St. Aloysius’ College, Rathnapura athlete Lahiru Achintha is among the top contenders to secure a berth in the country’s track and field team for the up coming Asian Youth Games, which will be held in Manama, Bahrain in October.

The 16-year-old turned tables on South Asian Junior Championship medalliat Shavindu Aviska to win the Under 18 boys’ 1,500metres at the recently held Junior National Athletics Championship. He was also the winner of the 3,000 metres at the same championship. Incidentally, Achintha established new meet records on both occations.

Achintha is in his first year in the Under 18 age category and no other athlete has excelled the way he has done in the schools circuit since winning the Under 20 Cross Country title as a 14-year-old last year.

Achintha also made his mark overseas this year when he won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

He became the first youth athlete from Sri Lanka to have won a medal in the challenging discipline at the six editions old championship when he returned a time of 3:59.47 seconds to finish third.

With the organisers of the upcoming Asian Youth Games changing the age limit to make the event a precursor to next year’s Youth Olympics, Achintha has a great opportunity in Bahrain.

Sri Lanka Athletics is still in the dark about the number of quota places available for track and field and are yet to decide on the ‘long list’ for the regional event.

In the girls’ category, Lyceum International, Wattala athlete Dilni Rajapaksha is among the top contenders. Dilni excelled in horizontal jumps at the Junior National Athletics Championship. Competing in the Under 16 age category she renewed her own meet records in the long jump and the triple jump.

Despite competing in the Under 16 age category, her performances have been better than those in the Under 18 and Under 20 age categories.

Both Dilni and Achintha are eligible for the Senegal Youth Olympic Games to be held in 2026. They have proven beyond doubt that they are priming for greater achievements in the future.

by Reemus Fernando ✍️

There was a time – not too long ago – when Sri Lanka’s batting collapses were as predictable as monsoon rain in May. But in Galle, the tables turned. Bangladesh, after sitting pretty at one stage, lost six wickets for 37 runs in a classic case of snatching defeat from the jaws of dominance. And when Sri Lanka, on the fourth morning, lost Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis in quick succession, the familiar ghosts of Galle past began to stir. Bangladesh were roaring, tails up and on the hunt. But one man stood firm amid the ruins: Kamindu Mendis.

This wasn’t a flash in the pan. Kamindu has been building a reputation for precisely these moments. Since his entry into the Test fold, Sri Lanka’s lower order has begun to wag with purpose. He’s become a master of the unglamorous art – batting with the tail, a discipline requiring both brains and bravery. Time and again, he’s played the shepherd, farming the strike, shielding the rabbits and frustrating bowlers with a cat-and-mouse game that’s as much mental chess as physical endurance.

In this innings, his 84-run alliance with Milan Rathnayake was pure grit stitched with guile. Milan, no mug with the bat, wasn’t content to just survive. Bangladesh tried the old trick – bring the field up, deny the single and have a crack at the tailender. Kamindu, like a wily old fox, flipped the script. He pierced the infield with boundaries, forcing the fielders back. And once they realised Milan could hold a bat, the horse had well and truly bolted.

There’s a quiet evolution in Kamindu’s batting. Once slotted at number seven, he now bats at five – a promotion that has given him more time at the crease and a canvas to construct an innings. And he’s painting quite the picture.

Post-Angelo Mathews, the question beckons: Should Kamindu move up to number four? That’s a call for the selectors, but there’s a twist in the tale. Like Hashan Tillakaratne in his pomp, Kamindu has become a dependable finisher, someone who knows how to squeeze the last ounce of juice from the innings. Sometimes, the art of batting with the tail is too rare to be relocated.

And here’s a nugget for the romantics: last year, Kamindu entered rarefied air when he matched the immortal Don Bradman – both men reaching 1000 Test runs in 13 innings. Of course, no one dares compare mortals to The Don, but to breathe that same statistical air is something to savour.

So what makes Kamindu tick?

He keeps things disarmingly simple. There are no exaggerated flourishes and urgency to his batting. He stands still, plays late and lets the ball come to him. There’s elegance in that economy – class without clutter.

His shot selection is risk-averse, yet never pedestrian. His understanding of tempo – when to accelerate, when to drop anchor – is a hallmark of maturity. It took Angelo Mathews a few years to master that art; Kamindu seems to have cracked it already. And dare one say it, he does so with a sounder technique than the retiring stalwart.

