Jaffna beat Galle at the third attempt, and Mishara’s 108 puts them in the LPL final

Galle Gallants had beaten Jaffna Kings twice in the group stage, by 36 runs and then by 60. On Wednesday, with a place in the Lanka Premier League final at stake, Jaffna picked the right night to end that run. Kamil Mishara’s unbeaten 108 and a 21-ball 54 from Towhid Hridoy took them to 242 for 2 at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, and Galle’s 228 for 8 finished 14 runs short.

A stand of 138 in 66 balls

Galle won the toss and put Jaffna in, a decision that looked defensible for about three overs. Avishka Fernando went for 19, and after that the bowling side spent the evening chasing the game. Mishara and Khawaja Nafay added 138 in 66 balls without ever hitting a slow patch.

Nafay did the early damage, 54 off 32 before he fell. Mishara reached his hundred in 49 balls and finished on 108 not out from 55. The match award was a formality.

Hridoy was not even meant to be here

The closing stretch belonged to a player who went unsold in the LPL draft. Hridoy only joined Jaffna in late July as a replacement for his Bangladesh team-mate Taskin Ahmed, who could not make the tournament. He hit five sixes and three fours in an unbeaten 54 from 21 balls, and the gap between a total around 210 and one of 242 was more or less his doing.

Two wickets in 20 overs is the other number worth sitting with. Jaffna lost Fernando and Nafay and nobody else, so Mishara and Hridoy came into the last few overs with set eyes and no reason to hold anything back.

Galle got closer than the target deserved

Chasing 243 asks for better than 12 an over from the first ball, and Galle lost a wicket before they had settled into it. They kept swinging anyway, and a couple of quick middle-order hands got them near enough that the closing overs stayed live.

Mohamed Shiraz was the bowler who kept breaking the chase up, finishing with three wickets, and Lizaad Williams took two. Galle ended on 228 for 8. For a team that had handled Jaffna comfortably twice in three weeks, losing the one meeting that decided a final place will sting well past the margin.

What the playoff picture looks like now

Jaffna go straight through to the final on 8 August. Galle drop into Qualifier 2 on 7 August against the winner of Wednesday’s Eliminator between Colombo Kaps and Kandy Royals, so their route to the title match is still open, just longer.

None of this is a surprise from a Jaffna side that has won four LPL titles, more than any other franchise, and topped the table again this season. What they had not managed was a win over Galle. That is fixed, and it came in the game that counted most.

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