Sports
Kalinga wins gold with personal best
Sprinter Kalinga Kumarage produced his personal best in winning the men’s 400 metres gold medal on day four of the 60th Interstate Athletics Championship in Patiala, India on Monday.
Competing in lane three, Kumarage led from the start and returned a time of 45.73 seconds to win the first gold medal for Sri Lanka at this championship. Country won a silver medal when Amasha de Silva was placed second in the women’s 100 metres on Sunday. Lakshika Sugandi won bronze in the women’s 100 metres hurdles.
Sri Lanka Athletics confirmed Kumarage as the fourth fastest 400 metres sprinter in history following his stunning feat yesterday and it was also the fastest time by a Sri Lankan since 2018.
Only the national record holder Sugath Thilakaratne and former champions Prasanna Amarasekara and Rohan Pradeep Kumara have been faster than Kumarage.
Kumarage, served a temporary suspension after testing positive for a banned substance in 2018 but was cleared by disciplinary panel later in 2019. By August 2018, Kumarage had clocked 45.99 seconds in Jakartha and was beginning a healthy rivalry with newly crowned Asian Junior Champion Aruna Dharshana, who was the fourth fastest Sri Lankan over the distance following the latter’s remarkable rise that year.
However, the suspension dealt a severe blow to Kumarage’s Olympic aspirations as he missed number of local and international competitions including the Asian Championship that year. With the World Athletics’ ranking system taking effect it needed athletes to be ranked among the best in the world to earn Tokyo Olympic entry. But lack of competitions meant that he was still the second ranked athlete in Sri Lanka behind Dharshana.
Kumarage’s performance yesterday was a relief for athletics authorities who backed him ahead of Dharshana for the Indian event. Some of India’s best sprinters were not competing yesterday as they were preparing for today’s 4×400 metres.
Kumarage is set to compete in the men’s 200 metres final today after emerging as the fastest from the heats.
Meanwhile, in the women’s 400 metres, Nadeesha Ramanayake returned a time of 54.37 seconds to finish fifth.
Today is the final day of the Interstate Championship and it will be crucial for Nilani Ratnayake who is fighting to retain her world rankings to qualify for Olympics. The steeplechase runner had slipped to the 42nd position in the ‘Road to Olympic Rankings and she will compete to produce a time that will secure a position among the first 45 athletes to secure her ticket to Tokyo.
Rio Olympic participant Sumeda Ranasinghe too is set to compete today. It will be a tough ask for him to climb six places up from 45th position to be ranked among the top 32 athletes in the world to secure a place.
Young Medhani Jayamanne is set to compete in the women’s 200 metres with an eye on the World Junior Championship qualifying mark.
The women’s 4×100 metres team too will compete in the final.
Sri Lanka Athletics sent a ten member team to Patiala on their Indian counterparts’ invitation to provide an eleventh hour opportunity for the competition starved athletes to strive for Olympic qualification. Today is the final day of the Olympic qualifying period.
Is it 2023 again ? Mumbai Indians [MI] and Delhi Capitals [DC], two consistently good teams with all-star line-ups, meet again in the WPL final. While DC have breezed into the final this season, MI are coming in battle-hardened, having had to take the circuitous route by playing three matches in four days to get there.
DC have been strong in most departments, and have got their selection calls right throughout the season. Their captain Meg Lanning hit form late in the tournament, Shafali Verma has continued to churn out the runs at the top of the other, and the move to promote Jess Jonassen to No. 3 has paid off. But for DC to look more threatening, they’d want their middle order to step up further. Their middle order (Nos. 4 to 7) collectively averages 17.50, the lowest this season, and have struck at 116.66, which is the second-lowest among all teams.
MI’s line-up also drips with power and strength. Powerplay bowling has been one of DC’s strongest suits, but only MI have bettered that. DC’s bowlers have taken 50 wickets at 23.84 in this phase, while MI have 61 wickets at 22.68.
For MI,Nat Sciver-Brunt has been at her brutal best, Hayley Matthews has delivered with both bat and ball, and captain Harmanpreet Kaur has hit high tempo. The rest of the line-up, though, has blown hot and cold.
