Sports
Chandraguptha in the running for a Test spot
by Rex Clementine
We have just witnessed a fiercely contested First-Class season culminate in Bloomfield being crowned champions – a long-awaited triumph after 15 years in the wilderness. The tournament had all the hallmarks of a riveting contest, but as the dust settles, a significant shake-up has taken center stage.
In a bold yet ruthless move, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) wielded the axe to trim down the number of First-Class teams, aiming to restore quality over quantity. The biggest casualty? The country’s premier cricket club, SSC, found itself unceremoniously relegated, a decision that sent shockwaves through the cricketing fraternity. Joining them in the drop zone were Ragama CC, Negombo CC, and Kandy Customs. With two more teams set to face the chop next season, the club circuit will be streamlined to just 12 teams, a significant reduction from the previous 26-team structure.
Kudos to SLC for finally making the tough call. Over the years, the First-Class tournament had been diluted beyond recognition, with too many teams and not enough competitive edge. Now, with a leaner and meaner structure, the domestic circuit is expected to regain its sharpness. The top performers from the club season will graduate to the NSL, Sri Lanka’s highly competitive provincial tournament, which carries First-Class status. Selection for the Test team will now be heavily influenced by performances in this high-intensity arena.
With Sri Lanka enduring a rough patch in Test cricket – losing four consecutive matches (two against South Africa and two against Australia) – some inevitable changes are on the horizon. The biggest talking point? The vacant opener’s slot, left behind by the departure of Dimuth Karunaratne.
The race to fill that void is heating up, and two prolific openers have thrown their hats into the ring with impressive returns in the club season. NCC’s Lahiru Udara finished as the leading run-getter, amassing 787 runs at 56, while Bloomfield’s Ron Chandraguptha wasn’t far behind with 729 runs at 48.
Until the First-Class final, Udara seemed to be the front-runner. The 31-year-old has been a consistent performer and has already been around the national squad as a backup opener. But in cricket, big games often redefine narratives, and Chandraguptha seized his moment with a performance that turned the final on its head.
Heading into the summit clash, NCC were overwhelming favourites. With half a dozen Sri Lanka internationals in their ranks, they had the firepower to dictate terms. But one man – Ron Kashyapa Chandraguptha – rewrote the script.
Batting against the odds, he produced a monumental innings, a knock for the ages that swung the pendulum Bloomfield’s way. In scorching Colombo heat, he displayed unwavering concentration, unbreakable patience, and sheer resilience, grinding it out for two full days at the crease. His maiden double century not only batted NCC out of the contest but also catapulted his name into the national selection debate.
What was once a one-horse race for the Test opener’s slot is now a two-way contest. Udara had the early momentum, but Chandraguptha has forced selectors into a rethink. With the NSL tournament in progress, whoever performs better in the next few weeks will likely get the selector’s nod.
While the opener’s position is in focus, another name is knocking on the door for a middle-order berth – Pasindu Sooriyabandara. The 25-year-old Royalist has built an impressive First-Class record, averaging 56 after 50 games. This season, he was instrumental in Moors SC’s campaign, racking up 620 runs at a staggering average of 88.
A player with sound temperament and a wide range of strokes, Sooriyabandara appears ready for the next step. With Sri Lanka struggling for consistency in Test cricket, his introduction into the national setup seems more a matter of when rather than if.
With Sri Lanka’s Test team in transition, the NSL will be a defining tournament. Players like Udara, Chandraguptha, and Sooriyabandara have put themselves in contention, but the final decision rests in how they handle the next big challenge.
One thing is certain—domestic cricket has regained its competitive edge. With fewer teams, higher stakes, and players stepping up on the big occasions, Sri Lanka’s red-ball future may just be heading in the right direction.
by Reemus Fernando
St. Joseph Vaz’s College Wennappuwa ended their Division II assignments in the best possible manner as they bagged the Under 19 Division II Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs Cricket title to complement their Two day tournament title triumph.
They pulled off an exciting 16 runs victory against Taxila Horana in the Limited Overs tournament final as Himal Ravihansa and Mathisan Fernando shared seven wickets between them to restrict Taxila to 137 runs.
In the tournament final played at Surrey Village ground, the former Division I school could muster only 153 runs after deciding to bat first.
Spinner Himal Ravihansa who had a season’s tally of over 100 wickets in the two-day tournament emerged as the pick of the bowlers. His four wicket haul was crucial for the winners as he gave away just 32 runs in his ten overs.
Mathisan Fernando’s ten overs cost him only 23 runs as they fought back to win.
It is notable how St. Joseph Vaz’s have regained the lost spot in the Division I category just a year after being relegated. They regained the lost position by virtue of their impressive performances in the two-day tournament where they emerged champions.
