Sports

Asalanka: Excellent find moving forward

Published

2 years ago

2021/10/26

Sahan Weerasooriya

Charith Asalanka was Sri Lanka’s hero in their win over Bangladesh in Sharjah.

Rex Clementine in Dubai

Although results have not gone in Sri Lanka’s favour, several young players have stamped their authority in international cricket this year. First, there was Pathum Nissanka, hundred on debut in the Caribbean. Then there was Praveen Jayawickrama, a rich haul of wickets on debut against Bangladesh. In September, Maheesh Theekshana announced his arrival at the big stage with his mystery spin. In the T-20 World Cup, following Sri Lanka’s stunning run chase against Bangladesh in Sharjah, the cricketing fraternity is speaking of Charith Asalanka.

Not many know about Asalanka’s past; an impressive one. Here’s a bit that would interest our readers.

Charith Asalanka is a bright student. His schooling was at Ananda Vidyalaya, Elpitiya. He passed the Grade Five scholarship with flying colours and chose to shift to Richmond College, Galle, a cricketing powerhouse.

An opening batsman in his school days, Asalanka first represented Richmond ‘B’ team and the coaching staff was impressed with what he had to offer and fast-tracked him to the First XI team. Apart from being a prolific run-scorer, Asalanka has a good head above his shoulders and became the obvious choice for captain.

Richmond under him were stunning, picking up all awards in school cricket while the captain was setting the benchmark as the team’s leading scorer. In Richmond, scoring 1000 runs in the season or taking 100 wickets is not paramount. What is important is winning matches and titles. That mentality Richmondites like Asalanka, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Dhananjaya de Silva have taken onto the Sri Lankan dressing room as well. That’s a good sign.

Asalanka once scored a double hundred in a one-dayer in school cricket. By 16 he was playing First-Class cricket representing Galle CC and had his maiden first-class hundred the same year. He won the schoolboy cricketer of the year award twice.

The manner in which Asalanka and Bhanuka Rajapaksa completed the run chasse was impressive. A good back foot player who seems comfortable playing fast bowling, he had too much on his plate when Kusal Perera and Avishka Fernando departed for one and without scoring.

First, he shared a 69 run stand for the second wicket with Pathum Nissanka to steady the ship and then followed the fireworks with Bhanuka Rajapaksa in a record stand of 86 runs.

Asalanka finished unbeaten on 80 while Bhankua was dismissed for 53 but by that time the job had been done and Sri Lanka had cut Bangladesh to size.

There were some elegant strokes during the partnership and calculated risks taken by both batters. Fortune favoured the brave. Very cleverly the duo refrained from taking undue risks when Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh’s premier bowler was operating.

Sri Lanka are overjoyed that both Bhanuka and Asalanka are firing. Their pace looks awesome and spinners will have a field day when there is some assistance on the track. KJP and Avishka will come good at any time and they are looking formidable especially with number three and five firing on all cylinders.

At the post match media briefing, Bhanuka was generous with his praise of Asalanka. “The result is phenomenal because the way Charith handled the situation and how he kept the tempo of the game is unbelievable. It’s not easy playing at number three at a time we were struggling to find a proper number three batsman,” explained Bhanuka.

“I’ve batted number three and it’s not an easy position because you need to play with the scoreboard pressure mostly. Chasing 172 runs when we lost KJP early it was a massive blow. Charith has a bright future and I wish him all the best and I hope he will be performing like this throughout the tournament.”

All News Advertisement

Latest News

New Zealand spinners dent Bangladesh on Day 1

Published

6 mins ago

2023/11/28

Priyan

Glenn Phillips was the star of New Zealand's bowlers with a four-fer

New Zealand’s plan of beating Bangladesh at their own game at home – has started off well, even as Bangladesh got to 310 runs on Day 1 in Sylhet. Glenn Phillips turned up to be the hero for the visitors as he picked four wickets, while Ish Sodhi and Ajaz Patel accounted for three more, as Bangladesh lost nine wickets on the opening day.

