Sports

Dunith, who once withdrew from Sri Lanka U19 team for O/L’s returns as skipper

Published

5 years ago

2021/10/9

by Reemus Fernando

In 2018 when the Sri Lanka Under-19 cricket team was selected for a home series against Bangladesh in October, St. Joseph’s College spinner Dunith Wellalage withdrew from the team to concentrate on the O/L examination. That was something very rare. Many are the junior cricketers who give up on education to concentrate on cricket. It was probably the first such occasion in recent times. Exactly three years after that decision, which was backed by his parents and the Darley Road College, Wellalage is returning to lead the side against Bangladesh.

When The Island carried the news of Wellalage’s withdrawal from the team in 2018 there was praise for this young cricketer from Moratuwa who had been excelling as a spinner in every junior schools cricket tournament since he was eleven years old.

He was among the key strike bowlers for St. Sebastian’s Under-13 from the time he started playing in that age category. At St. Sebastian’s, he received a well deserving place in the Under-15 team when he was still eligible to play in the Under-13 team. He is one of the very few players to have played in an Under-15 Division I team for three consecutive years, two for St. Sebastian’s and one for St. Joseph’s. In his very first year in the Under-15 team, he became the key strike bowler for St. Sebastian’s. His left-arm spin was crucial in the team reaching the Under-15 Division I tournament final in both 2015 and 2016. The Sebs ended up runners up on both occasions but Wellalage was adjudged the best bowler of the tournament on both occasions. By the time the Singer Junior Cricket Awards Ceremony for 2015 and 2016 seasons was held in 2017 he had moved to St. Joseph’s.

At St. Joseph’s Wellalage blossomed not only as a bowler but also as a reliable late order batsman who could save them on many occasions forming crucial partnerships with paceman Lakshan Gamage. One of his first major contributions with the bat for St. Joseph’s Under-19 team incidentally came in the match against his former school in 2018 January when he scored 85 runs in the Joes’ massive total of 416 in reply to Sebs’ 334 for seven declared.

In the 2017/18 season Wellalage was the Joes’ highest wicket taker with a tally of 72 wickets (after 18 matches). He had probably bowled more than any other bowler that season bowling over 400 overs of which over 80 overs were maidens. When the season concluded with St. Joseph’s winning the knockout tournament on first innings points against Trinity, Wellalage was the key strike bowler taking four wickets. The following season he played only eight matches but when the next season started, he started to excel more as a batsman than a bowler. One of his most remarkable batting performances was against Isipatana when he hammered 197 runs (in 179 balls) in a Joes’ total of 402. That season he scored over 700 runs in 15 matches and had an aggregate of over 50 wickets.

Probably the best of Wellalage, both as a batsman and a bowler was yet to be witnessed when school cricket came to a standstill in March 2020 due to Covid 19. But when the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association conducted a curtailed Under-19 Limited Overs Tournament in May this year Wellalage was playing a different role leading St. Joseph’s as captain. And the Joes went on to win the Under-19 Division I Tier ‘A’ Limited Overs Cricket title beating Royal in the final.

The selectors have picked Wellalage to lead the team on merit of his experience after being in the junior national setup since 2018. Nalandian Raveen de Silva is his deputy. Silva too has been in the setup since 2018. Incidentally, it was de Silva who filled Wellalage’s place when the latter withdrew from the team for his O/L in 2018.

Sri Lanka Under-19 team is currently in Dambulla preparing for the series against Bangladesh. The first match will be played on October 15.

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Kolkata Knight Riders keep their IPL campaign alive with low-scoring win

Published

9 mins ago

2026/05/21

Priyan

Manish Pandey's 45 took KKR 30 runs away from the target [Cricinfo]

Kolkata Khnight Riders kept alive their hopes of an unlikely playoff spot with their sixth win in their last seven games after having stayed winless in the first six. Their tall seamers Cameron Green and Saurabh Dubey took out two Mumbai Indians batters each in the powerplay before their spin twins turned the screw in on a pitch with both seam movement and turn.

