Sports
Zampa four-for seals Australia’s Super Eight spot
Australia marched into the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup with a display of ruthless efficiency against Namibia as Adam Zampa brought up a century of T20I wickets before the top order needed less than the powerplay to chase down 73.
Mitchell Marsh’s team continued to look like one of the best-rounded and well-drilled sides at the tournament and can now start to ponder the next stage with a game in hand – although the fixture against Scotland could have a huge bearing on who joins them in the Super Eight.
From the moment Josh Hazlewood struck in the third over there wasn’t a moment where it did not feel as though this would be a vast margin of victory for Australia and they made sure that was the case. Mitchell Starc had been rested after not pulling up 100% after the England game and with an eye on a condensed schedule ahead, Nathan Ellis again slotted in seamlessly as all Australia’s bowlers got in the wickets.
The final margin of balls remaining in Australia’s charge to the line was 86, the second most in men’s T20Is.
There was a touch of extra bounce in the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium surface and Australia’s tall quicks made the most of it. Michael van Lingen managed a brace of early boundaries off Hazlewood and Marcus Stoinis – the latter handed the new ball in place of Starc – but Nikolaas Davin perished to Hazlewood when he slashed to backward point. In his first over, Pat Cummins had Jan Frylinck taken at mid-off after an uncomfortable three deliveries then in the next, van Lingen became the second to find Glenn Maxwell at backward point, unable to keep the ball down. Stoinis closed out the powerplay by conceding just a single off the sixth over and Namibia stood at 17 for 3 with their captain Gerhard Erasmus scoreless from ten deliveries.
Erasmus’ agony in getting off the mark would extend further. By the time he swept Zampa for a single he had faced 17 balls, and managed a wry smile as his score finally ticked over. Where ball-by-ball data is available, it set a new record in getting off the mark in men’s T20Is.
To his immense credit, he turned his fortunes around. The next ball Erasmus faced, he crunched Cummins through the off side then with Namibia, all-but finished, took eight runs off Hazlewood’s last over. Two more boundaries followed off Ellis before the best of the lot, an immense pull against Cummins landing on the terraces. When he was well caught by Maxwell attempting a repeat, he had turned 0 off 16 into 36 off 43.
This wasn’t a defining spell of Zampa’s career, but it was another full of class in what is becoming an outstanding tournament for him. When he cleaned up Bernard Scholtz with a lovely googly he brought up 100 T20I wickets, the first Australia men’s player to the landmark and following Ellyse Perry and Megan Schutt. Half the runs he conceded – in a spell that included 17 dots – came when Rubel Trumpelmann put away a full toss over deep midwicket but he fell next ball when he picked out Maxwell on the boundary.
Travis Head could have been run out to the first ball of Australia’s chase as David Warner scampered to get off the mark. Warner then flayed 20 off eight balls, including four, four, and six against David Wiese before skying to mid-off. Head opened his shoulders against Ben Shikongo then took three consecutive boundaries of Trumpelmann. Marsh finished the game before the fielding restrictions were done as he took 14 off three balls from Jack Brassell and, as captain, could reflect on a job done perfectly.
Brief scores:
Australia 74/1 in 5.4 overs [David Warner 20, Travis Head 34*; David Wiese 1-15] beat Namibia 72 in 17 overs [Gerhard Eramus 36; Josh Hazelwood 2-18, Marcus Stoinis 2-09, Pat Cummins 1-16, Adam Zampa 4-12, Nathan Ellis 1-12] by nine wickets
[Cricinfo]
B Sai Sudarshan and Prasidh Krishna once again stood up for Gujarat Titans (GT) as they beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 58 runs in Ahmedabad. This was GT’s fourth successive win in IPL 2025 and it took them to the top of the points table.
After RR opted to bowl on a red-soil pitch, Sai Sudharsan’s 82 off 53 balls, his third half-century of the season, steered GT to 217 for 6. With no dew in the second innings, it proved way too steep for RR to chase down. Mohammed Siraj and Arshad Khan struck in the powerplay before Prasidh picked up 3 for 24 in the middle overs to keep RR on the back foot. Despite Shimron Hetmyer’s fighting fifty, RR were all out for 159 in 19.2 overs.
Joffra Archer didn’t have a great start to IPL 2025. In his first two games, he conceded 109 from 6.3 wicketless overs. But he boucned back in his next two with a combined 4 for 38 from seven overs. He breathed fire tonight as well. In his first over, he rushed Sai Sudharsan with a 152.3kph bouncer. In his second, he got one to move in at 147.7kph and pegged back Shubman Gill’s off stump. His match-up against Gill in T20 cricket now reads: 15 balls, ten runs, three dismissals.
For his former captain Jos Buttler, Archer had two slips, a short leg and a catching square leg, and welcomed him with a menacing bouncer that Buttler did well to evade. Buttler inside-edged the next ball just wide of short leg, and then pushed Archer through the covers for four.
Sai Sudharsan generally takes time to get going. Here, he attacked right from the start. He ramped, scooped, drove and cut, and took his side to 50 in 5.1 overs. By the end of the powerplay, he had 39 against his name, off 22 balls. Only Wriddhiman Saha (54 vs Lucknow Super Giants in 2023) has scored more runs in an innings for GT in that phase.
