Sports
Brathwaite resists Sri Lanka on opening day
Kraigg Brathwaite remained unbeaten on 99.
Kraigg Brathwaite starred with a resilient, unbeaten 99 as he led the way for West Indies on the opening day of the second and final Test in Antigua. West Indies did well to recover from the double jolt from Suranga Lakmal, to keep Sri Lanka at bay with a score of 287 for seven at stumps on Monday.
Just the two wickets fell in the final session as Brathwaite held his end in stoic fashion with Rahkeem Cornwall for company, who clobbered the Sri Lankan bowlers to the boundaries at will. Together, the pair added over 65 runs for the eighth wicket. Despite Sri Lanka taking the new ball and bringing on their best bowlers in the final period of play, the pair saw the day through without much fuss.
Earlier, Lakmal’s figures read 6-6-0-2 in the opening session following an excellent spell upfront that sent back one of West Indies’ openers and the no. 3 batsman cheaply after Sri Lanka opted to bowl. Mayers and Brathwaite’s reviving 71-run stand took West Indies to 86 for 2 at Lunch.
It was an elongated ten-over spell from Lakmal, where he bowled with discipline; he was accurate and consistently bowled good lengths. He was a cause of bother for the West Indies batsmen early in the day, and was rewarded with the wickets of John Campbell and Nkrumah Bonner, the centurion from the first Test. He could’ve had a third too, had Pathun Nissanka not spilled an outside edge off Mayers’s bat.
After eking out an outside edge off Campbell’s bat in the seventh over with his round-the-wicket ploy, Lakmal set up Bonner. Two balls leading into his dismissal saw an outside edge falling just short of the slip fielder, while the next one beat the edge. The wicket ball came back in just enough to take the inside edge to knock the stumps over. After six maidens on the trot, Lakmal conceded his first run from the 37th ball of his spell.
Brief scores:
West Indies
287/7 (Kyle Mayers 49, Kraigg Brathwaite 99n.o. Rahkeem Cornwall 43n.o.; Suranga Lakmal 3-71)
There are few sights in cricket more pleasing to the purist’s eye than Pathum Nissanka in full flow – batting as if he were painting strokes on a canvas. Last year, the elegant right-hander had a breakthrough season, making headlines and turning heads. But 2025 hadn’t been kind to him until now. After a barren patch where his bat was quieter than a library on a Sunday, Nissanka has found his rhythm once more.
He started last year with a bang – quite literally – blasting his way past Sanath Jayasuriya’s long-standing record for the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan in ODIs. But he didn’t just break the record; he smashed it to smithereens and went on to notch up the country’s maiden double century in ODI cricket. For a nation that had graced three World Cup finals and boasted of batting luminaries like Aravinda de Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, and T.M. Dilshan, it was almost unbelievable that no Sri Lankan had reached that landmark before.
Yet, the true turning point came in London six months later. With Sri Lanka two-nil down in the Test series after painful losses at Old Trafford and Lord’s, the third Test at The Oval was played for pride. The ball was seaming around like a drunk staggering through a winding road. In those conditions, even someone like Nishantha Ranatunga – whose bowling could usually be charitably described as dibbly-dobbly – might have looked like Michael Holding reincarnated.
That’s when Pathum produced a gem – an innings so perfectly constructed, it belonged in a museum. For the first 40 runs, he played with the straightest of bats, tighter than a miser’s purse. Then, as he started seeing the ball well, the cover drives started flowing like fine wine. Once past the century, he hooked with intent and class, showing he was no one-trick pony.
It was a statement knock, from a player who had previously been pigeonholed as a white-ball specialist. That innings nailed his place back in the Test side and brought Sri Lanka their first win in England in a decade – a victory as rare and precious as a blue moon.
Naturally, fans and pundits thought Nissanka would go from strength to strength. Scoring a ton away from home, especially with the Duke’s ball and against top-tier bowling, is no mean feat. It requires skill, temperament and a touch of steel.
But from that high, it was a steep fall. A string of failures followed – at home against New Zealand and Australia, and away in South Africa. Across five Tests, he mustered just one half-century, the rest of his innings no more than brief cameos that flattered to deceive.
That solitary fifty came at Port Elizabeth, where he looked in complete control – until a rush of blood had him dancing down the track to Keshav Maharaj. He missed, the stumps didn’t. Bowled for 89, with a century there for the taking. It was a golden chance squandered and few Sri Lankans have joined the elusive club of Test centurions on South African soil. That miss stung.
Word has it that the Head Coach didn’t utter a word to him for a fortnight. That Test was within Sri Lanka’s grasp and Pathum’s dismissal tilted the scales.
The lean patch bled into domestic cricket. The runs dried up like a well in a drought. For NCC, he was a passenger and for Kandy in the ongoing NSL, he barely made a ripple in the first few matches. The vultures began to circle.
