Sports

Shafali 69 not out, spinners lead India’s rout of Sri Lanka

Published

3 months ago

2025/12/25

Shafali Verma took 27 balls to bring up her fifty

A quick glance at the head to head record is enough to show the gulf between India and Sri Lanka in women’s T20Is. Despite that, the manner in which India have swept Sri Lanka aside two games in a row would have surprised watchers and the hosts alike. The story in the second T20I followed a similar script to the first. Once again, India’s spinners squeezed Sri Lanka’s middle order before one of their top-order batters made easy work of the chase.

Left-arm spinners Vaishnavi Sharma and N Shree Charani picked up two wickets apiece after Sneh Rana, in the XI in place of the indisposed Deepti Sharma, sucked out the momentum from Sri Lanka’s batting. If it was Jemimah Rodrigues’ half-century in the first game, Shafali Verma was at her brutal best in the second, finishing on an unbeaten 69 in just 34 balls, to help India get to the 129-run target at a run-rate close to 11 an over with 49 balls to spare.

India went 2-0 up at the end of the Visakhapatnam leg, with the next three games to be played in Thiruvananthapuram.

On a day she was newly crowned the No. 1 T20I bowler in the ICC rankings, Deepti missed a T20I for the first time since 2019 – after 92 straight games – because of a mild fever. Harmanpreet Kaur has often turned to her when in search of control, but on Tuesday, Rana fit into the role with ease.

Playing her first T20I in India since 2016 – she played 15 away from home in between – Rana’s first task was to stop a belligerent Athapaththu, and she delivered. She kept the Sri Lanka captain guessing with flight and dip before dismissing her. With Athapaththu itching to cut loose, Rana generously flighted one. It landed slightly shorter than Athapaththu expected because of the dip, and she ended up miscuing it to long-off.

Rana then returned with Perera and Samarawickrama scoring at a good tempo, bowled a maiden and that turned the tide. It allowed left-arm spinner Charani to slip in a few quiet overs, which resulted in Perera’s dismissal. Vaishnavi also returned to pick up her first international wicket, with Charani, who denied her in the first T20I by dropping a dolly at short fine leg, taking a simple catch at the same spot after Nilakshika Silva top-edged a sweep.

Vaishnavi Sharma reacts after picking up her first international wicket

Sri Lanka hit 11 boundaries in the first nine overs, but could hit only two fours in the rest of their innings. They lost six for 24 to be restricted to a below-par total for the second game in a row, which was never going to challenge the hosts. Three run-outs for a second game in a row did not help matters either.

If Sunday was an opportunity missed by Shafali, she more than made up for it on Tuesday. She was happy to bide her time at the start, with Smriti Mandhana being the aggressor. Once Mandhana fell, caught at point in a bid to hit Kavisha Dilhari’s offspin inside out over the off side, Shafali took centrestage. Inoka Ranaweera’s left-arm spin with the field restrictions in place was just the tonic she needed.

Shafali hit Ranaweera for successive fours in the penultimate over of the powerplay – both by dancing down the track and lofting her over cover. She then took apart Athapaththu’s offspin, hitting here for 4, 6, 4 in the sixth over of the chase: first sweeping a short ball through backward square leg, then thumping a full ball straight into the sight-screen and then lifting one over extra cover.

With the in-form Rodrigues for company, there was no respite for Sri Lanka’s bowlers. Rodrigues also tore into Ranaweera, hitting her for two fours and a six as the left-arm spinner was taken for 31 in her two overs.

In an attempt to maintain the high tempo, Rodrigues holed out to long-on. Shafali soon completed her fifty from just 27 balls. She picked Shashini Gimhani’s left-arm wristspin from the hand and thumped her for back-to-back boundaries in a 12-run over that put India on the brink.

Sri Lanka earned a consolation when Malki Madara’s dipping yorker deceived Harmanpreet. But they knew, as Athapaththu conceded after the game, that the batters failed to make the helpful conditions count in successive games.

