Sports

Royal favourites at the 146th Battle of the Blues

Published

1 year ago

2025/03/6

by Reemus Fernando

Equiped with a strong batting lineup and a formidable bowling unit Royal are the firm favourites when they meet arch rivals S. Thomas’ in the historic 146th Battle of the Blues starting at the SSC ground today.

In the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ cricket quarter-final, which served as a virtual dress rehearsal for this encounter, pitting the two rivals against each other for the first time outside the Battle of the Blues, Royal proved beyond doubt that they were the stronger team as they restricted the Thomians to 120 runs in the first innings.

Royal’s strength is their batting this season. Their strong line up inclusive of two Sri Lanka Under 19 players has topped the 300 runs mark on five occasions. Former St. Sebastian’s batsman Vimath Dinsara who has scored over 700 runs, skipper Ramiru Perera (over 600 runs), deputy skipper Rehan Peiris (over 600 runs), wicketkeeper batsman Isula Geeganage (over 400 runs), Thevindu Wewalwala (over 400 runs), Yasindu Dissanayake and open batsman Hirun Liyanarachchi form the batting lineup. Liyanarachchi hasn’t impressed much this season, except in the matches against Gurukula (34, 33), Maliyadewa (5, 71), Trinity (26, 34) and Prince of Wales (47) and he needs to come up with his best if Royal are to set up a strong base. He will open batting with Rehan Peiris.

Royal are fielding three pacemen. They had Ranuka Malaviarachchi and left-arm paceman Kuchila Ranmadala doing new ball duties throughout the season. In the quarter-final match against S. Thomas’, they found young Sehandu Sooriyaarachchi as effective as his senior counterparts. With two five wicket hauls in three matches he has booked his Big Match ticket.

Left-arm spinner Sandul Abeywardena is expected to play a lead role in the spin department. He played only in seven matches but was able to make an impact taking a match bag of ten wickets in the crucial encounter against Maris Stella. His performance in the ten wicket victory helped Royal secure a quarter-final berth. Thevindu Wewalwala and Ramiru are the other spinners.

Royal played 13 matches this season, won one match and suffered a solitary defeat (by an innings and eight runs) at the hands of St. Sebastian’s.

S. Thomas’ skippered by paceman Kavindu Dias are heavily relying on Dineth Goonewardene and wicketkeeper batsman Avinash Fernando in the batting department. Goonewardene has maintained an average above 40 runs, while all others have averages below 28. The Thomians seem to have found some solace late in the season with Mithila Charles striking form with a century against Ananda. But their dark horse is former St. Peter’s Under 15 player Reshon Solomon who featured only in two friendly matches. The Thomian authorities did not field Solomon this season as they had not registered the batsman under their name at Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association. The rest of the Thomian batting line up includes Sadew Soysa, Jaden Amaraweera and Sachitha Gunasinghe.

In the bowing attack Dias is set to share the new ball with Ayman Anzary, while left-armer Aaron de Silva takes major share of responsibilities in spin bowling. His work load has been doubled after Thomian selectors decided to go with a single left-arm spinner. While Aaron had a tally of 49 wickets in 13 matches, experienced left-arm spinner Abheeth Paranawidana had 39 in ten matches. Both played equally impressive performances in their only victory of the season over St. Anthony’s Katugastota. However Paranawidana has not found a place in the playing XI. Darien Diego is the other specialist spinner in the team. The Thomians’ performances this season look similar to their opponents as they have one win against one defeat but the prowess in the batting department give Royal the edge.

Trivia

Dinsara and 122 runs

Sri Lanka Under 19 player Vimath Dinsara has scored three centuries for Royal this season. On all three occasions the former St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa player was either out on 122 or was unbeaten on 122.

Over 300 runs

Royal have scored over 300 runs on five occasions this season, while S. Thomas did that on two occasions.

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Lanka Premier League returns after two years, opener set for July 17

Published

2 hours ago

2026/05/19

Priyan

Lanka Premier League will return for the first time since 2024 [Cricinfo]

The Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2026 will officially commence on July 17 with a rematch of the 2024 final, which was the last time the LPL was held, featuring reigning champions Jaffna and 2024 runners-up Galle.

The tournament opener is set to take place under the SSC lights in Colombo – a venue that hosted its inaugural T20I during this year’s T20 World Cup. The game is scheduled to begin at 7.30pm, though the venue will also host an official opening ceremony to launch the 2026 season ahead of the fixture.

The finalised tournament timeline will see the competition run from July 17 through August 8. Previously, SLC had announced the tournament will start on July 10, its matches played across four international venues.

The SSC will host five matches in total from July 17-19, before the action moves to Dambulla, then Kandy, and finally back to Colombo – this time at the R. Premadasa Stadium – for the knockout stages and final. There will also be a reserve day for the final, on August 9.

