Sports
Mendis shines, the rest flop
Entrusted with the captaincy, Kusal Mendis brought the best out of his game posting a stunning 158 before retiring hurt in Sri Lanka’s second warm-up game against Afghanistan at Guwahati yesterday but the rest of the batting failed to click.
While Mendis put up a superb show smashing the Afghan bowling to all corners of the park, there was little support for the stand-in captain as Sri Lanak were shot out for 294 in 46.2 overs.
Sri Lanka had failed to utilize the full 50 overs in their previous warm-up game against Bangladesh as well. This has been a trend for Sri Lanka in recent months and lead up to their first game of the tournament on Saturday against South Africa in Delhi, there are concerns for the former champions.
Sadeera Samarawickrama, who shared a 175 run stand for the third wicket with Mendis, was the second top scorer with 39 runs. Samarawickrama, an equally attacking batsman, was made to look a mere spectator during the partnership as Mendis cut loose.
While several other top and middle order batters got starts, nobody went onto get a half-century and help Sri Lanka’s total beyond 300.
Totals in excess of 300 have been a common feature in World Cup warm-up games as the wickets have been belters and unless Sri Lanka address the issue, they are bound to face some serious problems.
Mendis hitting a purple patch though was a welcome sign ahead of the sport’s showpiece event. His 158 came off just 87 balls with 19 fours and nine sixes. He retired in a bid to let other batters get a hit in the middle ahead of the business end of the tournament but that was for little use.
Batting number three, Mendis reached his century in just 59 balls and the manner in which he took on opposition’s star leg-spinner Rashid Khan was a treat to watch.
Opener Dimuth Karunaratne was the only batter to be dismissed for a single digit score and when Kusal Perera returns what Sri Lanka will do with the combination of the team remains to be seen.
KJP had retired with a right shoulder pain in Sri Lanka’s first warm-up game and SLC said that he was receiving treatment and in the process of recovery.
Captain Dasun Shanaka had to pull out as he was experiencing a strain on his left elbow.
Olympian Yupun Abeykoon will compete in a relay for Sri Lanka after a lapse of five years when he is joined by national champion Chamod Yodasinghe and other top sprinters in the 4x100m at the Dubai Grand Prix.
Sri Lanka Athletics announced a list of five athletes inclusive of the Italy based sprinter for the Dubai event yesterday. According to Sri Lanka Athletics the relay team is set to leave for Dubai today.
Sri Lankan athletes will compete in six overseas events during the next four weeks including the Dubai Grand Prix, World Relays and the Asian Athletics Championship.
Abeykoon, who is the only South Asian to have clocked sub ten seconds in the 100 metres has not competed in a relay for Sri Lanka since 2019. He was part of the Sri Lanka team that won the gold medal at the South Asian Games in Kathmandu in 2019. Chanuka Sandeepa, Vinosh Suranjaya and Himasha Eshan were the others in the team that clocked 39.14 seconds to win gold.
Abeykoon is yet to feature in a hundred metres this year though he has been selected for the Dubai event and the Asian Athletics Championship which will be held in South Korea later this month.
Reigning national champion Chamod Yodasinghe, emerging talents Merone Wijesinghe, Deneth Weeraratne and Chamod Dissanayake are the others in the relay team.
Sumudu Ishan and Claudio Licciardello are the coaches joining the relay team in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka will field only the 4x400m mixed relay team for the World Relays taking place on May 10 and 11 in Guangzhou, China. A team of six athletes, namely, Kalinga Kumarage, Aruna Darshana, Sadew Rajakaruna, Nishendra Fernando, Sayuri Mendis and Nadeesha Ramanayake will leave Sri Lanka tomorrow for the World Relays. W.G.M. Thushara will acompany the team as coach.
Hurdler Nadun Bandara (110m h) and long jumper Sampath Miranda are set to compete at the 3rd Invitational Belt and Road Athletics Championship in Chongqing, China. The May 14 -16 event is part of the “All China Athletics Series 3”. The two athletes will leave the island on May 11.
As reported in The Island last week, Sri Lanka will field a team of 20 athletes for the Asian Athletics Championship from May 27-31 in Gumi, South Korea.
Apart from the above events Sri Lanka will also take part in the India Athletics Cup 2025 International Javelin Competition in Chandigarh, India on May 22 and the Taiwan Open Athletics Championship on June 7 and 8 in Taipei.
Javelin thrower Rumesh Tharanga will compete in Chandigarh. Tharanga’s coach Tony Prasanna will acompany him as the coach.
by Reemus Fernando
Sahansha Damsiluni of Visakha Vidyalaya and Buwindu Jayawardhana of Maliyadeva College Kurunegala won the Under 14 girls’ and boys’ singles titles respectively of the 110th Vision Care Colombo Championship at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association clay courts.
The tournament organized by the playing section of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association commenced on April 26 and will conclude on May 11.
In her final match Damsiluni beat Sesandri Fernando 7-5, 6-3.
Jayawardhana beat Parvesh Sivapalan 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 in the Under 14 boys’ final.
