Rossouw, Kusal Mendis lead Jaffna to their fourth LPL title in five seasons

Rilee Rossouw bludgeoned 106 off 53 balls, Kusal Mendis crashed 72 off 40 of his own, and together sent Jaffna Kings soaring to a target of 185, inside 16 overs. It was a record-breaking chase on at least two fronts. Their unbroken stand of 185 (Pathum Nissanka had been out first ball), was the highest for any wicket, across all LPL seasons. Kings’ chase was the highest in any LPL tournament.

And their victory means that a Jaffna franchise has won four out of the five LPL tournaments staged, having only missed out in 2023.

Rossouw and Mendis’ sublime hitting will rightly be admired as perhaps the greatest partnership this tournament has produced, given it came in a final in front of a full house at Khettarama. But Jaffna had dominated another key passage of the game. Through excellent bowling from Jason Behrendorff, Dhananjaya de Silva, and Fabian Allen, they had had Galle Marvels by the collar at 23 for 3 after seven overs. They recovered through an outstanding innings by Bhanuka Rajapaksa, but clearly their 184 for 6 was not sufficient to deny Mendis and Rossouw in such form.

Rossouw’s monster hitting

Late in the chase, it felt like there were no ball Galle Marvels could produce that Rossouw could not thump into or over the boundary. But he was also the first batter to shake Kings into motion. He hit the first boundaries, one of them intentional, in the second over. But then really got into his work in the fourth, pummeling Isuru Udana over deep extra cover, then crashing him over deep midwicket.

But it was in the middle overs, against spin, that he really hit his stride. He bashed Prabath Jayasuriya for a six and two fours in the seventh over and bullied Theekshana over long-on boundary to get to his fifty off 29 balls.

Later he’d go back to smashing Udana, and then later reaped three fours and a six off Janith Liyanage’s seam bowling, which put him five runs short of a second century in this year’s tournament. By this stage, Kings were so utterly ascendant (they needed 21 off 42 balls, with nine wickets left), the only question was whether Mendis would run down the target before Rossouw had the chance to get to 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.

Earlier, while fielding, Rossouw had been involved with an aggressive altercation with umpire Kumar Dharmasena over an overthrow. Clearly he came to this game pumped up.

Mendis shines again

Mendis had cracked 105 not out off 54 balls in the semi-final, and was very quickly in wonderful touch again in this game, racing to 32 off 13 balls inside the powerplay. Nineteen of those runs came against the offspin of Sahan Arachchige, in the last over of the powerplay.

But as Rossouw exploded, Mendis thrived too, finding boundaries square of the wicket while Rossouw slammed most of his in the arc between deep cover and dep midwicket. 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.

Rajapaksa’s spectacular show

Rossouw and Mendis put him in the shade, but that Marvels set a target that seemed daunting was down to Rajapaksa, who showcased both his touch and power in his 82 off 34. Through the course of that innings he played some delightful late cuts, fine glances, and flicks off his toes, but also pinged balls down the ground, over midwicket, and over cover. He’d had some support from Tim Seifert, who hit 47 off 37 balls, and was part of a 62-run stand with Rajapaksa.

But even Seifert had only raised his scoring thanks to crashing three leg-side sixes and a four off four consecutive V Viyaskanth balls. Many of the other Marvels batters struggled to find their timing on this pitch.

Kings bowlers tie up the top order

Teams have generally done well in the back end of the innings this season thanks to the power blast (two late overs in which only four boundary riders are allowed). But Kings had dominated the early overs, and this too was a key portion of the game. Behrendorff was the top performer here finding swing and conceding only five runs from his three powerplay overs, while removing both the Marvels openers.

But the spinners were also good. Allen bowled two overs for 10 runs, and de Silva conceded six in the opening over. They largely bowled slow on a pitch that had some turn in it.