Sports
Over 1200 players expected for National Badminton Championship
Nearly 1300 shuttlers will vie for honours at the 72nd National Badminton Championship, set to be worked off between December 1 to 8 at three key venues in Colombo. Organised and conducted by Sri Lanka Badminton (SLB), the country’s premier domestic badminton event will take place at the Mercantile Badminton Association (MBA) Indoor Courts, the Otter Aquatic Club Courts and at the SLB Indoor Courts at Maitland Place, where shuttlers in contention will compete under different categories.
The SLB officials stated that they were overwhelmed by the extraordinary enthusiasm among local shuttlers after the number of entries reached 1254, surpassing last year’s total number of 1140, by the time entries were closed on November 19th. The record number of entries will prompt the SLB officials to assign nearly 60 officials for the eight-day competition, where Buwaneka Goonethilleke and Ranithma Liyanage are expected to defend their men’s and women’s singles titles.
The championships will feature a wide range of events from Under-11 to Under-19 in the Junior category and Over-30 to Over-70 in the Senior category, as well as the Combined age category of 100+, 110+ and 120+. However, the Open events comprising Men’s and Women’s Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles, will take centre stage at this grand annual event.
The opening ceremony will take place on December 1st, and will be followed by the preliminary rounds, leading up to the climax on December 6 with the Round of 16 and quarter-finals.
The excitement will continue on December 7, with the highly anticipated semi-finals and additional quarter-final and final matches. The grand finale is set for December 8, where all the selected finals will be held, concluding with the Closing Ceremony to mark the culmination of this prestigious badminton championship.
At the last National Badminton Championship, Buwaneka Goonathilleke clinched a triple crown, winning the Open Men’s Singles, Open Men’s Doubles, partnered with the losing finalist Viren Nettasinghe, and the Open Mixed Doubles, partnered with Natasha Gunasekara. Top seeded shuttler Ranithma Liyanage, who bagged the Women’s Singles silver medal at last week’s Bahrain International Series 2024, won the Open Women’s Singles last season, in addition to winning the Under-19 Girls’ Singles title. Jananuwani Amanda de Alvis and Hasara Wijerathne are the defending champions in the Open Women’s Doubles.
A grand prize money of Rs.2 million for all events based on the number of entries will be on offer, in addition to trophies, medals and certificates guaranteed for winners, runners-up and semi-finalists of each event of the tournament. Junior winners will receive appropriate gifts instead of prize money, according to the decision taken by the tournament organisers. The country’s elite domestic badminton event, conducted in accordance to BWF regulations, is sponsored by Li Ning, McFoil, 3M, GAC and Mobil.
Shreyas Iyer has been fined for Punjab Kings’ slow over-rate against Gujarat Titans on Tuesday. This being PBKS’ first such offence of the season, Iyer was fined INR 12 lakh.
Punjab Kings 165 for 7 in 19.1 overs (Cooper Connolly 72*, Prabhsimran Singh 37, Shreyas Iyer 18, Xavier Bartlett 11*; Kagsio Rabada 1-13, Ashok Sharma 1-31, Rashid Khan 1-29, Washington Sundar 1-27, Prasidh Krishna 3-29) beat Gujarat Titans 162 for 6 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 13, Shubman Gill 39, Joss Buttler 38, Glenn Phillips 25, Washington Sundar 18, Rahul Tewatia 11*; Marco Jansen 1-20, Vijayakumar Vyshak 3-34, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-28) by three wickets
Gujarat Titans (GT) stopped Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their tracks but could not stop them from going over the finish line in New Chandigarh. Cooper Connolly steered the hosts home in a chase that began authoritatively before taking nervy turns.
Prabhsimran Singh led the initial charge alongside Connolly before Prasidh Krishna initiated a collapse that derailed the chase. But with help from Marco Jansen and Xavier Bartlett, Connolly took PBKS home with five balls to spare.
GT had a sub-par outing with the bat, with three of their top four getting off to good starts but none of them capitalising. Yuzvendra Chahal was back to his best, taking out Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler, who top-scored with 39 and 38 respectively.
PBKS’ bowlers conceded 14 extras, 11 of which were wides, four of them coming in the final over by Arshdeep Singh. Perhaps the more relevant stat separating the teams was that GT hit three sixes in their innings and PBKS as many as 14.
Chahal came on with GT well set on 65 for 1 off 7 overs. He bowled slow, and varied his lines against Gill to dismiss him fourth time in the IPL. This time, it was a slog sweep that carried to deep midwicket.
There were a couple of near-chances in the 11th over, one a caught-and-bowled chance off Buttler and then one off Glenn Phillips, who hit an airy four that went just wide of Shreyas Iyer at cover. Chahal returned in the 16th, after a three-over break, with Buttler batting on 38 off 30 and itching for runs. Two dots later, Buttler looked to clear long-on but Bartlett used his height and reach to take an excellent high catch.
