Sports
Sri Lanka shows dominance in Asia Division 1 rugby with smashing 45-7 win over Kazakhstan
by A Special Sports Correspondent
Sri Lanka stamped it’s class in the Asia Men’s Division 1 rugby tournament when it crowned itself as the winner of ‘Cup Championship’ by beating Kazakhstan 45-7 in a lopsided contest in the presence of an appreciative Saturday crowd at the Race Course in Colombo.
The winners played the game wide and used speed and quick-silver footwork to rake up seven tries. Kazakhstan didn’t have a plot for the game and waited in vain for the Sri Lankans to run into them and start a physical encounter. The Sri Lankans chose otherwise and as a result finished off their opponents clinically and all that was achieved with a relatively young side.
The Kazakhstan side saw their goal line being cracked open at regular intervals; five of the Sri Lankan tries coming in the first half. The winners led 31-0 at half time.
What caught the visiting team to Sri Lanka off guard was the will of the Islanders to run the ball at every given opportunity. Back division players Zubair Dooray, Thenuka Nananyakkara, Adeesha Weerathunga, Tharinda Ratwatte and winger Dinal Ekanayake crossed the Kazakhstan goal line in the first half. Ratwatte was in a class of his own and scored the team’s third try with a show of individual brilliance. He also kicked right three conversions to swell the host teams score in the first half.
Kazakhstan was never out of the game and tried their best to keep pace with the fast-running Sri Lankans. Skipper and number eight Magamodov played hard in the lose and also contributed with a try in the 56th minute of the game. He scored at a time when the Sri Lankans were inside their ‘22’ and defending stubbornly to save their goal line. With that try being converted the Kazakhstan side saved their face because if not for that touchdown they would have been staring at an empty scoreboard after the game.
Before that try by Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka earned their sixth touchdown through the hard running half back Heshan Jansen who thundered his way over the line with the game into its 41st minute. About 19 minutes from the end Sri Lanka took off many of their hard-working players and gave the players on the bench some game time. The final try for Sri Lanka came off the efforts of Sachith Silva.
In the third-place playoff Qatar got the better of India with a score of 34 points against 25. India looked hopeless in the first half and trailed 26-6 at the ‘breather’. India fought back strongly and found the art of scoring tries in the second half, but their comeback into the game was recorded too late.
The tournament was conducted by Sri Lanka Rugby on behalf Asia Rugby.
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IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win
So that’s what happens when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get the kind of pitch their spinners like. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali (12-1-55-6) went into Chepauk and burgled wickets away from the five-time IPL champions until they were a pale, weak shadow of themselves. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) crumbled to 103 for 9, their lowest IPL total at home, suffered a fifth successive defeat, which had never happened before in their entire history, and are marooned in ninth place on the points table. Welcome back to captaincy, MS Dhoni.
The major characteristic of a black-soil pitch is that it is slow and it grips. It felt like home, which is ironic because home hasn’t felt like home for them this season. KKR would prefer to play most of their matches in conditions like this but their efforts to procure them at the Eden Gardens hasn’t gone well. Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t even want to talk about it now. He did, however, spearhead a phenomenal bowling performance. He brought Moeen into the XI and set him loose on CSK’s two left-hand openers. Devon Conway couldn’t overcome the handicap. The KKR offspinner pocketed a wicket maiden. In the next over, Rachin Ravindra was gone. CSK were bleeding by the end of the powerplay, their 31 for 2 only slightly better than the season low of 30 for 3 that they themselves had set, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Exposing this CSK team’s middle order is the only thing their oppositions need to do to win against them. Rahul Tripathi was brought in as Ruturaj Gaikwad’s replacement but he couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to hit out or play through and that indecision was reflected in his final score – 16 off 22. Vijay Shankar could have been dismissed for a duck, or for 20, had KKR held onto their catches. Even with those two lives he couldn’t push on to make a big score. Shivam Dube walked out with CSK at 59 for 3. He had faced only 13 balls and that was still enough time for the score to slip to 75 for 8, at which point his team was in danger of recording their lowest total in IPL history.
For the 16th time in his IPL career, Narine bowled his four overs without conceding a boundary. No one, having got through their full quota, has done it more times. He also knocked off Tripathi, who didn’t know which way the ball would turn, and Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni, who didn’t know which way the ball would spin. There was some doubt over the Dhonii lbw, though. UltraEdge showed what looked like faint murmurs as the ball passed the bat.
CSK were being smothered. They had to wait 63 balls between boundaries – only two teams have ever been that emphatically silenced in this tournament – and hit just three after the eighth over (one of them off a top edge). They had to bring in Deepak Hooda as Impact Player, accepting the risk of going in with a bowler short when they would have to defend this total. But even that gamble backfired. Hooda fell for a duck and one of their key players, Matheesha Pathirana, could not take part in the game.
Defending 103 is a thankless job because bowlers tend to go hard searching for wickets and in that process they leak runs. After under-performing in their batting powerplay, CSK underwhelmed with their bowling powerplay. KKR ransacked 71 runs in the first six overs. This game was no contest.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 107 for 2 in 10.1 overs (Sunil Narine 44, Quinton de Kock 23, Ajinkaya Rahane 20*, Rinku Singh 15*; Anshul Kamboj 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-08) beat Chennai Super Kings 103 for 9 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 12, Rahul Tripathi 16, Vijay Shankar 29, Shivam Dube 31; Sunil Narine 3-13, Varun Chakravarthy 2-22, Harshit Rana 2-16, Moeen Ali 1-20, Vaibhav Arora 1-31) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.
The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.
However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.
“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.
“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.
“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”
Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.
Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.
He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.
[BBC]
IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win
Sun directly overhead Adiyakulam, Veppankulam, Padawiya and Kuchchaveli at about 12:11 noon today [12]
Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places in Central, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Western and Uva provinces and in Ampara and Batticaloa districts during the afternoon or night.
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