Sports

Silver jubilee celebrations of World Cup win in full swing

Published

5 years ago

2021/03/15

The silver jubilee celebrations of Sri Lanka’s World Cup triumph is in full swing with several activities organized in Colombo and Jaffna. The state will felicitate the nation’s World Cup heroes at an official function to be held at Temple Trees on Wednesday morning with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in attendance.

That evening there will be a dinner organized by members of World Cup winning team at Colombo’s Shangri-La. There are several other activities organized with the main event being a cricket match in Jaffna involving the World Cup winning team followed by a dinner.

Sri Lanka beat Australia in the finals of the WILLS World Cup on the 17th of March in 1996 with Aravinda de Silva’s unbeaten 107 setting up a comprehensive seven wicket win. Sanath Jayasuriya’s swashbuckling batting and his tidy left-arm spin won him the Player of the Series award as Sri Lanka became unbeaten champions with the highlight of their campaign being beating India twice in their own backyard. In the process, Jayasuriya ended the careers of a few players; Manoj Prabhakar and Philip DeFreitas.

Apart from India, Sri Lanka beat Kenya and Zimbabwe in their group games while Australia and West Indies conceded points having refused to play in Colombo due to security reasons. Having topped the group, Sri Lanka beat England in the quarter-finals, India in the semis and Australia in the finals, who qualified having beaten New Zealand in the quarters and West Indies in the semis.

Arjuna Ranatunga’s side defied many odds when they won the final chasing although no team batting second had won a World Cup final previously.

In the five previous World Cups, Sri Lanka had never reached the second round, when they did ultimately in 1996, they went onto become champions.

Sri Lanka’s attacking style going after the bowling when fielding restrictions were on in the first 15 overs caught many teams by surprise. The ploy did not work all the time and when it backfired, the team had enough resources to post decent totals or mange run chases.

The team’s bowling resources were limited but they compensated for that with some excellent fielding. Improved fitness levels also helped the side immensely.

Sri Lanka’s tour of Australia just prior to the World Cup toughened up the team and incidents such as the ball tampering allegations in Perth and the chucking controversy on Boxing Day at the MCG brought the side together. It was fitting that Sri Lanka met Australia in the final and beat them comprehensively.

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Sports

Six balls that changed the night

Published

1 hour ago

2026/02/28

Priyan

Glenn Phillips conceded 22 runs in the 18th over [Cricbuzz]

For most of the evening, Glenn Phillips looked like the safest investment on the field.

He batted with clarity. Against spin, anything too full was driven straight, anything too short pulled with control. He finished as New Zealand’s top-scorer without appearing to force the pace.

With the ball, he delivered a crucial breakthrough. Harry Brook looked to make room but Phillips, bowling his offbreaks from round the wicket, drifted the ball away. It meant the shot travelled much straighter into the hands of long-off instead of much squarer, where Brook’s intention had been to clear the 62-metre boundary.

Minutes later, Phillips sprinted in from the deep and dived forward to take a low catch inches above the turf. It was sharp, instinctive, and got rid of Jacob Bethell, who was set and posing a threat.

It felt like the making of one of those complete T20 nights for Phillips, the kind where one player seems to sit at the centre of the action and the game appears to move in rhythm with him. Runs, wickets, catches. Influence in every phase.

Then came the inflection point.

England needed 43 from three overs. The decision to hand Phillips the ball was not casual. It was a call built on evidence gathered through the evening. The pitch had rewarded spin. England had bowled 16 overs of it in the first innings, the most they have sent down in a T20I, and had even turned to Will Jacks for the 18th over earlier in the night, when he removed Phillips. The match had already shown how a part-time offspinner could tilt its direction.

With two right-handers at the crease, Phillips’ offbreaks would spin into them and, in theory, invite hits to the longer part of the ground, where batters had been caught in the deep. The dimensions mattered. The surface mattered. The match-ups mattered. It was the sort of decision that feels right in the moment because it has logic layered into it.

There were fewer obvious alternatives than hindsight suggests. Ish Sodhi had already conceded 21 in two overs. The seamers had been used in defined bursts and had not found exaggerated assistance at the death in the previous match on this strip. In fact, Sri Lanka had bowled three of the last four overs with pace and paid the price, with Santner putting the bowlers to the sword over the short boundary.

Santner’s thinking was about control and geometry, about forcing England to hit against the turn and into the bigger side of the ground, about backing the bowler who had influenced the night in multiple ways already.

