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Pathirana: ‘My body just automatically changed the release point’ after injury

Published

3 months ago

2026/02/1

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Matheesha Pathirana bowls, his release point still higher than it used to be [Cricinfo]

If there was one positive from Sri Lanka’s defeat to England in the first T20I, it was how well their bowlers kept England’s batters in check on a batter-friendly surface. Particularly Matheesha Pathirana.

Pathirana, the 23-year-old slinger, returned figures of 1 for 18 across his four overs – and it might have been two had Pathum Nissanka not grassed a chance in the deep – but his impact was immense, as evident in ESPNcricinfo’s MVP index, where he was only behind Adil Rashid, whose 3 for 19 ripped through Sri Lanka’s batting.

The target of 134 off 17 overs (later revised to 115 in 15) proved too low to defend, but the margin of defeat – 11-runs via DLS – was not as wide as it might have been given the nature of the pitch.

On a good batting surface, seamers in particular suffered – Sam Curran and Eshan Malinga went at around 12 an over, while Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton both went at over seven. But Pathirana ticked along at an economy rate of 4.5.

He did so bowling his entire repertoire, from quick yorkers – he was hovering in the mid-140s, with his quickest delivery clocking 148kph – to pace-off length deliveries and spicy short ones. Even more impressive was the fact that he bowled two of his overs inside the powerplay. Pathirana is renowned for his death-overs exploits, but here, with a sub-par total to defend, Sri Lanka called on their strike bowler to take the new ball.

“Even though I’ve practiced to bowl in the powerplay, there was no plan as such for me to bowl there today,” Pathirana said after the game. “It just so happened that our score was lower than we wanted, so it was decided that I would bowl in the powerplay.”

Pathirana’s control was impressive. Wides have been an issue in the past – a common trade-off for a slingy action such as his – but on Friday night, there were just three across his spell.”Honestly I didn’t do anything major, just simple, basic things. The main thing was increasing the number of repetitions in practice. If there is any improvement, that’s the reason”

“Over the last year, year-and-a-half, along with my injuries, it was a challenging period,” he said. “I lost my rhythm. I’ve worked very hard to get back to this level. And then more recently Mali aiya [Lasith Malinga] was here in Sri Lanka helping out, as well all the coaches at SLC – not just one – all of them helped me get here.”

The impact of fellow slinger Malinga cannot be understated. Malinga has long been a proponent of target-based training drills, and hours of repetitive practice. And most recently he has been working as Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling coach in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup.

“Honestly I didn’t do anything major, just simple, basic things,” Pathirana said. “The main thing was increasing the number of repetitions in practice. If there is any improvement, that’s the reason. In terms of practice I increased it greatly.”

It’s a sharp turn in fortunes for Pathirana, who had only played two T20Is for Sri Lanka in 2025 – owing to a combination of poor form and injuries – and had been released by Chennai Super Kings [CSK] following IPl 2025. He had since been picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), but that was more of an educated punt than anything based on tangible data.

Among the criticisms levied at Pathirana during this period was that his release point was not as low as it used to be. Stephen Fleming, the CSK coach, in fact pointed out this very fact when talking about the quick bowler’s decline in IPL 2025.

On Friday, Pathirana’s release point was lower than in recent times but still not as low as during his breakout season. He explained that his change in action had largely been involuntary, and down to a fairly serious shoulder injury he had been nursing.

“Yes,” he responded when asked if his release point had changed. “In the recent past, I was playing with a fairly major shoulder injury. So I think my body just automatically changed the release point. Even now I am doing rehab in between matches, and I think that’s why I’m seeing an improvement, and so you can see that the release point is getting to what it used to be.”

A fit and firing Pathirana is crucial for Sri Lanka, and with Dushmantha Chameera waiting in the wings, as well as Eshan Malinga ticking along well – he picked up two wickets on Friday with clever variations – Sri Lanka’s seam contingent at least looks in rude health heading into the World Cup.

[Cricinfo]

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US press gala shooting suspect charged with attempting to kill Trump

Published

7 hours ago

2026/04/28

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US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel and Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI Washington Field Office Darren Cox stand next to a picture of a shotgun carried by Cole Tomas Allen, April 27 [Aljazeera]

Federal authorities in the United States have charged the suspect who allegedly shot a US Secret Service agent as he tried to breach security at a press gala attended by Donald Trump with attempting to assassinate the US president.

Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, also faces firearms charges in a three-count complaint, prosecutors announced on Monday.

In the case of a conviction, the attempted assassination of Trump carries out a sentence of up to life in prison.

Allen wore a blue prison jumpsuit at his first appearance in Washington, DC, federal court, two days after authorities said they foiled an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, an annual black-tie gathering of journalists and politicians in the US capital.

“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States, Donald J Trump”, prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said in court.

Allen has not yet responded to the allegations. Seated at the defence table flanked by US Marshals, Allen said he would answer all questions truthfully and that he had a master’s degree in computer science.

US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered Allen detained while the case moves forward. Sharbaugh scheduled another hearing over Allen’s continued detention for Thursday.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, DC, said further charges could be filed against Allen as the investigation proceeds.

