Sports

Hurricane force in dead rubber

Published

5 years ago

2021/05/3

by Rajitha Ratwatte

It was emphasised that the game between bottom of the table Hurricanes and the Otago Highlanders was not a dead rubber, in view of the trans-Tasman stage of the super rugby tournament that is due to commence in two weeks time. If the Highlanders won this, it would give their coach some satisfaction as it would mean that they had beaten all the participating Aotearoa teams at least once. The conditions started off perfect with no wind and great conditions underfoot. Rain was predicted later.

The first scrum was in the second minute of the game, it had to be reset twice and finally the Hurricanes conceded an easily kickable penalty due to their tight head prop Tyrell Lomax being pinged for collapsing the scrum. Mitch Hunt the Otago number10 made no mistake, 3 -0 lead to the visitors. A series of kicks for territory ensued, reminding one of the old days when Rugby Union used to be referred to by its detractors, particularly from rugby league as “kick and clap”! Seven minutes into the game Karefi of the Hurricanes in the no seven jersey broke through the ‘Landers defence and found that irrepressible playmaker Dan Coles who wears the no two jersey but plays more like an open side flanker and also spends a lot of time lurking on the wing, he then passed inside to the no eight Flanders who showed good speed to canter over the line and score. Jordie Barret converted 3–7 and the Hurricane gathers force. The ‘Canes were awarded two kickable penalties in the course of the ensuing play but chose the touch option each time. Meanwhile in the 15th minute Dan Coles who characterises his brilliant loose play with the occasional “push and shove” got into a brawl with the Highlanders no10 Mitch Hunt. The resultant TV replay saw both parties at fault and two concurrent yellow cards were issued to two key players in either side! The referee Ben O ‘Keefe gave a long-winded explanation and justified his actions.

The Otago team was able to take advantage of the 14 man per side game first, with Josh Dickson the brother of their captain scoring right of the posts in the 17th minute. Easily converted even in the absence of Mitch Hunt and the ‘Landers back into the lead at 10 – 7. Now it was the Highlanders turn to turn down kickable penalties probably due to their first-choice place kicker being in the sin bin and two such opportunities were disregarded for territory gains. The penalty count was reading 2 – 6 against the Hurricanes and at this point both yellow carded players came back on the field. Jonah Nareki that highly rated young winger from Otago who started his super rugby career with a bang scoring two tries on debut, streaked over the line to score mid left after some great phase play with the Otago no eight, Japanese international Kazuki Himeno participating on two occasions. Additional points for conversion added and the score reading 17 – 7 for the Otago boys. The 33rd minute saw a penalty right in front of the posts disregarded for a scrum and the 20-year-old Hurricanes no10 Rueben Love dropped the ball on the line! Rueben Love has loads of talent and will be a star of the future but right now straight out of school, he looks a little lost at this level of the game. This is a real case for taking the club game to a higher level from the sponsor ship money that will become available if the senior players in NZ rugby agree to the mega bucks sponsorship deal that is pending from an American organization.

36 minutes into the game a captain’s referral made by Aaron Smith the All Blacks and Otago no nine against Dan Coles who was up to his tricks again, went against the challenger and the penalty was reversed and Otago lost their right to challenge for the rest of the game. This penalty although easily kickable for points was not taken and territory was preferred once again. The weather decided to support its namesake the Hurricanes with a fresh breeze and some rain coming down at this stage of the game. Dan Coles continued his impact on the game scoring a try mid left off some bruising loose play. Jordie Barret was unable to convert, and the score read 17 -11 with Otago ahead. A long kick by Jordie Barret went over the goal (probably due to the wind and rain) and a simple touch down would have resulted in a goal line drop out but a brain freeze by midfielder Gilbert of the ‘Lander saw him slice the attempted clearance and give the ‘Canes just what they wanted, an attacking line out well inside Otago territory. A penalty was awarded to the Wellington side from the ensuing maul, right in front of the posts and with the half time hooter echoing across the ground Jordie Barret took the home side even closer to their opponents 17 – 15.

The first minute of the second half saw Nani Laumape of the Hurricanes playing mid field and making a real bid for a place in the national side, beating Aaron Smith with a sprint for the goal line off a chip kick and scoring far left. Barret converted from a difficult angle and the ‘Canes into the lead 17 -22. It looked like the Highlanders came back straight away, stringing together 13 phases of play and Smith with a great pass sending no14 Sam Gilbert over the line. However, a captain’s challenge from the canny Dan Coles pointed out a marginal knock forward by the attacking side and the try was disallowed. The wind and the rain started up in earnest and a rather messy and scrappy period of play ensued. We have been spoilt in Aotearoa this Autumn, having lovely sunshine and little rain. We have forgotten that most of our Autumn rugby is usually played in wet and muddy conditions with the forwards dominating play! 52 minutes into the game and Dan Coles was subbed off, as no doubt the coaches were satisfied with his contribution to the game.