Buttler was on 12 off 13 at one point but hit four fours in his next six balls to move to 31 off 19. He and Sai Sudharsan added 80 off 46 balls before Maheesh Theekshana trapped Buttler lbw. After a brief dip in the scoring rate, M Shahrukh Khan opened up and smashed 36 off 20 to re-inject momentum.
Sudharsan was dropped on 81 by Shubham Dubey off Archer in the 18th over, but he only added one more to his tally. Then Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan ransacked 30 in the last two overs to take GT past 200.
RR did not have a great start. Yashasvi Jaiswal slashed Arshad to deep third in the second over of the chase and Nitish Rana did the same against Siraj in the next. Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag counterattacked and added 48 off 26 balls for the third wicket. The stand was broken when Impact Sub Kulwant Khejroliya had Parag caught behind in the seventh over. Parag immediately reviewed the decision, confident that his bat had only hit the ground, but the third umpire thought otherwise, with Ultra Edge also bringing up a second spike when the ball passed the bat.
Coming into this game, Rashid had picked up just one wicket in four outings. Tonight, he struck in his first over. It was a shortish ball that didn’t bounce as much as Dhruv Jurel expected, and Sai Sudharsan at deep midwicket gobbled up the mistimed pull.
Rashid enjoys a favourable match-up against Hetmyer, having dismissed him six times in 63 balls for 79 runs before this game. He almost had Hetmyer lbw for a first-ball duck but the ball had pitched fractionally outside leg stump. From there on, Hetmyer dominated Rashid and hit him for 26 runs off 12 balls with the help of two fours and two sixes. However, Rashid was too good for RR’s Impact Sub Shubham Dubey and had him lbw for 1.
In his final over, the 16th over of the innings, Prasidh had Archer caught at mid-off and Hetmyer at deep-backward square leg, both off short balls. With RR 145 for 8 after 16 overs, the result was sealed. They dragged their innings into the final over but that did little to reduce the margin of their defeat.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 217 for 6 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 82, Jos Buttler 36, M Shahrukh Khan 36, Rahul Tewatia 24*, Rashid Khan 12; Joffra Archer 1-30, Tushar Deshpande 2-53, Sandeep Sharma 1-41, Maheesh Theekshana 2-54) beat Rajasthan Royals 159 (Shimron Hetmyer 52, Sanju Samson 41, Riyan Parag 26; Mohammed Siraj 1-30, Arshad Khan 1-19, Prasidh Krishna 3-24, Kulwant Khejroliya 1-29, Sai Kishore 2-20, Rashid Khan 2-37) by 58 runs
[Cricinfo]
Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs Tournament
Speedster Manasa Madubashana celebrated his 19th birthday sharing four wickets each with spinner Yenula Dewthusa as St.Joseph’s sealed a comfortable 71 runs victory over Trinity in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs tournament final at Surrey Village ground on Wednesday.
Chasing 205 runs to win Trinity’s top order batsmen were rattled by Madubashana who took four wickets in a decisive seven over spell. He took wickets in consecutive balls in his second over to trigger a collapse from which Trinity never recovered.
The four wicket hauls by Madubashana and Dewthusa restricted Trinity to 133 runs. In their chase, Trinity lost wickets at reguler intervals and a laboured 48 runs from Sweath Anurajeewa only managed to delay the outcome till the 48th over. His innings came to an end when Madubashana held on to a regulation catch off the bowling of Aveesha Samash.
Earlier put to bat, St. Joseph’s too lost wickets at reguler intervals, but mini partnerships between Abishek Jayaweera and Senuja Wakunegoda (52 for the second wicket), and Jayaweera and Nimthaka Gunewardena (45 for the 3rd wicket) enabled them to stay aloft.
Gunawardena top scored with 47 runs, while skipper Kenath Liyanage played a vital role anchoring the tail with an unbeaten 29 runs.
The title victory capped a remarkable end to the Joes limited overs tournament campaign after having reached the knockout stage with only two victories under their belt.
by Reemus Fernando
Schools Relay Carnival commenced at Diyagama on Wednesday. Here are some pictures from day one of the three-day championship.
(Pix by Kamal Wanniarachchi)
Lyceum International Wattala were the winners of the Under 20 distance medley
relay. (From left) Himansi Pradeepani, Shalomi Rashni, Rashini Karunarathne
and Jithma Wijethunga.
.Under 20 boys medley relay winners, St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena. (From
left) Andrew Akash, Kalana Jayamanna, Kavindu Jayamanna and Denuth Nimesh.
Under 12 boys’ 4x100m relay winners, Maris Stella College. Negombo (From left) Tanujitha Weerasekara, Senith Ranasinghe, Milan Fernando and Denuth Thenujan.
Girls’ Under 12 4×50 metres relay winners, St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo. (From left) Jenuli Perera, Sanah Fernando, Glesha Nanayakkara and Dehara Alwis.
Woman jailed over £39 donation to Ukraine freed in US-Russia prisoner swap
Enforcing the law against bribery and corruption is not an act of political revenge but a profound human responsibility – President
Sun directly overhead Hatthikuchchi, Kalankuttiya, Halmillewa, Ipalogama, Palugaswewa and Habarana at about 12:11 noon. today [10]
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