By Sa’adi Thawfeeq The final day of the inaugural Lanka T10 league matches at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday had plenty of action. Kandy Bolts qualified as the fourth team in the playoffs, Hambantota Bangla Tigers joined Jaffna Titans in Qualifier 1, Kasun Rajitha performed the second hat-trick of the tournament and Kusal Mendis scored the second fastest fifty. The line-up for today’s playoffs: Pace setters Jaffna Titans came up with a complete team performance to outplay Colombo Jaguars by nine wickets and consolidate their position at the top of the table with 12 points from 7 matches (5 wins) and keep their unbeaten record in the tournament intact.
It was a make-or-break game for Colombo who came off second best against a Jaffna outfit who was formidable in every department of the game. Invited to bat first, Colombo struggled against some quality bowling and could muster only 99-8. Player of the Match Dunith Wellalage broke the back of their batting with two wickets in two balls in his first over and then picked up his third in his final over to end with exceptional figures of 3/5.
Lahiru Kumara playing his first game took a wicket off the first ball of the match trapping Jason Roy lbw for 0, and then came back to rattle Najibullah Zadran’s stumps to finish with 2/19. Colombo lost half their side for 28 and it was some late lusty blows from Ramesh Mendis (28* off 16 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes) that saw them get close to a hundred. Kusal Mendis then.