Spin or seam, pace or patience Kamindu handles them all with aplomb. It’s no surprise that IPL franchises came sniffing this year. He may not be the showiest player on the park, but he’s one of the smartest – the thinking man’s cricketer.

If this upward curve continues, there’s little doubt: Sri Lanka haven’t just unearthed a reliable middle-order bat – they’ve found a cornerstone for the future. Pathum Nissanka is another one and on their broad shoulders Sri Lanka’s future will be built.

Rex Clementine ✍️
in Galle

Sri Lanka batted out 32 overs in the final session and ensured that the first Test in Galle ended in a draw. But it wasn’t a result without minor jeopardy, as Sri Lanka lost four wickets on the way before Dhananjaya de Siva and Kamindu Mendis shut up shop for good.

The teams shook hands with five overs left to play in the day, with the pair having played out 53 balls in their partnership. But reflection later on might leave Bangladesh with the one hanging question – could they have declared sooner?

Dhananjaya and Kamindu had come together after Sri Lanka had lost both Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal in quick succession, both to the excellent Taijul Islam who ended on figures of 3 for 23.

But despite Taijul and Naveen Hassan’s best efforts, it was clear the remaining six wickets would not fall before the 37 overs were up. But what if Bangladesh had a further 13 overs to play?

Valid question, but one we may never get an answer to. As things panned out, Bangladesh added 48 runs in 11 overs in the post-lunch session after a roughly two-and-a-half hour rain interruption. Sri Lanka were set a target of 296 off 37 overs – at a required rate of eight an over – if they wanted to steal an unlikely win.

Those 37 overs might have been more, but the primary goal of Bangladesh continuing to bat after the rain break seemed to be for Najmul Hossain Shanto getting to his second century of the game – it was the third instance of a Bangladeshi batter scoring two centuries in the same Test, and the second time Shanto had accomplished the feat.

It took 50 deliveries after the restart for Shanto to get to the milestone, during which Bangladesh had scored just 19 runs and lost the wickets of Litton Das and Jaker Ali – both succumbing to the growing turn on offer, and frustration with defensive lines down leg. In the next 16 balls though, Bangladesh ransacked 28 – including a trio of sixes from Shanto down the ground off the spinners.

That those runs had come as the pitch had begun to take some pretty extravagant turn, likely down to the moisture trapped under the covers, made them even more impressive. But it also served to bring into a more critical light the pace at which Bangladesh had proceeded at the start of the day.

In the hour and a bit in the morning session before the rains came, Bangladesh had seemed content to plod along at a session run rate of just 3.15. Conventional wisdom would have indicated the need for a minimum of two sessions to bowl Sri Lanka out, and with Bangladesh no doubt wanting a lead in excess of 300 – a run rate of five or more seemed to be the call of the day. But with Sri Lanka also happy to set defensive fields, Bangladesh – who have a had a very lean period in Tests as of late – had no desire to put valuable World Test Championship points at risk.

In hindsight, maybe even with a lead of 247 – which is what they had by the break – the early declaration might have still been the correct option. There were 50 overs in total to play at that point, and there’s little doubt Bangladesh would have liked every one of those available to them by the end of play.

Taijul and Nayeem certainly would have, with both utilising the now stricken Galle surface much better than their Lankan counterparts. Taijul in particular was proving a handful, threatening both edges – as highlighted by the wickets of Mathews and Chandimal. The former was caught bat-pad following an arm-ball that took the inside edge and popped up to silly point; the latter had one rip past his forward defence and peg off stump.

Earlier he had seen Lahiru Udara advancing and dragged one shorter to zip it past the edge and have him stumped. Nayeem, meanwhile, had Nissanka playing early to one, and chipping it to short midwicket.

There’s no way to say for sure how exactly the game would have panned out if the declaration had come sooner, but Taijul and Nayeem, more than most, would have loved to have found out.

Brief scores:

Sri Lanka 485 (Pathum Nissanka 187, Kamindu Mendis 87, Nayeem Hassan 5-121, Hasan Mahmud 3-74) and 72 for 4 (Pathum Nissanka 24, Taijul 3-23, Nayeem Hassan 1-29) drew with Bangladesh 495 (Mushfiqur 163, Najmul Hossain Shanto 148, Litton Das 90, Asitha Fernando 4-86, Milan  Rathnayake 3-39) and 285 for 6 decl (Najmul Hossain Shanto 125*, Shadman Islam 76, Mushfiqur Rahim 49, Tharindu  Rathnayake 3-102)

[Cicinfo]