One minute later Rueben Love decided to showcase some of his talent by hitting a gap, showing a fantastic turn of speed and passing to Karefi from the third row who scored within easy converting distance for their strapping full back and the youngest of the Barret brothers, Jordie. 17 – 29 Hurricanes blowing hard! The Otago lads were not done yet and in the 57th minute another possible 3 pointer was disregarded, and the ensuing line out saw their skipper Ash Dickson score far right of the posts. The conversion was missed 22 -29 Hurricanes prevail. There was a lot of aggression from both sides, uncharacteristic for a local derby and also a virtual dead rubber. In the 70th minute Nani Laumape made another great break and Braydon Iose wearing the no20 jersey and in as a substitute third rower scored after a long thrilling run, far left of the posts. Barret missed the conversion, 22 -34 Hurricanes surging ahead. Less than 3 minutes from the end Solesi Rayasi scythed his way through the Highlander defence for over 35 meters and scored mid left. This was converted and the final score read 22 – 41 with the Wellington Hurricanes finally living up to their potential even in the absence of their regular captain Aardie Savea.

An item that may have caught the readers interest could have been the mention of the pending Mega sponsorship deal pending from an American organization. New Zealand Rugby has received a $465 million offer from US technology investment giants Silver Lake for a 15 per cent share of commercial rights valued at $3.1 billion. All provincial and club rugby organizations have voted in favour of this deal. However the current All Blacks players have the final say as it may result in less money for them in the form of match fees. The sponsorship money is expected to flow down to the lower levels of the game and NZ rugby has never seen such sums before. The players decision is awaited with trepidation and anticipation.

supersubsports@gmail.com

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Klaasen fifty, Travishek onslaught hand Sunrisers Hyderabad first points of the season

Published

8 hours ago

2026/04/3

Priyan

Heinrich Klaasen scored 52 off 35 balls [Cricinfo]

Sunrisers Hyderabad [SRH] became the first team in IPL 2026 to successfully defend a total, and for that, they had to post 226 for 8, the highest score of the season so far. Even that did not look safe at one point, but in the end, Kolkata Knight Riders [KKR] fell short by 65 runs.

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma set the platform for SRH by adding 82 in 5.4 overs. Head made 46 off 21 balls, and Abhishek 48 off 21. KKR did make a comeback in the middle overs, but Heinrich Klassen’s 52 off 35 deliveries ensured they picked up 51 in the last four overs.

Finn Allen, batting on the same strip where he had scored a blazing hundred against South Africa in the T20 World Cup semi-final, started the chase by smashing 24 runs off David Payne. But Harsh Dubey had him caught and bowled from the other end. Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 27-ball fifty steered KKR to 110 for 3 in ten overs, but his run-out soon after proved to be the turning point. Rinku Singh’s brief resistance was futile, and KKR were eventually all out for 161 in 16 overs.

Ajinkya Rahane, playing his 200th IPL match, opted to bowl after winning the toss. Vaibhav Arora started with three dots, beating Head’s outside edge on all three occasions. But that was the proverbial calm before the storm. Head pulled the last ball of the over for four before picking two more fours off Blessing Muzarabani in the next over.

Muzarabani was trying the short-ball ploy that had worked for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Jacob Duffy against the same opposition in the tournament opener, but it backfired here. Abhishek rubbed it in by pulling yet another short ball from Muzarabani for a six.

After Head smashed two sixes and two fours in Vaibhav’s next over, Rahane turned to spin. Sunil Narine conceded only three runs from the fourth over, and even induced a miscue from Head, but it landed safely. However, Abhishek took Varun Chakravarthy apart from the other end, hitting two sixes and three fours in a 25-run over.

Kartik Tyagi ended the stand by dismissing Head, but not before the batter had smashed him for a four and a six. SRH finished the powerplay on 84 for 1.

Muzarabani pulled things back for KKR by dismissing Ishan Kishan and Abhishek in the space of three balls. Kishan was caught at deep cover, and Abhishek at deep square leg, where Varun dived forward to complete a low catch. The third umpire had multiple looks at it before deciding it in KKR’s favour.

In the next over, Anukul Roy had Aniket Verma caught at long-off to make it 118 for 4. After that, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy decided to go into consolidation mode. As a result, only 37 runs came from overs 10 to 14.