Most of the teams being relegated to Division II have struggled for years in that Division.
Scores
St. Joseph Vaz’s 153 all out in 47.5 overs (Shehara Fernando 26, Savio Fernando 31, Kavinda Rathnayake 22, Akarsha Warnakulasuriya 20n.o.; Yomash Yasith 3/35, Thilina Kumara 2/22, Rashan Deemantha 3/31)
Taxila 137 all out in 48.2 overs (Kavindu Madubhasha 72; Himal Ravihansa 4/32, Mathisan Fernando 3/23, Menthusa Fernando 2/15)
Mumbai Indians (MI) won the Women’s Premier League (WPL) title for the second time in three seasons, successfully defending 149 for 7 to consign Delhi Capitals (DC) to a runners-up finish for a third season in a row.
Nat Sciver-Brunt, who became the first to 1000 runs in WPL, and Harmanpreet Kaur, who tallied 300 runs in a season for the first time, were central to MI’s batting even on Saturday, adding 89 for the third wicket to lift them from 14 for 2. Harmanpreet continued her fine striking form to hit a 36-ball fifty that dragged MI to a respectable total.
DC crumbled early in response to their 150-run chase but sprung back to life thanks toMarizanne Kapp’s late, smart hitting. She hit 40 off just 26 balls and added 40 off 29 balls with Niki Prasad for the seventh wicket. That assault brought down DC’s equation to 23 off 12 balls and then 14 off 6 when Prasad hit Hayley Matthews for a six. But there was Sciver-Brunt at the end, like she was there at the start. As a result, DC came out to be second-best again, their eight-run loss likely to sting them the most.
It was the fifth game in a row – fourth at the Brabourne Stadium this season – that a team batting first won. It was only the fourth time in the WPL that a sub-150 target was successfully defended, three of them have seen DC on the losing side.
Sciver-Brunt celebrated vociferously after clean bowling DC captain Meg Lanning. Shabnim Ismail couldn’t be stopped after she trapped Shafali Verma, DC’s leading run-getter this season. Amelia Kerr outfoxed Jess Jonassen, Saika Ishaque got the better of Annabel Sutherland. DC were in all sorts at 4 for 44 and soon, Jemimah Rodrigues fell after a sprightly knock, leaving them 66 for 5. Sarah Bryce’s run-out left them at 83 for 6 inside 13 overs. Surely it was curtains for DC?
Not until Kapp was in the middle. She was not going to let her frugal spell of 2 for 11 off four overs to waste. She blasted a Sciver-Brunt half-tracker over deep midwicket for half a dozen before bringing her wrists into play to clip one behind square on the leg side. She then hit two fours off successive balls off Hayley Matthews before going 4, 6, 4 off Ishaque to leave DC needing a gettable 35 off 24 balls. When Prasad, batting at No. 8, scythed Ismail through backward point to end the 17th over, the equation came down to 29 off 18.
The partisan crowd at the Brabourne Stadium suddenly cheered every Kapp boundary. But Sciver-Brunt earned the loudest cheer when she had Kapp flat-bat one straight to Matthews at long-off. Nothing quite stings like a dashed hope; Lanning’s blank expression said it all.
DC opted to bowl on what was a fresh surface. On a balmy Mumbai evening, Kapp and Shikha Pandey got the new ball to swing around. Matthews couldn’t score from five of the seven balls she faced off Kapp. After bowling a few balls shaping away from the right-hander, Kapp got one to go straight on and rattle Matthews’ stumps. It was the 11th time Matthews was dismissed by Kapp in women’s T20s.
From the other end, Pandey also did not let the off-colour Yastika Bhatia off and built up the pressure. In a bid to cut loose, Bhatia drove one Kapp delivery towards cover, where Jemimah Rodrigues took a low catch tumbling forward. That double strike meant MI finished the powerplay on 20 for 2, their second-lowest total in the phase in the WPL.
Like the previous two WPL finals, it looked as if the team batting first would end up with a below-par total. DC were calling the shots with the ball; Kapp finished her quota in a single spell to give them early control. That did little to fluster Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet. They targeted their bowlers to help MI pick up pace, and how. MI scored just 28 off 2 in the first eight overs; in the next five, they added 59. Each of those five overs went for over ten.
It is not often Sciver-Brunt plays the second fiddle but such was Harmanpreet’s silken touch. A pull off Annabel Sutherland, that travelled over deep backward square leg for a six, started a style of play we have come to see Harmanpreet in WPL 2025. She then took apart Jess Jonassen, a bowler who has got her number in T20Is, in the 11th over, carting her for three fours in a row. She welcomed the offspin of Minnu Mani with what was one of the shots of the evening – a whip that was all wrists through square leg off the back foot. She scored her third half-century of the season to pull MI out of trouble. MI scored 70 in the seven overs between the first and second timeout.
