Sports
Rauf takes five as Afghanistan fold for 59
Fast bowlers having batters hopping and swaying away is the perfect fire to the ice that is spinners having batters in a tangle. In Hambantota on Tuesday, the joy of watching bowlers do their thing reached a perfect crescendo, with Pakistan bundling out Afghanistan for 59 to secure a big win.
First, the spin trio of Afghanistan – Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi – spun Pakistan out for 201. Then, Pakistan’s pace treble of Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah put in a fiery display to skittle Afghanistan out for their second lowest ODI total, to win the first ODI by 142 runs.
Rauf picked up five wickets for 18, his best effort in ODIs, after Afridi and Naseem started the Afghan downfall. Afridi began by bouncing Ibrahim Zadran out in his second over before having Rahmat Shah flick a full toss to short midwicket off his next ball. Naseem, who had Gurbaz in a leash with his high pace and movement, dismissed Hashmatullah Shahidi off a bouncer. It got big on Shahidi, who went for the pull and almost cleared forward square leg. But Shadab Khan jumped towards his left and lobbed the ball up, before catching it in a single motion while landing down to dismiss the Afghanistan captain.
With three of the top four batters out for a duck, there was not much to write home about of the rest of the Afghanistan batting show either. Rauf began his spell with a nip-backer that Ikram Alikhil, playing an ODI for the first time since November 2019, inside-edged to the wicketkeeper. Gurbaz was never comfortable throughout his stay and feathered an outside edge to the wicketkeeper for 18, the top score of the innings.
Azmatullah Omarzai attacked his way to 16 off 12 with three fours before retiring hurt, even as Rauf ran through the middle order and finished with a five-for after Mujeeb miscued one to mid-on.
Earlier, on a hot afternoon, Babar Azam won the toss and Pakistan opted to bat on a dry surface but were reduced to 7 for 2 in two overs. Left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi troubled Fakhar Zaman with swing before nicking him off to slip. He slipped in an inswinging yorker on the second ball before getting one to move away, which Fakhar couldn’t resist poking. Mujeeb, opening the bowling, slipped one full in line of the stumps that skid on, beating Babar’s defence to trap him lbw for a three-ball blob.
Mohammad Rizwan, back at No. 4 after batting at No. 5 in the previous series against New Zealand, looked to be positive from the get-go. He stroked Farooqi for two fours in the fifth over. First, he lofted a full ball aerially through the gap at extra cover before caressing one through the same region a ball later. Rizwan hit two more fours off Farooqi’s next over to get Pakistan’s run-rate up.
But Mujeeb, in his fourth over, trapped Rizwan lbw to set Pakistan back. He tossed up a carrom ball around leg that Rizwan missed in his attempted defence to the on side to be hit on the back leg. Replays showed it would have clipped the bails. Agha Salman, coming off a successful series against New Zealand at home in May, was stuck before being flummoxed by a googly from Rashid as Pakistan stumbled to 62 for 4.
All the while, Imam-ul-Haq steadily carried on, punishing the bad balls from Farooqi but more importantly, playing Mujeeb, Rashid as well as Nabi’s spin off the back foot. His half-century was a proper graft, in that it included just the two fours. He ran well between the stumps even as wickets fell around him.
But in a bid to up the ante against Nabi, he top-edged one after coming down the track. However, Shahidi couldn’t hang on after running back from cover. Imam got another life when a lofted drive to deep cover was shelled by Omarzai before a miscued pull fell just short of long-on running in. However, Imam’s luck ran out when he looked to hit Nabi over mid-on, miscuing a shot to Rashid, who took a tumbling catch after backpedalling.
Through his stay in the middle, Imam found an able ally first in Iftikhar Ahmed, with whom he added 50 off 69 for the fifth wicket, and then in Shadab for a 40-run partnership.
Iftikhar helped lead Pakistan’s recovery by using the crease against spin and knocking them down for singles and doubles. He did not let short and wide deliveries go unpunished, using the cut shot for each of his two fours. But an offspinning delivery from Nabi, that held up in the surface, saw him chip a catch to short midwicket.
On the other hand, Shadab, playing just his fourth ODI in 2023, picked Rashid’s googly early and smacked him over his head. He added a further 34 with Naseem for the ninth wicket before a direct hit from Mujeeb from fine leg saw him run-out at the bowler’s end.