The 2026 edition will feature five teams representing Jaffna, Colombo, Kandy, Galle, and Dambulla. While the official franchise names and corporate ownership structures remain unannounced, SLC is expected to release the finalised team identities and brand details in the lead-up to the tournament.

The player registration portal, meanwhile, has been open since May 8 and will close on May 20. While direct signings can take place until May 22, the deadline for registration for all categories remains May 20.

While the previous two seasons hosted an auction, this year will see the return of a draft, set for June 1.

This change means that no player retention will be allowed from previous seasons, setting the stage for a significant shake up in squad composition. Each team will need to have a minimum of 18 members in their squad, with a further provision to add two local players, taking the squad limit to a maximum of 20.

In order to boost homegrown participation, SLC has announced that two local Emerging U-23 players must be present in each squad, with at least one named in a team’s starting XI. There must also be four overseas players in the playing XI at any given time.

The player registration guidelines had briefly sparked controversy on social media after an initial draft of the guidelines had listed a minimal count of 250,000 social media followers as a mandatory requirement for a registering Icon and Star category players – the two highest player categories. However, SLC has since removed that requirement.

LPL also kept a strong focus on ensuring player media engagement, with match fee penalties ranging from 5% to 50% for failure to meet the media and fan engagement requirements.

[Cricinfo]

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Cummins, Kishan, Klaasen power Sunrisers Hyderabad into playoffs; Chennai Super Kings not out yet

Published

2 hours ago

2026/05/19

Priyan

Heinrich Klaasen and Ishan Kishan added 75 runs off 41 balls for the third wicket [BCCI]

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have qualified for the IPL 2026 playoffs, taking Gujarat Titans with them. Chennai Super Kings (CSK), meanwhile, are on the brink of elimination. MS Dhoni made it to the ground for the first time this season, but his calf injury continued to keep him on the sidelines. His team fought all the way through, trying to defend a total of 180, but a fifty from Ishan Kishan and utter brilliance from Heintich Klassen won out in the end.

Rutraj Gaikwad was 9 off 11 at the end of the powerplay. He became the second batter this season to come through the first six overs with no boundaries after Lucknow Super Giants’ Arshin Kulkarni in the game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on May 7.

It doesn’t appear as if Gaikwad is out of form. He is CSK’s second-highest run-getter. Just that he seems to be in denial about the way runs are scored in the powerplay in this IPL. With the field up, other openers are thinking boundaries all the time. He wants to get set and then go. It’s old school and that method, on Monday, gave him 15 in 21 balls – the lowest contribution by an opener at the time of his team’s 100.

On a pitch designed to neutralise bowlers of his pace, Pat Cummins picked up 3 for 28 in four overs. He nailed his match-up with Sanju Samson (one wicket for 23 runs in 20 balls in the IPL) and repeatedly went into the pitch with slower balls to add Kartik Sharma and Gaikwad into his back pocket. Led by the SRH captain’s example, Sakib Hussain took pace off for 18 of his 24 deliveries and finished with 2 for 34. These balls were sticking in the pitch and not coming onto the bat. It made setting up to play shots difficult.

Dewald Brevis walking out to bat is a spectacle all on its own, when he takes a knee just before entering the field. It’s clearly got something to do with his faith, but out here, it’s seen as a hero entry. As the main man marking himself out as the main man. Except coming into this game, he had a strike rate of 122.22. It was the sixth-lowest of all batters this season to have faced at least 50 balls.

SRH allowed only two boundaries in the five overs from nine to 13. CSK needed something from their star boy and finally he delivered. Hitting Nitish Reddy for a four and a six in the 14th over set him on his way to make 44 off 27. Confident in his cross-bat shots, he set himself up for the slow short ball and kept cutting and pulling them into the boundary.

At 17.5 overs, when Brevis was dismissed by Eshan Malinga, he, Samson and Kartik had scored 103 off 59, with 10 fours and seven sixes. Gaikwad, Urvil Patel and Shivam Dube had scored 54 off 52 with three fours and three sixes.

A third of CSK’s first seven overs were dot balls. Forty of SRH’s first 53 runs came in boundaries. The start of the chase was all about two teams pushing each other waiting for one of them to break.

Spencer Johnson and Mukesh Choudhary pushed the speed gun up to 140 kph and above, the polar opposite of what SRH’s quicks did, but they kept Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma in check and eventually got one of them out.

