Sports
Green top awaits Cobras

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Head Coach Mickey Arthur take a look at the pitch ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh at Pallekele that gets under way today. Fast bowlers are expected to make merry on a green top never seen before in Sri Lanka.
Rex Clementine at Pallekele
One of the best gifts a dad can give a child is a trip to Leisure World at Avissawella and similarly one of the best things that can happen to a Sri Lankan quick is to get a green top at home. That’s exactly what’s going to happen at Pallekele today.
Not too sure when was the last time on Sri Lankan soil so much grass had been left on a cricket pitch. For a few days Pallekele is going to look like Newlands in Cape Town.
The unlucky ones are Dilshan Madusanka and Asitha Fernando who will not get a chance to bowl here.
The new ball will be shared by Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Kumara with Vishwa Fernando providing variety with his left-arm seam.
A lot will be expected of Suranga Lakmal who was Player of the Series in the West Indies. Kumara will be a handful with his raw pace. But the real deal is Vishwa, whose clever tricks when conditions are helpful are a treat to watch.
Expect Angelo Mathews to do more bowling this series as well. Whether they will have a fifth seamer in Dasun Shanaka or opt for Wanindu Hasaranga at number seven remains to be seen.
With Mathews returning to the side, one of the batters will be left out from the side and whoever who gets the axe must consider himself very unlucky.
There is reason for Sri Lanka to change their strategy to pace based. Bangladesh’s strength is spin and the hosts don’t want to play into their hands. That’s exactly why the series is played in Kandy and not Galle.
Bangladesh will miss Shakib Al Hasan, their main match winner. They are also without their lead pacie – Mustafizur Rahman. Both are in India playing IPL.
The tourists are under pressure. They lost a home series to West Indies unexpectedly and were whitewashed in New Zealand losing all six white ball games. Their away record also nothing much to boast about having won just one Test match in the last four years – against Sri Lanka in 2017.
Sports
Idupa joins sub 46 club, bags best athlete title

Schoolboy Kalhara Idupa Silva joined an elite group of Sri Lanka’s 400 metres sprinters when he achieved a massive personal best time of 45.99 seconds to win the men’s 400 metres at the Western Province Athletics Championship of the National Sports Festival concluded at Diyagama on Sunday.
In the 100 year old track and field history in Sri Lanka only six men had run the one lap race under 46 seconds according to official counts. Idupa became the seventh athlete to accomplish the target and proved beyond doubt that the impressive performance displayed at the last selection trial was not a fluke.
Eyebrows were raised when he clocked 46.62 seconds in April to get selected to the Asian Championship in Gumi.
He also became the second athlete in the Under 20 age category to run the distance under 46 seconds. Reigning national champion Aruna Dharshana was the first.
Commenting on his achievement his coach Sumith Jayantha said that Idupa was groomed carefully to achieve success at senior level. “He did not get deceived by the talent scouts of Colombo schools. When he started winning podium places there were interest from Colombo schools. We have seen many talented athletes failing at senior level after peaking at junior level in those schools,” Jayantha said in an interview with The Island.

Sumith Jayantha (Coach)
“He deserves the support of a sponsor. He could not get the Mas Holding sponsorship as he could not attend the trial. I am hopeful the authorities would act swiftly to aupport him,” said Jayantha.
Idupa and national sprinter Sayuri Lakshima Mendis stole the limelight at the weekend when they bagged the best athlete titles of the Western Province Athletics Championship.
The 400 metres specialists were adjudged the most outstanding athletes for their impressive performamce during the two day meet where the winners of the three district meets of Colombo, Kalutara and Gampaha clashed for supremacy.
Indupa from Ananda Sastralaya Kotte excelled in both the men’s 200 metres and the 400 metres as he established new meet records in both events. The up and coming athlete who formed country’s 4×400 metres relay team with seasoned campaigner Kalinga Kumarage in Gumi, slashed nearly one second off the meet record when he stopped the clock under 46 seconds to win the 400 metres. In the 200 metres Idupa returned a time of 21.10 seconds.v
Lakshima clocked 53.93 seconds to win the 400 metres. She was adjudged the best athlete in the women’s category ahead of H.R.D. Sithmini who cleared 6.10 metres in the long jump.
by Reemus Fernando
Sports
Sinner beats Alcaraz to win first Wimbledon title

