And their victory means that a Jaffna franchise has won four out of the five LPL tournaments staged, having only missed out in 2023.

Rossouw's monster hitting

Late in the chase, it felt like there were no ball Galle Marvels could produce that Rossouw could not thump into or over the boundary. But he was also the first batter to shake Kings into motion. He hit the first boundaries, one of them intentional, in the second over. But then really got into his work in the fourth, pummeling Isuru Udana over deep extra cover, then crashing him over deep midwicket.

But it was in the middle overs, against spin, that he really hit his stride. He bashed Prabath Jayasuriya for a six and two fours in the seventh over and bullied Theekshana over long-on boundary to get to his fifty off 29 balls.

Later he'd go back to smashing Udana, and then later reaped three fours and a six off Janith Liyanage's seam bowling, which put him five runs short of a second century in this year's tournament. By this stage, Kings were so utterly ascendant (they needed 21 off 42 balls, with nine wickets left), the only question was whether Mendis would run down the target before Rossouw had the chance to get to triple figures.

But Rossouw got there with ease, rocked his bazooka celebration, and also hit the winning run and raised his bat towards the dugout.

Earlier, while fielding, Rossouw had been involved with an aggressive altercation with umpire Kumar Dharmasena over an overthrow. Clearly he came to this game pumped up.

Mendis shines again

But as Rossouw exploded, Mendis thrived too, finding boundaries square of the wicket while Rossouw slammed most of his in the arc between deep cover and dep midwicket. Between these two batters, there was no relent for Marvels. Mendis was dropped on 67 in the 14th over, but by this stage Jaffna's victory was almost certain.

Rajapaksa's spectacular show

But even Seifert had only raised his scoring thanks to crashing three leg-side sixes and a four off four consecutive V Viyaskanth balls. Many of the other Marvels batters struggled to find their timing on this pitch.

Kings bowlers tie up the top order

But the spinners were also good. Allen bowled two overs for 10 runs, and de Silva conceded six in the opening over. They largely bowled slow on a pitch that had some turn in it.