Afghanistan managed to bowl out Pakistan for the first time in ODIs, but a meek batting surrender meant their wait for a maiden win against their opponents in the format continues.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) bossed both the powerplays en route to their second successive win in IPL 2025. After opting to bowl on a fairly two-paced red-soil pitch, they left Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at 39 for 3 in six overs. Abdul Samad and Ayush Badoni helped LSG overcome that poor start and post 171 for 7, which was a par score according to Nicholas Pooran the holder of the Orange cap.
Pooran’s assessment, however, might have changed quickly after Prabhsimran Singh clattered a 23-ball half-century in the chase. Prabhsimran claimed 45 of the 62 runs PBKS had scored in the powerplay. There would be no way back for LSG, who suffered their second defeat in three games. Shreyas Iyer completed PBKS’ demolition job with an unbeaten 52 off 30 balls.
The first ball that Arshdeep Singh bowled to Mitchell Marsh stopped on him, seamed away from a leg-stump line, and had him skying a catch to Marco Jansen at short third. After having hit fifties in his first two innings this season, Marsh departed for a golden duck.
It was Lockie Ferguson who shared new-ball duties with Arshdeep, ahead of Jansen. Ferguson usually operates with the older ball for New Zealand and various franchises, but PBKS inverted his role on Tuesday to take advantage of a match-up with Pooran. Before this fixture, and across all T20s, Ferguson had snared Pooran four times in 17 balls at a strike rate of 7.05.
However, Ferguson ended up bowling just three balls to Pooran on the day. After being picked away for three fours by Aiden Markram, Ferguson bowled him via an inside edge for 28 off 18 balls.
With two left-handers in the form of Pooran and Risbah Pant in the middle, PBKS matched Glenn Maxwell’s offspin up with them. Maxwell removed Pant for the third time in four innings in the IPL. The IPL’s most expensive signing at INR 27 crore, Pant has managed just 17 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 65.38.
Despite wickets falling at the other end, Pooran remained positive, hitting Maxwell for back-to-back fours in the seventh over. A cat-and-mouse game then ensued between Pooran and Yuzvendra Chahal. The wristspinner’s plan was to hide the ball away from the swinging arc of Pooran with wrong’uns. In his first over, Pooran cracked his wrong ‘uns away for a brace of fours, but in his next Chahal had Pooran holing out to wide long-off for 44 off 30 balls with a loopier wrong ‘un.
When Jansen had his South African compatriot David Miller caught behind for 19 off 16 balls, LSG slipped further to 119 for 5 in the 16th over. Badoni and Samad then briefly changed the mood and tempo of the game with a 47-run partnership off only 21 balls. Samad had launched his first ball, from Jansen, for six after stepping out and then left jaws on the floor when he reverse-scooped Arshdeep over the keeper in the 18th over, which cost PBKS 20 runs. Arshdeep had both batters holing out in the final over, though, to keep PBKS below 180.
Prabhsimran relishes pace on the ball and it was no different on Tuesday. Unlike the first innings, the ball skidded onto the bat in the second, with Prabhsimran ramping Shardul Thakur and Avesh Khan for six and four respectively in the first two overs.
Pant responded by throwing mystery spinner Digyesh Rathi at Prabhsimran and Priyansh Arya. Rathi created a chance with his second ball, but Marsh fluffed an overhead catch at slip. The drop, though, cost LSG just one run as Rathi had Arya caught by Thakur at mid-on for 8.
Prabhsimran took down Ravi Bishnoi in the last over of the powerplay. He lined up his wrong ‘uns and slog-swept him with the turn over mid-on and square leg. He then greeted dart-it-in left-arm fingerspinner M Siddarth, who was picked ahead of Prince Yadav as LSG’s Impact Player, with a switch-hit four. He brought up his fifty in more sedate fashion with a tucked single.
It felt like LSG needed something special to dismiss Prabhsimran. That something special was a tag-team catch near the boundary from Badoni and Bishnoi. He holed out for 69 off 34 balls.
PBKS required 62 off 59 balls, which was enough for Iyer to knock off a fifty of his own. He forged an unbroken 67-run stand off 37 balls with Impact Player Nehal Wadhera to finish the job with more than three overs to spare.
PBKS established themselves as the early pace-setters, alongside Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC), in IPL 2025 with two wins in two games.
Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 177 for 2 in 16.2 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 69, Shreyas Iyer 52, Nehal Wadhera 43*; Divesh Rathi 2-30) beat Lucknow Super Giants 171 for 7 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 28, Nicholas Pooran 44, Ayush Badoni 41, David Miller 19, Abdul Samad 2; Arshdeep Singh 3 for 43, Lockie Furgeson 1-26, Glenn Maxwell 1-22, Marco Jansen 1-28, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-36) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
106th Hill Country Battle of the Blues
Arch rivals Trinity College Kandy and St. Anthony’s College Katugastota have remained as two of the highest ranked schools cricket teams in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ cricket tournament this season. After having reached the business end of both the two-day tournament and the limited overs tournament, the two teams can take the enviable title as ‘the most successful Big Match rivals’ this season. That will serve as an inspiration for both teams when they meet for the 106th time at the annual big match starting on Thursday.
