LPL 2022: Jaffna Kings Win Third Consecutive Title — Avishka Fernando PoM Again in 2-Wicket Thriller at R. Premadasa Stadium

Jaffna Kings won the Lanka Premier League 2022 on 23 December 2022 at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, defeating Colombo Stars by 2 wickets in a close final. Colombo Stars scored 163/5 in 20 overs; Jaffna Kings chased it, reaching 164/8 in 19.2 overs. Avishka Fernando scored 50 off 42 balls as Player of the Match — his second consecutive LPL final PoM (having also won the 2021 final PoM). Sadeera Samarawickrama won Player of the Tournament with 294 runs in 9 matches at an average of 58.80. The 2022 title was Jaffna's third consecutive LPL championship (2020 as Stallions, 2021 and 2022 as Kings) — the most LPL titles any franchise has won.

Avishka Fernando: Back-to-Back LPL Final Player of the Match Awards

Avishka Fernando winning the Player of the Match in the 2022 LPL final — his 50 off 42 balls giving Jaffna Kings the batting foundation for their chase of Colombo Stars' 163/5 — was his second consecutive LPL final PoM, having also won the award in the 2021 final. Fernando's two consecutive final PoM awards (2021 and 2022) gave the Jaffna Kings batter a unique LPL finals record: the only player to win back-to-back LPL final Player of the Match awards. His 2022 season also made him the competition's leading run-scorer (339 runs across the tournament) — a statistic that Sadeera Samarawickrama's Player of the Tournament award (for batting average quality rather than volume) complemented rather than contradicted. Fernando and Samarawickrama gave Jaffna the LPL's 2022 batting prizes across both the final and the full competition.

Three Consecutive LPL Titles: Jaffna's Franchise Dominance

Jaffna Kings (and their predecessor Jaffna Stallions) winning three consecutive LPL titles (2020, 2021, 2022) gave the northern Sri Lanka franchise a level of franchise-format dominance that rivals comparable runs in other Asian domestic T20 competitions. The franchise's consistency across three editions — under different ownership names (Stallions → Kings), different competitions (Hambantota 2020, Hambantota 2021, Colombo 2022), and different venues — reflected the quality of squad recruitment and player retention that turned Jaffna into the LPL's signature franchise in the competition's first three years. Sadeera Samarawickrama's 294 runs in 9 matches at avg 58.80 as Player of the Tournament gave the Kings a batting player of the series whose numbers confirmed that Jaffna's 2022 title was built on depth across the batting lineup rather than reliance on a single player.

LPL 2022 in Context

The Lanka Premier League 2022 was the third edition of the competition — expanding the field from 5 to 6 teams and moving the tournament partially to Colombo, giving the competition broader Sri Lanka venue coverage beyond the Hambantota-only format of the 2020 inaugural edition. Colombo Stars reaching the 2022 LPL final as Jaffna's opponents gave the final the Jaffna-versus-Colombo rivalry that the competition's organizers had always hoped would develop as the LPL matured. Jaffna Kings' third consecutive LPL title (2020-2022) gave Sri Lanka's franchise T20 competition an early dominant champion — a pattern that other Asian T20 leagues (the IPL with MI and CSK, the PSL with Islamabad United) had also seen in their early editions, before competition depth and squad redistribution began to diversify the field of champions.