But MI will be playing at their home ground – a venue where they’ve lost just once in seven games – and that tilts the scales in their favour. DC, though, have had a good seven days break, and will be coming in without the pressure of having had to scramble for a place in the final. Two heartbreaking finals later, will third time be the charm for them?
MI had promoted Amelia Kerr to the opening slot, and pushed Yastika Bhatia down the order for a couple of games. While Yastika was able to make quick runs from her new position, Kerr, who hasn’t been in the best of form with the bat, wasn’t able to capitalise on her starts. The order went back to what it was in the Eliminator against Gujarat Giants (GG), but neither player made an impact. Will MI switch their positions again to get the best out of Yastika?
MI had also brought in left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque in place of Parunika Sisodia for the Eliminator. Will they pick Ishaque again for the final after she bowled just one over against GG?
DC, who were last in action on March 7, are unlikely to make any changes to their line-up.
Mumbai Indians (probable): Hayley Matthews, Amelia Kerr, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Amanjot Kaur, Yastika Bhatia (wk), S Sajana, G Kamalini, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque
Delhi Capitals (probable): Meg Lanning (capt), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Annabel Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp, Jess Jonassen, Sarah Bryce (wk), Niki Prasad, Minnu Mani, Shikha Pandey, Titas Sadhu
[Cricinfo]
Dinara de Silva secured a place in the singles semi-final and also booked a spot in the doubles final at the ITF Junior Circuit J30 Week 1 tournament continued at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association clay courts on Friday.
Dinara de Silva overcame a first set defeat to beat Gwen Emily Kurniawan of Indonesia 2-1 (4-6, 6-0, 6-1) in the quarter-final.
Dinara is set to meet Shivali Gurung of Nepal in the semi-final.
In the doubles semi-final Dinara joined China’s Yijia Zhao to beat Japan’s Sakino Miyazawa and Eyuyo Shida 6-4, 4-6, 10-5.
Debutant Malki Madara’s three-for combined with two-fors from Kavisha Dilhari and Inoshi Priyadharshani set up a comfortable victory for Sri Lanka in the T20I series opener in Christchurch. Chamari Athapaththu’s unbeaten 64 off 48 balls then took the visitors home with seven wickets in hand. This was Sri Lanka’s first T20I win in New Zealand and second win overall against New Zealand in the format.
Emma McLeod (44) was New Zealand’s highest scorer but only two of her team-mates got into double figures, and there was only one partnership that stretched past 20 balls.
Despite Priyadharshani dismissing Georgia Plimmer early, the hosts got off to a decent start thanks to captain Suzie Bates’ 14-ball 21. Madara, Sri Lanka’s fourth bowling option, brought on in the fifth over, got the big wicket of Bates which dried up the scoring. The next two overs went for just five runs.
Dilhari, the seventh bowler, struck twice upon being introduced in the ninth over as New Zealand slipped from 39 for 1 to 52 for 4. Maddy Green being run out cheaply had New Zealand play with caution as illustrated by the next two partnerships which produced a combined 29 runs off 41 balls.
McLeod, who had three fours in her first five balls, finished without adding to that tally across her 46-ball innings. She was the last New Zealand batter to fall as Madara ended the innings in the penultimate over.
Athapaththu then hit seven fours and took Sri Lanka to 46 for 0 at the end of the powerplay. Jess Kerr removed Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samarawickrama in successive overs while Dilhari’s innings was cut short by a run out. Sri Lanka slipped to 66 for 3 but that didn’t stop their captain from attacking.
She hit Eden Carson for four immediately after Dilhari’s exit and smacked two sixes and a four off Bree Illing, the first of the sixes brought up her fifty off 43 balls. It left the hosts no room to make an unlikely comeback as Sri Lanka romped to a victory with 35 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka Women
102 for 3 in 14.1 overs (Chamari Athapaththu 64*, Kavisha Dilhari 12, Nilakshika Silva 12*; Jess Kerr 2-18) beat New Zealand 101 in 18.5 overs (Suzie Bates 21, Emma McLeod 44, Jess Kerr 10; Sugandika Kumari 1-18, Malki Madara 3-14, Kavisha Dilhari 2-18, Inoshi Priyadharshani 2-25, Chamari Athapaththu 1-10) by seven wickets
(Cricinfo)
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