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Jaffna Kings and Wanindu Hasaranga (Source - Twitter)
Much-awaited Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2022 kicked off on December 6, Tuesday. The third season of the league is being played this year. The teams taking part in this season are Colombo Stars, Dambulla Giants, Galle Gladiators, Jaffna Kings, and Kandy Falcons. Since its debut, Jaffna Kings have proven to be the undisputed champions.
The tournament's opening match was played between defending champions Jaffna Kings and Galle Gladiators in Hambantota stadium on Tuesday (December 6). The Kings are led by Thisara Perera and feature the likes of top T20 players like Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Tom Kohler-Cadmore.
There were two matches played on Tuesday:
Jaffna Kings vs Galle Gladiators
Defending champions Jaffna Kings began their title defense with a comfortable win over the Galle Gladiators in the first match of the Lanka Premier League 2022 on Tuesday. After being bowled out for 137, the Jaffna Kings restricted the Galle Gladiators to 113/9 in their 20 overs. For Jaffna Kings, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth (2/20) and Binura Fernando (3/22) were the picks of the bowlers.
The Gladiators’ captain Kusal Mendis got his team off to a great start with an opening partnership of 58 runs in 7.3 overs with Nuwanidu Fernando. However, after Wellalage dismissed Nuwanidu Fernando, the Gladiators kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Still, he didn’t find support from the other end as the Gladiators eventually fell short of their target by 24 runs.
Kandy Falcons vs Colombo Stars
Kandy Falcons thrashed Colombo Stars by 109 runs in the tournament's second match. After Andre Fletcher smashed the first century of LPL 2022 to power Kandy Falcons to 199/1, the Caribbean lad remained unbeaten on 102 off 67 balls with 11 fours and three sixes in his innings. Wanindu Hasaranga bagged four wickets including LPL’s first-ever hattrick to bowl out Stars for just 90 runs.
Pathum Nissanka was the other star as he smashed a brilliant 71. The two Kandy openers put up a record 156-run stand to derail Colmobo Stars’ bowling. With the bat, Colombo were lackluster with Angelo Matthews top-scoring with 26.