Sports

Podium finish for Green Shirts at rugby knockout final

Published

2 years ago

2024/09/18

Dialog Axiata PLC Brand and Media Vice President Harsha Samaranayaka (left) hands over the President’s Trophy to Isipatana skipper Nisaja Jayaweera (third from right) at the awards presentation after the Green Shirts beat St. Peter’s College 34-29 in the school rugby final. Also in the picture is Isipatana College playmaker Shaahid Zumri (Second from right).

by A Special Sports Correspondent

The inter-school rugby season for 2024 was one of the most competitive with Isipatana coming back with vengeance to win the knockout final. St. Peter’s won the league tournament a few weeks ago, but were denied of winning a triple.

Time and again we saw close encounters during the school rugby season. Even a top rated team like Isipatana had to score many a come from behind wins. All the team’s playing in division 1 segment 1 had improved by leaps and bounds. No team was safe playing mediocre rugby because there were so many hungry wolves wanting a piece from the rugby pie. Once again school rugby showed that it is a product that is sellable or marketable in the commercial world. School rugby dwarfed school cricket in an island where the bat and ball game largely defines the character and colour of its people more than any other sport.

Sri Lanka at one time even believed in foreign coaches for even school teams. Royal and Trinity are two schools which have often opted for foreign coaches. But after so many years we saw Royal sticking with a Sri Lankan coach in Dushanth Lewke, who is also a product of this school at Reid Avenue. He has just completed 50 games for Royal this season as head coach and that feat came when his chargers beat S.Thomas’ at the annual Michael Guneratne trophy rugby encounter. There were so many other schools which banked on local or homegrown talent when picking their coaching staff.

Seasoned campaigner Sanath Martis has brought enough glory to St. Peter’s this season. The lads from Bambalapitiya won the Elite Rugby Sevens conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association and then took home the league title. They were denied of a triple by Isipatana. The only little set back suffered by the Peterites was losing Yumeth Shihara who was unavailable for the final due to injury.

Isipatana were loaded with steppers (fast runners). That opening try scored by Abdul Aziz epitomized the dazzling, nerve tingling rugby that the Havelock Town school plays. Aziz sliced through the Peterite defence with a swerving run and went under the posts untouched. That run and the style in which he played the game reminisced two past Isipatana players in the likes of Roger Rodrigo and T.K. Bohoran; both scrum halves who went on to represent Sri Lanka. These players have underscored the stuff that Isipatana rugby is made of.

But the game has changed drastically. Now it’s a man to man confrontation before someone takes the ball over the opposite team’s goal line. Skipper and number eight Nisaja Jayaweera knew that aspect of the game more than anyone else out there playing school rugby. Many times this season he left opposite teams in shambles with his power play. If we don’t talk about fly half Shaahid Zumri we’ll be doing injustice to a great talent. He is certainly beyond the level of the performance demanded in school rugby. There is speculation that the lad can play one more season for Isipatana. Possessing running skills, the side step, the ability to spot gaps in the defence and the appetite to tackle with gusto, he was the man to watch among the green shirts this season. And like how a schoolboy should be we come to hear, through sources at his school, that all these personal successes haven’t gone to his head. He remains a humble and friendly lad outside the rugby field. We see the warrior in him only on the rugby field. Isipatana’s head coach Saliya Kumara can take a bow for bringing to the school a lovely piece of silver wear. There is a school of thought in rugby that the true champions during a season are the ones who win the knockout tournament.

Mention must be made of S. Thomas’ for reaching the semi finals of the knockout tournament. They were so unlucky to lose to Isipatana after the scores were deadlocked at 20 all. Isipatana prevailed over S. Thomas’ in extra time; thanks to the match winning try coming from Zumri.

The school rugby season had full of opportunities for less popular teams. Lalith Athulathmudali MV won the Chairman’s Trophy beating Nugawela Central. Mahanama College Colombo beat Ananda College Maradana to win the Premier Trophy.

Rugby is a sport that keeps growing. We saw Thurstan and Sri Sumangala Katugastota entering division 1 segment 1. That was laudable. But the message in the top division in rugby was clear to all: many run race but only a few survive!

