Sports
Early advantage for England in gloomy Old Trafford
Rex Clementine in Manchester
There’s no country in the world that has the cricketing talents that South Africa can boast of. Not only are they self sufficient, they generously give them away to others too in the form of Kevin Pietersen, Marnus Labuschagne and Grant Elliott. The Aussies, English and the Kiwis are the beneficiaries of South Africa’s large-heartedness, and in recent times even English counties have benefited in the form of Marchant de Langa, Kyle Abott and Duanne Olivier.
The only thing to dislike about South Africa is their cockiness that you too often see at the greatest cricketing events. Yesterday again you saw it. With conditions overcast and ideal for home town boy James Anderson, most teams would have opted to bowl first. But the Proteas opted to bat and paid the price as England quikcs reduced them to 77 for five at lunch.
Anderson provided the early breakthrough in the fifth over of the innings when he had Sarel Erwee caught behind by wicketkeeper Ben Foakes. Then Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad picked up two wickets apiece to take complete control of the game.
England’s four pronged pace attack kept asking questions on a dry surface which is expected to help spin later on.
South Africa had won the first Test at Lord’s inside three days and are overwhelming favourites to make it to the finals of the World Test Championship.
Brief scores:
South Africa 77/5 (Keegan Petersen 21; Ben Stokes 2-6, Stuart Broad 2-17) vs England.
Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of their 3-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka last on similarly slow tracks. Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by a target that was kept by Mohammed Shami, who took his sixth ODI five-for and became the quickest man to 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled to get there.
Both sides will rue missed opportunities in their Champions Trophy opener. Bangladesh won a crucial toss on a tired pitch with no dew expected to make chasing easier, but they got off to such a poor start that they needed three dropped catches and a superlative fighting hundred from Towhid Hridoy to stay in the contest. India had Bangladesh down at 35 for 5, Axar Patel was on a hat-trick, and Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter followed by two lives for the record-breaking sixth-wicket stand. It allowed Bangladesh to get to a target that denied India a net-run-rate boost, which can prove crucial if they happen to lose one of their three matches.
India will still consider this a banana peel survived having misread the conditions and decided to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn’t wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.
Bangladesh were 35 for 3 when Axar was introduced in the ninth over. Tanzid Hasan, the only batter who had looked comfortable, played him for the turn and paid the ultimate price with an outside edge. Mushfiqur Rahim, arguably batting too late at No. 6 especially in the absence of the injured Mahmudullah, played the original line, and was done in by the rare one that turned. Axar slowed down the hat-trick ball even more, Jaker Ali obliged with an edge, which Rohit spilled.
Soon Hardik Pandya dropped Hridoy on 23 in Kuldeep Yadav’s first over. Scoring runs was still a task on the sluggish surface, more than 10 overs went without a boundary, but also India went the middle overs without a single wicket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup final. Jaker did provide an opportunity on 24 but this time KL Rahul missed the stumping off Ravindra Jadeja.
The duo found their touch deeper into the innings, but Hridoy was hampered by cramps all over his body. Shami returned to the challenging task of bowling with a short leg-side boundary but used the slower ball wide outside off to not just deny them boundaries but also collect three more wickets. A cameo from Rishad Hossain and Hridoy’s fight despite crippling cramps took Bangladesh to a fighting total.
Rohit continued his high-intent starts of recent times, and Gill matched him shot for shot as India raced away from the three Bangladesh quicks. Just before the field was about to spread, Rohit fell for 41 off 36 in a bid to make one last use of the field restrictions. Immediately, scoring became laborious. Even the master accumulator Virat Kohli struggled to manipulate the ball into gaps before falling to a legspinner again, this one with the letters of Rashid scrambled to Rishad.
Shreyas Iyer played the conditions for a while, but once he got a couple and a boundary off Mustafizur Rahman, he overreached and lobbed a slower ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 15 off 17. Promoted for the dual tasking of breaking the sequence of right-hand batters and also have an eye on the net run rate, Axar skied a slog-sweep, failing to read the Rishad topspinner.
The last three wickets had fallen for 75 runs and had taken 20.2 overs. You would have thought the sight of KL Rahul would have brought calm to the proceedings, but he tried an uncharacteristic hoick early on only to be dropped by Jaker, whom he had himself reprieved earlier in the day. That proved to be the last opportunity for Bangladesh even as India overcame the ghosts of the failed chases in Sri Lanka last year.
The man to thank was Gill, who anchored the chase and made sure he was there at the end. He was 26 off 23 when Rohit got out, but as the conditions changed he tightened his game and took only selective risks. His next boundary came only when the skiddy fast bowler Tanzim Hasan came back. In the 32nd over. By that time had brought up his slowest half-century.
Gill was content with singles off the spinners and even Mustafizur, who bowls a wicked slower ball to make use of these conditions. He scored just 30 off the 52 balls following Rohit’s dismissal, then went into middle gears before finishing it off in glory. He needed 12 out of the 19 runs to bring up a hundred, and hit a six and a four off Tanzim to get to the mark off 125 balls and take his customary bow. Rahul took India home with a six off Tanzim with 21 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
India 231 for 4 in 46.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 41, Shubnam Gill 101*, Virat Kohli 22, KL Rahul 41*; Taskin Ahmed 1-36, Mustafizur Rahman 1-42, Rishad Hossain 2-38) beat Bangladesh 228 in 49.4 overs (Towhid Hridoy 100, Tanzid Hasan 25, Jaker Ali 68; Mohammed Shami 5-53, Harshit Rana 3-31, Axar Patel 2-43) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) imposed a fine of US$ 10,000 on Dasun Shanaka for breaching the terms of the player contract he entered into with SLC.
The decision follows an incident where Shanaka, after playing for his domestic club in the ongoing Major Club Three-Day Tournament, withdrew early due to an injury.
This is following the player submitting a medical certificate, which recommended Shanaka to rest, and hence he did not take part in the remainder of the match.
However, on the same evening, he traveled to Dubai and participated in a franchise league match.
This action was deemed a breach of several contractual clauses that require players to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and commitment to Sri Lanka Cricket.
During the inquiry, Shanaka acknowledged his actions and expressed regret for any inconvenience caused.
He also clarified that he did not act with dishonest intent and assured SLC that he would exercise better judgment in the future.
Sri Lanka Cricket remains committed to maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards and will continue to take necessary measures to uphold the integrity of the game.
by Reemus Fernando
Paceman Sethmika Senavirathne took seven wickets as Trinity rattled Maris Stella for 32 runs before cruising to a ten wickets victory in the Under 19 Division I limited overs tournament match at Asgiriya on Thursday.
Sethmika shared ten wickets with Malith Rathnayake to dismiss the visitors within 11 overs. The first six batsmen in the Maris Stella batting line up did not score a single run.
With his seven wicket haul Sethmika has now accounted for the best bowling performance of the ongoing limited overs tournament. His stunning performance (5.3-2-9-7) has come just a day after St. Benedict’s paceman Ayesh Gajanayake took similar number of wickets (9-2-27-7) to bowl out Lumbini for 60 runs.
In the other limited overs matches, St. Sebastian’s beat Lumbini by seven wickets while St. Anne’s pulled off a twelve runs win over St. Anthony’s College Wattala.
Trinity rout Maris Stella at Asgiriya
Scores
Maris Stella
32 all out in 10.3 overs (Hasmika Nethshan 12n.o.; Sethmika Senavirathne 7/09, Malith Rathnayake 3/18)
Trinity
36 for no loss in 6.2 overs (Dimantha Mahavithana 28n.o.)
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