Meanwhile, openers like Lahiru Udara and Ron Chandraguptha were cashing in, piling on runs and banging loudly on the selection door. For Pathum, the writing was on the wall. It was now or never.
Just when it looked like he was heading back to the pavilion for good, he came up with an innings for the ages – a double century that not only turned heads but kept Kandy’s hopes of making the final alive. It was the cricketing equivalent of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Pathum is cut from rare cloth. He shares traits with the great Sangakkara – particularly that unrelenting hunger for big runs. He doesn’t stop at three figures; he builds monuments. And when he does, the team usually ends up with totals that put the opposition under the pump.
Another feather in his cap is the pace at which he scores. He’s no stonewaller; instead, he unfurls an array of shots that are as delightful as they are destructive. At times, though, that flamboyance is his undoing.
What separates him from the rest is his work ethic. When others are hitting the snooze button, Pathum is hitting the nets. He’s willing to put in the hard yards, and that dedication is the backbone of his resurgence.
Whispers had begun that his place in the Test XI was hanging by a thread. But with a statement double hundred in the country’s premier domestic tournament, Pathum has silenced the doubters and booked his ticket for the Bangaldesh Tests.
by Rex Clementine
New Zealand kept their ODI record against Pakistan spotless as they eased to a 43 run win to seal a 3-0 series sweep.
After a nearly-two-hour delay to the start because of a wet outfield owing to overnight rain in Mount Maunganui, Michael Bracewell and Rhys Mariu’s half-centuries got New Zealand up to 264 in 42 overs. Pakistan made a slow start amid a freak injury to Imam-ul-Haq and while there were contributions right down the order led by a Babar Azam half-century, New Zealand never let Pakistan get on top of the asking rate. Five more wickets for Ben Sears saw New Zealand regularly chip away as Pakistan folded for 221.
For the third successive game, Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and decided to put New Zealand in. Naseem Shah came in for the concussed Harris Rauf and had an immediate impact, squaring Nick Kelly up to get an early wicket. But New Zealand consolidated with a 78-run stand between Mariu and Henry Nicholls, even if it wasn’t quite as explosive as New Zealand have been in the first powerplay this series.
Sufiyan Muqeem was introduced somewhat late in the game, but struck almost immediately, getting a fluid Mariu out for a half-century as he tried to sweep. But New Zealand continued to work their way through the innings sedately, building one partnership after another; five of the top six scored between 26 and 59. Tim Seifert and Daryl Mitchell combined for another 61-run stand as they geared up to give the lower-middle order a platform for a big finish.
It was captain Bracewell who made good on that platform in a blistering innings. He started slowly after coming in with just under 11 overs to go, but when he launched Mohammed Wasim over fine leg in the 34th over, it would be the first of a half-dozen sixes off his bat. Akif Javeed bore the brunt of the punishment, plundered for 18 in the following over as Bracewell hared towards his half-century. It would come in the final over of the innings with a fifth six of the innings against Akif; he would smash one more before Akif finally got his man off the last ball of the innings. It was his fourth wicket, but having smashed 59 off 40, Bracewell had what he wanted from his knock.
New Zealand’s quicks were tight up top once more and strangled Pakistan early, but the early stages of the game were defined by the injury to Imam. He nudged Will O’Rourke and set off for a single, but the throw at his end bounced up awkwardly and ended up lodging itself in the grill of Imam’s helmet. Imam went down immediately as the physio raced on. Extensive treatment followed as it became clear Imam would struggle to continue. He would be bandaged and wheeled off on a stretcher, with Usman Khan his concussion substitute.
Abdullah Shafique and Babar were steady through the early stages of the chase, but never as brisk as was required of them. Shafique’s innings was typically punctuated by quality shot-making, a pick-up of O’Rourke towards midwicket perhaps the highlight, but 33 off 56 was a truer indicator of how few and far between such aggression was. He failed to get on top of a short ball from Sears to give Jacob Duffy a comfortable catch in the deep; by now, the asking rate was approaching eight.
Usman’s innings ended with a moment of brilliance in the field from Bracewell – of the sort that has become their hallmark. Usman looked uncomfortable against the short ball as ever and skied one off Muhammad Abbas. Bracewell dashed in from midwicket, and it always looked like the ball would land just short, but a dive at full stretch saw him pluck the ball inches off the ground.
In a dagger blow to Pakistan, Babar followed swifty after, clipping one to deep midwicket immediately after bringing up his half-century. It became something of a theme for the innings; each of the top seven reached double-figures without making a more meaningful contribution to the chase. The captain Rizwan was the most proactive, looking good through a breezy 32-ball 37, but with wickets falling at the other end, Pakistan needed a bit more meat on the bones of that innings. But Duffy cleverly changed his pace and drew a miscue from him, leaving Pakistan a further 96 to win in just 56 with the top half back in the hut.
In the second game, the bottom half had bailed Pakistan out of an embarrassing defeat, primarily led by Faheem Ashraf. There would be no rescue act from the allrounder this time, Bracewell striking as he sliced to Seifert who took a sharp catch, and Naseem was only good for a brief cameo before the returning Sears put a stop to it.
By now, Pakistan’s hopes of victory were realistically over, and Sears made hay, taking three off the last four wickets – including the final one – to help himself to a second consecutive five-wicket haul. There was brief drama at the end of a long day when the lights went out just as Duffy was about to deliver to Tayyab Tahir, fighting a lone if purposeless hand at the end of the innings. When the lights came back on, though, he was gone next ball, and it would be under bright lights that New Zealand sealed glory, plunging Pakistan into ever-deepening gloom as they ended a miserable tour on a feeble note.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 264 for 8 in 42 overs (Michaell Bracewell 59, Rhys Mariu 58, Daryl Mitchell 43, Henry Nicholls 31, Tim Seifert 26; Akif Javed 4-62, Naseem Shah 2-54) beat Pakistan 221 in 40 overs (Babar Azam 50, Abdulla Shafiqe 33, Mohamed Rizwan 37, Tayyab Tahir 33; Ben Sears 5-34, Jacob Duffy 2-40) by 43 runs
[Cricinfo]
Hardik Pandya claimed his maiden T20 five-fer and scored an unbeaten 16-ball 28 but was powerless to prevent Mumbai Indians’ [MI] third loss in four games. They lost to a spirited Lucknow Super Giants [LSG] side, who had Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram to thank for powering them to 203, a score that they defended by 12 runs, thanks in large part to a superb spell from 25-year-old Digvesh Rathi, who took 1 for 21.
At the 15-over mark, the contest was evenly poised: LSG stood at 146 for 3, MI at 143 for 3. Mumbai, historically strong chasers, seemed on course for a late surge. But that’s when Rathi made his mark. The legspinner delivered a crucial spell, conceding just 10 runs from his first three overs. Skipper Rishabh Pant even reserved an over of his for the death, and Rathi stood tall in the 18th, giving away just 11 against a rampaging Hardik Pandya. Across his four overs, Rathi bowled eight dots and conceded just a single boundary-proving to be the difference.
On the flip side, it was a night to forget for Impact Sub Tilak Varma. The rising star struggled to find fluency, scratching his way to 25 off 23 balls with just two boundaries. MI ultimately made the bold call to retire him out in the penultimate over, a move that underlined their desperate search for momentum.
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS
PowerPlay: Marsh takes charge
Phase Score: LSG 69/0 (RR: 11.50; 4s/6s: 10/2)
Mitchell Marsh could have been dismissed for just 4, and Trent Boult should’ve added yet another first-over wicket to his tally. But Mumbai Indians made a crucial blunder – they didn’t appeal for a clear nick. It proved costly. The Aussie powerhouse, fondly known as ‘The Bison’, tore into MI’s bowlers with brute force and clean timing. Marsh plundered nine boundaries and two towering sixes, driving straight and through the line with disdain even as the ball offered swing and the pitch served up uneven bounce.
He faced 30 deliveries in the PowerPlay – the most by any batter in that phase in IPL history – and made every ball count, hammering 60 runs off them in a whirlwind display.
Middle Overs: Markram holds firm even as MI chip away
Phase Score: LSG 77/3 (RR: 8.55, 4s/6s: 5/4)
Marsh fell to the very first ball he faced after the PowerPlay, chipping a return catch to Vignesh Puthur. The dismissal cracked open a window for Mumbai Indians to claw back, and skipper Hardik Pandya made the most of it. He struck with a sharp short ball to remove the dangerous Nicholas Pooran for just 12. Pandya wasn’t done yet. He extended Rishabh Pant’s lean start to IPL 2025, as the LSG captain mistimed a short ball that held up on the pitch, spooning a simple catch to mid-off. In the space of just 24 balls, LSG had lost three key wickets for 38 runs and were suddenly wobbling. That’s when Markram stepped in, steadying the innings with composure and control. He found an ideal partner in Ayush Badoni, and together they stitched a crucial 51-run stand off just 31 deliveries, dragging the LSG innings back on course
Death Overs: Hardik grabs maiden T20 five-fer but LSG breach 200
Phase Score: 57/5 (RR: 11.40; 4s/6s: 6/2)
Markram completed a 34-ball half-century but LSG’s push for late runs was pegged back by Pandya’s continued excellence. The MI skipper used his cutters into the wicket efficiently and forced LSG’s batters to hit to the longer boundaries. Three such deliveries accounted for Markram, David Miller and Akash Deep as Pandya completed his maiden T20 five-fer. Between those wickets, however, LSG still found useful runs, notably from the bat of Miller, who struck three fours and a six in his 14-ball 27 to power LSG to 203 – only the second 200+ score in Lucknow.