Klaasen and Reddy picked up a four each off Narine in the 15th over, but Tyagi gave away only seven runs in the next. When Vaibhav conceded only three off the first five balls of the 17th over, it started looking like the final flourish might never come. But his final ball was in the slot for Reddy, who launched it over the bowler’s head for a six.

Klaasen then reverse-lapped Tyagi over deep third for a six, before Reddy hit him for back-to-back fours. Vaibhav hurt SRH by dismissing Reddy and Salil Arora off successive deliveries, but Klaasen, with the help of Dubey and Shivang Kumar, took them past 220.

Allen gave KKR the start they needed, with 25 runs coming off the first over. While Rahane was struggling and eventually fell for 8 off ten balls, Raghuvanshi didn’t let the scoring rate drop. He hit two sixes off Abhishek in the third over, and smashed back-to-back fours off Jaydev Unadkat in the fifth. After five overs, KKR were 67 for 2.

Cameron Green, though, was run out in the following over. As Raghuvanshi drove one back towards Eshan Malinga, the two batters set off, only to find the bowler had stopped the ball with his boot. Both Raghuvanshi and Green froze for a moment before deciding to keep running. Malinga picked the ball up and broke the stumps. Initially, it looked like Raghuvanshi, who was running towards the non-striker’s end, was run out. But the TV umpire found out the batters hadn’t crossed when the wicket was broken, and it was Green who was out.

Raghuvanshi and Rinku, though, kept the chase on track, and took KKR to 100 in nine overs, with SRH’s poor ground fielding also contributing towards it.

Soon after that, Reddy got rid of Roy and Rinku in back-to-back overs. Narine and Ramandeep Singh took KKR to 155 for 6 in the 15th over, before falling to Malinga’s slower balls. Unadkat then wrapped up the win with two wickets in two balls.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 226 for 8 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 52, Abhishek Sharma 48, Travis Head 46, Ishan Kishan 14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 39; Vaibhav Arora 2-47, Blessing Muzarabani 4-41, Kartik Tyagi 1-48, Anukul Roy 1-16) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 161 in 16 overs (Finn Allen 28, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 52, Rinku Singh 35, Ramandeep Singh 10, Sunil Narine 12; Harsh Dubey 1-17, Jaydev Unadkat 3-21, Eshan Malinga 2-14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-17) by 65 runs

Eshan Malinga and Shivang Kumar celebrate after running out Angkrish Raghuvanshi [Cricinfo]

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Nuwan Thushara files lawsuit against SLC for IPL NOC

Published

10 hours ago

2026/04/3

Priyan

Nuwan Thushara was denied NOC to play in the IPL for RCB (BCCI)

Sri Lanka fast bowler Nuwan Thushara has filed a lawsuit in the Colombo District Court against Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) after he was denied a no objection certificate (NOC) to play in the IPL as a result of failing new and stricter fitness tests.

Thushara’s legal argument centres around his contract with SLC ending on March 31, 2026 – after which he intended to step away from international cricket – making the enforcement of an NOC for SLC unreasonable and a barrier to his livelihood. While Thushara’s argument notes the loss of income from missing the IPL – he’s part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) squad – the timing of the legal action has almost certainly ruled him out of the tournament.

The case, in which SLC president Shammi Silva, secretary Bandula Dissanayake, treasurer Sujeewa Godaliyadda and CEO Ashley de Silva have been named defendants, is set to be taken up again on April 9. That date is the earliest the case can be heard as Sri Lanka’s courts will be closed over the Easter weekend, and even then it is extremely unlikely that it will be settled in a single hearing. This means Thushara will at the very least miss two more weeks of the IPL, which began on March 28.

ICC regulations stipulate that an NOC from a home board is required to participate in overseas leagues, but they do not mention specific criteria a home board must use to grant or deny it. The ICC leaves the conditions for issuing an NOC to the discretion of the individual boards. This allows boards to follow their own internal policies for granting the NOC; for example, SLC has previously denied NOCs based on players being allowed to participate in two overseas leagues a year.

The question of whether SLC can legally withhold that certificate from a player who is no longer under a central contract is now set to be tested. As per legal documents seen by ESPNcricinfo, SLC had formally informed Thushara that he would not be granted an NOC on March 24. Thushara claims to have requested an NOC multiple times, verbally and in writing on March 15 and 23, before eventually being denied. While SLC is yet to respond to his follow-up on March 28, Thushara claims he was informed unofficially that he would once again be denied the NOC.

SLC’s reasoning centres around its new mandatory fitness requirements, which have been spearheaded by the selection committee led by former fast bowler Pramodya Wickramasinghe following Sri Lanka’s poor performance in the recent Men’s T20 World Cup.