Bangladesh ended up on the right side of the toss and as expected decided to pile on the runs. Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Zakir Hasan even saw off 10 overs of fast bowling before the latter became the first of the seven casualties to spin bowling. Ajaz Patel slipped a quicker one through that beat Zakir’s attempt to cut and hit the off-stump. Najmul Hossain Shanto arrived with the intention of throwing New Zealand’s spinners off their rhythm as he took on Ajaz. However, Bangladesh’s woes began right at the end of the opening session when Shanto miscued an innocuous full-toss from Phillips while giving him the charge, and hit to Kane Williamson at mid-on.

Mahmudul and Mominul Haque led Bangladesh’s recovery, even as they survived a couple of nicks that flew between the New Zealand slip cordon. The pair batted out majority of the second session, establishing a solid base for Bangladesh to construct a big innings on, with a stand worth 88 runs but once again, Phillips put a spanner in the works with the wicket of Mominul.

He too, like Shanto against Ajaz, went for a cut on a ball that wasn’t there for that shot and ended up nicking it to Tom Blundell behind the stumps. Soon after, Ish Sodhi got the well-set Mahmudul to nick one behind towards Daryl Mitchell at slip, who did extremely well to get his hands under the ball while diving to his right. Bangladesh went to Tea at 184 for 4, and then spiralled even further in the post-Tea session as the ball started to turn a lot more as the day went on.

To their credit, all of the lower-order batters for Bangladesh got starts but none could carry on till stumps to give Bangladesh the early upper hand in the fixture. Mushfiqur Rahim and Shahadat Hossain dragged Bangladesh past the 200-run mark but once again Phillips broke through with the former’s wicket. Mushfiqur gave Phillips the charge and went big, but mistimed it to Williamson at mid-on.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz looked solid for his 20 until a bout of indecision led to him edging one from Kyle Jamieson to Daryl Mitchell at slips. Bangladesh then lost wickets for every 20-odd runs they added as they went from 233 for 6 to 290 for 9.

New Zealand’s hopes of wrapping up the innings on Day 1 didn’t come through though as Taijul Islam and Shoriful Islam batted out 3.1 overs and hit four boundaries in them to take the team past 300. Bad light then intervened, bringing a slightly early end to the day’s proceedings with 85 overs bowled. New Zealand will head back with the joy of having spun a web around Bangladesh’s batting order, but with the surface getting better for spinners, their real progress in the fixture will depend on how well they bat.

Brief Scores:
Bangladesh 310/9 (Mahmudul Hasan Joy 86, Najmul Hossain Shanto 37, Mominul Haque 37; Glenn Phillips 4-53, Ajaz Patel 2-76) vs New Zealand

(Cricbuzz)

Sports

Shooting the Messenger

Published

16 hours ago

2023/11/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Roshan Ranasinghe

by Rex Clementine

History is full of instances where the messenger who brings the bad news face dire consequences. Many kings over the years have adopted this tactic in ancient times and rulers in the modern democracy are no different. Roshan Ranasinghe suffered a similar fate hours after revealing shocking details of corruption in Parliament as he was removed from his post as Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Irrigation.

The suspension that the international Cricket Council has imposed on Sri Lanka Cricket and shifting of next year’s Under-19 World Cup from Colombo to Johannesburg may have gone against the Polonnaruwa District MP.

But, what about the gentlemen who requested the ICC to suspend Sri Lanka Cricket? One is intrigued. Government appointed bodies have run cricket in places like Pakistan, South Africa and Afghanistan in recent times, but they were not penalized. So why Sri Lanka? Well, the reason being that it was SLC’s Executive Committee that asked the ICC Board to authorize the suspension. So, if Ranasinghe can be sacked for Sri Lanka’s suspension, should not the guys who requested the suspension suffer a similar fate?

It must be recalled that this Executive Committee of SLC has survived because a son of a VVIP Podujana Peramuna Politician protected their backs and went to the extent of issuing a back dated letter saving their skins. Those who sought political intervention then are now complaining when the tide has turned against them.