MUMBAI INDIANS
PowerPlay: Openers fall but Naman Dhir keeps MI on track
Phase Score: 64/2 (RR: 10.67; 4s/6s: 4/4)
Mumbai Indians lost both openers early, but Naman Dhir’s explosive cameo kept the chase alive. The returning Akash Deep made an immediate impact, removing Will Jacks in his first over as the Englishman mistimed a pull to deep square. Shardul Thakur then repeated the dose, dismissing Ryan Rickelton in identical fashion. Promoted to No.3, Dhir counterpunched in style. He tore into Deep in the fourth over, smashing 21 runs with two sixes and two fours – an over that flipped the PowerPlay back in MI’s favour. Suryakumar Yadav, easing his way in, added a six of his own as Mumbai raced to 64 for 2 after six overs, with Dhir blazing his way to 35 off just 15 balls.
Middle Overs: Suryakumar keeps MI in the hunt
Phase Score: 79/1 (RR: 8.78; 4s/6s: 11/0)
MI surged to 86 for 2 in just eight overs before Digvesh Rathi broke the momentum with a crucial breakthrough. His carrom ball snuck through Dhir’s defence, drawing a faint inside-edge that crashed into the stumps and ended the batter’s sparkling 24-ball 46. The 69-run third-wicket stand had laid a strong platform, but Rathi’s tidy spell began to apply the brakes. The young spinner was impressive, conceding just 10 runs in his first three overs. Tilak Varma, in particular, struggled to get going against him, battling to find rhythm. But Suryakumar Yadav kept the scoreboard ticking, finding regular boundaries to keep the chase alive. At the end of 13 overs, MI needed 79 from 42 balls-with the game finely poised. The India T20I captain got to a 31-ball half-century with a boundary off Ravi Bishnoi and another off Akash Deep to bring the equation to 61 off 30.
Death Overs: Shardul, Avesh hold nerve in tense finish
Phase Score: 48/2 (RR: 9.5, 4s/6s: 4/1)
LSG had a chance to break the partnership but Avesh Khan and Akash Deep fluffed an opportunity to effect a run-out. The former though atoned for that gaffe when he dismissed Suryakumar for 67 (42) after the batter walked across his crease to lap a ball but hit it too square and found the fielder at deep square-leg. That brought Pandya to the middle and the MI skipper drove the first ball – a full-toss – for four. But LSG continued to stack up good overs and Rathi bowled a very good 18th over before Shardul Thakur gave away just seven in the penultimate over when MI made the decision to pull Varma out. Avesh Khan was handed 22 runs to defend in the last over. He started on the back foot, conceding a six off the first ball, but held his nerve brilliantly thereafter. He nailed his yorkers under pressure, closing out a thrilling contest and sealing LSG’s second win of the season.
Brief scores:
Lucknow Super Giants 203/8 in 20 overs (Mitchell Marsh 60, Aiden Markram 53, Nicholas Pooran 12, Ayush Badoni 30, David Miller 27; Trent Boult 1-38, Ashwani Kumar 1-39, Vignesh Puthur 1-31, Hardik Pandya 5-36) beat Mumbai Indians 191/5 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 67, Naman Dhir 46, Ryan Rickelton 10, Tilak Vaema 25, Hardik Pandya 28*; Shardul Thakur 1-40, Akash Deep 1-46, Avesh Khan 1-40, Digvesh Rathi 1-21) by 12 runs
What’s next for the teams?
Mumbai Indians will return home to take on RCB on Monday (April 7). LSG will play the following day, against holders KKR in Kolkata.
Fairly heavy rainfall above 75 mm is likely at some places in Sabaragamuwa, Central, Uva, North-central, Southern and Eastern provinces
Bribery chief says don’t abuse the term ‘political victimization”
SC dismisses 50 petitions, orders enforcing CA ruling on 37 others
-
Business2 days agoStrengthening SDG integration into provincial planning and development process
-
News6 days agoBid to include genocide allegation against Sri Lanka in Canada’s school curriculum thwarted
-
Business1 day agoNew SL Sovereign Bonds win foreign investor confidence
-
Sports3 days agoTo play or not to play is Richmond’s decision
-
Business1 day agoDaraz Sri Lanka ushers in the New Year with 4.4 Avurudu Wasi Pro Max – Sri Lanka’s biggest online Avurudu sale
-
Latest News5 days agoIPL 2025: Rookies Ashwani and Rickelton lead Mumbai Indians to first win
-
News6 days agoSL needs a comprehensive solution, not selective justice: NPC
-
Sports4 days agoTrinity, St. Anthony’s out to end decade long victory drought