Team effort helps Jaffna Kings win LPL, says Asalanka
As a skipper I was confident of winning the LPL final and happy about my decisions to get success said Jaffna Kings skipper Charith Asalanka. Jaffna Kings made a good team effort throughout the series to clinch the title. The wicket we played at the final was good for the batsmen and we had good confidence to chase this total. We knew the qualifier 2 game on previous day was very difficult depending on the total and at the last minute we got a thrilling one run win over Kandy Falcons. At this final earlier we thought we can restrict them to 150 but the way Bhanuka Rajapaksa batted and his innings was superb and finally we had to chase 185 runs. However Bhanuka scored 28 runs in my over and his innings posed a good challenge to us added Asalanka.
We had a good batting line up while the way Kusal Mendis and Rilee Rossouw batted their partnership was outstanding and finally we won with 26 balls to spare and credit should go to the two batters who made the highest ever partnership of the LPL series said skipper Asalanka. Rossouw the player from South Africa showed his capabilities while scoring two centuries in this series and first ever player to achieve it at LPL.
Our coach Avishka Gunawardena and myself wanted to select good batsmen from our players and good bowlers from foreign countries. One foreign bowler who directly signed with us pulled out at the last minute absent and that affected us but as a skipper we played together as a team and our supporting staff did an excellent job. Our bowling unit was not very strong but our batting always strong and helped to win the game. We expected more from young leg spinnerr Vijayakanth Viyashkanth but he is young and has to improve. The young leggie has good potential and he did good job in t qualifier 2 game to pick three wickets .Two foreign players Rilee Rossouw the man of the final and player of the tournament and Fabian Allan did a superb job while paceman Jason Behrendorff did a decent job to get early wickets . Asitha Fernando our paceman did fine job especially in difficult situations of the game. He took three vital wickets in the final and especially during the power play, and death overs Asitha bowled good spells and his service very good for Sri Lanka team said Charith Asalanka.
LPL, the franchise tournament of Sri Lanka give much needed exposure for our players . This tournament standard is high compared to our domestic competition, while four foreign players are in the team and youngsters always get good lessons. I saw the potential of Chamindu Wickramasinghe and he is an asset to National team If we can manage this type of players we can get their service for our team’s success added Asalanka who always gives good guidance to young players. I think with this LPL we can find good players and we must thank Sri Lanka Cricket for conducting this LPL which is a good platform for our players to build their skills.
Playing on good wickets and playing under lights always give more experience and today most of the countries conduct this type of tournaments and find talented cricketers which helps to build up a team.
As player I always tried to give my best effort to the team and never go for personal goals and leadership is not new as I did captaincy in my school , club and Sri Lanka under 19 and Sri Lanka ‘A’ teams but never
think about captaincy and my aim is to give full effort to the teams success. Anyway if I get leadership I am keen to take that responsibility and get success for the team, concluded Charith.
