Sports
Conway 78 gives New Zealand the honours on weather-affected opening day
In rain-impacted Wellington, with heavy winds for company, New Zealand batted just 48 overs as bad light brought about an early close to an already truncated opening day. Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls were unbeaten on 26 and 18 at the close respectively, though it was when Devon Conway was at the crease during his 108-ball 78 that New Zealand had looked the most threatening.
Sri Lanka’s seamers, whose eyes might have lit up at the opportunity to bowl first on a supremely green top after Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss, unfortunately had to cope with some of the windiest conditions ever seen at Basin Reserve.
“Today was certainly the windiest I’ve played at the Basin. Certainly a lot of challenge for the bowlers, and we wanted to make the most of that and put pressure on them,” Conway said after the end of play.
While there was certainly extra bounce in the surface – Conway would describe it as “tennis-ball bounce” – the gusty winds meant the likes of Kasun Rajitha, Asitha Fernando and Lahiru Kumara were unable to gain the same sort of lateral movement they had so effectively utilised in Christchurch, while maintaining good lengths were also proving difficult.
Conway and his more watchful opening partner Tom Latham also proved adept at leaving the ball on length, meaning Sri Lanka’s seamers were forced to pitch it full if they wanted to force the batters into a stroke. It was here that Conway flourished.
In a stand worth 87, it was Kumara that took the brunt of Conway’s aggression, with eight of his 13 boundaries coming against the strapping quick. Anything too short or wide was pulled and cut with ease, while anything over pitched was driven just as efficiently.
The first wicket came only once Latham looked to break free, pulling one straight down deep square-leg’s throat off Rajitha.
Conway, though, carried on in a similar vein, as Williamson took over the anchor role in a 31-run stand. With the seamers struggling to make a consistent impact, Sri Lanka were forced to turn to spin shortly before tea. And it was the continued use of Dhananjaya de Silva’s offbreaks that provided an unlikely breakthrough in the final session.
De Silva’s flatter trajectory from around the wicket slowed down Conway’s scoring, the left-hander scoring just three runs off the 16 deliveries he faced from de Silva. Eventually that pressure told, with Conway charging de Silva and only managing to chip a low return catch.
Sri Lanka might even have had three for the day had debutant Nishan Madushka – replacing Niroshan Dickwella with the gloves – held on to a thick edge off Nicholls. It was quick and low to his left – almost a mirror image of the chance Dickwella had grassed off Williamson in Christchurch – but one Madushka ought to have held on to. Madushka has been brought into the side mainly on the back of his batting ability, and the pressure will certainly be on going forward.
Williamson and Nicholls played through the rest of the session on pure merit until bad light meant play was stopped 45 minutes prior to the scheduled close.
Brief Scores:
New Zealand 155/2 (Devon Conway 78; Dhananjaya de Silva 1-18) vs Sri Lanka
St. Benedict’s registered innings and two runs win over Sri Dharmaloka College Kelaniya as Mevan Dissanayake excelled with impressive all round performances for the home team in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘B’ Cricket encounter at Kotahena.
It was a baptism of fire for the team from Kelaniya as they faced a well established school in the Tier ‘B’ two-day tournament for the first time after being promoted to the top Division of the premier schools cricket tournament.
They faced St. Joseph Vaz’s College earlier but their opponents were making their return to the top division. They managed to draw the first encounter.
At Kotahena they were dismissed for 188 and 105. Dissanayake bagged eight wickets including a five wicket haul in the second innngs to follow up his knock of 91 which set the stage for victory.
Meanwhile in another Tier B encounter Devapathiraja bounced back to pull off one wicket victory over St. Anthony’s Wattala.
The boys from Wattala did well to restrict Devapathiraja to 95 runs and take a lead of 29 runs. But Pijith Wathsuka, Gimhan Rasanjana, Sandaru Malshan and Yasiru Lakshan teamed up well to pull off a stunning win
Bens in innings win at Kotahena
Scores
St. Benedict’s 295 for 9 decl. in 56.4 overs (Mevan Dissanayake 91, Vihanga Rathnayake 42, Yohan Edirisinghe 31, Ayesh Gajanayake 49; Sathindu Praboda 4/98, Tharusha Mihiranga 2/66)
Sri Dharmaloka
188 all out in 56.3 overs (Senuka Pehesara 53, Kaveen Deneth 79; Ayesh Gajanayake 2/31, Mewan Dissanayake 3/55, Vihanga Rathnayke 4/19) and 105 all out in 35.4 overs (Vipun Sasanka 21, Tharush Mihiranga 32; Mewan Dissanayake 5/29, Vihanga Rathnayake 2/36, Lithika Jayasundara 3/34)
Devapathiraja in exciting one wicket win at Wattala
Scores
St. Anthony’s 124 all out in 30.4 overs (Shehara Dewthilina 51, Sandil Chathuranga 21, Rima Bashika 21n.o.; Sandaru Malshan 2/23, Puljith Wathsuka 4/19, Gimhan Rasanjana 3/13) and 100 all out in 43 overs (Hithesh Ruwanda 42n.o., ; Sandaru Malshan 5/40, Gimhan Rasanjana 2/37)
Devapathiraja
95 all out in 33.2 overs (Gimhan Rasanjana 24n.o., Ridma Bashika2/36, Vishmitha Saroj 2/22, Kavindu Senadi 4/33) and 131 for 9 in 26.3 overs (Yasiru Lakshan 26, Pulgith Wathsuka 28, Gimhan Rasanjana 42; Rima Bashika 2/18, Kavindu Senadi 4/48, Wishmitha Saroj 2/43)
by Reemus Fernando ✍️
There was a little bit of rustiness as India returned to action 50 days after becoming ODI world champions, but not so much to prevent them from registering a dominant win in the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam.