“Yeah, I guess the toss-up was whether you bowled seam at some stage,” the New Zealand captain later said. “In the first innings, obviously, Brookie (Brooks) in England bowled a lot of seam at the end as well, and I guess it probably wasn’t doing as much as it was the other night, where we bowled a lot of spin. It was still obviously a challenging wicket, but yeah, you can always look at those things in hindsight.”

For a brief moment, it felt aligned with the script. Rehan Ahmed, playing his first-ever match in a T20 World Cup, charged down the track and wasn’t quite to the pitch of the ball, but managed to clear long-on. It was not just six runs. It shifted the mood. Will Jacks sensed it.

“I think that ball that Rehan hit, a six-second ball, that gave me energy as well,” Jacks said. “And I thought, right, we’ve got a chance here. And then obviously I finished over 6-4-4, and we were on. I think small moments like that is so important and not just the runs but the way it happens, hitting a big six and really showing the bowler that you’re on here and we believe that we can win this is really crucial and from that moment I think the mindset changed,” Jacks said.

22 runs came off Phillips’ over. 6, 4, 4 to close it from Jacks. The required rate shrank. The belief grew.

The defining image of Phillips’s night is not the dismissal of Brook or the catch to remove Bethell. Or of looking untroubled even against the guile of Adil Rashid on a slow pitch assisting big turn. Instead, it of Jacks standing tall and hitting straight, once over the larger boundary and again with enough conviction to make field settings feel secondary.

“I think as soon as he came in, we needed 12, maybe 13 and over, so we knew we had to put some impetus into the game,” Jacks said. “Even though there was a big side, we knew off spin to us was a good matchup and we had to take a risk there, knowing Santner was probably going to bowl the next over and it might be harder. And then that 19th over, the second-to-last ball, I said to him, I’ll get a single here and you have a free hit. And that six, obviously, needing five off the last over. It’s pretty much won us the game and that’s brilliant.

“That 18th over was a massive turning point, but you still have to do a lot of work to get to that point,” Jacks added.

Santner did not retreat from the logic. “GP [Glenn Phillips] bowled a good length and he charged and he wasn’t quite there, but great swing of the bat, goes for six,” he said. “And then you’re kind of thinking, is that the option or should I change or with the big boundary it was still trying to get hit to that side and then you could probably think about changing the field a little bit but it’s again it’s even Jacksey absolutely smoking that one just for six over the big side.

“On another day, that could be called or that’s the options we want them to take. Obviously, square was the bigger boundary versus straight. So I think as a bowler, it’s how do you keep getting it square versus down the ground,” Santner added.

Tim Seifert, who stood behind the stumps and watched the over unfold, put it bluntly: “You’ve got to take your hats off. One of them went straight over that big boundary. Sometimes you’ve got to tip your head.”

For 37 overs, Glenn Phillips had influenced the match in small, decisive ways. In the 38th, one over, built on a decision that made sense at the time, was met by three shots that were struck cleaner. In T20 cricket, that is often the difference.

[Cricbuzz]

Latest News

Pakistan face stiff but straightforward equation for semi-final qualification

Published

5 hours ago

2026/02/28

Priyan

Will Khawaja Nafay get a game?

Pakistan’s habitual desperate net-run-rate calculations towards the tail-end of a group stage have thrown up another classic. In what is a dead-rubber for already-eliminated hosts Sri Lanka, Pakistan have been given a faint shot at staying alive in the T20 World Cup, thanks to a surprise comeback win for England over New Zealand. New Zealand boast a vastly superior net run rate (1.390) to Pakistan’s (-0.461), so for Salman Agha’s men to progress to the semi-finals, they must win today [Saturday] by around 64 runs, or chase any Sri Lankan target in about 13.1 overs. Those, for Pakistan, are the only numbers that matter in Pallekele.

That should, in theory, change the somewhat conservative approach they have taken through the middle overs. Frankly put, Babar Azam’s place in this T20I set-up was getting hard enough to argue for in regular T20I circumstances, but within these constraints is borderline unjustifiable. He, however, is not the only player whose strike-rate ceiling is limited, with captain Salman Agha similarly struggling this tournament, and indeed over the broader span of his T20I career.

