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Together, Rilee Rossouw and Kusal Mendis struck 106 off 53 balls and 72 off 40 balls, respectively, to send the Jaffna Kings soaring to a target of 185 within 16 overs. On at least two counts, the chase set records. Pathum Nissanka had been out on the first ball in their unbroken stand of 185, which was the most for any wicket in all LPL seasons. Of all the LPL tournaments, Kings’ chase was the highest.
With their triumph, a Jaffna team has only lost once, in 2023, during the five LPL tournaments that have been held.
Given that Rossouw and Mendis’ incredible hitting happened in a final in front of a packed house at Khettarama, it is only fitting that their pairing be praised as possibly the best this tournament has produced. However, Jaffna had controlled a different crucial part of the match. After seven overs and with Jason Behrendorff, Dhananjaya de Silva, and Fabian Allen bowling brilliantly, they had the Galle Marvels bowled out at 23 for 3. They rallied with to a brilliant innings by Bhanuka Rajapaksa, but it’s obvious that their 184 for 6 was unable to stop Mendis and Rossouw playing at this level.
It seemed as though Rossouw could thump whatever ball Galle Marvels produced into or over the boundary by the end of the pursuit. However, he was also the first batter to move Kings. In the second over, he struck the first boundary, one of them on purpose. Yet in the fourth, he really went to work, hitting Isuru Udana over deep extra cover and then smashing him over deep midwicket.
However, he really found his rhythm when bowling against spin in the middle overs. After hitting two fours and a six off Prabath Jayasuriya in the seventh over, he pushed Theekshana over the long-on boundary to reach his fifty off just 29 balls.
Mendis, who scored 105 runs without conceding a wicket off 54 balls in the semifinal, demonstrated her exceptional touch once more in this match, sprinting to 32 runs off 13 balls during the powerplay. In the final over of the powerplay, Sahan Arachchige’s offspin caused 19 of those runs.
After blasting Udana once more, Rossouw went on to score three fours and a six from seam bowling from Janith Liyanage, bringing him five runs shy of a second century in this year’s competition. At this point, Kings were so dominant (they required 21 from 42 balls with nine wickets remaining) that the only thing to worry about was whether Mendis would reach the boundary before Rossouw could reach triple figures.
But Rossouw got there with ease, rocked his bazooka celebration, and also hit the winning run and raised his bat towards the dugout.
Between these two batters, there was no relent for Marvels. Mendis was dropped on 67 in the 14th over, but by this stage Jaffna’s victory was almost certain.