“Make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the president of the United States, with the defendant making clear what his intent was – and that intent was to bring down as many of the high-ranking cabinet officials as he could,” Pirro told reporters on Monday.

She cited an alleged manifesto written by the suspect, saying that his targets were administration officials “prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest”.

Pirro added that Allen allegedly had a semiautomatic pistol, a shotgun and three knives. She said authorities believe the guns were purchased in California.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen travelled via train from his home near Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington.

[Aljazeera]

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Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar lead rout of Delhi Capitals

Published

7 hours ago

2026/04/28

Priyan

Josh Hazlewood struck with his first two deliveries [Cricinfo]

On Saturday, Delhi served up a belter of a pitch on which 265 played 264. Two days later, the adjacent surface produced a passage of play straight out of a spicy Test-match session. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood maximised the swing and bounce on offer in the early exchanges to raze through Delhi Capitals. DC crumpled to 8 for 6 – their powerplay score of 13 was the lowest in a full IPL game – and were in danger of being dismissed for the lowest total in the league.

Contributions from the lower order helped them avoid that ignominy and dragged them to 75. Royal Challengers Bengaluru completed the demolition job with nine wickets and 81 balls to spare. They narrowed Punjab Kings’ lead at the top of the table to just one point and boosted their NRR.

The carnage began with Bhuvneshwar yorking IPL debutant Sahil Parakh for a two-ball duck in the first over and ended with DC being decimated for the lowest powerplay score.

The Delhi pitch didn’t misbehave, but offered swing and bounce throughout the powerplay. Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood made the most of it to return figures of 3-0-5-3 and 3-0-8-3 respectively in the first six overs. At the innings break, Bhuvneshwar said that he was surprised that the ball swung for so long. Safe to say so were the DC batters.

Parakh, picked ahead of Prithvi Shaw, came in as a player with considerable reputation for an 18-year old. DC’s director of cricket Venugopal Rao believes he can play for India one day, but on Monday, his IPL debut lasted all of two balls. Bhuvneshwar hit his edge first ball with an outswinger and knocked out his middle stump with an inswinger next ball.

In the second over, Hazlewood hit the perfect length – neither short or full – with his first ball to KL Rahul and had him top-edging a pull to the wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma. Hazlewood pushed his length and line fuller and wider next ball and found late away movement to have Sameer Rizvi nicking to Jitesh for a golden duck.

Tristan Stubbs denied Hazlewood a hat-trick, but in the next over he too edged behind, off Bhuvneshwar. With two slips in play, including a wide one, Rajat Patidar ramped up the pressure on DC and empowered his bowlers to keep attacking. When Bhuvneshwar also kissed Axar Patel’s edge, DC were 7 for 5 in the third over.

It soon became 8 for 6 when Hazlewood dug a snorter into Nitish Rana’s arm pit from around the wicket. Rana took his eyes off the ball and ended up fending it to Padikkal.

Even RCB couldn’t believe what had just transpired. Tim David covered his face in disbelief.

A dust storm, which caused a brief stoppage, and a 35-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Abhishek Porel and David Miller then gave DC some respite.

DC had pressed the emergency switch and brought Porel in as an Impact Player following the fall of the fifth wicket. The first shot of authority came from Porel when he swatted Rasikh Dar over midwicket for four soon after the powerplay.

Miller also seemed fairly comfortable against RCB’s change bowlers before Rasikh drew a top edge with a short ball that stopped on the batter. Batting at No.8 for the first time in his 565-match T20 career, Miller was dismissed for 19 off 18 balls.

Kyle Jamieson hit the first six of the game when he launched Romario Shepherd over square leg in the 11th over, but two overs later, Krunal Pandya pinned him lbw for 12 off 13 balls.

Porel hung around for 33 balls for 30 runs before he was the last man dismissed. He was also the only DC batter to pass 20 and took them past the lowest IPL total of 49. Hazlewood made a mess of his stumps with a searing yorker that tailed in from around the wicket.

With Phil Salt still nursing an injury, Jacob Bethell retained his place in the RCB team and ran away to 20 off 11 balls before Jamieson had him caught superbly by T Natarajan running back from mid-on. Devdutt Padikkal was even quicker off the blocks, reaching 22 off eight balls, and by the end of the powerplay, RCB were 65 for 1.

Kohli got the job done for RCB in the next over with back-to-back sixes off Natarajan. Along the way, he became the first player to 9000 IPL runs.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 77 for 1 in 6.3 overs (Jacob Bethell 20, Virat Kohli 23*, Devdutt Padikkal 34*; Kyle Jamieson 1-42) beat Delhi Capitals 75 in 16.3 overs (AbishekPorel 30, David Miller 19, Kyle Jamieson 12; Josh Hazlewood 4-12, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-05, RasikhnSalman 1-21, Suyashb Sharma 1-07, Krunal Pandya 1-09) by nine wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Colombo, Gampaha, Kegalle, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts during the day time

Published

7 hours ago

2026/04/28

Priyan

Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 27 April 2026, valid for 28 April 2026.

The Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Colombo,
Gampaha, Kegalle, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts during the day time.

The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.

Effect of the heat index on the human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.

ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.

Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.