The trend in cricket circles is to get hold of the Sports Minister as soon as he is appointed and to keep him happy. Barring Mangala Samaraweera, Naveen Dissanayake and Dullas Alahapperuma all Sports Minister in the last 20 years have played ball with the cricket establishment.

Roshan Ranasinghe took them on and learned a bitter lesson. However, he should not feel disappointed. All right-minded Sri Lankans have appreciated his courage to speak against what is wrong and put cricket back on track. Sadly, we are living in times where clean men are sent home and crooks go places.

Cricket of course is not covering itself in glory. In the last three years, the national cricket team has played three Qualifying Round Tournaments. Sri Lanka finished ninth in the recent World Cup and are out of the Champions Trophy. The sport has been mismanaged and there is an urgent need for change. Sadly, the cricket bosses are friends with some powerful men in government circles and sport may well suffer more humiliations moving forward.

The government is also toying with public anger. There is disappointment in every Sri Lankan for the manner in which the national cricket team has performed in recent past and discipline among players has eroded beyond repair. Authorities seem not to care.

The Easter Sunday carnage and UNP’s inability to prevent it in 2019 brought them a humiliating defeat in the last General Elections. Such was public anger that the UNP wasn’t able to win a single seat and had to settle for one national list seat.

Messing up the cricket and playing ball with gentlemen who have brought the sport to its knees is going to bring far worse consequences to the ‘Grand Old Party’.

Sports

Lumbini encounter formidable Thurstan

Published

16 hours ago

2023/11/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Lumbini College Team

Under 19 Division 1 Tier B Limited Overs Cricket Final

Thurstan had to be content with the runner up title when they appeared in the final at the last edition. They will be looking forward to make amends when they take on Lumbini in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘B’ Limited Overs Tournament final at the Surrey Village ground Maggona today.

Thurstan captained by Vihas Thewmika took sweet revenge against defending champions St. Peter’s in the semi-final after edging out Dharmaraja in the quarter-final. After conceding defeat at the hands of Lumbini in the group stage Thurstan will be eager to defy them in the final.

On the other hand, Lumbini captained by Sahan Kaushalya are seeking their first title in two decades.

After reaching the knockout stage as the runners up to Thurstan in their group Lumbini eliminated St. Aloysius’ and Ananda to secure the final spot.

Thurstan College Team

Teams

Thurstan (from):

Vihas Thewmika (Captain), Shanikya Deshapriya, Navindu Fernando, Thanuga Palihawadana, Vidath Balsooriya, Thanuja Rajapakshe, Ramika Sonal, Gagana Perera, Minuga Jathunga, Thalisha Nanayakkara, Rachintha de Silva, Rison Jansen, Yovun Silpa, Adithya Isuranga, Sethru Fernando, Vishwa Dhananjaya, Lasindu Punsara, Mulitha De Costa, Pathum Dananjaya, Nethupul Lasanda, Harith Shalaka Thiwantha, Dinul Perera.

Officials:

Malaka Jayasinghe (Master in Charge), Tharindu Karunarathne (Sports Coordinator), Suneth Gunathilake (Head Coach), Heshan Thilakarathne (Asst coach), Sonal Elwalage (Asst. Coach), Rusira Munasinghe (Asst. Coach)

Lumbini (from):

Sahan Kaushalya (Captain), Gihan Lakshitha, Nisal Madhushan, Binuja Pramodya, Dinitha Prabhanka, Ashan Shanilka, Ushan Sathsara, Praveen Maneesha, Yuran Sandika,Yashod Kavindu, Vishwa Bandara, Subashith Dinudika, Janindu Lahiru, Nabeel Rajudeen, Dumindu Sewmina, Ishath Dilshan, Bahsika Sethmina, Dinal Sewmina, Pasindu Maneesha.

Officials:

Panduka De Silva (Master in Charge), Dinesh Weerasinghe (Head Coach), Lalanga Rajapaksha (Asst. Coach)