Chasing 148, KKR lost three wickets early, but a couple of 40s from Manish Pandey and Rovman Powell were enough to break the back of the chase. KKR still needed to win their last match against Delhi Capitals and hope two other results go their way, but the win kept their dream alive for at least one more night.

KKR have been the second-stingiest side of the tournament, but they haven’t been especially quick with their wicket-taking. Not even once had they taken more than two wickets in the powerplay coming into this match. Then they won the toss on a pitch that had stayed under covers because of rains and chose to unleash their tall quicks, but not before the almost customary first over from left-arm spinner Anukul Roy.

Immediately both drew some seam movement and some extra bounce. Stifled after first two overs went for just 10, both Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma tried big hits. Rohit launched one into the stands, but Rickelton skied one for Pandey to take his second excellent catch of the season at backward point, this time controlling the swirling ball. Green then went past the outside edge of Naman Dhir two balls in a row before kissing the edge with an outswinger to send him back for a three-ball duck.

Green was in action in the next over, running back and to his right for 33 metres to take over his shoulder a skier from Rohit. The ball was full enough, but there was some seam and some extra bounce to take the big edge. Suryakumar Yadav made perhaps his best start of this IPL, but then Dubey went round the wicket to cramp him up with some seam movement back in and had him playing on for 15 off six balls.

On either side of a one-hour rain break, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya combined for the worst strike rate for Nos 5 and 6 in an IPL innings when both played at least 20 balls. It wasn’t for want of trying. Sunil Narine and a hobbling Varun Chakravarthy were just too good on a surface with turn available for them. Varun nearly got Tilak caught and bowled but was put off by the wicketkeeper Angkrish Raghuvanshi charging towards him. The catch went down, and Raghuvanshi ended up with a concussion.

However, it didn’t hurt KKR too much as Kartik Tyagi had Tilak caught on the pull despite only a 59-metre boundary to clear. Narine was not to be denied for long as he zipped through Hardik to get him out for the first time in T20 cricket, bowled middle stump.

Will Jacks ran himself out trying to steal a second having hit straight to Rinku Singh at deep cover, but Corbin Bosch’s 32 off 18 took MI to 147.

Finn Allen made a threatening start, crashing Deepak Chahar through square cover for two fours, but then he ended the over playing Chahar on. Then we had a rare partnership. Jasprit Bumrah, only three wickets to his name this IPL, had never taken the wicket of either Ajinkya Rahane or Pandey despite bowling more than 40 balls to each. Forget the wicket, the duo caressed him for three fours in his first over.

The inconsistent Bosch, though, somehow kept MI in the hunt with the wickets of Rahane and Green. The delivery to Rahane was a beautiful length ball that seamed away and bounced extra, but it came after an ordinary start of nine off the first three balls. Then he had Green hitting a ball drifting down leg straight down the throat of long leg.At 54 for 3 in 7.1 overs, missing Raghuvanshi, KKR were in a bit of jeopardy, but the asking rate wasn’t alarming and there was appreciable amount of dew hampering the bowlers. On top of that, Bosch bowled the first ball to Powell down leg, which he deposited deep into the stands. Pandey’s touch play and Powell’s power constantly kept running away from MI only to be helped along the way by fielding errors.

Hardik drew a top edge from Powell, but this was Chahar’s turn to be put off at fine leg by deep square leg running towards him should there be a rebound to be taken. In the end, neither went for the catch. In the next over, Bosch wrong-footed himself at slip as Powell went for a hard cut off Raghu Sharma.

Bumrah had his own back with a beauty to burst through the gap between Pandey’s bat and pad, getting 1.8-degree seam movement with a 15-over-old ball, but KKR now needed only 30 off 30. And even though Bosch took a stunner at backward point to send Powell back, Rinku and Roy saw the nervy chase through with seven balls to spare.

Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 148 for 6 in 18.5 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 21, Manish Pandey 45, Rovman Powell 40, Tejasvi Dahiya 11; Deepak Chahar 1-23, Jasprit Bumrah 1-26, Corbin Bosch 3-30, AM Ghazanfar 1-25) beat Mumbai Indians 147 for 8 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 15, Suryakumar Yadav 15, Tilak Varma 20, Hardik Pandya 26, Will Jacks 14, Corbin Bosch 32*, Deepak Chahar 10; Cameron Green 2-23, Saurabh Dubey 2-34, Kartik Tyagi 2-37, Sunil Narine 1-13) by four wickets

[Cricinfo]

Sports

WPBA Novices Team Badminton Championship from 13-21 June

Published

2 hours ago

2026/05/21

Sahan Weerasooriya

Brian Gomez (Director Sales Elite Shuttler) hands over the sponsorship to Mohan Wijesinghe (President WPBA, Vice President SLB) and Gamini de Silva ( Vice President WPBA and Chairman Tournament Committee). Also in the picture are (from left) Amanda Weerasinghe (Vice Patron WPBA), Niluka Karunarathna (Vice President WPBA, Chairman Sport Development and Funding, Former Olympic/National Player), Roshan Gunawardana (President SLB), Rajpal Salgado (Secretary WPBA), Lalith Perera (Vice President WPBA, Chairman Coaching and Development WPBA), Ajith Fernando (Tournament Secretary WPBA), Rakitha Jayathilaka (Gampaha District Coordinator WPBA)

The Western Province Badminton Association (WPBA) will conduct an all-island school age Novices (non top10 rank) Team Championship, for boys and girls in the under 13, under 15 and under 17 age categories at the St. Thomas Indoor Stadium, Mount Lavinia and Mercantile Badminton Trust Badminton Stadium at Malalasekera Mawatha from 13th to 21st June 2026.

The championship will be a great opportunity for new players forming teams who have yet to play beyond a quarter final match in a ranking tournament.

The championship is open to teams from other provinces as well and the entry fee per team is Rs. 10,000. All participants will receive certificates while the winners will receive cash awards, trophies and medals.

Sports

Twenty Four teams in the fray for ‘MCA Ladies Sixes’ on Saturday

Published

2 hours ago

2026/05/21

Sahan Weerasooriya

Twenty Four [24] ladies teams representing 22 affiliated firms of the Mercantile Cricket Association [MCA] have entered for the inaugural ladies softball six a side cricket tournament which will take place from 08.30AM onwards at the MCA grounds on Saturday [23 May].

The main objective of organizing the MCA Ladies Sixes 2026 is to promote and encourage ladies hard ball cricket within the Mercantile Sector, while identifying emerging talent and paving the pathway for players to reach national level representation through mercantile cricket.

The participating teams are Abans Group, Aitken Spence – A, Aitken Spence – B, CDB, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, David Pieris Group of Companies, DFCC Bank, Emeric Security Solutions, English Tea Shop (Amazon Trading (Pvt) Ltd), Future Life Holdings, Hatton National Bank (HNB), Hayleys Group, Hemas Hospitals (Pvt.) Ltd (Hemas Group), John Keells Holdings (JKH), Link Natural Products (Pvt) Ltd, Maliban Biscuits – A, Maliban Biscuits – B, SLT Mobitel, Gamma Pizzakrafts Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Sampath Bank PLC, Senija Fertilizer Pvt Ltd, Seylan Bank PLC, Singer Finance Lanka PLC Fusion Apparel (Pvt) Ltd

The 24 participating teams will be drawn into to eight [08] groups of three [03] teams each. Each team will play two matches within their respective groups and the top two teams from each group qualify for the Cup Championship while the eight third placed teams will compete in the Plate Championship. Both the Cup Championship and the Plate Championship will take place on a knock out basis.

The Winners of the MCA Ladies Sixes 2026 will receive Rupees 75,000/-, a trophy and replicas, the Runners-up will receive Rs 50,000/-, a trophy and replicas and the second runners-up will receive Rs 35,000/- a trophy and replicas.

Kem Care technologies (Pvt) Ltd have come in as the Gold Sponsor while Hayleys Consumer Products Ltd are the official Feminine Care Partner and Sampath Bank the Official Banking Partner.