Sports

Ranindu, Minul, Theekshana in the lead

Published

4 years ago

2021/02/2

8th Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix 2021

National Champion Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage of Ananda College, former National Champion, Minul Doluweera of Royal College and National team player Theekshana Denuwan of Ananda College shared six points each to take the lead after the first session of the 8th Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix 2021. Ranindu beat Pesandu Liyanage of DS Senanayake College. While Minul beat Jude Dorison of Jaffna Theekshana edged out A.A.C.B. Amarasinghe to stay on top.

The 8th Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix 2021 conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka will conclude on February 7. The event is conducted according to strict health guidelines.

The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka has offered a cash award of Rs. 110,000.00 and other attractive awards to the winners.

The events from seventh to the eleventh round will be held on February 4 and 5 and the Double Round Semi Finals and Finals will be held on February 6 and 7. The seventh round will commence at 9.00 a.m.

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Five wickets in five balls! Curtis Campher creates history

Published

11 hours ago

2025/07/11

Priyan

Curtis Campher took five wickets in five balls

Ireland allrounder Curtis Campher has become the first man in professional cricket to take five wickets in five balls. He achieved the feat for Munster Reds against North West Warriors in the Inter-Provincial T20 Trophy, finishing with 5 for 16 from 2.3 overs.

Campher, the Munster Reds captain, took his five wickets across his second and third overs as Warriors slumped from 87 for 5 to 88 all out in their chase of 189. Jared Wilson, the first of the five wickets, was out off the penultimate delivery of the 12th over when Campher got the ball to swing in and crash into off stump. Next ball, Graham Hume was trapped lbw on the back foot as another inswinger hit him on the pads. That put Campher on a hat-trick at the start of his next over, and it came when Andy McBrine miscued a slog towards deep midwicket on the first ball of the 14th over.

The wicket-taking streak continued when No. 10 Robbie Millar was out caught behind first ball, trying to poke at a delivery outside off stump, after which No. 11 Josh Wilson couldn’t keep the ball from hitting the stumps as Campher came around the wicket.

“Because of the change of overs, I wasn’t really sure what was happening,” Campher said of his achievement. “I just kind of stuck to my guns and kept it real simple and luckily it kind of went off.”

When asked if he would have been able to do six in six if there was another batter to come, Campher said: “No, I don’t think so. It is what it is. Take the rough with the smooth. Just happy to be out there in the sun.”

This was Campher’s second match after a finger injury had ruled him out of the ODI and T20I series against West Indies. In his comeback match, against Leinster Lightning on Tuesday, he had scored 57 off 35 balls but did not bowl. On Thursday, too, he scored 44 off 24 balls before his five-for.

“Performances aside, it has been really good just to be around the boys,” he said. “When you get injured, it’s a bit of a dark place, when you get into the gym and stuff like that. So it has been really nice, just been treated with the weather too. So I have been really enjoying myself and putting pressure on myself to do well and it has kind of made me work for the last little bit.”

Campher, who is also part of an elite list of bowlers to take four wickets in four balls in T20 Internationals, however, is not the first person to achieve this feat. That honour belongs to Zimbabwe Women allrounder Kelis Ndhlovu who took five wickets in five balls for Zimbabwe U-19 against Eagles Women in the domestic T20 tournament in 2024.

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Root holds the fort with unbeaten 99 as India put brakes on Bazball

Published

18 hours ago

2025/07/11

Priyan

Joe Root celebrates his half-century [Cricinfo]

Shubman Gill declared the return of “boring Test cricket” but England did not care. They scored uncharacteristically slowly – at just 3.02 runs per over – and ground their way into the ascendancy on their slowest-scoring full day of the Bazball era, as Joe Root reached the close a run short of his 37th Test century and his eighth at Lord’s.

“Baz-Baz-Bazball! Come on, I want to see it,” Mohammed Siraj was heard telling Root over the stump microphones, as England put their attacking shots away during a wicketless second session. “No more entertaining cricket, lads,” Gill told his team-mates, after Ollie Pope left the ball alone outside his off stump. “Welcome back to the boring Test cricket.”

Boring suited England just fine. The crowd at Lord’s were probably anticipating a very different day when they cheered Ben Stokes’ decision to bat first after winning his third consecutive toss, but a sluggish surface and a disciplined bowling effort from India’s seamers – including the returning Jasprit Bumrah – led England to scale back their usual aggressive intent.

But India will be heartened by the fact that after a long day in the field, they have kept England in check. The bowling heroes of their 336-run win at Edgbaston, Siraj and Akash Deep, both went wicketless, but timely scalps for Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and two in an over from Nitish Kumar Reddy ensured that England never got away from them.

Root walked in straight after Reddy’s first over, which accounted for both England openers and saw Gill drop a tough chance off Pope in the gully, and quickly got his head down. He put on 109 with Pope for the third wicket, then an unbroken 79 with Stokes for the fifth – though Stokes’ apparent groin issue could become a major worry.

India had their own injury problem to worry about: Rishabh Pant tried to grimace through the pain after being struck on the index finger as he tried to gather a rare loose ball from Bumrah, but instead spent the last 49 overs off the field. But Dhruv Jurel proved an able deputy, taking a fine catch to dismiss Pope as Jadeja found his outside edge with the first ball after tea.

Brendon McCullum ordered a pitch with “plenty of life in it” after England’s heavy defeat at Edgbaston but his plea either arrived too late or fell on deaf ears. It was clear within an over that this was a slow surface, with Ben Duckett edging through to Pant on the half-volley; Bumrah, who replaced Prasidh Krishna, immediately called for the slip cordon to stand closer.

