Sports
A gloomy end to Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign
Rex Clementine in Miami
Sri Lanka crashed out of the ICC T-20 World Cup with a game to spare after their match against Nepal in Miami was washed out by rain. The former champions had made things difficult for themselves after losing back-to-back games against South Africa and Bangladesh, but still had an outside chance of making it to the second round depending on decisions of other games going in their favour. But after Tuesday’s washout, even if they win their next game against Netherlands they will be left with only three points and that’s not good enough to go through.
It rained the whole day in Miami on Tuesday. Although the rains cleared by 6:00 pm, there were hopes of a delayed start with overs shortened. The match officials did an inspection at 8:30pm local time and decided to abandon the game. There were two puddles in long off and long-on and playing the game would have been too risky. The ground staff did an excellent job to clear the water, but their effort wasn’t good enough.
The players left the ground half an hour after the match was abandoned and it started raining again.
Sri Lanka will now travel to St. Lucia where they will play their remaining group game against Netherlands later this week.
It’s been a disappointing campaign for Sri Lanka no doubt. The same team had beaten Afghanistan at home and Bangladesh away from home in T-20 series and there were high hopes of Sri Lanka doing well.
However, the team had little momentum during their campaign from the moment they won the toss against South Africa and decided to bat first on an unknown wicket. Sri Lanka were shot out for 77 in New York, their lowest total ever in T-20 cricket.
Sri Lanka were poor in handling game situations and playing under pressure as several batters perished trying to attack whereas picking up singles would have been the wiser choice on two paced tracks.
“It has been a disappointing campaign for us. Our batting didn’t click and although our bowlers and fielders fought hard, we didn’t simply have enough runs on the board to fight back,” spin bowler Maheesh Theekshana told journalists after the game was abandoned.
“We were poor in assessing the conditions. It’s been a tough campaign for us. I don’t think we deserve a place in the second round. We know we are out of the tournament but we have one more game and realistically we need to finish that game off in a good manner.”
The final week of the year is like a Roman feast for the Test cricket fan, and Boxing Day this year promises mouth-watering contests in Melbourne and Centurion but look this way too, will you? Bulawayo is set to host Zimbabwe’s first Boxing Day Test 8n 28 years too, and with unpredictable Afghanistan on the other side, a real tussle is expected between the two teams, who despite their recent underwhelming performances, would feel like they’re favourites. After all, the last time either side won a Test was against each other.
But that was way back 8n 2021. Since then, they have not found a way to win. And one look at the Zimbabwe and Afghanistan squads for this two-Test series suggests that they’re both looking to change that by taking a different direction for 2025 and beyond. A splattering of Test debutants are expected – theoretically, there could be as many 15 debuts across the two XIs – and this series could very well be the one that births a new generation.
Under 19 Cricket
by Reemus Fernando
Mahinda College, Galle took firm control of their two-day Under 19 Division I Tier ‘B’ cricket encounter as they reached 213 for nine wickets at stumps after restricting Moratu Vidyalaya to 96 runs at Galle on Wednesday.
After Arosha Udayanga grabbed five wickets to trouble the visitors, the home team topped 200 runs thanks to a century by open batsman Dulsith Darshana and a half century by Senuka Dangamuwa.
While Darshana scored 13 fours and a six in his 106 which came in 143 balls, Dangamuwa hammered nine fours and a six in his 50 which came in 51 balls.
Mahinda are in search of their first outright victory in the tournament proper after having earned first innings points in two out of the three matches in their group.
Moratu Vidyalaya too have completed three matches and have scored first innings points on one occasion.
Scores
Moratu Vidyalaya
96 all out in 45.2 overs (Sanjana Senavirathna 31, Shehara Fernando 20; Arosha Udayanga 5/35)
Mahinda
213 for 9 in 52 overs (Dulsith Darshana 106, Senuka Dangamuwa 50; Isuru Nidharshana 2/64, Nishitha Fernando 5/45)
by Reemus Fernando
Sri Lanka Athletics has suspended track and field official S. W. Nimalsiri for four years after a three member committee appointed by the sports governing body found him guilty of manhandling leading athletic official G.L.S. Perera within the Sri Lanka Athletics premises in Torrington.
“The executive committee of Sri Lanka Athletics decided to hand Nimalsiri a four year suspension after the three member committee concluded that he was guilty of manhandling the respected official,” Saman Kumara Gunawardhana, the secretary of Sri Lanka Athletics told The Island.
At the time of the suspension Nimalairi was a committee member of Sri Lanka Athletics and is the president of the Ace Athletics Club and secretary of the Colombo District Athletics Association.
The three member committee that inquired the incident involving Nimalairi and Perera was headed by retired district court judge Upali Samaraweera. Others in the committee were former director of sports Padma Siriwardana and disciplinary committee chairman of Sri Lanka Athletics Chandana Ekanayake.
Nimalsiri has also been suspended from officiating in track and field competitions.
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