Sports
Joes take first innings points against tournament leaders
Under 19 Cricket
by Reemus Fernando
St. Joseph’s earned vital first innings points against tournament leaders St. Sebastian’s who managed to draw the Division I Tier ‘A’ tournament match after being forced to follow on at Moratuwa on Wednesday.
In reply to St. Joseph’s 393 runs, the home team were bowled out for 220 runs as skipper Lahiru Amarasekara followed up his half century with an impressive five wicket haul. (24-7-76-5). Following on, the Sebs managed to bat through to the finish thanks to the contributions made by Ushen Silva, Navod Fernando and Nadeesh Fernando. While Amarasekara picked up a wicket Yenula Dewthusa took three wickets.
The performance helped the Joes earn vital first innings points against St. Sebastian’s who are the leading team in their group. The Sebs have registered two outright victories in four outings.
Meanwhile, Moratu Vidyalaya bounced back from a terrific top order collapse to earn first innings honours against Holy Cross College, Kalutara in a traditional encounter as they restricted the latter to 96 runs. Nishitha Fernando was instrumental in restricting the visitors as he took five wickets.
In another traditional match, Dharmaraja took command scoring 95 for two wickets at stumps after restricting Zahira to 92 runs on day one at Ambepussa.
Results
Joes earn first innings points at Moratuwa
Scores:
St. Joseph’s
393 all out in 95.1 overs (Abishek Jayaweera 55, Rishma Amarasingha 22, Lahiru Amarasekara 53, Yenula Dewthusa 86, Senuja Wakunugoda 97, Kaven Pathirana 29, Maanasa Madubashana 30; Manuja Chanthuka 4/117, Navod Fernando 2/54)
St. Sebastian’s
5 for no loss overnight 220 all out in 73.4 overs (Ushen Silva 29, Adesh Almeida 24, Navod Fernando 39, Malintha Silva 64; Dunick Perera 2/19, Lahiru Amarasekara 5/76) and 135 for 5 in 32 overs (Ushen Silva 34, Navod Fernando 37n.o., Nadeesh Fernando 39; Yenula Dewthusa 3/70)
Moratu Vidyalaya bounce back at Moratuwa
Scores:
Moratu
MV 141 all out in 53.3 overs (Kanchana Nimshan 27, Lakindu Yahampath 52; Hivin Kenula 5/30, Sanuka Cheran 2/34, Himaru Deshan 2/37) and 143 all out in 71.5 overs (Deneth Sithumina 45, Sandun Sudharshana 36n.o.; Sanuka Cheran 2/14, Himaru Deshan 6/33)
Holy Cross
64 for 4 overnight 96 all out in 51.2 overs (Akash Gamage 19, Himaru Deshan 31; Lakindu Yahampath 3/19, Nishitha Fernando 5/21) and 33 for 1 in 20 overs
Dharmaraja take command against Zahira at Ambepussa
Scores:
Zahira
92 all out in 31.6 overs (Raeedh Roshan Careem 29; Shehan Marasinghe 2/36, Lakvin Abeysinghe 4/21, Dakshika Manukalpa 3/13)
Dharmaraja
95 for 2 in 45.6 overs (Isuru Pannala 24n.o., Lakvin Abeysinghe 51n.o.)
B Sai Sudarshan and Prasidh Krishna once again stood up for Gujarat Titans (GT) as they beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 58 runs in Ahmedabad. This was GT’s fourth successive win in IPL 2025 and it took them to the top of the points table.
After RR opted to bowl on a red-soil pitch, Sai Sudharsan’s 82 off 53 balls, his third half-century of the season, steered GT to 217 for 6. With no dew in the second innings, it proved way too steep for RR to chase down. Mohammed Siraj and Arshad Khan struck in the powerplay before Prasidh picked up 3 for 24 in the middle overs to keep RR on the back foot. Despite Shimron Hetmyer’s fighting fifty, RR were all out for 159 in 19.2 overs.
Joffra Archer didn’t have a great start to IPL 2025. In his first two games, he conceded 109 from 6.3 wicketless overs. But he boucned back in his next two with a combined 4 for 38 from seven overs. He breathed fire tonight as well. In his first over, he rushed Sai Sudharsan with a 152.3kph bouncer. In his second, he got one to move in at 147.7kph and pegged back Shubman Gill’s off stump. His match-up against Gill in T20 cricket now reads: 15 balls, ten runs, three dismissals.
For his former captain Jos Buttler, Archer had two slips, a short leg and a catching square leg, and welcomed him with a menacing bouncer that Buttler did well to evade. Buttler inside-edged the next ball just wide of short leg, and then pushed Archer through the covers for four.
Sai Sudharsan generally takes time to get going. Here, he attacked right from the start. He ramped, scooped, drove and cut, and took his side to 50 in 5.1 overs. By the end of the powerplay, he had 39 against his name, off 22 balls. Only Wriddhiman Saha (54 vs Lucknow Super Giants in 2023) has scored more runs in an innings for GT in that phase.