However, Pakistan are yet to show any evidence of an ability to rack up a win of that sort of scale at this tournament so far. Indeed, Pakistan have never won by that margin against a Full Member at a T20 World Cup when batting first, and only once – in 2009 – when chasing. The slower surfaces of Sri Lanka compared to the flatter pitches in India make a path to such a victory more complicated, as does a Pakistani middle order that doesn’t boast elite power hitting, and Saim Ayub’s faltering form. But it’s a chance nonetheless, and at ICC events, sometimes that’s all Pakistan ask for.

There’s little other than pride at stake for Sri Lanka, whose tournament started with such promise, only to peak and fall away after a glorious win over Australia. They have lost their last three matches, and were the first side to be knocked out in the Super Eight. Pakistan’s qualification scenarios mean little to them, and they’ll want to demonstrate they are more than foil for Pakistani glory, or a roadblock to their progression.

The story, though, is of what Pakistan can possibly achieve, and whether they can thwart New Zealand’s progress to yet another ICC tournament semi-final.

A lot of Sri Lankan players will invariably be moved on after this T20 World Cup, but one who is set to form the core of the side for the next generation is Dunith Wellalage. The 23-year old left arm spinner’s competitive attitude makes him one of a short list of Sri Lankan players to have come out of this tournament with his reputation bolstered, and he has an ever-improving skill-set to go with it. He is yet to play a T20I against Pakistan, having missed their Asia Cup clash, flying home for a family bereavement. But with a surfeit of right-hand batters in Pakistan’s top order, he could find himself deployed early on as he was against New Zealand, perhaps to nip Sahibzada Farhan in the bud at the outset.

Salman Agha should perhaps be under more scrutiny than he is, having endured an indifferent tournament with the bat and an uninspiring one as captain. The questions swirling around his fitness for the format will only intensify after he let games drift with the ball against India and England, while his attempted aggression with the bat at No. 3 continues to feel feigned rather than organic. He has scored 60 runs in five innings at this tournament, 38 in one innings against Namibia. If Pakistan exit tamely, it is hard to envision him hanging on to the armband, and perhaps even his role in the side. However, Saturday perhaps represents one final chance for him to take control of his destiny.

Sri Lanka faced plenty of criticism for their meek capitulation against New Zealand, but as the tournament closes out, wholesale changes are not likely. Kusal Mendis suffered hamstring stiffness against New Zealand and is unlikely to play, with Kamil Mishara returning as wicketkeeper-batter.

Sri Lanka (probable): Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara (wk), Charith Asalanka, Pavan Rathnayake, Kamindu Mendis, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Dushan Hemantha, Dunith Wellalage, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka

Shaheen Afridi’s performance against England makes it likely he will keep his spot. If Pakistan are to stick to two specialist seamers on this surface, it makes it a straight shootout between Naseem Shah and Salman Mirza. What’s less certain is how the equation changes Pakistan’s batting line-up. So far, they have been reluctant to drop Babar Azam, or play Khawaja Nafay. Any caution needs to go out of the window as they battle to stay alive.

Pakistan (probable): Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (capt), Babar Azam/Khawaja Nafay, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (wk), Mohammad Nawaz/Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Salman Mirza/Naseem Shah, Usman Tariq

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Nethul rises to the occation as Ananda dominate day one

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/28

Thilina Walpola

Nethul Edirimanne

96TH BATTLE OF THE MAROONS

Open bat Nethul Edirimanne rose to the big occasion wth an unbeaten century as Ananda College posted 325 for five wickets at stumps on day one of the 96th Battle of the Maroons Big Match at the SSC ground on Friday.

‎Decidng to bat first, Ananda found Edirimanne holding their top order together as he built up useful partnerships in each session.

‎Edirimanne had just a single half century against his name this season and Ananda’s entire batting line up had just two centuries. Edirimanne batted through to the close of play and remained unbeaten on 150.

‎It was not only his highest score but also the highest score by an Anandian.

‎He had faced 254 balls by stumps and had stroked 14 fours and a six in his knock.

‎The days highest partnership -126 runs for the fifth wicket- was put on by Edirimanne and Ovin Perera who scored 53 runs before being given out lbw to Dunitha Anusara.

‎Perera scored six fours.

‎While Danindu Sellapperuma (33) and Sharada Jayaratne (37) contributed with 30s, Himira Kudagama made 24. Skipper Kithma Widanapathirana’s dismissal for two runs was the only dissapointment for Ananda on an otherwise fruiful opening day.

‎For Nalanda Osanda Pamuditha took two wickets.