Though both teams have done equally well this season, Trinity led by Malith Rathnayake are in the annual battle as the team to beat. They have reached the finals of both the two-day tournament and the limited overs tournament.
Trinity’s strong batting line up includes one of the tournament’s highest run scorers in Dimantha Mahavithana who has a double century and four centuries against his name. Chaniru Senaratne, Pulisha Thilakaratne, Vathila Udara and Dinal Fernando have often propelled Trinity to challenging scores.
Thisal Yapa is likely to open their bowling attack, while skipper Rathnayake leads the spin department. Rathnayake is among the top ten wicket takers of the two-day tournament.
St. Anthony’s are led by Charuka Ekanayake. St. Anthony’s reached the quarter-finals of the two-day tournament under Ekanayake’s captaincy. They reached the semi-finals of the limited overs tournament where they were eliminated by the arch rivals.
Ekanayake is expected to play a lead role in both batting and bowling. He has scored over 500 runs and taken over 50 wickets with his left-arm spin. Deputy skipper Januka Rathnayake who opens batting, all rounders Kevan Ramika and Ryan Gregory and speedster Bimash Samarasinghe are the players to watch in the St. Anthony’s camp.
These two teams have often found two days of cricket insufficient to decide a winner. This year the big match is played as a three-day encounter. Both teams will be eager to end a winless stretch which is 13 years long now. No team have recorded a victory after Trinity last won under the captaincy of Niroshan Dickwella in 2012. St. Anthony’s last won under U.D. Alwis’ captaincy in 1992.
Trinity lead the victory tally 23-11. The big match has witnessed 71 encounters end in draws.
Teams
Trinity (from): Malith Rathnayake (Captain), Vathila Udara (Co Vice Captain), Dimantha Mahavithana (Co Vice Captain), Jayavi Liyanagama, Puleesha Thilakaratne, Rajindu Thilakaratne, Kavindu Jayarathne, Dinal Fernando, Sethmika Seneviratne, Adham Hilmy, Thisal Yapa, Ranul Gunaratne, Chaniru Senaratne, Kanilka Anthony, Oshana Lokuge, Praveen Rukunayake, Mahendra Abeysinghe, Viduneth Dammage, Sweath Anurajeewa.
Officials: Naveen Ekanayake (Head Coach), Thisaru Dilshan (Asst.Coach), Bryan Senaratne (Master in Charge), Bandula Pushpakumara (Trainer), Thilanka Dissanayake (Physiotherapist).
St. Anthony’s College Team with officials.
St. Anthony’s (from): Charuka Ekanayake (Captain), Januka Rathnayaka (Vice Captain), Sanuka Kalpana, Okitha Fernando, Kawshika Kumarasinghe, Kevan Fernando, Bimash Samarasinghe, Dinura Ganegoda, Rayan Gregory, Sadew Amarakoon, Naden Ebert, Thilina Edirisinghe, Dinul Wijesinghe, Nikil Abilash, Yohan Senanayake, Vishwa Thilakarathne, Imeth Rajapaksha, Kavindu Nawanjana, Dasun Welianga.
Officials: Bandula Ekanayake (MiC), Priyantha Kumara (Trainer), Kavinda Jayasooriya (Head Coach).
by Reemus Fernando
Colombo Basketball Club jetted off to Madras last evening, ready to stake their claim at the SABA Club Championship, South Asia’s premier club-level basketball showdown, set to unfold in the bustling South Indian city.
This five-team tournament brings together the crème de la crème of South Asia’s domestic basketball scene, and Colombo BC earned their stripes after edging out Colombo Bulls in a one-sided finale of the local championship held last month.
Colombo’s traveling squad boasts a dynamic blend of experience and youth, featuring: Narvin Ganesh, Charuka Fernando, Mindika Wijenayake, Sanjeewa Kulamina, Nimesh Fernando, Baratha Ranatunga, Dasun Mendis, Sasindu Gajanayake, Rukshan Atapattu, Methika Jayasinghe, Brent Thevakumar, Sharo Perera, and Simron Yoganathan.
Gaja Sports and Sunil Traders are backing their campaign as main sponsors while My Cola steps in as the official clothing sponsor.
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