Buttler was on 12 off 13 at one point but hit four fours in his next six balls to move to 31 off 19. He and Sai Sudharsan added 80 off 46 balls before Maheesh Theekshana trapped Buttler lbw. After a brief dip in the scoring rate, M Shahrukh Khan opened up and smashed 36 off 20 to re-inject momentum.
Sudharsan was dropped on 81 by Shubham Dubey off Archer in the 18th over, but he only added one more to his tally. Then Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan ransacked 30 in the last two overs to take GT past 200.
RR did not have a great start. Yashasvi Jaiswal slashed Arshad to deep third in the second over of the chase and Nitish Rana did the same against Siraj in the next. Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag counterattacked and added 48 off 26 balls for the third wicket. The stand was broken when Impact Sub Kulwant Khejroliya had Parag caught behind in the seventh over. Parag immediately reviewed the decision, confident that his bat had only hit the ground, but the third umpire thought otherwise, with Ultra Edge also bringing up a second spike when the ball passed the bat.
Coming into this game, Rashid had picked up just one wicket in four outings. Tonight, he struck in his first over. It was a shortish ball that didn’t bounce as much as Dhruv Jurel expected, and Sai Sudharsan at deep midwicket gobbled up the mistimed pull.
Rashid enjoys a favourable match-up against Hetmyer, having dismissed him six times in 63 balls for 79 runs before this game. He almost had Hetmyer lbw for a first-ball duck but the ball had pitched fractionally outside leg stump. From there on, Hetmyer dominated Rashid and hit him for 26 runs off 12 balls with the help of two fours and two sixes. However, Rashid was too good for RR’s Impact Sub Shubham Dubey and had him lbw for 1.
In his final over, the 16th over of the innings, Prasidh had Archer caught at mid-off and Hetmyer at deep-backward square leg, both off short balls. With RR 145 for 8 after 16 overs, the result was sealed. They dragged their innings into the final over but that did little to reduce the margin of their defeat.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 217 for 6 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 82, Jos Buttler 36, M Shahrukh Khan 36, Rahul Tewatia 24*, Rashid Khan 12; Joffra Archer 1-30, Tushar Deshpande 2-53, Sandeep Sharma 1-41, Maheesh Theekshana 2-54) beat Rajasthan Royals 159 (Shimron Hetmyer 52, Sanju Samson 41, Riyan Parag 26; Mohammed Siraj 1-30, Arshad Khan 1-19, Prasidh Krishna 3-24, Kulwant Khejroliya 1-29, Sai Kishore 2-20, Rashid Khan 2-37) by 58 runs
[Cricinfo]
Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs Tournament
Speedster Manasa Madubashana celebrated his 19th birthday sharing four wickets each with spinner Yenula Dewthusa as St.Joseph’s sealed a comfortable 71 runs victory over Trinity in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs tournament final at Surrey Village ground on Wednesday.
Chasing 205 runs to win Trinity’s top order batsmen were rattled by Madubashana who took four wickets in a decisive seven over spell. He took wickets in consecutive balls in his second over to trigger a collapse from which Trinity never recovered.
The four wicket hauls by Madubashana and Dewthusa restricted Trinity to 133 runs. In their chase, Trinity lost wickets at reguler intervals and a laboured 48 runs from Sweath Anurajeewa only managed to delay the outcome till the 48th over. His innings came to an end when Madubashana held on to a regulation catch off the bowling of Aveesha Samash.
Earlier put to bat, St. Joseph’s too lost wickets at reguler intervals, but mini partnerships between Abishek Jayaweera and Senuja Wakunegoda (52 for the second wicket), and Jayaweera and Nimthaka Gunewardena (45 for the 3rd wicket) enabled them to stay aloft.
Gunawardena top scored with 47 runs, while skipper Kenath Liyanage played a vital role anchoring the tail with an unbeaten 29 runs.
The title victory capped a remarkable end to the Joes limited overs tournament campaign after having reached the knockout stage with only two victories under their belt.
by Reemus Fernando
Schools Relay Carnival commenced at Diyagama on Wednesday. Here are some pictures from day one of the three-day championship.
(Pix by Kamal Wanniarachchi)
Lyceum International Wattala were the winners of the Under 20 distance medley
relay. (From left) Himansi Pradeepani, Shalomi Rashni, Rashini Karunarathne
and Jithma Wijethunga.
.Under 20 boys medley relay winners, St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena. (From
left) Andrew Akash, Kalana Jayamanna, Kavindu Jayamanna and Denuth Nimesh.
Under 12 boys’ 4x100m relay winners, Maris Stella College. Negombo (From left) Tanujitha Weerasekara, Senith Ranasinghe, Milan Fernando and Denuth Thenujan.
Girls’ Under 12 4×50 metres relay winners, St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo. (From left) Jenuli Perera, Sanah Fernando, Glesha Nanayakkara and Dehara Alwis.
Sun directly overhead Hatthikuchchi, Kalankuttiya, Halmillewa, Ipalogama, Palugaswewa and Habarana at about 12:11 noon. today [10]
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