Despite dew being a constant presence on a cool evening, India’s spinners rallied to keep Sri Lanka’s top order in check – even if they did not pick up wickets in a heap – thus restricting them to 121 for 6. It was a below-par total given that the dew was only going to increase as the temperatures reduced – something Harmanpreet Kaur had alluded to while choosing to chase at the toss. India made easy work of it to get home with eight wickets and 32 balls to spare, starting their road to the T20 World Cup 2026 in June on the right note.
Jemimah Rodrigues, batting for the 100th time in T20Is, struck a 14th half-century in the format to help the hosts canter. There was a mild intrigue around India’s No. 3, with Harleen Deol batting at that spot for two games in England, and Harmanpreet signaling her intent to be India’s one drop at the last T20 World Cup. But Rodrigues’ 69 not out from 44 balls should dispel any doubts India would have had.
This was India’s sixth win in ten games since being knocked out in the league stage of the 2024 iteration.
Brief scores:
India Women 122 for 2 in 14.4 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 69*, Smriti Mandhana 25, Harmanpreet Kaur 15*; Kawya Kavindi 1-20, Inoka Ranaweera 1-17) beat Sri Lanka Women 121 for 6 in 20 overs (Vishmi Gunaratne 39, Chamari Athapaththu 15, Hasini Perera 20, Harshita Samarawickrama 21; Deepti Sharma 1-20, Kranti Gaud 1-23, Shree Charani 1-30) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
Opener Sameer Minhas blitzed his way to 172 off 113 balls, setting up Pakistan’s demolition of India in thDeepeshe Under-19 Asia Cup final in Dubai. In response to Pakistan’s 347 for 8, India folded for 156 in 26.2 overs.
Minhas’ knock was the highest individual score for Pakistan, and also, the highest individual score by any batter in a final in Youth ODIs. He hit 17 fours and nine sixes during his stay, and fell in the 43rd over, finishing with a strike rate of 152.21.
In response, Vaibhav Suriyawvanshi – having scored 5, 50, 9 and 26 in tournament since his 171 against UAE – made an explosive start to India’s chase. He smashed three sixes and a four, but Ali Raza had him nicking off for 26 off 10 balls. India had reached their fifty in the fifth over and by the end of the powerplay, they were 68 for 5.
Pakistan came into the final having bowled out each of their opposing batting line-ups in the tournament. This contest was no different – four Pakistan bowlers shared wickets among them, with Raza prising out three more wickets to finish with match figures of 4 for 42.
India were reduced to 120 for 9, but Deepesh Devendran offered some late resistance with 36 off 16 balls, including six fours and two sixes. No other India batter passed 30 in the chase. India’s innings ended when Raza had Devendran holing out in the 27th over.
Earlier in the day, Devendran had copped punishment from the Pakistan batters, conceding 83 runs in his ten overs though he took three wickets at the death.
Minhas was well-supported by Ahmed Hussain – the only other batter to cross fifty in the innings. Hussain made 56 off 72 balls and added 137 for the third wicket along with Minhas.
Pakistan faced a slight slowdown in the death overs, especially once Minhas was dismissed – they only managed 71 runs in the final ten for the loss of five wickets. Devendran took three of those wickets, but his death bowling was a footnote by the time he swung for the hills in India’s chase, and was eventually caught at point.
Pakistan wrapped up a 191-run win and tuned up nicely for the upcoming Under-19 World Cup.
Brief scores:
Pakistan Under 19s 347 for 8 in 50 overs (Sameer Minhas 172, Ahmed Hussain 56, Usman Khan 35; Henil Patel 2-62, Deepesh Devendran 3-83, Khilan Patel 2-44 ) beat India Under 19s 156 in 26.2 overs (Deepesh Devendran 36, Vaibhav Suryawanshi 26; Ali Raza 4-42, Mohammed Sayyam 2-38, Huzaif Ahsan 2-12) by 191 runs
[Cricinfo]
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