At the 2023 LPL, Wanindu Hasaranga produced a performance matched by few in the history of Twenty20 cricket.
In 2023, B-Love Kandy became the first team from outside Jaffna to win the Lanka Premier League. Kandy captain Wanindu Hasaranga missed the match, but they overhauled Dambulla Aura’s 147-4 with ease.
Despite his absence, Hasaranga defined Kandy’s success story in a way replicated by perhaps no one else in the format in a Twenty20 league.
In Qualifier 2 – his last appearance in the league – he smashed 48 in 30 balls and picked up 2-21 against the Galle Titans. The wickets took his league tally to 19, the most taken by a bowler in a single edition of the LPL.
Teammate Nuwan Pradeep claimed a wicket in the final to finish second on the charts, but he finished five wickets fewer than Hasaranga. No one else came two wickets within Pradeep’s tally. Hasaranga (57) is also well clear of second-placed Pradeep (43) in the all-time LPL list.
Hasaranga’s 6-9 against the Jaffna Kings – the only team to win the LPL until 2022, it may be remembered – in the Eliminator was the league’s only five-wicket haul as well as the best figures in LPL history. His 4-17 against Galle also made him the only bowler to finish with two four-wicket hauls.
With a five-wicket cut-off, his average of 11.25 was the best in the tournament, as was his economy rate of 5.51 if one considers those who sent down 20 overs.
But these bowling feats, while spectacular, were perhaps expected of Sri Lanka’s finest contemporary Twenty20 bowler in his own country’s league. Hasaranga’s season transcended bowling.
Hasaranga’s 48 in the abovementioned Qualifier 2 also took him past Babar Azam’s 261 runs. He finished on 279. Teammate Dinesh Chandimal threatened to surpass that tally in the final, but he stopped two runs behind Babar.
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Hasaranga, thus, finished as the leading wicket-taker and the leading run-scorer of LPL 2023. What makes the latter even more special is the fact that he batted inside the top four only four times in nine innings.
His strike rate of 190 – he faced only 147 balls – that helped him get there. With a 100-run cut-off, Ben McDermott (154) of Dambulla came next on the list.
Hasaranga’s only fifties – 64 in 27 balls against Galle (strike rate 237), 52 not out in 22 balls against Jaffna (236) – were the fastest scores in excess of 25, and the only fifties scored at over twice a run a ball.
His 14 sixes were the joint-most, a feat he shared with Dambulla’s Avishka Fernando, who faced 48 more balls than Hasaranga.
In fact, had Hayden Kerr of Dambulla not held three catches against Galle, Hasaranga’s two catches against each of Jaffna and Dambulla would have been the joint record among non-wicketkeepers. Of course, his 26 catches are the most among outfielders in LPL history…
So that’s the most runs, the most wickets, the best bowling average, the best bowling economy rate, the best batting strike rate, the best bowling figures, the most sixes, the two fastest scores in the competition, and he was captain of the side that won the competition. Naturally, he was Player of the Tournament. If anything, they should retire that award in his honour.
