Sports
Mendis shines in rained off warm-up game
There was much disappointment for Sri Lanka’s players as the entire day two’s play of their warm-up game against New Zealand Board XI at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln was called off due to rain yesterday. This was Sri Lanka’s only warm-up game ahead of the two match Test series against New Zealand that gets underway on Thursday in Christchurch.
Sri Lanka had declared on 274 for four after the top and middle order batters had spent some useful time in the middle and New Zealand Board XI were 141 for one at stumps on day one. Not a single ball was bowled yesterday due to heavy rain and play was called off early. Kusal Mendis smashed a quick-fire 95 that came off 87 balls with 16 fours and two sixes. Mendis shared a 162 runs stand with Oshada Fernando, who opened batting and made 78. All Sri Lanka’s batters spent useful time in the middle before the innings was declared.
Angelo Mathews batted at number four and made 38 off 67 balls while Dinesh Chandimal scored 35 off 45 balls. Dhananjaya de Silva and Niroshan Dickwella didn’t get a chance to bat.
Sri Lanka’s top seven is pretty much settled and they are unlikely to make any changes to the batting unit and it’s the bowling attack they need to figure out. Quicks Kasun Rajitha, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando and Lahiru Kumara bowled some decent spells and Kumara was the only wicket taker.
Sri Lanka are likely to play only three quicks in the Test series but some feel that they are better off with all four quicks in with Dhananjaya de Silva being the lone spinner. The selectors are unlikely to follow that bold step.
The Test series is viral for Sri Lanka as a 2-0 series win will give them a slot in the World Test Championship final later this year at The Oval during the English summer. But it’s quite a tough task as in the history Sri Lanka have been to New Zealand on ten Test tours and have just won two Tests. Unlike in white ball cricket, the Test team has been far more consistent and the ability of fast bowlers to run through sides has been a notable feature.
The teams will move to north island for the second Test with Basin Reserve in Wellington hosting the game. It was at this venue Sri Lanka won the 2006 Test with Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva scoring hundreds. Muttiah Muralitharan claimed a match bag of ten wickets. It was also at the Basin Reserve Aravinda de Silva produced his career best 267 during the 1991 tour. In the same game Martin Crowe was dismissed for 299.
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.
The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.
However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.
“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.
“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.
“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”
Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.
Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.
He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.
[BBC]
MS Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the remainder of IPL 2025 after Rutraj Gaikwad was ruled out of the rest of the season with an elbow injury.
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming confirmed the development on the eve of the home game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday. It is a significant blow to CSK, who have made a bad start to their campaign by losing four of their first five matches. They are currently ninth in the points table, above only Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Gaikwad suffered the injury during CSK’s match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Guwahati on March 30. He was struck on his unprotected elbow after stepping out to fast bowler Tushar Deshpande and missing the ball in the second over of CSK’s unsuccessful chase, but continued batting and scored 63 in that game. He played two more games after that and made 5 against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Chennai on April 5 and 1 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mullanpur on April 8. After five games, he was CSK’s second-highest run-scorer with 122 runs at a strike rate of 150.61; he was CSK’s highest run-scorer in IPL 2024.
“He [Gaikwad] got hit in Guwahati. He’s been operating with an amount of pain,” Fleming said in Chennai. “We got an X-ray, which was inconclusive, and we had an MRI, which revealed a fracture in his elbow, in the radial neck.
“So we’re disappointed, and feel for him. We appreciate the efforts that he’s gone to in terms of trying to play, but unfortunately, he’d be out of the tournament from now. We have an uncapped player, MS Dhoni, who will take over as captain for the remainder of the IPL.”
Dhoni, 43, had led CSK from 2008 until 2024, when he handed the captaincy to Gaikwad. He had also handed the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja in 2022, but took back the leadership some way into the season after the team went through a bad run of results. Under Dhoni’s captaincy, CSK have won five IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023 and two Champions League trophies as well.
“He [Dhoni] had no hesitation to step up and help guide us out of this if we can,” Fleming said. “So that was never a doubt. We’ll look at replacements. We’ve got some good players in the squad that have been with us a while, so we’ll look from within first. But yeah, there is an opportunity to see how we can enhance the squad probably moving forward into subsequent years.”
After their home game against KKR on today, CSK play two away games against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 14 and Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 20.
[Cricinfo]
Both the men’s and women’s cricket events at the LA 2028 Olympics are set to be six-team competitions, as approved by the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday (April 9). Further, a total of 90 athlete quotas have been allotted to each gender, allowing each nation to name a 15-member squad.
As reported earlier, T20 Internationals have been designated as the format of choice for the competition. The venues are yet to be confirmed although New York is in the fray to host the matches.
It is unclear how the six participating nations will be determined and the issue of representation, in the cases of Great Britain and the West Indies, is yet to be addressed as well.
Cricket was last part of the Olympic Games in 1900, when it was contested by just two teams – Great Britain and France. Great Britain went on to win the only cricket Olympics Gold Medal thus far by winning what was a 2-day game.
Cricket has recently been a part of other international multi-sport events. Both men’s and women’s cricket competitions were part of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games whereas the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games featured an eight-team women’s competition.
(Cricbuzz)
Mohamed Salah signs new two-year contract with Liverpool
MS Dhoni to lead CSK after Ruturaj Gaikwad is ruled out of IPL with injury
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