In a chaotic match laced with rain breaks during the second half, Gujarat Titans got home by the barest of margins to reach the top of the IPL 2025 points table and end Mumbai Indians’ six-match winning streak. When it started to rain just before midnight, MI would have thought they had fashioned an improbable comeback. Between two rain breaks, they had taken 4 for 25 to turn GT’s lead of eight on the DLS par score to a deficit of four with two overs to go.
Thanks to some excellent work from the groundstaff, the game resumed at the last possible moment, leaving GT 15 to get in the 19th over. Deepak Chahar was hit for a four and a six in the first three balls, then bowled a no-ball, but came back to take a wicket. With one needed off the last ball, MI could still have forced a tie had someone come around to collect the throw from mid-off. Hardik Pandya, who had bowled two no-balls earlier and had decided against bowling the last over, missed with the direct-hit, sparking wild celebrations in the GT camp.
There was appreciable seam movement for GT to exploit after winning the toss and choosing to field. Mohammed Siraj had Ryan Rickleton caught at short cover second ball, and Arshad Khan troubled Rohit Sharma before getting him out for 7 off 8.
GT could have shut MI out of the game then and there but they dropped Will Jacks on 0 and 29, and Suryakumar Yadav on 10. Jacks went on to score his first fifty for MI, in just 29 balls, and Suryakumar registered a 12th straight score of 25 or more. Despite some help for the spinners, MI seemed well-placed at 97 for 2 in 10.3 overs.
It is the strength and depth in the GT bowling that allows their batters to play more conventional cricket than some other teams, and it was on full display in the second half of MI’s innings. R Sai Kishore, who doesn’t always get to bowl, troubled the right-hand-heavy MI middle order before going over the wicket and cramping Suryakumar on an inside-out shot for a catch at long-off. He then responded unerringly to the attacking fields for Hardik, who slogged and top-edged. Between these two wickets, Rashid Khan marked his comeback from 3-0-50-0 in the last match with the wicket of Jacks, having drawn five false shots in nine balls bowled to him
Prasidh Krishna strengthened his grip on the purple catch as he and Gerald Coetzee drove home the advantage with a wicket each. Rashid came back to bowl the 18th over for just four. Corbin Bosch hit two sixes in the final over before getting hit on the back of the head, an event that would go on to have implications later in the night.
The new ball seamed for MI as well, and they have the bowling to exploit it. Trent Boult beat B Sai Sudarshan first ball and then took his edge second ball, one short of Suryakumar’s tally of 510 this year. The orange cap remained on Suryakumar’s head, but two other GT batters reached 500 runs during a testing, chaotic time.
Amid heavy wind, Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler were forced to quite literally weather the storm. Jasprit Bumrah and Boult were exceptional, and at 21 for 1 in five overs, the shortest period for this to constitute a match, GT were well behind the par score.
By now, though, it had stopped raining, vindicating the umpires’ decision to not take the players off. Even as Gill struggled to get going, Buttler got GT moving. An 11-ball over from Hardik – two no-balls, three wides – sent GT on their way, but a new twist in the tale was Bosch’s concussion substitute, the left-arm quick Ashwani Kumar.
Ashwani conceded just five in his first over, and had Butter caught off the bottom edge in his second.
Sherfane Rutherford made a comeback to the GT side as the Impact Player, which led to the introduction of Jacks’ part-time spin. GT were five behind the par score, and Rutherford just 1 off 2 when Jacks started the said over. Three dots later, GT looked in trouble. Rutherford, though, turned it around with an inside-edged four and two lovely inside-out shots for 10 runs. In the next over, he took down Ashwani. GT were now eight ahead of the par score as for the first time rain forced players off the field.
Bumrah had two overs left, and Boult one, when play resumed without any deduction in the overs. Quite incredibly, Bumrah drew seam movement from the old ball to go past Gill, who scored 43 off 46 despite two free hits and a dropped catch, and Shahrukh Khan two balls after he had hit Bumrah for a four. Between these two wickets, Boult skidded one through to get Rutherford out for 28 off 15.
It is a miracle they got the teams back on for that one over. It was double trouble for MI as their three best bowlers had bowled out, and they now had to bowl with one boundary rider fewer because of their slow over-rate. Chahar struggled to control a ball that got wet with Rahul Tewatia’s hit to the fence first ball. Coetzee smoked a slot ball over long-off to leave them four needed off three. A no-ball made it easier, but a sharp bouncer brought in Arshad to face the last ball.
Two mistakes were made by MI. They didn’t position a fielder next to the pitch to jump on to collect a throw, and Suryakumar and the bowler weren’t swift to get to the stumps from short extra cover. Hardik looked up to see if he could throw the ball to someone, he saw no one, and had to shy at the stumps. He missed.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 147 for 7 in 19 overs (Shubman Gill 43, Joss Buttler 30, Sherfane Rutherfird 28, Rahul Tewatia 11*, Gerald Coetzee 12; Deepak Chahar 1-32, Trent Boult 2-22, Jasprit Bumrah 2-19, Ashwani Kumar 2-28) beat Mumbai Indians 155 for 8 in 20 overs (Will Jacks 53, Suryakumar Yadav 35, Corbin Bosch 27; Mohammed Siraj 1-29, Arshad Khan 1-18, Prasidh Krishna 1-37, Sai Kishore 2-34, Rahid Khan 1-21, Gerald Coetzee 1-10) by three wickets (DLS method)
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