Jaffna Kings wrote a new chapter in their Lanka Premier League (LPL) supremacy on Sunday, July 21 as they hammered Galle Marvels by nine wickets in the final of the fifth season of the tournament to claim their record-fourth title.
Rilee Rossouw, the Player of the Series, played a pivotal role in helping Jaffna maul Galle to script history. The southpaw ripped the Galle bowling attack to shreds and scored an unbeaten century as Jaffna chased 185 down in just 15.4 overs to seal a nine-wicket win in the summit clash at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Rossouw's knock came under pressure as Jaffna lost their opener Pathum Nissanka on the first ball of their run chase. He smashed nine fours and seven maximums during the course of his innings to deflate Marvels and stitched a 185-run stand for the second wicket to claim the honours.
While Rossouw's whirlwind knock eclipsed Mendis' 40-ball 72*, the Sri Lankan right-hander played nothing short of a gem and provided the ideal supporting act needed for Rossouw to keep going his merry ways.
The wicketkeeper-batter struck eight fours and two maximums during his innings and sucked the life out of Galle's attack.
Earlier in the evening, Jaffna's captain Charith Asalanka turned out to be fortunate with the coin flip and elected to field first.
The move appeared to be spot on after Jason Behrendorff dismissed both of Galle's openers - Niroshan Dickwella and Alex Hales inside the first four overs.
Asitha Fernando got rid of Janith Liyanage on the penultimate delivery of the seventh over and Jaffna had Galle and the final covered.
However, Tim Seifert, the leading run-getter of the tournament produced another admirable rescue effort alongside Bhanuka Rajapaksa and added 62 runs for the fourth wicket.
Though Seifert fell three short of his fifty, Rajapaksa carried on and launched an onslaught on the Jaffna bowlers. Rajapaksa, 32, scored 82 off just 34 balls, including eight fours and six maximums at a terrific strike rate of 241.17 and propelled Galle to 184 for the loss of six wickets.