In between innings, CSK coach Stephen Fleming was deep in conversation with Akeal Hosein. A little bit of lip-reading suggested they were talking about how a left-arm spinner could succeed against left-hand batters. Hosein seemed to say he wanted to take the ball away from Abhishek and Head and Kishan first, and then bring one back to hit the stumps. It didn’t quite work out that way but he did get rid of Abhishek two balls into the match-up to lift CSK’s hopes.

A straight-bat push nearly resulted in his wicket but the ball dropped short of Hosein. Klaasen responded to that with a reverse sweep for four. Noor saw the change in stance and pulled out at the start of his next over. The next ball, Klaasen could have been dismissed for 18, had Johnson held on to a tough catch at deep square leg.

Once again, shrugging away the near-miss, Klaasen clattered Noor to the boundary. Klaasen dominated spin and finished with 47 off 26. He had a strike rate of 181 and was in control of 81% of the balls he faced. Those numbers should not have been possible on a pitch that was slow and a bit low. The impact he had on the game was apparent when Samson and Urvil had send-offs for Klaasen.

Batting in Klaasen’s slipstream was fun for Kishan. He brought up fifty off 37 balls. It wasn’t a fluent innings and that almost made it more special. He was so determined not to give it away and so alert when the bad ball came. Any time he had the chance to use his fast hands and whip stuff off his pads, he took them. He played the kind of innings that is important in the context of a season; a performance that says he may not be at his best but is still a threat.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 181 for 5 in 19 overs (Abhishek Sharma 26, Ishan Kishan 70, Heinrich Klaasen 47, Nitish Kumar Reddy 11, Salil Arora 10*; Mukesh Choudhary 2-36,Anshul Kamboj 1-46, Noor Ahmad 1-40, Akeal Hosein 1-21) beat Chennai Super Kings 180 for 7 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 27, Rutraj Gaikwad 15, Urvil Patel 13, Kartik Sharma 32, Dewald Brevis 44, Sjivam Dube 26. Prashant Veer 11; Praful Hinge 1-37, Pat Cummins 3-28, Eshan Malinga 1-26, Sakib Hussain 2-34) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Mushfiqur ton, Litton and Joy fifties set Pakistan 437

Published

2 hours ago

2026/05/19

Priyan

Mushfiqur Rahim brought up his century with a passionate celebration [Cricinfo]

Mushfiqur Rahim’s 14th Test century headlined Bangladesh’s dominance on the third day of the Sylhet Test. His knock and fifties from Litton Das and Mahmudul Hasan Joy helped Bangladesh set a target of 437.

Pakistan batted two overs before the umpires called off play due to bad light. The openers Abdullah Fazal and Azan Awais didn’t open their accounts as both Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam tested them in their respective overs.

The story of the day, however, was Mushfiqur’s 233-ball stay, adding 123 with Litton for the fifth wicket, and 77 runs for the seventh wicket with Taijul Islam. Mushfiqur struck twelve fours and one six during his knock, which was his third century in the second innings of a Test match, coming at a tricky period for Bangladesh when they had to bat well to keep themselves ahead of the game.

He followed his usual formula of getting set by playing the ball close to his body, before finding boundaries around the wicket. Cover drives, square-cuts and slog-sweeps were accompanied by hard hits down the ground and the pulls through midwicket.

Mushfiqur’s innings finally ended with roughly 35 minutes left on the third day; he was the last Bangladesh wicket to fall, in the 103rd over.

Pakistan’s best period on the third day was the first 45 minutes. Shahzad troubled captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, before trapping him lbw for 15. Litton, fresh off his first-innings century, was free-flowing even in seaming conditions. He gave Bangladesh a bit of breathing room with a few boundaries in the first session.

Litton was lucky too, surviving an easy run out when Babar Azam couldn’t hit the stumps from short midwicket. On 38 at the time, he was stranded halfway down the crease after a mix-up with Mushfiqur. Offspinner Sajid Khan also dropped Litton when he was on 56, off his own bowling. Litton continued to time the ball quite easily, until his upper-cut reached Saud Shakeel at fly-slip off Hasan Ali. He made 69 with five fours, off 92 balls.

Litton now has three occasions of a hundred and fifty in a Test, the most by a Bangladeshi wicketkeeper-batter. Later, Taijul contributed with 22 off 51 balls, with two fours, both stylishly struck, as he supported Mushfiqur during their seventh-wicket partnership. Mehidy Hasan Miraz fell to a beauty from Shahzad, but otherwise, Bangladesh kept things in their control on the third day.

Brief scores:
Pakistan 232 and 0 for 0 (Abdullah Fazal 0*, AzanAwais 0*) need 437 runs to win vs Bangladesh 278 and 390 (Mahmudul Hassan Joy 52, Mushfiqur Rahim 137, Litton Das 69; Khurram Shahzad 4-86, Sajid Khan 3-126)

[Cricinfo]