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One-way traffic at rugby and a farewell to Guneratne

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By a Special Sports Correspondent

The domestic rugby season commenced with the most likely results with the two Colombo based clubs CR&FC and Havelocks along with Kandy Sports Club (Central Province) producing wins in the first week of the inter-club league rugby season. Will such match results in the domestic scene take the interest away from the game? When the league tournament was launched at a well-attended media event the chief representative of rugby’s main sponsor- Nippon Paint-spoke about there being a prediction that the tournament this season would produce a new winner. Only ‘time’ will tell!

However, despite the thumping wins and point margins in these victories the keenness shown by some of the losing sides to stay competitive suggests that the top runners in the tournament will have a tough time as the tournament progresses. A good example is CH&FC. The players from the Maitland Crescent Club gave Kandy a hard time and the reigning champs had to draw strength from past experiences and the home turf advantage to make it look a comfortable win in the end. Kandy ran down four tries which came off the efforts of Thilina Bandara (2) and Nigel Ratwatte (2) who did the honours in the try scoring department. Even though the Kandy SC back line was bubbling with enthusiasm the eight member ‘pack’ was wanting in the scrums; an area where coach Fazil Marija will have to do much hard work. Kandy had no clue about how to steady that scrum and were lucky to be the winning side.

Senior referee Priyantha Guneratne called it a day with the whistle after officiating in the CH&FC vs Kandy SC game played in front of a large Sunday crowd.

Havelocks SC had an easy time at the Park and the only little contest that existed between the two teams was seen in the first half. At half time Havies had scored twice and the scores read 13-8 in favour of the host team. Debutante Dinupa Senewiratne produced a hat-trick of tries for Havies in a match where the host team crossed the Air Force goal line on seven occasions. Watching the second half was ridiculous as the players wearing the pink and chocolate jersey ran at will and made the opposition look like a schoolboy team. Sri Lanka Rugby cannot reduce gap in ability between the teams that are fancied and those which are not by offering additional help to less fancied teams. But the purpose of the tournament’s organizers to play matches under lights and attract more crowds for matches is defeated when the losing side simply folds up in the second half and allows the other team to have a ‘walk in the park’. The final score read 49-8 in favour of Havelocks SC.

Another team that had it easy in the first week of domestic rugby for the 2023/24 season was CR&FC which demolished Army SC by 55 points to 8 after leading 36-3 at half-time.

Referee Priyantha Guneratne is seen officiating
in his last game which was
between Kandy SC and CH & FC and
played at Nittawela on Sunday.
(Pic courtesy SLR media)

CR is still celebrating its hundred years and this win really boosted the morale of the Longden Place Club which is giving signs of finishing off on a high this season. Last season the Red Shirts finished second in the league tournament and won the prestigious Clifford Cup knockout tournament. By half time the fate of Army SC (the host team) had been decided. As many as eight tries were shared between seven players; which underscores the fact that more than half of the players in the CR&FC side have it in them to emerge as potential try scorers. Thenuka Nanayakkara was impressive during the game and slotted in five conversions apart from producing two tries. The Red Shirts are playing competitive rugby and much is expected of them this season.

Up in Nittawela last Sunday, senior referee Priyantha Guneratne called it a day with the whistle after officiating in the CH&FC vs Kandy SC game played in front of a large Sunday crowd.

Guneratne has made his contributions to rugby in the form of a coach and referee and is a respected individual in the rugby fraternity. He has officiated in crucial matches and done yeoman service to the Society of Rugby Football Referees in Sri Lanka (SRFRSL). He got his big break as a coach when he was selected as the assistant coach of the Sri Lanka national team when the islanders compiled a team to contest the Asian Junior Under 19 rugby tournament in Hong Kong. Guneratntne was presented with a memento at the match in Kandy by the SRFRSL President Dinka Peiris. Rugby will miss him, but the memories of the pint-sized Guneratne controlling 30 muscular men on the field with whistle in hand will never fade away!



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PM Modi meets Sri Lankan cricket stars who lifted the Cricket World Cup in 1996

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Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi who is on a three day state visit to Sri Lanka met with the Sri Lankan cricketers who lifted the Cricket World Cup in 1996.

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IPL 2025: Archer, Sandeep and batters’ fire to hand Punjab Kings first loss

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Jofra Archer bowled a fiery opening spell [Cricinfo]

Yashaswi Jaiswal scoring runs. Jofra Archer continuing the rhythm he seemed to rediscover against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Maheesh Theekshana and Wanidu Hasaranga coming into their own.

All these things may have been on Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) wishlist coming into Saturday night’s match against Punjab Kings (PBKS). All three wishes were fulfilled, as RR consigned PBKS, playing their first home game of IPL 2025,  to their first defeat of the season.

Jaiswal and Riyan Parag provided the sparks at the start and finish for RR to become the first team to post a 200-plus IPL total in Mullanpur. With this only being the sixth IPL game at the venue, it wasn’t yet clear if 205 was a winning total, but only until Archer made his entrance.

