LPL 2021 final Man of the Match: The batter from the champion team won the Man of the Match award for top-scoring tonight.
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During the final match of the recently concluded second season of the Lanka Premier League between Jaffna Kings and Galle Gladiators in Hambantota, Jaffna Kings beat Galle Gladiators by 23 runs. A replica of LPL 2020 final, Kings have defeated Gladiators after losing three matches in a row against them this season.
Chasing a mammoth 202-run target, Gladiators started off brilliantly to score 81/2 in the powerplay. However, what followed wasn’t very smart piece of batting as they lost wickets at regular intervals which didn’t allow them to score 121 runs in the remaining 14 overs.
Not making the most of a 26-ball 63-run opening partnership between Kusal Mendis (39) and Danushka Gunathilaka (54), Galle eventually ended up with 178/9 in 20 overs.
With bowling figures of 3-0-15-2, spinner Chaturanga de Silva was the pick of the bowlers for Jaffna at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium tonight. Other than de Silva, his younger brother and all-rounder Wanidu Hasaranga also contributed with a couple of wickets.
LPL 2021 final Man of the Match
Kings captain Thisara Perera winning the toss and opting to bat first was well-supported by their opening batters Avishka Fernando (63) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (35) who put together a brisk 56-run partnership. Fernando, who scored eight fours and a couple of sixes, subsequently stitched a 63-run partnership for the second-wicket alongside Tom Kohler-Cadmore (57*).
In what was his 12th T20 half-century and second of this season, 23-year old Fernando was declared the ‘Man of the Match’ in LPL 2021 final match.
“I’m very happy that I was able to what I do to the best of my ability. I batted at number four [during the ICC T20 World Cup 2021] but I had a couple of failures, so I’m quite happy to do well again at the top of the order,” Fernando told Supreme TV during the post-match presentation ceremony.
