Galle Marvels secured their place in the Final of the Lanka Premier League 2024 with a comfortable 7-wicket win over Jaffna Kings in the Qualifier 1, played at R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium.
After winning the toss, Niroshan Dickwella decided to bowl first on a fresh pitch. Coming into this crucial clash, Galle Marvels made a couple of changes while Jaffna Kings also made four of them in the XI.
Jaffna lost Pathum Nissanka early in the innings, but Kusal Mendis and Rilee Rossouw steadied the ship with a half-century stand. A 22-ball 40 from the Proteas left hander helped them gain the momentum after a slow start.
Mendis added another useful 45 runs for the third wicket along with Avishka Fernando. The keeper batter finally got some runs under his belt before being castled by Prabath Jayasuriya for 46.
Inform Fernando stroked a 33-ball 52 after reaching his 14th fifty in LPL. Since then, the Kings lost few wickets in regular intervals which meant they finished on 177/7 in their 20 overs.
Pretorius was absolutely sensational with his medium pace as he picked up 4 wickets for 23 runs in his full quota overs. Udana also bagged two crucial scalps while the spinners were a little bit expensive.
After losing Dickwella in the third over, Alex Hales and Tim Seifert had found some regular boundaries as the former perished at the stroke of the powerplay with 70 runs on the board.
The English opener scored 36 runs in 21 balls after being dropped twice (on 6 by Avishka and on 20 by Asalanka) early in the innings, but Fabian Allen had the last laugh.
Janith Liyanage came in ahead of Bhanuka Rajapaksa and played a gem of an innings, forming a match-defining 92-run stand with Seifert for the third wicket. He fell to Tabraiz Shamsi after producing a wonderful knock of 56 runs, coming off 36 balls.
The Kiwi right-hander registered his fifth LPL half-century, scoring an unbeaten 62 off 41 deliveries, which helped Galle Marvels cruise to the LPL 2024 final with a comfortable 7-wicket win.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pathum Nissanka | lbw b Dwaine Pretorius | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Kusal Mendis | b prabath jayasuriya | 46 | 39 | 4 | 1 | 117.95 |
| Rilee Rossouw | c Janith Liyanage b Isuru Udana | 40 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 181.82 |
| Avishka Fernando | c Bhanuka Rajapaksa b Isuru Udana | 52 | 33 | 4 | 3 | 157.58 |
| Charith Asalanka | c Bhanuka Rajapaksa b Dwaine Pretorius | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 116.67 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | not out | 14 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 175.00 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | c Bhanuka Rajapaksa b Dwaine Pretorius | 9 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 180.00 |
| Fabian Allen | c Niroshan Dickwella b Dwaine Pretorius | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Wanuja Sahan | not out | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 4 (b 1 , lb 0 , nb 0, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 177/7 (20 Overs, RR: 8.85) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dwaine Pretorius | 4 | 0 | 23 | 4 | 5.75 | |
| Isuru Udana | 4 | 0 | 37 | 2 | 9.25 | |
| prabath jayasuriya | 4 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 9.50 | |
| Maheesh Theekshana | 4 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 11.00 | |
| Sahan Arachchige | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 11.00 | |
| Kavindu Nadeeshan | 3 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 7.67 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Hales | st Kusal Mendis b Azmatullah Omarzai | 36 | 21 | 5 | 2 | 171.43 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | c Kusal Mendis b Azmatullah Omarzai | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 225.00 |
| Tim Seifert | not out | 62 | 41 | 9 | 1 | 151.22 |
| Janith Liyanage | c & b Tabraiz Shamsi | 56 | 36 | 5 | 3 | 155.56 |
| Bhanuka Rajapaksa | not out | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 114.29 |
| Extras | 10 (b 2 , lb 6 , nb 0, w 2, pen 0) |
| Total | 181/3 (18.1 Overs, RR: 9.96) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 11.00 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 3 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 11.00 | |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 3 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 11.00 | |
| Fabian Allen | 4 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 9.50 | |
| Wanuja Sahan | 4 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 7.75 | |
| Tabraiz Shamsi | 3.1 | 0 | 27 | 1 | 8.71 | |