Vijaykumar Vyshak bowled across phases and found success later in the innings. Buttler and Gill took him on initially, hitting two fours and a six in his first two overs, the sixth and eighth of the GT innings. He came back and got Glenn Phillips to hole out to long-off in the 14th.
He saved the best for the death, bowling slower balls, either into the pitch or pitched right up. The first variant got Washington Sundar caught, cutting to deep point, and the latter had Shahrukh Khan slogging to deep square leg.
The pitch seemed flat early on as Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Buttler started with a flurry of fours. Nine in the first six overs, in fact. There were drives, pulls and flicks, and a gorgeous back-foot punch by Buttler off Vyshak.
The slowdown came in the middle overs, which saw GT make 77 for 3. Buttler faced 14 dots in his 33-ball 38, Gill, having rocketed to 27 off 15, made just 12 off his last 12 balls.
Phillips got off to a promising start on GT debut, hitting Chahal for a six and a four within his first eight balls at the crease. He missed out on a couple of boundaries because of Marco Jansen’s fielding at long-off. In the end, three of the top-four batters got to 25 but none went past 39.
After Kagiso Rabada dismissed Priyansh Arya cheaply, Connolly and Prabhsimran took him on: they hit three sixes in the fourth over, the same as GT’s innings tally.
Connolly then used Ashok Sharma’s pace to carve a length ball over cover point. He then hit two sixes off successive Rashid overs while Prabhsimran did the same off Washington Sundar.
However, Prabhsimran couldn’t get going against Rashid. He faced eight balls and scored just two before charging the legspinner and finding Prasidh at long-on. PBKS were 83 for 1 in the tenth over.
The momentum didn’t flag with that wicket, as Shreyas hit sixes off back-to-back short balls from Ashok. But out of nowhere, Prasidh dismissed the PBKS captain, who chipped a half-volley straight to deep midwicket.
This brought about a burst of T20-style wickets where the field mattered more than the quality of the ball. Nehal Wadhera cut a shortish slower ball straight to cover. Shashank Singh, looking to run the ball to deep third, nicked to the keeper off Prasidh. Marcus Stoinis, off Prasidh again, carved a shortish ball to deep third. PBKS had lost four wickets in the space of 16 balls for eight runs.
At 121 for 6, with PBKS needing 42 off 30, the game was flipping. But Connolly was ice-cool against Rabada. He punished two short balls to bookend the 16th over, the first cut over backward point for four to bring up his fifty and the last one pulled over square leg for six.
The pressure was eased at the other end as Jansen and Bartlett pulled Prasidh for sixes in the 17th and 19th overs respectively. That was where PBKS effectively sealed the game.
Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 165 for 7 in 19.1 overs (Cooper Connolly 72*, Prabhsimran Singh 37, Shreyas Iyer 18, Xavier Bartlett 11*; Kagsio Rabada 1-13, Ashok Sharma 1-31, Rashid Khan 1-29, Washington Sundar 1-27, Prasidh Krishna 3-29) beat Gujarat Titans 162 for 6 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 13, Shubman Gill 39, Joss Buttler 38, Glenn Phillips 25, Washington Sundar 18, Rahul Tewatia 11*; Marco Jansen 1-20, Vijayakumar Vyshak 3-34, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-28) by three wickets
[Cricinfo]
St. Joseph’s College produced a thrilling performance to defeat their arch rivals St. Peter’s College by three wickets in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ cricket quarter-final at Kuruvita on Tuesday.
The victory was built around a superb bowling display by Sri Lanka Under-19 spinner Vigneswaran Akash, who ripped through the Peterite batting line-up with a sensational eight-wicket haul in the second innings. The Josephians took the bowling honours in the keenly contested encounter where Akash was joined by Vishwa Peiris, who finished with a match bag of eight wickets, to trouble Petes.
Chasing a modest target of 97 runs for victory, St. Joseph’s began the final day in trouble at two wickets for three runs. Batting on a difficult surface, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, putting the favourites under pressure.
However, two aggressive knocks turned the tide in favour of the Josephians. Aveesha Samash launched a brisk counter-attack, smashing five fours and a six in a rapid 32 off just 18 balls, while Senuja Wakunegoda added a valuable 24 at better than a run-a-ball pace. Their contributions ensured St. Joseph’s reached the target within 15 overs during the morning session.
For St. Peter’s, Janith Panditharathna and Sadeesha Silva shared all seven wickets to fall.
Earlier in the match, St. Peter’s posted 204 in their first innings. St. Joseph’s replied with 187, conceding a slender 17-run first-innings lead.
But the match turned dramatically when Akash spun a web around the Peterites in their second innings. The Jaffna-born spinner produced a devastating spell to bowl them out for just 79 runs, returning outstanding figures of 8 for 21 in 9.1 overs and finishing with a remarkable match haul of 11 wickets.
Peiris, who claimed six wickets in the first innings, added two more in the second to complete an impressive match return of eight wickets.
The victory sends St. Joseph’s into the semi-finals after overcoming a spirited challenge from their traditional rivals in a match dominated by spin bowling. (RF)
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