‘Epic choke’ – Fans react to Galle Gladiators’ bottling against Jaffa Kings in campaign opener of LPL 2022

The Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2022 kicked off on December 6, Tuesday and the first match turned out to be a one-sided affair. Jaffna Kings and Galle Gladiators faced off against each other in the first match and it was the former who dominated the game throughout. 

As things stand, it was the Gladiators who won the toss and elected to field first. Much to the stupefaction of the fans, the Kings got off to a poor start and could eventually put on a meagre total on the board at the end of the first innings. 

Concerning the first innings, the Sri Lankan star Avishka Fernando and Rahmanullah Gurbaz from Afghanistan perished in quick succession and the latter, who is known for his grit and aggression, could only contribute 1 run to the team’s scoreboard. After toiling hard for more than an hour, the Kings managed to put on 137 runs on the board on the back of a well-made 30 from Dunith Wellalage and Shoaib Malik. 

Galle Gladiators, Jaffna Kings fight hard in first game of LPL 2022

As far as the Gladiators’ innings is concerned, it was their skipper Kusal Mendis who top scored with the bat and lifted the team single-handedly. To add more, it was Mendis who reached the 50-run landmark and kept the team in the race. 

Eventually, it was Jaffna Kings who won the game by 24 runs, despite a fightback from the Gladiators in the second innings. Prior to the start of the first game of the tournament, Mendis said that they would look to play an aggressive game and added that they opted to play with three pacers and two spinners for the game. 

“I’ll try to play my natural game, and hopefully I’ll score more runs again. Last year our team played well, hope to do good this year as well. We have three fast bowlers and two good spinners in our team,” Mendis was quoted as saying prior to the start of the match. 

The Kings would look to carry on with the form and prove their prowess in the ongoing edition. The Gladiators, on the hand, would hope to take home the positives from the game and make a comeback in the next game. 

As things stand, let us take a look at a few Twitter reactions to the match between Jaffna Kings and Galle Gladiators: