Sports

Big Match season set to commence on Friday

Published

1 year ago

2025/02/19

by Reemus Fernando

Thurstan and Isipatana will kick start a Big Match season inclusive of at least 12 three-day matches. The long season commences on Friday with the Battle of Brothers encounter at the SSC.

It is the first time, the majority of Big Matches are played as three day encounters. It has become possible after Sri Lanka Cricket decided to fund schools who are interested in extending their matches to three days from this season.

Apart from the historic Battle of the Blues between Royal and S. Thomas’, the Battle of the North between St. John’s and Central College Jaffna and the annual encounter between St. Thomas’ Matara and St. Servatius’ other matches have been played as two-day encounters.

The Big Match season starting this week will last till April.

Apart from the traditional matches listed below there are other Big Matches which have been played for decades. The organisers of these matches are yet to confirm the dates and venues of their matches.

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LPL 2026 Opening Game between Jaffna and Galle

Published

7 hours ago

2026/05/15

Priyan

The inaugural game of the Lanka Premier League 2026 will be played between the Jaffna and Galle teams, who emerged as the Champions and Runners-up respectively in the 2024 season.

The opening game is scheduled to be played on 17th July at the SSC Grounds, commencing at 7.30 p.m.

Prior to the start of the tournament opener, a spectacular opening ceremony will be held at the SSC Grounds in Colombo.

The Lanka Premier League 2026 will be played from 17th July to 8th August across four venues: SSC, Colombo; RDICS, Dambulla; PICS, Pallekele; and RPICS, Colombo.

The tournament is conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the owner of the LPL, in partnership with The IPG Group, the event rights holder.

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Kuldip Yadav in for Khaleel; Gleeson for Thushara

Published

9 hours ago

2026/05/15

Priyan

Gleeson has previously played for CSK and MI [Cricbuzz]

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have each picked injury replacements for Khaleel Ahmed and Nuwan Thushara respectively.

Kuldip Yadav joins CSK as a replacement for Khaleel, who was ruled out of the tournament mid-April due to a quad injury. Kuldip joins them for INR 30 lakh. The 29-year-old medium pacer has previously featured for Rajasthan Royals, playing three games for them across 2021 and 2023. Those are the only T20s he has played so far.

Khaleel played five games for CSK this season, picking up two wickets, but got injured in a game against Kolkata Knight Riders, failing to bowl the last ball of his spell. CSK have endured a barrage of injuries this season, with Jamie Overton being the recent most victim.

RCB have replaced Nuwan Thushara, also out of the competition, with England seamer Richard Gleeson. He joins the defending champions for a fee of INR 1.6 crore.

Thushara, who played one game for RCB last year, did not feature in IPL 2026 before he was ruled out.

The 38-year-old Gleeson debuted for England in 2022, and played six T20Is for them, taking nine wickets. He has taken 170 wickets in 145 T20s, and also featured in two seasons of the IPL. In 2024, he turned out for CSK, taking one wicket in two games. Last year, he was with MI, picking one wicket in a solitary appearance.

[Cricbuzz]

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Eyman Fatima powers Pakistan to series victory

Published

9 hours ago

2026/05/15

Priyan

Eyman Fatima's innings included 10 fours and 4 sixes [Cricbuzz]

Pakistan clinched a comprehensive 67-run win over Zimbabwe in the 2nd T20I on Thursday to seal the three-match series 2-0. Opting to bat first, Pakistan were off to a slow start, managing just 34 runs in the Powerplay while losing the wicket of Gull Feroza.

They slipped into further trouble after two quick wickets reduced them to 46/3. A partnership worth 46 between Muneeba Ali and Eyman Fatima revived the innings before a defining 78-run partnership between Fatima and Natalia Pervaiz put Pakistan into the ascendancy.

While Muneeba’s 36 at the top of the order was crucial in arresting a potential collapse, Fatima’s unbeaten 79* ensured that they recovered to post a daunting 170/4 in their 20 overs. Pakistan were particularly stern on the bowling in the final five overs of their innings which yielded 58 runs.

In pursuit, Zimbabwe never got going. They were reduced to 29/3 inside the Powerplay before Nashra Sandhu struck twice in the same over. Another wicket in the 9th over left Zimbabwe reeling at 51/6. It was only thanks to a few inconsequential contributions down the order that Zimbabwe’s scorecard didn’t look any worse. They crawled past 100 and avoided getting all-out while falling 67-runs short.

Brief Scores:
Pakistan Women 170/4 in 20 overs (Eyman Fatima 79*, Muneeba Ali 36, Natalie Pervaiz 24; Mitchell Mavunga1-38, Precious Marange 1-33, Lindokuhle Mabhero 1-20) beat Zimbabwe Women 103/8 in 20 overs (Beloved Biza 11, Natasha Mtomba 10, Adel Zimunu 12, Nomvelo Sibanda 18*, Lindokuhle Mabhero 12, Kudzai Chigora 14*; Fatima Sana 1-22, Nashra Sandhu 2-18, Sadia Iqbal 1-10, Tuba Hassan 1-17, Ayesha Zafar 1-10, Natalie Pervaiz 1-09) by 67 runs.

[Cricbuzz]