All News Advertisement

Latest News

Sooryavanshi blitz, Jurel 81* help Rajasthan Royals take down Royal Challengers Bengaluru with ease

Published

9 hours ago

2026/04/11

Priyan

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi struck at 300.00 [Cricinfo]

Vaibhav Sooriyavanshi equalled his own record for the fastest half-century, off 15 balls, in a six-fest on a flat Guwahati deck as Rajasthan Royals walloped Royal Challengers Bengaluru for their fourth straight win.

RCB hit seven sixes through their 20 overs in an innings where they went all out, seemingly mindful of the challenge Sooryavanshi would pose. And pose he did, hitting seven sixes off his own blade, in a scarcely believable exhibition of brutal hitting.

Reputation counted for little. If it was Jasprit Bumrah the other night, it was Josh Hazlewood’s turn to come under Sooryavanshi’s wheel on Friday. By the time he was dismissed for a 26-ball 78, toe-ending a flat-batted hit to long-on off Krunal Pandya, RR’s asking rate in a 202 chase was just over six with 11.5 overs remaining.

Sooryavanshi’s uninhibited hitting was matched by Dhruv Jurel’s scintillating stroke play, the pair effectively snuffed out RCB’s hopes in the powerplay itself as they plundered 97 – the highest of the season. Although RR lost a couple of wickets in a rush thereafter, the result was never really in doubt.

RCB’s defence was given an early lift when the returning Hazlewood struck in the second over to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal. After conceding a couple of sixes off the short ball, Hazlewood responded smartly by going cross-seam and into the pitch to induce the edge. But the delight at having struck early dissipated quickly as Sooryavanshi seized control by rattling off three boundaries and a six in succession in his next over.

Each of the four boundaries pierced a different arc. The short ball was carved behind point, the hard length into the pitch was muscled over mid-on, the fuller one driven crisply between cover and mid-off, and when tested with the bumper, Sooryavanshi fetched it from outside off and nailed the pull over deep square for six.

And remarkably, it wasn’t just Hazlewood under the pump. Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who had nearly dismissed him first ball with a late-curving inswinging yorker, only for the teenager to dig it out and shovel it straight back for four – was also taken apart. In the fifth over, Sooryavanshi swatted him for back-to-back sixes to bring up his half-century.

Keeping pace with Sooryavanshi stroke for stroke can’t be easy, but Jurel managed it seamlessly, without ever looking like he was trying to. He capped off the powerplay by hitting rookie Abhinandan Singh for a sequence of 4, 6, 4, 0, 6, 4 to end an extraordinary passage.

Jurel’s fast hands were the defining feature of that over – whether it was picking length early to pull or using his wrists to whip the ball into the top tier over deep square. He would later take charge of the innings, tightening his approach after a flurry of wickets, and finishing unbeaten on 76 off 36 balls.

Jurel’s 68-run fifth-wicket stand with Ravindra Jadeja then guided RR home comfortably, steadying things after Krunal briefly stirred RCB’s hopes with back-to-back strikes of Sooryavanshi and Shimron Hetmyer in the ninth over.

RR went through a quiet passage of four overs without a boundary, but the early onslaught from Sooryavanshi and Jurel meant they could afford to play out a few quiet overs fully knowing RCB were a spinner short, as they activated Venkatesh Iyer as an impact player for batting firepower in place of Suyash Sharma.

The match had a blockbuster opening act, with Jofra Archer’s vicious, rip-roaring bouncer sending back Phil Salt for a golden duck. But Virat Kohli fought fire with fire, hitting him for three boundaries in his next over, before Archer struck back to remove the in-form Devdutt Padikkal.

This didn’t affect Kohli, though, as he shredded a much-talked-about matchup with Sandeep Sharma (who had dismissed him seven times in 18 innings) by thumping him over the infield for two fours. But trouble soon came RCB’s way as Ravi Bishnoi struck two quick blows to leave them 73 for 4.

In his first two outings, Rajat Patidar went crash-bang-wallop from the get-go. But a top-order wobble forced him to dig deep. He played himself in, getting to 20 off 22 balls at one stage. And then, three overs later, he brought up a half-century off 35 balls. One of the reasons for this surge was his surety in stroke-making.

The two sixes he hit off Nandre Burger in the 15th had that stamp of authority. A gentle extension of his arms to loft one cleanly over long-off laid down the marker, but the hop back to whip a short ball aimed at his ribs over deep square leg was the blockbuster.