Brief scores:

India Women 129 for 3 in 11.5 overs (Smriti Mandhana 14, Shafali Verma 69*, Jemimah Rodrigues 26, Harmanpreet Kaur 10; Malki Madara 1-22, Kavya Kavindi 1-3, Kavisha Dilhari 1-15) beat Sri Lanka Women 128 for 9 in 20 overs ( Chamari Athapaththu 31, Hasini Perera 22,Harshitha Samarawickrama 33, Kavisha Dilhari 14, Kaushini Nuthyangana 11; Kranti Goud 1-31, Sneh Rana 1-11, Shree Charani 2-23, Vaishnavi Sharma 2-32) by seven wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Three more Iran football team members change minds over asylum

Published

8 hours ago

2026/03/15

Priyan

One of the three has been named as Mona Hamoudi, pictured here during a match against the Philippines on 8 March [BBC]

Three more members of the Iranian women’s football delegation – who were given humanitarian visas to stay in Australia – have changed their mind and will return home.

The trio have been named by human rights activists in the Iranian diaspora as Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, Mona Hamoudi, and Zahra Sarbali.

Concerns grew for the Iranian team after they were silent for the country’s anthem in their opening Asian Cup match against South Korea on 2 March – which led to them being branded “war traitors” in Iran.

Confirming the decisions, Australia’s home affairs minister said his government had done everything it could to ensure the women were given the chance to have a safe future in the country.

“Australians should be proud that it was in our country that these women experienced a nation presenting them with genuine choices and interacted with authorities seeking to help them,” Tony Burke said in a statement.

“While the Australian government can ensure that opportunities are provided and communicated, we cannot remove the context in which the players are making these incredibly difficult decisions.”

Iran’s sports ministry also earlier confirmed the news, first reported by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim News Agency, in a statement.

“The national spirit and patriotism of the Iranian women’s national football team defeated the enemy’s plans against this team,” the statement says, also accusing Australia’s government of “playing in Trump’s field”.

Tasnim said the three were on their way to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to join the rest of the squad and were “returning to the warm embrace of their families and homeland after withdrawing their asylum application in Australia”.

It said they had resisted “psychological warfare, extensive propaganda and seductive offers”.

It means that, of the seven who initially said they wanted to stay in Australia, only three now remain as defectors. One of the players made the same decision to return to Iran on Wednesday.

Hamoudi and Sarbali were among the original five who refused, after giving minders the slip at the team’s hotel on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, last Monday and being taken to a safe house by Australian Federal Police.

Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, a member of the team’s technical staff, was one of two more women from the group to seek asylum the next day. The other – Mohaddeseh Zolfi – changed her mind hours after being given the right to stay. She is understood to have already rejoined the team.

There was concern in Australia that members of the team and their families might face repercussions in Iran after the players refused to sing the national anthem.

One conservative commentator on Iranian state media accused them of being “wartime traitors” and called for a harsh punishment.

The team did sing the anthem in their last two games before they were eliminated on Sunday, leading critics to believe they had been told to sing by government officials accompanying them during the tournament.

The remaining Iranian players left Australia on Tuesday night local time – two days after they were knocked out of the Asian Cup.

[BBC]

Sports

Kirsten brings pedigree, but Sri Lanka must fix the system

Published

17 hours ago

2026/03/15

Thilina Walpola

Peter Kirsten

Our cricket bosses didn’t earn many admirers for their choice of chairman of selectors, but they have certainly struck a chord with students of the game like us, and more importantly with the fans, in their appointment of the national team’s head coach. In Gary Kirsten, Sri Lanka have brought in a man with a proven pedigree and it looks like a step in the right direction.

As an opening batsman for South Africa, Kirsten never quite possessed the charm, elegance or textbook technique of his older brother Peter Kirsten. Gary’s success was forged the hard way. He thrived on grit, discipline and a stubborn refusal to give in, the sort of qualities that don’t always make headlines but win you matches. Once asked to follow on by England, he dug in for more than 14 hours at the crease and churned out 275, the highest score of his career. That innings summed up the man perfectly. When the going got tough, Gary simply rolled up his sleeves and got going.

