(CMC) – A destructive spell from Carlos Brathwaite formalised a 10-run win for Kandy Kings against Jaffna Kings in a top-of-the-table clash in the Lanka Premier League yesterday, after a Player-of-the-Match performance from Fabian Allen with the bat and an all-round show from Andre Fletcher.
Sharing the new ball, the rugged Barbadian all-rounder bagged 4-18 from his four overs, and the Kings, chasing 161 for victory at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, were restricted to 150 for nine in their 20 overs.
In the second over of the chase, Brathwaite struck with his fifth ball when Sri Lanka international Dhananjaya da Silva was caught behind by Fletcher for a five-ball duck and was the first of three Kings batsmen to fall to that combination.
When Brathwaite, a former West Indies Twenty20 International captain, returned for his third over – the 14th of the chase – he snuffed out the life of a Kings recovery with two wickets in four balls when Sri Lanka internationals, Thisara Perera and Dinuth Wellalage were also caught behind, for two and one respectively.
Brathwaite effectively ended all hopes for the Kings with a scalp of South African James Fuller in his final over – the 18th of the innings – with 32 needed from 13 balls.
The result gave Falcons their fourth win in five matches for eight points, and they lead the standings ahead of the Kings with a superior net run rate.
Earlier, Allen, batting at eight, reprised his role of finisher with the top score of 47, and Falcons posted 160 for eight after they elected to bat.
The Jamaican struck three fours and four sixes from 23 balls and breathed life into an innings that was floundering at 79 for six in the 14th over with a couple of tidy stands.
He added 40 for the seventh wicket with Ashen Bandara and 32 for the eighth wicket with Chamika Karunaratne before left-arm pacer Dilshan Madushanka bowled him wth three balls remaining in the innings.
Fletcher, opening the batting, had cracked four fours and two sixes from 22 balls and held the top half of the batting together with 35 before the Grenadian, affectionately known as “The Spice Man”, was third out in the 11th over, and Brathwaite, batting at five, fell next ball for a first-ball duck.
