LPL 2020: Final, GAL vs JAF – Thisara Perera’s turn around, Yet another T20 final win for Malik and more stats

Jaffna Stallions clinched the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League as they thumped the Galle Gladiators by 53 runs in the final. Shoaib Malik top-scored for the Stallions with a 35-ball 46 before skipper Thisara Perera smashed an unbeaten 14-ball 39 with seven boundaries. Jaffna finished with 188/6 in their 20 overs which turned out to be too big a total for the Galle team who lost their top three for just 7 runs. Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Azam Khan smashed four sixes apiece but the target was too high to achieve.

Here are all the statistical highlights from the Jaffna Stallions’ thumping win during GAL vs JAF game:

Yet another T20 final win for Malik:

13 – Shoaib Malik now has been part of 13 final wins in Twenty20 cricket; the 3rd most by any player in this format. Only Kieron Pollard (15) and Dwayne Bravo (14) have been part of more T20 final wins than Malik.

5 – This was the 5th instance of Shoaib Malik winning the player of the match award in a Twenty20 final. His first two such awards came in National T20 Cup finals for Sialkot Stallions in 2008 (2/29 & 19* vs Karachi Dolphins) and 2012 (62* vs Karachi Dolphins).

Malik’s unbeaten 42-ball 55 in the CPL 2014 for Barbados Tridents against Guyana Amazon Warriors and an unbeaten 22-ball 56 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against Southern Punjab in the National T20 Cup 2020 are the other player of the match awards of Malik in the T20 finals.

Thisara’s turn around:

0 – Jaffna Stallions won the maiden LPL title under Thisara Perera with six wins across nine completed matches in the tournament. Coming into this tournament, Perera lost each of the ten matches he played as captain in the Twenty20 format.

Malik @ 150 wickets:

150 – Bhanuka Rajapaksa was the 150th wicket of Shoaib Malik in Twenty20 cricket. Malik and Kieron Pollard are the only players with 10000+ runs and 150+ wickets in the Twenty20 format.

A good tournament for Gunathilaka:

476 – Danushka Gunathilaka ended the tournament with 476 runs which are the most by any player in a T20 series/tournament on Sri Lankan soil. Danushka went past Upul Tharanga’s 414 runs which came during the 2018 SLC T20 League.

Had Gunathilaka scored 24 more runs, he could have been the 2nd Sri Lankan to amass 500+ runs in a T20 tournament/series only after Sanath Jayasuriya who aggregated 514 runs during the IPL 2008.