Trinity College ran riot at Sugathadasa Stadium, tearing past Royal College 58-26 with a ten-try blitz to clinch the Dialog Schools Rugby Knockouts 2026 President’s Trophy and end a 15-year title drought.

In a final dripping with history and rivalry, Trinity struck early and never loosened their grip, turning the contest into a one-sided procession after a brief Royal resistance.

Royal’s discipline wavered from the outset and Trinity pounced. After forcing early penalties, they worked the ball through the hands with purpose before centre Kevin Weerakoon finished in the corner, setting the tone for what followed.

Royal hit back swiftly through their tried-and-tested driving maul, prop Lemitha Amerasinghe crashing over with Mohamed Simak converting to edge them ahead. But it was a fleeting lead.

Trinity’s response was clinical. A well-orchestrated lineout move released Sadeesha Weerawansa and slick handling sent Dimath Abeypitiya over in the corner, skipper Shan Althaf adding the extras. Moments later, Trinity struck again, stretching Royal’s defence before Abeypitiya dotted down for his second.

Royal stayed in touch through another muscular maul, skipper Disas Pathirana finishing at the tail, but Trinity’s backline carried a sharper edge. Abdul Malik’s deft cross-kick found Ammaar Manzil, who plucked the ball out of the air to score, before Malik himself rounded off a flowing move just before the break.

At half-time, Trinity led 27-12 and Royal were already chasing shadows.

If there was any hope of a Royal revival, Trinity extinguished it immediately after the restart. Althaf pounced on a loose ball from a clever kick to extend the lead, before finishing another well-weighted cross-kick moments later to put the result beyond doubt.

With Malik pulling the strings, Trinity’s attack cut through at will. Hamza Abdeen chased down a grubber to score and Manzil capped a sweeping move after sharp interplay with Evin Jayasena and Thisara Paris as the scoreboard ticked relentlessly.

Royal managed a late rally, Hiruka Jayadinu and Akira Yatawara crossing for consolation tries with Simak converting both, but it barely dented Trinity’s dominance.

Fittingly, it was Althaf who had the final word. Completing his hat-trick after another cross-kick was gathered and recycled, the Trinity skipper sealed a commanding victory and with it, a long-awaited return to the top.

by Carlos Van de Berg

‎Royal College secured a place in the semi-finals after eliminating one of the title favourites, Mahanama College, with a first innings win in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ cricket tournament quarter-final at the D.H.H. Ground, Madampella on Saturday.

‎Royal are now set to meet Trinity in the semi-finals.

‎A superb century by Rehan Peiris and impressive bowling performances from paceman Mahiru Kodituwakku and spinner Himaru Deshan paved the way for Royal to clinch the crucial first innings advantage.

‎In reply to Royal’s formidable first innings total of 319, Mahanama were bowled out for 244 on the third day morning. Kodituwakku, who had earlier struck vital blows during an impressive opening spell by removing three top order batsmen, claimed his fourth wicket when he dismissed Eshan Withanage in the fourth ball of the day. Mahanama had faint hopes until Withanage anchored their late order.

‎Spinner Himaru Deshan provided valuable support to the pace attack with three wickets, while Ramiru Perera chipped in with two scalps to help Royal establish a significant 75-run first innings lead.

‎With less than three sessions remaining in the match, Royal only needed to bat out time to secure their passage to the semi-finals. However, Mahanama fought back briefly by removing four Royal top order batsmen cheaply.

‎Rehan Peiris steadied the innings with a patient knock of 43 runs before a crucial fifth wicket partnership of 107 runs between Dushen Udawela and Thevindu Wewalwala effectively ended Mahanama’s hopes of a comeback.

‎Udawela produced a determined innings to top score with 89 runs off 197 balls, striking ten fours and a six, while Wewalwala remained unbeaten on 56 after facing 128 deliveries as Royal reached 253 for 6 in their second innings. It was Wewalwala’s second half century of the match.