Sutherland then had Harmanpreet hole out to deep cover as MI collapsed from 102 for 2 to 118 for 6. Yet, MI managed to score 25 off the last two overs to get close to 150. DC picked up 5 for 45 in the last five overs; that effort wouldn’t have been all that bad on another day.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians Women 149 for 7 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 66, Nat Sciver-Brunt 30, G Kamalini 10, Amanjot Kaur 14*; Narizanne Kapp 2-11, Annabel Sutherland 1-29, Jess Jonassen 2-26, Shree Charani 2-43) beat Delhi Capitals Women 141 for 9 in 20 overs (Meg Lanning 13, Jess Jonassen 13, Marizanne Kapp 40, Jemimah Rodrigues 30, Niki Prasad 25*; Nat Sciver-Brunt 3-30, Shabnim Ismail 1-15, Hayley Mathews 1-37, Amelia Kerr 2-25, Saika Ishaque 1-33) by eight runs
[Cricinfo]
For the longest time, they were inseparable at the top of the order for Pakistan in T20Is. Then, with questions about strike rates and maximising powerplay value cropping up, the team management tried putting some distance between them in the batting order. They found their way back up, together. But now, with just under a year to go for the next T20 World Cup, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are out altogether.
This signifies a shift in approach for Pakistan, perhaps triggered by the failure to make an impact at their own Champions Trophy, though that was an ODI contest.
Pakistan have opted for three dashers at the top. With Saim Ayub still unavailable, Pakistan have a likely top three of Mohammad Haris, Omair Yousuf and the uncapped Hasan Nawaz – all three have a reputation of being aggressive batters.
Salman Agha, Pakistan’s new T20I captain, has emphasised the need to improve their intent and approach and the need to play “fearless” and “high-risk cricket”, saying that the squad has players that have displayed that brand of cricket in domestic games.
The new-look Pakistan line-up will start off facing a difficult test against a strong New Zealand outfit, even though they are missing key players who are away on IPL duty. There is a formidable bowling attack, with Will O’Rourke, Ben Sears, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi and Jacob Duffy all set to test Pakistan’s inexperience.
Key batters are missing, too, in the team led by Michael Bracewell, one of New Zealand’s best performers in their run to the title round at the Champions Trophy. But Finn Allen is back, as are Tim Seifert and Jimmy Neesham. Daryl Mitchell hasn’t gone anywhere. And Mitchell Hay, Mark Chapman and Tim Robinson are hardly pushovers. At home, they will think of themselves as favourites, with or without a Rachin Ravindra or a Devon Conway or a Glenn Phillips. If anything, the changes will give them a better idea of the make-up of the World Cup squad next year.
Since his 137 against Pakistan in January 2024, Finn Allen has failed to cross 50 in nine T20Is. In fact, he crossed 25 only twice in this period, with a high score of 32. He turned out for Perth Scorchers in the BBL, but his form there was also indifferent, as he got just 181 runs from ten innings. Allen, despite not being centrally contracted, wants to play the T20 World Cup next year, but he knows he must turn his form around and marry his explosiveness with consistency. Last year, he scored 275 runs in the five-match T20I series against Pakistan, so there may not be a better team for him to face to get going again.
Omair Yousuf has played just six T20Is – three in the Asian Games and three in Zimbabwe. Hasan Nawaz has only three PSL games under his belt, and didn’t get a game last season. That makes Mohammad Haris the most experienced player in Pakistan’s new-look top three and the onus will be on him to break the shackles and play the new aggressive brand of cricket the team management is aiming for. It’s also a comeback series for Haris, whose last international game was in September 2023.
Neesham, Seifert and Allen are back in New Zealand’s squad, and Neesham and Allen are likely to start. Sears and O’Rourke are expected to lead the fast-bowling attack, along with Jacob Duffy, who was the highest wicket-taker in New Zealand’s last T20I series, against Sri Lanka.
Apart from Nawaz, Pakistan might also hand a debut to Abdul Samad, who was picked despite having no PSL experience. Shadab Khan is back in the side and should lead the spin attack alongside Abrar Ahmed.
New Zealand (probable): Finn Allen, Tim Robinson, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Hay (wk), Michael Bracewell (capt), Ben Sears, Ish Sodhi, Will O’Rourke, Jacob Duffy
Pakistan (probable): Mohammad Haris (wk), Omair Yousuf, Hasan Nawaz, Salman Agha (capt), Abdul Samad, Irfan Khan, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed, Abbas Afridi
[Cricinfo]
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