Colombo [Sri Lanka]: As the league stage of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2024 came to an end, the tournament has so far witnessed high-octane cricketing action throughout, involving high-scoring games, nail-biting thrillers, and some outstanding individual batting and bowling brilliance.
The four teams that made it to the playoffs are: Jaffna Kings, Galle Marvels, Colombo Strikers and Kandy Falcons. The playoffs will start from today onwards in Colombo.
Here’s a sneak peek into the five most interesting snapshots from the 2024 group stage.
Most sixes in an LPL season
In line with the trend of high-scoring games, this edition has already seen the most sixes ever hit in a single season of the LPL – 307. The previous highest was 275 in the 2020 edition. All the big-hitting has also meant that the bowlers have suffered the most, conceding at an economy rate of 8.98 runs an over so far, the highest for any LPL edition.
High scores, tight finishes
There was plenty of entertainment for fans as some excellent batting pitches, especially in Pallekele and Dambulla, produced consistently high-scoring matches. The average innings total, excluding one rain-affected game, was around 175. There were also some heart-stopping finishes. Two chases were decided off the very last ball, another was decided by the narrow margin of two runs, and there was also a tie broken by a Super Over.
Nissanka-Fernando, Seifert-Hales
The top two teams at the end of the league stage, Galle Marvels and Jaffna Kings, had contrasting lead top-scorers. The homegrown pair of Avishka Fernando and Pathum Nissanka did the heavy lifting for Jaffna Kings, with both batters scoring the season-highest 311 runs each at impressive strike rates of 166.31 and 161.13 respectively.
In contrast, for Galle Marvels, it was the Kiwi-English pair of Tim Seifert (291 runs, SR 133.48) and Alex Hales (284 runs, SR 135.88) leading the way. These two were also the fourth and fifth-highest run-getters in the league stage, behind Fernando, Nissanka and Dambulla Sixers’ Kusal Perera.
Fastest ton, second hat-trick
Kusal Perera scored the fastest century ever in the history of the LPL, reaching the landmark in just 50 balls against Jaffna Kings in Pallekele. It was also the first ton of the fifth edition of LPL.
On the bowling front, Colombo Strikers’ leg-spin allrounder Shadab Khan took only the second hat-trick ever in the LPL, against the Kandy Falcons, also in Pallekele. Shadab first removed captain Wanindu Hasaranga (who had taken the first LPL hat-trick in 2022), and then dismissed Agha Salman and Pawan Rathnayake for golden ducks.
Bowlers hit back in Colombo
After high-scoring games in Pallekele and Dambulla, with average scores ranging in the region of 180 and 190, the bowlers made a strong comeback on friendlier surfaces in Colombo, where average scores have been reduced to around 140.
Bowlers had taken punishment in Pallekele and Dambulla with average economy rates of 9.26 and 9.58, but they have conceded runs at just 7.67 so far in Colombo.