‎Earlier in the match, Peiris had set the tone for Royal with an outstanding 146 in the first innings, supported by Thevindu Wewalwala’s 57 as Royal posted 319.

‎For Mahanama, Venura Kaveethra was the most successful bowler with figures of five wickets for 86 runs.

‎‎Scores

‎Royal

319 all out in 87.2 overs (Rehan Peiris 146, Thevindu Wewalwala 57, Hirun Matheesha 28, Ramiru Perera 27; Venura Kaveethra 5/86, Chamika Heenatigala 2/80) and 253 for 6 in 81 overs (Rehan Peiris 43, Dushen Udawela 89, Thevindu Wewalwala 56 n.o.; Chamika Heenatigala 2/58)

Mahanama

244 all out in 80.4 overs (Sithum Vihanga 70, Eshan Withanage 46, Sanul Weerarathne 37, Chamika Heenatigala 32; Mahiru Kodituwakku 4/49, Himaru Deshan 3/87) (RF)

Sameer Rizvi picked up his second Player-of-the-Match award in as many games in IPL 2026, this time scoring 90 off 51 balls to help Delhi Capitals [DC] seal a tricky chase against Mumbai Indians [MI] with six wickets and 11 balls to spare. If you include his Player-of-the-Match award from DC’s last game of the 2025 season, it makes it three in a row. Only seven others have done so, and no one has gone beyond.

Before the Rizvi show, the DC bowlers restricted MI to 162 for 6 on a slow, black-soil pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. With Hardik Pandya unwell, Suryakumar Yadav captained MI and top-scored with 51 off 36 balls. But most other batters struggled to play their shots. In fact, the first six of the MI innings came on the last ball of the seventh over.

DC, too, lost KL Rahul and Nitish Rana early in the chase but Pathum Nissanka’s counterattack kept them going. Nissanka made 44 off 30, after which Rizvi, coming in as DC’s Impact Player once again, ran away with the game.

Mukesh Kumar started waywardly, and Ryan Rickelton made him pay with two leg-side boundaries. From the other end, Rohit Sharma did the same against Lungi Ngidi. But Mukesh bounced back in his second over. He had Rickelton miscuing to mid-off and then caught and bowled Tilak Varma off a knuckleball.

With two right-hand batters, Rohit and Suryakumar, in the middle, Axar immediately brought himself on and sneaked in a three-run over. Rohit did hit two fours off Ngidi’s slower ones in the sixth over, the first a streaky one but the second a caress through covers, to take MI to 41 for 2, but it was a six-less powerplay for them. The last time it happened for MI was in 2023, against Chennai Super Kings in Chepauk.

Axar had a good match-up against Rohit coming into this game and he improved it further by having the batter caught at cover in the tenth over. Rohit made 35 off 26 balls. His match-up against Axar in the IPL now reads 77 balls, 67 runs, four dismissals.

Sherfane Rutherford didn’t last long and holed out to deep square leg against Vipraj Nigam, but Suryakumar kept MI going. He attacked the spinners and hit Kuldeep for two sixes. In the company of Naman Dhir, he brought up his fifty but was lbw to Ngidi off the following delivery. In Hardik’s absence, MI could score only 38 runs in the death overs.

Against Lucknow Super Giants, Rahul was out for a first-ball duck. Here he lasted three balls and made 1 before being caught down the leg side off Deepak Chahar. Rana was run out in the next over when Jasprit Bumrah, after fielding the ball off his own bowling, nailed a direct hit at the non-striker’s end.

At 7 for 2, Nissanka decided to take the attacking route. In the fourth over, he picked up back-to-back fours off Mitchell Santner, the second of which came via a reverse-hit over a leaping Rohit at cover. In the following over, he smashed two fours and a six off Shardul Thakur. Nissanka got a life on 41 when Dhir dropped him off Corbin Bosch but he fell to Santner three runs later.