Sports
Dialog powers Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2021
Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, Dialog Axiata PLC, continues its commitment to power the game of rugby, one of Sri Lanka’s most followed sports as the title sponsor of the combined leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series which will be played in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on the 19th and 20th of November 2021.
From 2015 onwards, Dialog Axiata has sponsored the Sri Lankan leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series tourney which was traditionally played at the Racecourse Grounds, Colombo. The Sri Lankan leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series was last played at Colombo in 2019 and wasn’t played ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence the Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2021 to be hosted in Dubai, will be a culmination of the traditional three legs of the tournament played across Asia to qualify for the World Cup.
Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, Dialog Axiata PLC will continue to support the Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2021 as the title sponsor of the combined leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series which will be played in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on the 19th and 20th of November 2021.
Hon. Namal Rajapaksa MP, Minister of Youth and Sports said, “I am indeed pleased that a Sri Lankan company has come forth as the title sponsor of a tournament of such a caliber as the Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2021. I take this opportunity to wish Asia Rugby, its title sponsor Dialog Axiata and our very own Tuskers the very best as they prepare to kick off this tourney.”
“I’m delighted to announce the groundbreaking sponsorship deal between Asia Rugby and Dialog for the Dialog Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2021,” Qais A. Al Dhalal, President of Asia Rugby said.
Supun Weerasinghe, Chief Executive of Dialog Axiata said. ” Dialog has been sponsoring the Colombo leg of the highly anticipated Asia Rugby Sevens Series from 2015 and I wish to thank Asia Rugby for giving us the opportunity to come forth as the title sponsor and wish a successful tournament.”
Sri Lanka Rugby fans can watch the Dialog Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2021 LIVE on ThePapare.com and the Dialog ViU mobile app.
Sports
Second-string New Zealand look to hold off resurgent Sri Lanka as Champions Trophy looms
Where ODIs were once beloved of broadcasters, particularly during bilateral tours, they are now the format boards scramble to fit into the calendar when a major tournament is on the horizon. The Champions Trophy is roughly seven weeks away, and New Zealand have played only three ODIs in the last year. They must now hasten to find their most effective combinations, fine-tune strategy, and gain some momentum in this format. All of this, however, is made more complicated by the the fact that as many as six top players – Kane Williamson, Finn Allen, Adam Milne, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson and Tim Seifert – are away at either the Big Bash League or the SAT20.
Although Sri Lanka didn’t qualify for the Champions Trophy on account of their dismal 2023 World Cup, they seem to have turned their ODI game around in 2024. They won five out of the six series they played in 2024, including against New Zealand and India. Eleven of their 12 ODI wins last year, however, came at home, often on big-turning surfaces. Although Sri Lanka have swelled their silverware collection significantly, many fans are tempering expectations until they begin winning on the more batting-friendly surfaces they tend to encounter abroad.
Jacob Duffy has played only eight ODIs, but comes into this series having been outstanding in the T20Is. He took eight wickets and returned an economy rate of 5.50 across the three matches, and was usually tight with his lines. He has been part of New Zealand’s ODI rebuild after the 2023 World Cup, and a good series here will help push his case for a place in their XI for the Champions Trophy, even after the likes of Ferguson and Milne return. He has decent figures against Sri Lanka in this format too – he took 3 for 41 in a high-scoring ODI in Dambulla in November.
In the last three months, Mitchell Santner has taken 13 wickets in New Zealand’s spectacular demolition of India in Pune; scored 125 runs and taken seven wickets in the huge Test win over England in Hamilton; and become New Zealand’s permanent white-ball captain. For so long the allrounder who gave the side balance without setting the world alight, Santner is showing signs of maturing into an out-and-out match-winner. He will need to do some serious wrangling to get this New Zealand team Champions-Trophy-ready, however.
In Tests, he averages 74 and tends to score his runs rapidly. In this format, however, Kamindu Mendis has crossed fifty only once in 13 innings. Partly this has been because he has often batted down the order, coming in as low as No. 8 at times. But so successful has he been in Tests and so well-suited does his game seem to limited-overs cricket that there are likely thoughts within the Sri Lanka team management to push him up the order for a more permanent role.
[Cricinfo]
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Boland four-for, Pant fireworks keep SCG Test in balance
During the lunch break on the second day, Rohit Sharma cleared the air, saying that he had sat out of the Sydney Test and that he wasn’t retiring from Test cricket yet. Soon after the break, Jasprit Bumrah, who had taken over from Rohit as captain, left the SCG for scans. Australia had lost half their side around that time, with the game – and the series – dangling on a razor’s edge. Despite the absence of Bumrah, India snatched a four-run first-innings lead, turning the Sydney Test into a second-innings shootout.
Rishabh Pant pulled India further ahead with a jaw-dropping 29-ball half-century. It was the second fastest fifty by an Indian in Test cricket, behind his own 28-ball effort against Sri Lanka in 2022. After Scott Boland had carved up India’s top order with pinpoint accuracy, Pant countered them and thrilled a Sydney crowd of 47,257. The late dismissals of Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy kept the game in the balance, with India leading by 145 at stumps.
The second-innings shootout, though, could get skewed in favour of Australia if Bumrah isn’t fit to bowl anymore in this Test.
India’s support bowlers, though, stepped up admirably on the second day, with Prasidh Krishna and Reddy sharing five wickets among them. India’s non-Bumrah seamers came away with combined figures of 8 for 132 – their best in any innings on this tour.