World number one Jannik Sinner won his first Wimbledon title by wearing down Carlos Alcaraz in another high-quality Grand Slam final between the dominant forces of the men’s game.
Italy’s Sinner claimed a 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory at the All England Club, avenging his brutal French Open defeat by Spanish world number two Alcaraz just 35 days ago.
Sinner led by two sets – and held three championship points – before Alcaraz roared back to win a five-set classic lasting more than five hours.
The 23-year-old has responded by taking two-time defending champion Alcaraz’s crown on the Centre Court grass, following another gripping contest which again showcased the pair’s shot-making, athleticism and star power.
“It is so special,” Sinner said. “I’m living my dream.”
Sinner, who served a three-month doping ban earlier this year, has claimed the fourth Grand Slam title of his career and a first major victory not on a hard court.
A composed and clinical performance from the top seed ended Alcaraz’s 24-match winning streak.
[BBC]
Latest News
Rushil Ugarkar holds his nerve to give MI New York second MLC title in last-over finish

It went down to the last over: 12 to get from six balls for either MI New York or Washington Freedom to win their MLC title. Rushil Ugarkar, a 22-year-old USA medium pacer who has never played international cricket, had the ball. Across him, Glenn Maxwell, to start with, and Glenn Phillips. Two white-ball superstars. But all Ugarkar conceded was six. And he sent back Maxwell with a slower offcutter, allowed Phillips strike for just one ball, and won MINY the title when everything was stacked against him.
Till that over started, the momentum was very much with Freedom and it was chiefly down to Phillips. At the end of the 17th over, in which Trent Boult had conceded just seven runs to Phillips and Maxwell, and Phillips was 25 from 27, the asking rate was upwards of 13 an over. But Phillips targeted Tristan Luus and Boult in back-to-back overs. He took Luus for two sixes in the 17-run 18th over, and Boult for one more in the next, which went for 12, making it a potentially gripping last over. But he got to face just one ball from Ugarkar, who bowled a set of six cutters to spark the celebrations in the MINY camp.
The chase started with Boult picking up two wickets in the first over of the innings to dent Freedom. However, to be fair, despite opener Rachin Ravindra scoring 70 from 41 balls after early jitters and Jack Edwards chipping in with 33 from 22, the Freedom innings didn’t seem to find the next gear they needed till Phillips got going. Maxwell, not for the first time this tournament – he largely struggled apart from when he scored 106* in a win over Texas Super Kings back on June 17 – couldn’t get the scoreboard moving at the rate required. And three MINY bowlers, including Ugarkar, went at eight an over or fewer, with Tajinder Singh’s three overs costing just 18 runs.
Ravindra, another player who had a lean run in MLC 2025 – he had crossed 18 just once before this game, when he scored 32 against Seattle Orcas – did raise his game for the big occasion, standing firm even as wickets fell around him at the start, and hitting two sixes and eight fours in his 170.73-strike-rate knock. The partnership with Edwards was worth 84 in 45 balls, and gave Freedom a platform to launch from. But the next partnership, with Phillips, was of 46 runs, and took 42 balls. Perhaps where the game was lost.
In the first half, after Freedom captain Maxwell opted to field, MINY had the best possible start, with Quinton de Kock and Monank Patel – who finished as the top rungetter in the tournament – adding 72 runs in just 44 balls.
De Kock was the aggressor in that stand, as he was in the third-wicket stand of 56 off 35 balls with Nicholas Pooran, where he scored 32 in 18 balls to Pooran’s 17-ball 21.
De Kock’s innings ended on 77 from 46 balls, and though there wasn’t much after he fell in the 17th over – one of Lockie Ferguson’s three wickets – apart from Kunwarjeet Singh’s unbeaten 22 from 13 balls, MINY were better placed heading into the break. And they stayed there despite the best efforts from Ravindra and Phillips, and they have Ugarkar to thank for it.
Brief scores:
MI New York 180 for 7 in 20 overs (Monak Patel 28, Quinton De Kock 77, Tajinder Singh 14, Nicholas Pooran 21, Kunwarjeet Singh 22*; Saurabh Netvalkar 1-31, Glenn Maxwell 1-46, Jack Edwards 1-38, Lockie Ferguson 3-21, Ian Holland 1-14) beat Washington Freedom 175 for 5 in 20 overs (Rachin Ravindra 70, Jack Edwards 33, Glenn Phillips 48*, Glenn Maxwell 15; , Rushi Ugarkar 2-32, Trent Boult 2-32, Nosthush Kenjige 1-30) by five runs
[Cricinfo]
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