There are five components to the SLC fitness test: a 2 kilometre run, 20 metre sprint, a 5-0-5 agility test, a skinfold test, and a counter movement jump (CMJ). Each of these tests allows for a player to gain a maximum of 29 points total – players need to attain at least 17 points to be considered for selection – with the 2km run and skinfold test holding the most weight.

“If you fair poorly in those two, it will be very hard to pass,” a SLC source told ESPNcricinfo. These tests have been a regular part of player training since 2021. However, they were not used as strict selection criteria, rather as a guide, particularly when making calls between two similarly skilled players.

Central to Thushara’s argument is that such fitness requirements were not a prerequisite for an NOC in the past, and that his current fitness levels are consistent with what he has maintained over his career, including in 2024 and 2025 when SLC had granted him NOCs.

Thushara’s case has similarities to that of South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi, who took Cricket South Africa (CSA) to the Johannesburg High Court in December 2025. He was not centrally contracted by CSA and had withdrawn from an SA20 league contract. CSA refused to grant him a full-duration NOC to play in the rival International League T20 (ILT20), aiming to protect its own tournament’s player pool. Shamsi argued that because he held no active contract with either CSA or the SA20 franchise, the board’s withholding of the NOC was an act of “bad faith” to protect its own commercial interests. The South African High Court sided with Shamsi, issuing an interim order forcing CSA to grant the full NOC, setting a major precedent for global player mobility.

The Shamsi ruling proved that when a player is outside a central contract, a board cannot use the ICC’s NOC policy purely to protect its commercial interests. Thushara’s case takes this a step further, and asks whether a board can legally enforce its internal selection policies on a player who has walked away from the national set-up.

(Cricinfo)

Sports

Rehan’s 146 guides Royal to 319 on day one

Published

11 hours ago

2026/04/3

Thilina Walpola

Rehan Peiris

A superb knock of 146 runs by Rehan Peiris held the Royal College top order together as they posted 319 in their first innings on day one of the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ quarter-final against Mahanama College at the D.H.H. Ground, Madampella on Thursday.

‎Royal looked set for a strong start before three quick wickets disrupted their progress and left the innings in a difficult position. With the early damage threatening to derail the innings, Rehan stepped up with a determined batting effort to guide the recovery.

‎Rehan first stitched together a useful partnership with Ramiru Perera to stabilize the innings before combining with Thevindu Wewalwala for a crucial fifth wicket stand worth 117 runs. The partnership proved vital in helping Royal regain control and build a competitive total.

‎Wewalwala provided excellent support with a solid 57, while Hirun Matheesha contributed 28 runs and Ramiru Perera added 27 to strengthen the innings around Rehan’s impressive knock.

‎For Mahanama, Venura Kaveethra was the pick of the bowlers with a five wicket haul, finishing with figures of 5 for 86, while Chamika Heenatigala chipped in with two wickets.

‎At stumps on the opening day, Mahanama were four for no loss.

‎‎Scores

‎Royal – 319 all out in 87.2 overs

‎(Rehan Peiris 146, Thevindu Wewalwala 57, Hirun Matheesha 28, Ramiru Perera 27; Venura Kaveethra 5/86, Chamika Heenatigala 2/80)

‎Mahanama – 4 for no loss at stumps.

‎‎Wesley book semi-final spot

‎‎Wesley booked a semi-final berth in the Under 19 Division I Tier B tournament as they overcame formidable Devapathiraja Rathgama with a convincing 107 runs victory at Katuneriya on Thursday.

‎‎Scores:

‎Wesley

197 all out in 52.1 overs (Shamma Fernando 23, Rasheed Nahyan 34, Rashmika Amararathna 30, Lithum Senuja 24, Senura Lakshan 27; Sandaru Lakshan 3/71, Puljith Wathsuka 4/31, Harsha Madusanka 2/13) and 219 all out in 64.4 overs (Rashmika Amararathna 43, Senura Lakshan 37, Lavindu Hettiarachchi 41, Dinuja Samararathna 31; Sandaru Malshan 6/88, Diyath Sanjitha 4/46)

‎Devapathiraja

142 all out in 57.1 overs (Diyath Sanjitha 20, Arosha Sithumina 33, Sandaru Malshan 30; Rashmika Amararathna 4/23, Aadhyan Zian 4/34) and 167 all out in 60.3 overs (Sandaru Malshan 22, Yasiru Lakshan 71, Gimhan Rasanjana 31; Aadhyan Zian 2/25, Dinuja Samararathna 4/52)

(RF)