Reddy picked up two wickets in two balls while Prasidh marked his Test comeback with the scalps of Steven Smith, Alex Carey and debutant Beau Webster, who top-scored for Australia with 57 off 105 balls.
Webster continued his excellent debut, becoming the first Australian since Adam Voges in 2015 to score a half-century on Test debut.
The day had dawned with Bumrah snaring Marnus Labuschagne for 2 and throwing a stare at non-striker Sam Konstas. Bumrah surpassed Bishen Singh Bedi’s tally for the most wickets taken by an India bowler on a tour of Australia.
The 19-year-old responded strongly with the bat when he advanced at Bumrah and shanked him down the ground for four. Then, after Bumrah reinforced the slip cordon by bringing deep third in, Konstas unfurled another audacious reverse-ramp, prompting Bumrah to post a fielder at deep third.
In the next over, however, Mohammed Siraj had Konstas edging to gully for 23 off 57 balls with an outswinger. Three balls later, he had Travis Head caught at second slip for 4. Where Bumrah and Australia’s quicks hit the deck, the source of Siraj’s menace was swing. So, he kept exploring a fuller length to maximise that swing.
Smith and Webster steadied Australia with a 57-run partnership for the fifth wicket before Smith fell to Prasidh at the stroke of lunch. Smith seemed destined to reach 10,000 Test runs but moments before the break Prasidh shifted his stock length to an even more fuller one to dismiss him five short of the landmark.
Then, in the afternoon, he stormed through the defences of Alex Carey with a similar length. Reddy rocked Australia even further with the wickets of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. Australia lost their last four wickets for just 19 runs to be bowled out for 181.
Yashasvi Jaiswal then launched India’s second innings in grand style, scything Starc for four fours in the first over. KL Rahul, too, showed some attacking intent at the other end until Boland (who else?) intervened and curtailed India’s rapid start.
He struck in his second over when he had Rahul chopping an inducker onto his stumps and in his next over, he knocked Jaiswal over with a beauty that angled in towards middle from around the wicket and seamed away late to beat the outside edge and smash the top of off stump. Boland proceeded to dismiss Virat Kohli in familiar fashion, for 6. It was the eighth time that Kohli was out edging behind to the keeper or the slip cordon in nine trips to the crease in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was so angry that he yelled at himself and punched himself in the leg.
Webster earned his maiden Test wicket when he had Shubman Gill caught behind off the inside edge.
After having spent nearly 150 minutes being someone else with the bat on the first day, managing 40 off 98 balls, the real Pant stood up on the second. He charged at his first ball from Boland, who had just snared Kohli, and violently clubbed him over mid-on for six. He then ventured a reverse-ramp off his third ball, and though he failed to connect, he didn’t curb his natural instincts in this innings.
Pant then lined up Webster for three successive fours, including a trademark falling sweep-pull. He notched up his fifty with a helicoptered six off Starc and celebrated the milestone with a six next ball.
Pant’s assault forced Australia into bowling T20 lines and lengths. When Cummins went short and wide of off and hid the ball away from Pant’s swinging arc, he chased it and ended up feeding an edge to the keeper. Boland had Reddy holing out for 4 to cap a 15-wicket day in Sydney.
Brief scores:
India 141 for 6 in 32 overs (Rishabh Pant 61, Yashasvi Jaiswal 22; Scott Boland 4-42) and185 in 72.2 overs lead Australia 181 in 51 overs (Sam Konstas 23, Beau Webster 57, Steven Smith 33, Alex Carey 21; Prasidh Krishna 3-42, Mohaamed Siraj 3-51), Jasprit Bumrah 2-33 , Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-32 ) by 145 runs
[Cricinfo]
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Bumrah leaves SCG to possibly undergo scans
India captain and pace ace Jasprit Bumrah had to leave the field early in the post-lunch session on Day 2 of the Sydney Test with a suspected injury concern. Bumrah was filmed leaving the stadium premises, potentially to undergo scans. The nature of the injury is as yet unknown.
Bumrah bowled eight overs on the second day’s play at the SCG for the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne but left the field one over into a new spell at the start of the post-lunch session.
At the time of him leaving the field, Bumrah had sent down 151.2 overs across five Tests with only his Australia counterpart Pat Cummins having bowled more (152 overs). Bumrah’s toils have fetched him a chart-leading 32 wickets at 13.06 in the series but his workloads, necessitated by both team combination and lack of potency elsewhere have left him susceptible to be overbowled, thereby risking injuries.
At the end of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Rohit Sharma had admitted there was a risk of Bumrah being overbowled. “If somebody is in such a great form, you want to try and maximise that form how much ever you can,” Rohit had said. “And that is what we’ve been trying to do with Bumrah.
“But there comes a time where you need to step back a little bit and give him that little bit of extra breather as well. So, we’ve been very careful. I’ve been very careful. I talk to him about how he feels and stuff like that. So, yeah. Those things should be managed carefully. And I’m trying to do that on the field.”
Incidentally, India had been dealt a scare as early as the second Test in Adelaide when Bumrah needed the physio’s attention while sending down his 20th over in that match over some discomfort near the groin area. He was able to shrug off that concern and continue to have an incredible series, one that saw him match Harbhajan Singh’s tally of wickets for the most scalps by an Indian in a single Test series against Australia.
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