Sports

Sri Lanka vow to bounce back after Birmingham blues

Published

1 month ago

2026/06/15

Not much went right for Sri Lanka in their opening fixture of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.

After their disappointing outing in the curtain-raiser of the Women’s T20 World Cup in Birmingham, Sri Lanka have travelled south to Southampton and have been putting in the hard yards at the Rose Bowl ahead of their next assignment.

Chamari Atapattu’s side were no match for the hosts in the tournament opener as England romped to an emphatic 87 run victory, with precious little going right for the visitors.

England piled up a daunting 219 for one before bowling Sri Lanka out for 132, with not a single batter managing to post a half-century. It was a sobering reality check for a side that had arrived in England with plenty of momentum behind them.

Sri Lanka had enjoyed a productive build up to the competition. They had won bilateral series, breezed through both their warm-up games in Derby and prior to that had spent two weeks in a residential camp in Kandy fine tuning preparations. But all that good work counted for little as they turned in a below par performance in the opening game.

Head Coach Jamie Siddons conceded that the team had failed to do themselves justice, with the bowling and fielding standards falling well short of expectations.

“More than fielding, I put it down to poor bowling. Apart from that first over, we were simply not good enough,” Siddons told reporters in Birmingham.

“We are disappointed with our effort in Birmingham. We know we are much better than this and we will put up a better show in Southampton,” Siddons added.

Sri Lanka’s opponents in their second outing will be defending champions New Zealand. Another defeat would leave them with a mountain to climb despite having three games remaining. Only two teams from the group advance to the semi-finals and successive losses at the start of the tournament would make qualification an uphill task.

While the scheduling has done Sri Lanka no favours, pitting them against two former champions in successive games, the bigger concern is that they failed to compete in the opener. They will be hoping to put that right this week and show that Birmingham was merely a blip rather than a sign of things to come.

Rex Clementine

in Southampton

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Colombo Kaps down Dambulla Sixers by 21 runs

Published

7 hours ago

2026/07/26

Priyan

Colombo Kaps defended 197 runs to win the 12th match of the Lanka Premier League by restricting Dambulla Sixers to 176/8 at the Dambulla International Cricket Stadium on Saturday [25] night.

SCORES:
Colombo Kaps 197/5 in 20 overs [Rubin Hermann 39, Sadeera Samarawickrema 16, Sharujan Shanmuganathan 12, Kamindu Mendis 88*, Ben McDermott 14, Janith Liyanage 17; Fazalhaq Farooki 1-41, Dushmantha Chameera 1-41, Ramesh Mendis 1-05, Gulabdin Naib 1-15]
Dambulla Sixers 176/8 in 20 overs [Pavan Rathnayake 50, Marques Ackerman 40, Gulabdin Naib 28, Maheesh Thhekshana 13; Shahnawaz Dahani 2-20, Wanuja Sahan 1-34, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2-33, Malsha Tharupathi 1-26, Milan Rathnayake 1-26]

Latest News

Kandy Royals win by 11 runs

Published

8 hours ago

2026/07/26

Priyan

Nuwan Thushara starred with three wickets

Kandy Royals’ bowlers led by Nuwan Thushara were able to defend their score of 165 to win the 11th match of the Lanka Premier League by defeating Galle Gallants by 11 runs at Dambulla on Saturday.

SCORES:
Kandy Royals 165/6 in 20 overs [Lahiru Udara 16, Dale Phillips 34, Wanidu Hasaranga 16, Moeen Ali 41, Angelo Mathews 28, Vijay Shankar 15; Pramod Madushan 2-41, Akif Javed 2-26, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth 2-36]

Galle Gallants 154/8 in 20 overs [Sam Harper 14, Charith Asalanka 14, Chamika Karunarathne 52, Dasun Shanaka 57*; Nuwan Thushara 3-33, Asitha Fernando 2-33, Moeen Ali 1-11, Wanidu Hasaranga 1-26]

Sports

Jaffna Kings LPL side under SLC purview

Published

14 hours ago

2026/07/26

Thilina Walpola

Jaffna Kings former co-owner Manjot Kalra is in judicial custody until July 31

Innovative Production Group (IPG), the tournament rights holder of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), in consultation with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), has terminated the franchise agreement with Sports Commune, which was granted franchise rights of the Jaffna Kings.

The termination follows the franchisee’s inability to fulfil its financial obligations under the terms of the franchise agreement. As a result, all rights relating to the Jaffna Kings franchise have reverted to IPG, which, together with Sri Lanka Cricket, has assumed full operational control of the team.

IPG confirms that the 6th edition of the LPL will proceed as scheduled and Jaffna Kings will continue to participate in the tournament under the same nomenclature, with no changes to the squad, tournament format, or match schedule.

To ensure the uninterrupted operation of the franchise, IPG and Sri Lanka Cricket have taken complete responsibility for all player, coaching staff, and support staff contracts. The organizers also confirm that all logistical arrangements for the team have been secured, ensuring the squad is intact for the tournament.

Furthermore, approximately 90% of all player and staff payments have already been completed, with the remaining payments to be settled in accordance with contractual commitments.

IPG and Sri Lanka Cricket remain committed to delivering a successful sixth edition of the Lanka Premier League while upholding the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and transparency for players, teams, commercial partners, and fans.