Duckett was repeatedly struck on the body in the first hour as Bumrah nipped the new ball off the seam, while Zak Crawley was frenetic. He changed his guard several times and threw his hands at the ball; while he nailed three cover drives, he slashed another over the slips and regularly played-and-missed at both Akash Deep and Siraj.

But it was Reddy, wicketless in Birmingham, who made the breakthroughs. He struck first with perhaps the worst ball of the morning, a long-hop on Duckett’s hip which he under-edged to Pant on the pull, but then dismissed Crawley with one of the best, a wicked outswinger which angled in then shaped away late the take the outside edge.

Pope was reprieved by Gill in between those two dismissals and batted as though determined to live up to his tag – coined by Steve James in the Times – as “the worst starter since prawn cocktail”. But he made it through to lunch unscathed, and dug in alongside Root after the interval; early in the second session, they went 28 consecutive balls without scoring.

Root, the senior pro, recognised that the best way to play Bumrah was from the non-striker’s end: he faced only two balls of his five-over spell after lunch, pinching singles from both to give Pope the strike back. They added 70 in a sleepy second session, as India’s seamers hung the ball wide outside off stump and waited for a mistake which didn’t come.

It finally arrived straight after tea, as Pope flashed hard at Jadeja and edged through to Jurel. He stood disconsolate, bent over his bat handle in disbelief that he had thrown his wicket away. India had another soon after, as the battle between the ICC’s No. 1-ranked Test batter and bowler ended swiftly: Bumrah nipped one back off the seam to peg Harry Brook’s off stump back.

Stokes was underway early with consecutive cuts for four, but looked uncomfortable against spin once more and survived an lbw shout from Reddy via DRS thanks only to the on-field umpire’s call. He was in obvious discomfort after a leave against Akash Deep, but batted on getting treatment from England’s physio during another long delay.

Root, meanwhile, cruised along as he does, only once putting his foot down with a rasping slog-sweep off Jadeja. He was a boundary away from his hundred in the final over of the day but could only manage a two and then a single. History bodes well: the previous 16 men to sleep on 99 in Test cricket have all reached three figures the following morning.

Brief scores:
England 251 for 4 in 83 overs (Ben Duckett 23, Ollie Pope 44, Joe Root 99*, Ben Stokes 39*; Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-46) vs India

[Cricinfo]

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Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka easily dispatch Bangladesh in T20I series opener

Published

19 hours ago

2025/07/11

Priyan

Kusal Mendis brought up his fifty off 31 balls [Cricinfo]

Kusal Mendis smote another half century, Pathum Nissabka crashed a 16-ball 42, and Sri Lanka made light work of a target of 155, strolling home at the end of the 19th over.

It was the Sri Lanka bowling that laid the groundwork though, with Dasu Shanaka plying shorter lengths to concede only 22 from his four overs, while Jrffrey Vandersay also kept a lid on the scoring. Bangladesh might wonder if they were not ambitious enough, having lost only five wickets in their innings.

Their total always seemed light, but when Sri Lanka thumped 78 runs in the first five overs, losing only a wicket in that period, it felt even more meagre. With Kusal and Nissanka having provided that early explosion, the other batters did not have to strain themselves to prod Sri Lnaka home.

That entire Kusal-Nissanka opening stand was box office, as they ransacked 78 runs off 28 balls together. But there was one sequence that was utterly unmissable, as they racked up 30 off six balls, between overs 2.4 and 3.3.

The first three balls were Tanzim Hasan bowling to Nissanka, who smoked the bowler over cow corner, spanked him over cover, and got a lucky inside edge past the stumps in between. The next three balls were Taskin Ahmed to Mendis, who launched him over the cover boundary, slapped a four behind square on the offside, then in perhaps the shot of the tour, slog-swept Taskin over deep square leg for six.

There were other spectacular bursts of hitting in that partnership too – Nissanka starting the chase off with three consecutive fours was especially memorable. At the end of this stand, Nissanka had struck at 263, and Mendis at 233.

At the end of the seventh over Bangladesh were 57 for 1. At the end of the 17th, they were 122 for 4. Which means that in 60-ball stretch they scored only 65 runs, despite their batters being at the crease throughout. This is perhaps where that innings lost its way, with captain Litton Das making six from 11, and Towhid Hridoy hitting 10 off 13.

No. 5 batter Mohammad Naim also struggled, despite being at the crease for more than 11 overs and finishing not out. He made 32 off 29.

The only batters who brought serious urgency to the innings were Parvez Hossain Emon and Shamim Hossain.. Emon crashed five fours and a six over midwicket in his 38 off 22 balls, even as opening partner Tanzid Hasan was struggling at the other end.

Later, Shamim hit two sixes in his five-ball stay, the reverse-swept six off Theekshana in the 19th over a particular highlight. He also took an outstanding overhead catch running back from short cover, to end Kusal’s innings.

Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 159 for 3 in 19 overs (Pathum Nissanka 42, Kusal Mendis 73, Kusal Perer 24, Avishka Fernando 11*; Mohammed Saiffudin 1-22, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 1-24, Rishad Hossain 1-24 ) beat Bangladesh 154 for 5 in 20 overs (Parvez Hossain Emon 38, Tanzid Hassan 16, Mohammed Naim 32, Towhid Hridoy 10, Mehidy Hassan Miraz 29, Shamim Hossain 14*; Nuwan Thushara 1-32, Maheesh Theekshana 2-37, Dasun Shanaka 1-22, Jeffrey Vandersay 1-25) by seven wickets

[Cricinfo]