Sports
An impressive campaign with lots of positives
Rex Clementine in Dubai
The national cricket team travelled back home yesterday (Friday) night having been away for a month and their performance during the ICC T-20 World Cup here in UAE were commended by many. The former champions had little momentum behind them when they left the island having been blanked by South Africa 3-0 at home. More than half the members in the tour party had played less than a handful of T-20 Internationals and there were worries whether Sri Lanka would even qualify having been grouped alongside Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia.
But to their credit, Dasun Shanaka’s side stormed to the second round with a clean sheet having won by heavy margins. In the Super 12 stage, they beat Bangladesh and West Indies while losing to England, Australia and South Africa. The game against Proteas was decided in the penultimate delivery of the game.
All in all this campaign has been an excellent one. The emergence of several young players should be the base on which Sri Lanka should be building on.
By the time Sri Lanka played their last game in the second round, they had the two leading run scorers in the competition in Charith Asalanka and Pathum Nissanka while Wanindu Hasaranga was the leading wicket taker. Into the bargain, Hasaranga also rose through the ranks and today he is world’s number one bowler in T-20 cricket. Not since Ajantha Mendis in 2011, Sri Lanka had a player ranked number one. All three players were involved in their first ICC event.
Maheesh Theekshana after being pushed into the deep end of bowling to some of the greats of the game in the Power Plays came off with flying colours as he contained the batsmen with his accurate bowling.
Dushmantha Chameera with his raw pace was on the money making breakthroughs every time he was called up to bowl.
Avishka Fernando on whom there was a lot of expectations was a disappointment along with Kusal Perera, the team’s senior most player. Had KJP’s wicket keeping been sharp, Sri Lanka could have pushed some teams even closer.
KJP’s contributions as a senior player was a disappointment. To start with you are not firing on all cylinders but surely you can at least be more proactive on and off the field helping a young team rebuild. On the field, when things were derailing, KJP’s contributions were not much and off the field you can get an idea that he has not been contributing much as he did not attend a single press briefing standing up as a senior player. Instead, Sri Lanka sent someone like Maheesh Theekshana, who was on his first tour for three press briefings. Surely, you expect more from a former captain. Or, is it a case of sour grapes having been stripped of captaincy?
There’s excitement among the fans that Sri Lanka have come out of their extended poor run. There’s lot of hope moving forward.
Death bowling is one of the areas that the team needs to work on. It is Sri Lanka’s death bowling that cost them a semi-final berth as England and South Africa did too much damage in that period.
Another area that needs to be looked at is the options batsmen are taking against spin bowling. They have struggled against quality spin, especially wrist spinners and the issue needs urgent attention.
By A Special Sports Correspondent
Kandy Sports Club crowned themselves as ‘Cup Championship’ winners in the inter-club league rugby tournament when they overcame their final hurdle by beating Havelocks Sports Club by 50 points to 24 at Nittawela last evening.
Kandy SC was anyway assured of the title this season before this final game of the season even began, given that they were unbeaten thus far in the league tournament. Kandy SC collected their points through seven tries, six conversions and a penalty while Havelocks Sports Club responded with a three converted tries and a penalty.
Kandy SC set the pace for the game from the kick off itself and recorded first half tries through Dinal Ekanayake, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Kenula Hettiarachchi and Dahan Wickremaarachchi and all four conversions were slotted in by Tharinda Ratwatte. Havelocks SC got most of their points in the first half through Sandesh Jayawickreme who scored a try and booted through a conversion. The penalty for the Park Club was kicked right by Samuel Maduwantha.
Kandy SC faced some resistance from Havies after the turn around, but the side from Nittawela found the try line by breaking through a barrage of tackles from the men wearing the pink and chocolate jerseys.
Dahan Wickremaarachchi started the ball rolling for Kandy with a try after the turn around which took the side’s score to 38 with the conversion. Havies played in patches thereafter and scored through Jayathu Rajaratne and Janidu Fernando. Jayawickreme was spot on with the conversions.
Kandy’s Ethen Schneider Loos smashed his way through for the side’s sixth try which was converted by Ratwatte. Kandy had the game in the bag despite Havies playing attacking rugby whenever they had possession. But the score line deference that Kandy maintained throughout the game made it hard for Havies to make a real comeback into the game.
The Nittwala side erupted in jubilation when Ekanayake punted ahead and sent crowd favourite Nigel Ratwatte for the seventh and final try. There was speculation throughout the game that this would be Nigel’s final game for the Kandy SC side. Surprisingly Tharinda missed the conversion.
At the awards presentation ceremony after the game, Kandy Sports Club’s Tharinda Ratwatte was named as the highest points scorer for the 2024/25 league rugby season. He has accumulated 139 points this season.
Havelocks Sports produced the highest try scorer for the season. That award went to Jayathu Rajaratne of Havies. He has had 16 touchdowns this season. Havelocks Sports Club had to be satisfied with the runners-up trophy at the awards presentation. Players from both sides including the coaching staff were presented with medals by the organisers of the tournament.
Meanwhile CR&FC did well in their last outing in the Cup Championship segment of the league tournament when they beat Air Force by 31 points to 16 at Longden Place.
In the two Plate Segment matches, Sri Lanka Navy beat Sri Lions by 41 points to 38 at Race Course.In the other match of the Plate segment, Police SC beat Army SC by 24 points to 17. The match was played at Police Park.
Mutthusami Sivarajan and Rasara Wijesuriya won the men’s and women’s Cross Country Championships of the National Sports Festival conducted in Nuwara Eliya.
Sivarajan representing Central Province returned a time of 34 minutes and 21 seconds to finish ahead of Samantha Pushpakumara and Damith Hemantha Kumara.
In the women’s category, Wijesuriya from Eastern Province clocked 38 minutes and 41 seconds finish ahead of Madhushani Herath and Chamini Herath.
Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs Cricket
by Reemus Fernando
Trinity advanced to the final of the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs Cricket tournament with six wickets victory over arch rivals St. Anthony’s in the semi-final played at BRC ground on Saturday.
Open batsman Dimantha Mahavithana held Trinity’s batting together with a valuable knock of 74 runs inclusive of six fours. He was out after leveling scores. Chaniru Senarathne added a fourth wicket stand of 82 runs with Mahavithana and remained unbeaten on 44.
Deciding to bowl first, Trinity did well to take three quick wickets.
Malith Rathnayake who opened bowling with Sethmika Senavirathne took three wickets as he completed his full quota of ten overs for 23 runs. Senavirathne did not take a wicket but he bowled an economical spell giving away just 20 runs in his eight overs.
Sweath Anurajeewa took three wickets for 25 runs (8 overs) while Chaniru Senarathne, Vathila Udara and Jayavi Liyanagama grabbed a wicket each.
Trinity will now meet St. Joseph’s in the final which will be played after the O/L exams.
St. Joseph’s eliminated Gurukula to book their final berth.
Trinity are in the semi-final stage of the two-day tournament as well.
Scores:
St. Anthony’s 158 all out in 50 overs (Sadew Amarakoon 31, Kaushika Kumarasinghe 35, Kevan Fernando 34n.o.; Malith Rathnayake 3/23, Sweath Anurajeewa 3/25)
Trinity 159 for 4 in 45.3 overs (Dimantha Mahavithana 74, Aadham Hilmy 22, Chaniru Senarathne 44n.o.; Ryan Gregory 2/30)
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