlers had no answers to the onslaught by the Kings batters with Chamika Karunaratne conceding 53 off his four overs while only Nuwan Pradeep and Imran Tahir had economy rates of under ten.

The Giants had no option but to come out swinging from ball one and got to a brisk start as Niroshan Dickwella and Phil Salt  put on 39 for the opening wicket in just over three overs but both of them were dismissed in the space of two overs as the Giants found it hard to keep up with the required run rate.

Maheesh Theekshana was the chief destroyer bowling out his quota of four overs in the first half of the innings returning impressive figures of 2/23. The lanky West Indian quick Jayden Seales’ pace and bounce were too hot to handle for the Giants middle order as he accounted for Sandun Weerakkody and Ramesh Mendis in quick succession.

The Dambulla Giants never really recovered from losing the top half of their batting and were eventually defeated by the all-round disciplined Jaffna Kings unit. Karunaratne though fought till the end with an entertaining half-century but could not prevent his team from going down by 24 runs.

The boys from up north will now meet the Galle Gladiators in the final of the LPL 2021 in Hambantota today (23). Interestingly Jaffna Kings have lost the three games they played against Galle Gladiators in the 2021edition. It will also be the repeat of the 2020 LPL final.