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Schoolboy aggression and Shahid Zumri’s rugby show for Isipatana

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3 years ago

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A St. Anthony’s College forward tries to surge ahead in the team’s Division 1 Segment A rugby match of the inter-school under 19 league rugby tournament against Wesley at Royal Sports Complex on Sunday.

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Isipatana College proved to be top contenders for the inter-school league rugby title on yet another occasion when they demolished D.S. Senanayake College with a smashing 22-6 win at Havelock Park last week. The Green Shirts are playing cohesive rugby and promising the quality of a club game each time they take to the field. We are seeing school rugby being played very competitively and much money is invested each season to ensure that the players get the best facilities to be involved in the game; hence the quality of rugby we see.

But in this league featuring schoolboys one must remember or keep in mind that the coaches are dealing with children and there are limits and also boundaries where expectations and aggression can or should reach. In the match against Isipatana and D.S. Senanayake (DSS) the referee was heard telling both captains more than once that aggression must be controlled. He was heard adding “if you cannot do it as captains I then know how to control them”. A captain must have the ability within to control his players and it must be taken note of that a captain’s role is not complete just by dazzling in the slot he is played in.

The player to watch in the Isipatana camp was centre Shahid Zumri. He produced a wonderful try in the first half with a scintillating run through the DSS defence and in the second half fed a try which many rugby fans haven’t seen in many years. At a time when rugby is more a game of brawn than skill it was welcoming to see Zumri making a break and then doing a flip pass in Fiji style in the process of offloading the ball and then having a hand again in the try in another feeding move. So in other words he had the ball in his hands twice before the try was produced and didn’t show any selfishness in trying to go over the line himself. The only little setback for the winners was kicker Rinesh Silva having kept his kicking boots at home; the place kicker missing three conversions and an attempt at converting a penalty. Those kicks if they were accurate would have swelled the score line. DSS played well but playing anything less than your best against a team like Isipatana can spell disaster; the final score line suggests that.

Isipatana’s Shahid Zumri (right) encounters
aggression from a D.S. Senanayake player
while returning after scoring his team’s
second try in a Division 1 Segment A rugby
match of the inter-school under 19 league
rugby tournament played at Havelock Park.
(Pix by Kamal Wanniarachchi)

The other game that produced breathtaking moments was the one between Wesley and St. Anthony’s played in Colombo where the lads from Katugastota pulled off a thriller. Any high-scoring game entertains no doubt but what can be said about defence? Both teams must work on tackling.

But leave that aspect of the game aside the Anthonians had the edge in the second half and many thought deserved to win. The man who spearheaded the win was skipper Sahan Keerthisiri who marveled everyone with his kicking skills. He tested the Wesley defence with his up and unders and kicks to touch and slotted in a penalty from a distance of 52 metres in the second half to put his team in front at a time when Wesley were leading 22-20. Mention must be made of St. Anthony’s College back line players Tyrone Mariyadas and Ravindu Welagedara for scoring brilliant tries, the former in the first and the latter in the second. These tries really rattled the Wesley team.

But Wesley was not in the mood to cave in and produced tries through Abdullah Sideek (2), Kaizer Lye (1), C. Nimsara (1) while Abdul Haadhi converted three tries and knocked over a penalty.

Another team that is showing all the makings of striking gold this season is Royal College which did well to down Zahira College 44-3 in Colombo. Royal opened out in the second half and raked in six tries and also earned two penalties. Four converted conversions also added to the final Royal score line. As for Zahira it was a first half game and they had no answer when Royal opened the floodgates on them in the second session of the game.

The other teams which produced wins in the fourth week of the tournament were St. Peter’s, Vidyartha and St. Joseph’s, which outplayed Kingswood in Kandy by 48 points to 15. Skipper Navin Marasinghe produced a hat-trick of tries which helped post his side’s first win this season.


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Chamodi Prabodha to lead Sri Lanka women’s U19 National Team for the tour of Australia

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2026/04/3

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The Sri Lanka Cricket Selection Panel has named a 15-member squad for the upcoming Tri- Series tour of Australia, which will also feature England.

During the tour, the team will play a total of six matches, comprising two One Day and four T20 games, scheduled for the 7th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 17th, and 18th of April.

The squad is scheduled to depart for Australia today [3rd April 2026.]

 

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Sri Lanka Cricket Appoint National coaches for Bowling, Fielding and Spin Bowling

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9 hours ago

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2026/04/3

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Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has announced the following appointments to the National High Performance Center:

Ryan van Niekerk – National Bowling Coach

Ryan van Niekerk, who served as the bowling coach and interim head coach of the Netherlands national team from 2023 to 2026, was appointed as the national bowling coach of Sri Lanka Cricket.

In this role, he will oversee fast bowling across all national teams, including the national men’s team.

Before taking over the interim role, he worked as the assistant coach and bowling coach of the Netherlands national men’s team.

During his stint with the Netherlands team, Ryan has contributed to the team’s participation in major international tournaments such as the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.

He was appointed for a two-year tenure, commencing on 15th April 2026.

Jordan Gregory – National Fielding and Spin Bowling Coach

Jordan Gregory, who has worked as a fielding consultant for Netherlands Cricket, was appointed as the national fielding and spin bowling coach.

He will be responsible for overseeing fielding and spin bowling across all national teams at the High Performance Center, including the national men’s team.

