Sports

Stoinis and bowling pack lift Lucknow Super Giants to third spot

Published

2 years ago

2024/05/1

Priyan

Nuwan Thushara struck in the first over for Mumbai Indians (BCCI)

Having lost more wickets (4) than they hit boundaries (3) in the powerplay, Mumbai Indians were always going to struggle. Four of the first six overs cost a run a ball or less. Two of the last four suffered the same fate. A total of 144 did not look like it would be enough and so it proved as Lucknow Super Giants secured victory with four wickets to spare and moved into third place on the points table. Really, the only thing that didn’t go according to plan for KL Rahul was Mayank Yadav leaving the field early on the very night he returned from injury.

There is almost no relation between Mohsin Khan’s amble up to the crease and the ball that he sends down. At times, he gets big on the batter. Other times he gets swing that they aren’t expecting. He uses his height to great effect and must have incredible strength in his shoulder. It seems to be where he gets all his pace, which deceived pretty much everybody. He was producing a false shot roughly once every three deliveries.

Rohit Sharma spooned a ball that he saw as hittable straight into the hands of short cover. The MI batter threw his head back in utter disappointment. He was still thinking that should have gone for four. But instead he was the one gone for 4, on his birthday. Nehal Wadhera had cleared his front leg looking to go big. Except he was met with a searing yorker, dipping beneath his bat before he was ready for it and crashing into his stumps.

Marcus Stoinis has a hundred in this tournament, batting at No. 3. He also occasionally opens the bowling for LSG. Imagine what India would do to have a player like that in their T20 squad?

Someone who can bat up the order and give them two or three overs every game. Stoinis knows his limitations. He knows he doesn’t have a lot of pace, but that actually worked in his favour when was bowling to Suryakumar Yadav. The attempt to flick a boundary to fine leg ended up as a feather through to the keeper. It was brave of LSG, keeping Stoinis on for a second over, long after the swing from the new ball had disappeared, against one of the most dangerous batters in the world. But that was probably the plan – deny SKY the pace he likes – and it worked.

They lost Rohit and Suryakumar in back-to-back overs. They lost Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya in back-to-back balls. MI were a sinking ship after just 5.2 overs. They could hit only three boundaries in the powerplay, the fewest this season. It was the perfect situation for Ravi Bishnoi to come in and dictate terms. He bowled four overs on the trot, giving away 28 runs and picking up Ishan Kishan’s wicket with a gorgeous googly, deceiving the left-hander as he went for a slog across the line and having him caught at short third. Wadhera tried his best from the other end, progressing from 9 off 15 to 13 off 20 to finally 46 off 41. Most of his runs came off Mayank (21 off 12, 2x4s, 2x6s)

Batting average almost 40, strike rate above 150, four wickets from 12 overs bowled, LSG have a cheat code and his name is Stoinis. This chase really got in gear when he pulled Gerald Coetzee for back-to-back boundaries in the third over. Until then the new ball was doing a fair bit and LSG’s focus was seeing that spell of play out. Rahul had dropped anchor (5 off 13, before finishing with 28 off 22). He was looking to his partner to make the play and he did. Big time.

Stoinis came into this game with an average of 19 and strike rate of 128 against spin in IPL 2024. But he found Piyush Chawla and Mohammad Nabi just to his liking, taking them for a combined 29 off just 16 balls with four fours and a six. That ended up as necessary insurance because after the fall of his wicket, LSG needed 27 balls to score the remaining 30 runs, losing two wickets as well.

Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 144/7 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 32, Nehal Wadhera 46, Tim David 35*; Marcus Stoinis 1-19, Mohsin Khan 2-36, Naveen-ul-Haq 1-15, Mayank Yadav 1-31, Ravi Bishnoi 1-28) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 145/6 in 19.2 overs (Marcus Stoinis 62, KL Rahul 28; Nuwan Thushara 1-30, Gerald Coetze 1-29, Hardik Pandya 2-26, Mohammad Nabi 1-16) by 4 wickets

(Cricinfo)

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Sports

Ratnayake Central retain top spot in Central Province

Published

20 hours ago

2026/07/21

Thilina Walpola

Ratnayake Central Walala won the boys’ and girls’ overall championships at the Central Province Schools Athletics Championship held at Bogambara recently.

‎Ratnayake Central aggregated 202 points to edge out Trinity College by two points to win the boys title.

‎Kingswood were a distant third with 81 points.

‎In the girls category, Ratnayake Central dominated a majority of events to win the title with 245 points.

‎Girls High School Kandy finished second with 165 points, while Ambagamuwa Central were third with 114 points.

‎The dominance of Ratnayake Central was evident throughout the event as they accounted for ten of the 32 new meet records established.

‎Akash Dhananjaya Senavirathne of Theldebiya National School who clocked 48.4 seconds to win the 400 metres won the best athlete award in the boys’ category.

‎U.M.S. Himashani of Ambagamuwa Central was adjudged the best athlete in the girls category for the outstanding performance in the 800 metres (2:13.3 seconds).

Sports

The greatest all-rounder I ever faced

Published

2 days ago

2026/07/20

Thilina Walpola

When my good friend Nimal Welgama requested me to pen a few lines about Sir Gary Sobers as I had the privilege of playing for Sri Lanka against the mighty West Indies as they were known then, I was wondering whether I can do justice to this awesome cricketing all rounder.

In this particular game Sir Gary fell short of scoring his usual hundred. Sir Gary had a flair for unique stylishness which no other cricketer matched and it came naturally to him. He wore his shirt open all the way down to the navel perhaps to keep himself cool from the hot weather one encounters when playing cricket.He walked into bat leaning forward slightly with a gait that that had confidence written all over it.I had the good fortune of viewing on a video clip of an innings of 230 plus he made in a Match against Australia against a formidable attack headed by fearsome Dennis Lillee where he tore the the bowling to shreds.This innings was described by probably the greatest batters of all time Sir Donald Bradman as the best innings he has witnessed live.A tribute difficult to ignore. I wish to conclude by saying that Sir Garfield Sobers was an all rounder of exceptional ability which void will be hard to fill.

by Anura Tennekoon ✍️

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Spain battle past 10-man Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win 2026 World Cup

Published

2 days ago

2026/07/20

Priyan

Torres scores the only goal of the game for Spain (Aljazeera)

Ferran Torres scored ‌in the 106th minute to lift Spain to their second World Cup title with ⁠a 1-0 win im extra time over 10-man Argentina in the final.

Torres’s deserved winner on Sunday came 16 years and eight days after Andres Iniesta also scored in extra time ⁠to lift the Spaniards to their first World Championship with a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands.

It came on La Roja’s 20th shot in the contest against defending champions Argentina ⁠that failed to manage any to that point and struggled to wrest possession away from their superior Iberian opponents.

That was true at even strength and became more difficult when La Albiceleste’s numbers were reduced when Enzo Fernandez’s late challenge on Pau Cubarsi left referee Slavko Vincic no ‌choice but to produce a second caution just before the end of normal time.

Spain remain the only nation ever to win a European Championship and World Cup in successive tournaments, having now done so a second time. They are also the first World Cup champions ever to concede only once across an entire tournament.

Lionel Messi’s Argentina failed to earn a title for the first time in three major tournaments, having also captured the ⁠2021 and 2024 Copa Americas either side of their 2022 World ⁠Cup triumph.

The 39-year-old eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi finished the competition with eight goals and four assists, but had little time on the ball in the final until Spain finally took the lead. And he never seriously looked like he would lift his ⁠side to another great moment as he has so many times in the last two World Cup cycles.