Six legal balls into their chase, PBKS were two down, with Archer finding movement at upwards of 145kph to take out Priyansh and Shreyas Iyer.  RR struck two more blows in the first seven overs, and PBKS were always playing catch-up thereafter, even when Nehal Wadhera and Glenn Maxwell added 88 for the fifth wicket.

Theekshana and Hasaranga did their bit to stifle the partnership’s scoring rate, and then struck one after the other to remove both set batters. And that was that for PBKS; they only hit one boundary in the last 5.4 overs as RR wrapped up victory by 50 runs.

Jaiswal got off to a scratchy start, slashing and missing against the left-left new-ball pair of Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen,  who both found early swing, miscuing a pull just beyond the reach of a backtracking mid-on, and scoring just 12 off his first 14 balls.

But perhaps all he needed, after starting his season with scores of 1, 29 and 4, was a bit of time in the middle and a bit of luck. The fourth over brought him back-to-back sixes off Jansen – a ramp over the keeper and a slog over midwicket – and he seemed to be up and running.

Sanju Samson, captaining RR for the first time this season after a finger injury had restricted him to a batting-only Impact Player role thus far, began more fluently but had less of the strike early on. When RR ended their first wicketless powerplay of the season on 53 for 0, he was on 20 off 14 and Jaiswal on 32 off 22.

From 40 for 0 after four overs, RR only scored 45 in their next six. The legspin of RR old boy Yuzvendra Chahal and the slower cutters of Lockie Ferguson and Marcus Stoinis had a lot to do with this, on a pitch that was just a touch grippy and two-paced.

Samson fell in the 11th over, trying to force the pace against Ferguson, and Jaiswal seemed to be getting stuck. But from 46 off 39, he found that elusive higher gear, crunching Chahal down the ground to bring up his fifty before slog-sweeping his next ball for six. He hit Stoinis for a six and a four in the next over – the 13th – before becoming Ferguson’s second victim, swinging too early at a well-disguised, stump-bound knuckleball.

Parag, batting at No. 3, began much like Jaiswal had done, struggling initially to get to grips with the surface. At one stage, after four successive dots against Arshdeep’s cutter, angling across the right-hander and turning further away, Parag was on 12 off 14 in the 16th over.

Then he paused for breath, and took strike transformed, a batter able to hold his shape for a split-second longer. He hit the next two balls from Arshdeep for fours, and that began a hitting spree that brought him 31 off his last 11 balls at the crease. With Nitish Rana, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel contributing cameos as well, RR rushed past 200 in the final over. Stoinis, whose first two only went for 12, leaked 36 in his last two, which again told the tale of RR’s batters coming to grips with the conditions and finding a way to master them.

The first ball Archer bowled could not have been bettered. Perfect length, rooting Impact Sub Priyanash Arya to the crease. Movement from leg to off, at 144.6kph. The left-handed Arya defended down the wrong line and the ball slid past his outside edge to flick the top of off.

None of this seemed to make any impact on Shreyas Iyer, though. The PBKS captain began in a manner befitting someone whose head coach had likened his previous innings to a purring Rolls Royce, stroking Archer for two fours through the covers in his first four legal balls at the crease. Then he got greedy, exposing all his stumps to try and make room for another off-side hit, and Archer burst a 148.6kph ball through him.

Wickets kept falling even when Archer didn’t have the ball. Stoinis popped a return catch to Sandeep Sharma off a fairly innocuous seam-up delivery in the fourth over, and Prabhsimran Singh slog-swept Kumar Kartikeya to deep midwicket in the seventh. The required rate kept mounting too; PBKS needed 163 from 82 balls when Maxwell joined Wadhera.

PBKS’ hopes began to stir when both batters hit sixes off Kartikeya in a 19-run 10th over, but Theekshana and Hasaranga immediately got to work, conceding just five and 12 – the latter an impressive recovery after Wadhera slog-swept the first ball of the over for six – in the 11th and 12th overs.

But as Maxwell ramped and reverse-swatted Yudhvir Singh for a pair of fours in the 13th, Wadhera launched Hasaranga for a straight six to bring up a 33-ball fifty in the 14th, and then began the 15th with back-to-back fours off Theekshana, PBKS began to dream once again.

Then the two Sri Lankan spinners brought their defensive skills to the fore again, asking the batters to try and fetch balls dangled wide of their hitting arcs. Maxwell sliced a catch to long-off at the end of the 15th over, and Wadhera slog-swept to deep midwicket at the start of the 16th. PBKS were six down and needed 75 off 29. It was never going to happen as they continued to lose wickets.

Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 205 for 4 in 20 overs (Yashaswi Jaiswal 67, Riyan Parag 43*, Sanju Samson 38, Nitish Rana 12, Shimron Hetmyer 20, Dhruv Jurel 13*;Lockie Ferguson 2-37, Arshdeep Singh 1-35, Marco Jansen 1-45) beat Punjab Kings 155 for 9 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 17, Shreyas Iyer 10, Nehal Wadhera 62, Glenn Maxwell 30, Shashnak Singh 10*; Jofra Archer 3-25, Sandeep Sharma 2-21, Maheesh Theekshana 2-26, Kumar Kartikeya 1-21, Wanidu Hasaranga 1-36) by 50 runs

[Cricinfo]

 

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KL Rahul shines as Delhi Capitals outclass CSK in Chennai

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KL Rahul got a boundary with a reverse-scoop [Cricinfo]

Chennai Super Kings are starting to lose control of their fortress. For the second time this season, a visiting team that hadn’t tasted victory against them at Chepauk in 15 years was able to utterly dominate them. This resulted in the strangest situation. The crowd here bays for MS Dhoni to come out and bat. They cheer their own team’s wickets in anticipation of his arrival. Well, on Saturday, he was there in the 11th over, but there was only silence.

In the absence of Faf du Plessis, who was not quite fit to play, KL Rahul opened the batting. He needed a little time to get used to the pace of a pitch that was very dry and therefore prevented the ball from coming into the bat. He was 25 off his first 20 balls.

Rahul found release through Noor Ahmad. He took IPL 2025’s highest wicket-taker for 20 off 9 but this wasn’t crash, bang, wallop. The bowler missed his mark a couple of times and the batter was confident enough in both his ability and his method to take full toll.

Noor strayed too full once and Rahul hit the half-volley for four. He pulled his length back once, but offered room to free the arms and Rahul swept him hard for six. Sometimes against spinners who are hard to pick out of the hand, the horizontal bat shots work so long as you pick the length.

This was how from 25 off 20 balls, Rahul hit 36 off 18, which included a reverse scoop off Mukesh Choudhary, the only bowler he actually targeted. Mukesh conceded 40% of the boundaries that DC hit.

Even towards the end of Rahul’s innings, it was apparent that hitting out was becoming difficult. He only scored 16 off his last 13 balls. DC understood that. Mukesh Kumar got one to stick in the surface and drew a leading edge from Rachin Ravindra. Ruturaj Gaikwad timed the pants off a Mitchell Starc short ball but didn’t quite place it well enough. He threw his head back as soon as Jake Fraser-McGurk took the catch at deep backward square leg. CSK were 20 for 2 in the third over. It had been six years since. they’ve been able to chase a total over 180 in the IPL. This was not the start they wanted.

Vijay Shankar had only one boundary from his first 31 deliveries. In that time, he could’ve been dismissed lbw or run-out. He survived both calls and tried as hard as he could to make the most of them, but it just wouldn’t come off. DC were so good in denying him the freedom of his arms. The pitch being slow as well didn’t let him get away with the connections that he made. More than once, he grimaced through an innings that brought him 69 runs in 54 balls. DC attempted to find the boundary off 37 balls and succeeded 21 times. CSK actually went harder – they hit out against 38 balls but were only successful 12 times. DC’s bowlers harnessed a slow, turning pitch beautifully. They out CSK-ed CSK. Winning the toss and batting first helped.

In the last match, Stephen Fleming said Dhoni cannot bat for a long time and therefore they ration his appearances. That’s why he batted at No. 9 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru because there was no point in him coming any earlier.

This time they had no choice. Half the side was in the hut with only 10.4 overs on the board. Kuldeep Yadav had delivered a killer googly to Ravindra Jadeja. The batter did not read it. He wasn’t even allowed the chance to pick it off the pitch. The length was so perfect, bringing him forward and then turning the wrong way to hit his pad instead of his flailing blade.

That brought Dhoni to the crease. He’s won World Cups before. But this might have been the first time he was batting in front of his parents. They were at the ground, to watch him score 30 off 26 and his team lose by 25 runs. It was a difficult evening for CSK fans. Their chances of winning, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster, was down at 9.51% even before the chase was halfway through. Jadeja is yet to bowl his full quota of overs in four matches. Ashwin has done so only twice. CSK have hit the fewest sixes in IPL 2025.  Their middle order (4-7) is struggling badly, averaging 21.76 (third-lowest in the tournament) and striking at 116.94 [lowest].

Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 183 for 6  in 20 overs (KL Rahul 77, Abhishek Poral 33, Axar Patel 21, Sameer Rizvi 20, Tristan Stubbs 24*; Khaleel Ahmed 2-25, Ravindra Jadeja 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-36, Matheesha Pathirana 1-31) beat Chennai Super Kings 158 for 5 in 20 overs (Vijay Shankar 69*, Devon Conway 13, Shivam Dube 18, MS Dhoni 30*; Mitchell Starc 1-27, Mukesh Kumar 1-36, Vipraj Nigam 2-27, Kuldeep Yadav 1-30) by 25 runs

[Cricinfo]

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