During his time with Netherlands Cricket, Gregory has contributed to several bilateral and multinational tournaments, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2023.

Jordan will begin his two-year tenure on 15th April 2026.

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Klaasen fifty, Travishek onslaught hand Sunrisers Hyderabad first points of the season

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18 hours ago

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2026/04/3

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Heinrich Klaasen scored 52 off 35 balls [Cricinfo]

Sunrisers Hyderabad [SRH] became the first team in IPL 2026 to successfully defend a total, and for that, they had to post 226 for 8, the highest score of the season so far. Even that did not look safe at one point, but in the end, Kolkata Knight Riders [KKR]  fell short by 65 runs.

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma set the platform for SRH by adding 82 in 5.4 overs. Head made 46 off 21 balls, and Abhishek 48 off 21. KKR did make a comeback in the middle overs, but Heinrich Klassen’s  52 off 35 deliveries ensured they picked up 51 in the last four overs.

Finn Allen, batting on the same strip where he had scored a blazing hundred against South Africa in the T20 World Cup semi-final, started the chase by smashing 24 runs off David Payne. But Harsh Dubey had him caught and bowled from the other end. Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 27-ball fifty steered KKR to 110 for 3 in ten overs, but his run-out soon after proved to be the turning point. Rinku Singh’s brief resistance was futile, and KKR were eventually all out for 161 in 16 overs.

Ajinkya Rahane, playing his 200th IPL match, opted to bowl after winning the toss. Vaibhav Arora started with three dots, beating Head’s outside edge on all three occasions. But that was the proverbial calm before the storm. Head pulled the last ball of the over for four before picking two more fours off Blessing Muzarabani in the next over.

Muzarabani was trying the short-ball ploy that had worked for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Jacob Duffy against the same opposition in the tournament opener, but it backfired here. Abhishek rubbed it in by pulling yet another short ball from Muzarabani for a six.

After Head smashed two sixes and two fours in Vaibhav’s next over, Rahane turned to spin. Sunil Narine conceded only three runs from the fourth over, and even induced a miscue from Head, but it landed safely. However, Abhishek took Varun Chakravarthy apart from the other end, hitting two sixes and three fours in a 25-run over.

Kartik Tyagi ended the stand by dismissing Head, but not before the batter had smashed him for a four and a six. SRH finished the powerplay on 84 for 1.

Muzarabani pulled things back for KKR by dismissing Ishan Kishan and Abhishek in the space of three balls. Kishan was caught at deep cover, and Abhishek at deep square leg, where Varun dived forward to complete a low catch. The third umpire had multiple looks at it before deciding it in KKR’s favour.

In the next over, Anukul Roy had Aniket Verma caught at long-off to make it 118 for 4. After that, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy decided to go into consolidation mode. As a result, only 37 runs came from overs 10 to 14.

Klaasen and Reddy picked up a four each off Narine in the 15th over, but Tyagi gave away only seven runs in the next. When Vaibhav conceded only three off the first five balls of the 17th over, it started looking like the final flourish might never come. But his final ball was in the slot for Reddy, who launched it over the bowler’s head for a six.

Klaasen then reverse-lapped Tyagi over deep third for a six, before Reddy hit him for back-to-back fours. Vaibhav hurt SRH by dismissing Reddy and Salil Arora off successive deliveries, but Klaasen, with the help of Dubey and Shivang Kumar, took them past 220.

Allen gave KKR the start they needed, with 25 runs coming off the first over. While Rahane was struggling and eventually fell for 8 off ten balls, Raghuvanshi didn’t let the scoring rate drop. He hit two sixes off Abhishek in the third over, and smashed back-to-back fours off Jaydev Unadkat in the fifth. After five overs, KKR were 67 for 2.

Cameron Green, though, was run out in the following over. As Raghuvanshi drove one back towards Eshan Malinga, the two batters set off, only to find the bowler had stopped the ball with his boot. Both Raghuvanshi and Green froze for a moment before deciding to keep running. Malinga picked the ball up and broke the stumps. Initially, it looked like Raghuvanshi, who was running towards the non-striker’s end, was run out. But the TV umpire found out the batters hadn’t crossed when the wicket was broken, and it was Green who was out.

Raghuvanshi and Rinku, though, kept the chase on track, and took KKR to 100 in nine overs, with SRH’s poor ground fielding also contributing towards it.

Soon after that, Reddy got rid of Roy and Rinku in back-to-back overs. Narine and Ramandeep Singh took KKR to 155 for 6 in the 15th over, before falling to Malinga’s slower balls. Unadkat then wrapped up the win with two wickets in two balls.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 226 for 8 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 52, Abhishek Sharma 48, Travis Head 46, Ishan Kishan 14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 39; Vaibhav Arora 2-47,  Blessing Muzarabani 4-41, Kartik Tyagi 1-48, Anukul Roy 1-16) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 161 in 16 overs (Finn Allen 28, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 52, Rinku Singh 35, Ramandeep Singh 10, Sunil Narine 12; Harsh Dubey 1-17, Jaydev Unadkat 3-21, Eshan Malinga 2-14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-17) by 65 runs

Eshan Malinga and Shivang Kumar celebrate after running out Angkrish Raghuvanshi [Cricinfo]

[Cricinfo]

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