Sports
Royal take Bradby Shield despite Pallakele ‘blues’
By A Special Sports Correspondent
Royal College overcame the shock of suffering a surprise defeat at the hands of Trinity College at the second leg of the Bradby Shield rugby encounter at Pallakele on Saturday (September 3) when tradition allowed them to take home the coveted shield on a higher aggregate. This was thanks largely due to the massive runaway 29-0 win in the first leg the Colombo school had against the boys from the Central Hills two weeks ago. Trinity prevailed over Royal in the second leg with a smashing 26 points to 21 win and were declared the winners of the ‘Shield’ with an overall aggregate of 50 points as against 26.
The win for Trinity was just what the doctor ordered for the game of rugby. Otherwise, the result of the second leg was quite predicted and Royal were anyway assured of the shield because the lead taken in the Colombo leg by Royal was far too much for Trinity to catch up on.
Trinity’s playmakers on Saturday were skipper Lithmal Moragoda and linkman Shaveen Premaratne who produced tries in the first half and showed in no uncertain terms that Trinity would prevail in this game regardless of what the aggregate would be.Trinity collected their points through four unconverted tries and two penalties while Royal responded with three tries and two penalties.Trinity had the cutting edge in their moves and their players were fast and ferocious when the ball was ‘lose’ during play.
Royal made a comeback into the game after the ‘break’ with a try by hooker Dhanuja Samararatne, but Trinity equaled the scores to read 13 all with a penalty from Wickremesinghe; who otherwise was struggling for form with his kicking boot.Trinity pulled ahead after that with tries coming from Kaveesha Edema and Premaratne; the latter scoring the team’s final touch down-his second in the game- down all on his.Royal’s Yehiya converted two penalties in the game.
Royal ended their outing at Pallakele with a bit of a disappointment because their rolling maul didn’t work to perfection. However Royal retained the Shield for the sixth consecutive year after having started winning it back in 2015. There was no Bradby Shield encounters in 2020 and 2021 due to the covid pandemic.The game was controlled by referee Gihan Yatawara.
The ICC has finalised Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai as the venues in India for the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Sri Lanka as well. It is understood the ICC has shortlisted two venues in Colombo and Kandy as the three venues in Sri Lanka.
The T20 World Cup is set to begin on February 7 and will conclude with the final in Ahmedabad on March 8. According to PTI, the ICC is likely to release the schedule next week, with just about three months to go for the start of the tournament. It is understood that the majority of the participating countries have been waiting for the ICC to inform them about the grouping of teams as well as the schedule. The ICC is also yet to release ticketing information for the tournament.
Pakistan will play all their games in Sri Lanka as per the agreement reached between the BCCI and PCB for India and Pakistan to play at neutral venues during multi-nation tournaments hosted by the other country. If Pakistan make the final, the fixture will be held in Sri Lanka.
The 2026 T20 World Cup will have the same format as the previous edition – 20 teams split into four groups of five each, with every team playing the others once. The top two teams from each group will progress to the Super-eight stage, where they will be placed into two groups of four. The top two sides from each Super-eight group will then qualify for the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-final will meet in the final.
Apart from hosts India and Sri Lanka, the other teams with automatic qualification to the tournament were the top seven teams from the 2024 T20 World Cup – Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, United States of America and West Indies. The three teams that qualified on the basis of their T20I rankings were New Zealand, Pakistan and Ireland.
Canada took the lone spot from the Americas Qualifier. Italy, first time T20 World Cup participants, and Netherlands, qualified from the five-team tournament in Europe. Namibia and Zimbabwe grabbed the two spots from the eight-team African qualifier before Nepal, Oman and UAE made it from the Asian -EAP round.
India are the defending champions, having beaten South Africa in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in Barbados.
[Cricinfo]
Mercantile Tennis Tournament 2025
Yashitha De Silva of MAS Holding beat Sanka Athukarala of Lanka Minerals & Chemical to clinch the Division I men’s singles title of the Mercantile Tennis tournament held at Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts.
Yashitha beat Sanka 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 in the final.
Dasun Shanaka has been named Sri Lanka’s vice-captain for the upcoming T20I tri-series that will also involve Pakistan and Zimbabwe. Fast bowler Eshan Malinga, meanwhile, is in line to make his debut in the same series while also being included in the ODI squad for the three matches against Pakistan before the tri-series begins.
Dilshan Madushanka has been ruled out of the ODI series as he hasn’t yet recovered from a knee injury, and was replaced by Malinga, whereas Matheesha Pathirana isn’t a part of the T20I squad as he is recovering from an upper respiratory tract infection. Pathirana was replaced by Asitha Fernando.
Top-order batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who last played a T20I at the start of the year, was back in the squad for the shortest format, having missed two bilateral series and the Asia Cup since then.
Left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage didn’t find a spot in either of the 16-member squads, but he will lead Sri Lanka A in the Rising Stars T20 Asia Cup in Doha later this month.
Sri Lanka’s ODIs against Pakistan are all scheduled to be played in Rawalpindi, on November 11, 13 and 15. Those will be followed by the tri-series from November 17 in Rawalpindi and Lahore, with the final slated for November 29.
Sri Lanka squads
ODIs: Charith Asalanka (capt), Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Udara, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamindu Mendis, Janith Liyanage, Pavan Rathnayake, Wanindu Hasaranaga, Maheesh Theekshana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Dushmantha Chameera, Asitha Fernando, Pramod Madushan, Eshan Malinga
T20I tri-series: Charith Asalanka (capt), Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera, Kamil Mishara, Dasun Shanaka (vice-capt), Kamindu Mendis, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Janith Liyanage, Wanindu Hasaranaga, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushan Hemantha, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara, Asitha Fernando, Eshan Malinga
[Cricinfo]
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