With none of Romario Shepherd or Tim David coming off with the bat, RCB brought in Venkatesh Iyer as their Impact Player, leaving Suyash on the bench. And Venkatesh gave an excellent account of himself on RCB debut, finishing the innings off with a cameo 29 that pushed them past 200.

As it turned out, it was nowhere near enough.

Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 202 for 4 (Yashasvi Jiswal 13, Dhruv Jurel 81*, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 78, Ravindra Jadeja 24*; Josh Hazelwood 2-44, Krunal Pandya 2-30) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 201 for 8 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli32, Devudutt Padikkal 14, Rajat Patidar 63, Tim David 13, Romario Shepherd 22, Venkatesh Iyer 29*; Jofra Archer 2-33, Sandeep Sharma 1-47, Ravi Bishnoi 2-32, Ravindra Jadeja 1-14, Brijesh Sharma 2-37) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Brazil bowler Laura Cardoso takes 9 Lesotho wickets in record-breaking T20 win

Published

1 day ago

2026/04/10

Priyan

Laura Cardoso has taken the best bowling record in a T20 Women's International following her nine-wicket haul against Lesotho [Aljazeera]

Brazil are the unlikely candidates to have claimed two cricket records as one of their bowlers took a record nine wickets – including five in a row – in their 189-run T20 Women’s International victory against Lesotho in Botswana.

Having won the toss on Thursday, at the BCA Kalahari Women’s T20 International Tournament, Brazil posted a daunting 202-8 with wicketkeeper Monnike Machado hitting 69 off 41.

The fun, for the Brazilians, was only just beginning, though, as Laura Cardoso claimed a hat-trick with the last three deliveries of her first over – the second of the Lesotho innings – to set in motion the incredible feat that eventually saw the Africans bowled out for 13.

The 21-year-old then continued her wicket-taking achievement with a Women’s T20 International first of five dismissals in a row as she struck with the first two balls of her second over. This was all part of claiming the first nine Lesotho wickets to fall, but being denied the chance to take all 10 after a change of bowling following her third over. Her final wicket was Ret’sepile Limema, who fell to the fifth ball of the fifth over, with Cardoso replaced for the following over at that end. Her nine wickets, nevertheless, is the best return in either men’s or women’s T20 internationals.

The right-arm seamer did, indeed, come close to another hat-trick, when she claimed wickets with the last two balls of her second over, which itself totalled four victims.

Cardoso, who has has taken 55 wickets in 48 T20 matches for Brazil, replaces Indonesia’s Rohmalia Rohmalia at the top of the Women’s T20 best bowling rankings, as she finished with figures of 3-2-4-9.

Rohmalia had claimed seven wickets in 2024 in a match against Mongolia in Bali. Only three other women have claimed seven in a T20 international.

The men’s record, and the overall in the format, had been held by Bhutan’s Sonam Yeshey after ⁠he took eight wickets for seven ⁠runs against Myanmar ⁠last year.

The previous record for the number of wickets in consecutive deliveries was four, and was jointly held with the most prominent occasion in women’s cricket being when Shakera Selman pulled off the feat for the West Indies against Pakistan in 2018. Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga are among the most notable bowlers from the men’s game to have claimed four consecutively in the format.

Although a huge winning margin, Brazil’s overall win does not compare with Argentina’s record after they beat Chile by 364 runs in 2023. The Argentinians had struck 427-1 to set up their victory.

Lesotho’s part in the record extends to no further than Cardoso’s haul, with the record-lowest total belonging to Mali, who were bowled out for 6 in 2019 by Rwanda.

Brazil, ‌who lead the six-team tournament with five straight wins, play ‌Mozambique ‌on Friday.

[Aljazeera]

Latest News

Zimbabwe Women set for maiden tour of Pakistan

Published

1 day ago

2026/04/10

Priyan

Pakistan and Zimbabwe will play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is [Cricbuzz]

Zimbabwe Women are set for their maiden tour to Pakistan for three ODIs and three T20Is.

The ODIs kick off on May 3 and will be part of the ICC Women’s Championship 2025-29. The T20I series will be played from May 12. All six matches will take place at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi.

Pakistan are currently placed fifth on the Women’s Championship table after a 2-1 series loss to South Africa. Zimbabwe are placed seventh after a three-match series loss to New Zealand.

Zimbabwe are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on April 29.