Those very traits travelled with him into coaching, where he carved out an enviable reputation. Managing a star-studded Indian dressing room featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni is no walk in the park. Handling so many big personalities requires more than tactical nous; it demands man management. Kirsten passed that test with flying colours. Under his watch India climbed to the No.1 ranking in Test cricket and, of course, lifted the 2011 World Cup, breaking 21 million Sri Lankan hearts in the final in Bombay.

Kirsten was hugely popular with Indian supporters. Many wanted him to stay on, but he knew better than to overstay his welcome and bowed out gracefully.

Soon after, South Africa came calling and true to form he went about the job methodically, guiding the Proteas to the top of the world rankings. Wherever he has gone, results have tended to follow.

That said, simply because Kirsten has joined our ranks does not mean Sri Lanka will suddenly start knocking over the top sides week in, week out. Kirsten carries no magic wand. A coach, after all, can only take the horse to water; it is the players who must drink.

For a cricket team to flourish, the entire system needs to be rock solid. It starts with the players themselves, their hunger to improve, their willingness to leave their comfort zones and put in the hard yards. The next crucial cog in the wheel is selection. In years gone by, men like Michael Tissera and Sidath Wettimuny had the foresight to look beyond the obvious and the courage to make unpopular calls when necessary. A selection panel that continues to back Dasun Shanaka as captain, however, is asking for trouble. It’s a bit like appointing Sagala Ratnayake as National Security Adviser.

Sri Lanka Cricket deserves credit for trimming down the number of teams competing in the First Class tournament, but the worrying reality is that the number of international games Sri Lanka play each year has shrunk alarmingly. Last year the country played a grand total of four Test matches, hardly enough cricket for a side hoping to stay relevant in the longest format. The Test calendar needs beefing up and the Lanka Premier League must return to the fold if Sri Lanka are to stay competitive in white-ball cricket.

For a team to succeed consistently, cricket has to run like a well-oiled machine. In Sri Lanka’s case, however, the wheels tend to wobble. Ahead of almost every major tournament our leading bowler seems to be nursing an injury. That is hardly the hallmark of a smooth operation.

Kirsten, to his credit, has struck all the right notes since being appointed. He has spoken about improving Sri Lanka’s rankings, winning overseas and developing a strong bench, the sort of forward thinking the game desperately needs here.

Just look at India for an example of depth. Sanju Samson walks in as their back-up wicketkeeper and ends up as Player of the Tournament in a World Cup. They can hand the gloves to Ishan Kishan, while players of the calibre of Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul struggle to find a place in the squad. Any one of those four would walk into most international sides as the first-choice keeper. Such is the luxury of India’s bench strength.

There’s no point envying them. The smarter move is to learn from them.

Kirsten, therefore, has plenty on his plate. And if he is looking for a place to begin, he might start with a rather pressing issue, figuring out how Sri Lanka’s batters plan to play spin, a challenge that has been turning our innings into a procession far too often in recent times.

by Rex Clementine ✍️

Latest News

Agha calls for ‘sportsman spirit’ after controversial dismissal

Published

1 day ago

2026/03/14

Priyan

Salman Agha reacted furiously after his controversial dismissal [BBC]

Salman Ali Agha said that he would have done things ‘differently”, after Mehidy Hasan Miraz ran him out in controversial circumstances in the second ODI in Dhaka.

Agha, who made 64 from 62 balls, had been backing up at the non-striker’s end when Mohammad Rizwan drove the ball back towards him. He was still out of his ground as Mehidy swooped round behind him in an attempt to gather, and Agha had appeared ready to pass the ball back to the bowler before Mehidy reached down to grab it first and throw down the stumps.

Agha reacted furiously to the dismissal, throwing his gloves and helmet down in disgust at the decision. However, he later came to the post-match press conference, ahead of captain Shaheen Shah Afridi and player of the match Maaz Sadaqat, to clear the air.

“I think sportsman spirit has to be there,” Agha said. “What he [Mehidy] has done is in the law. I think if he thinks it’s right, it’s right, but if you ask me my perspective, I would have done differently. I would have gone for sportsman spirit. We haven’t done this [type of thing] previously, we would never do that in the future as well.”

Agha explained that he had been trying to pick up the ball to give to Miraz, thinking it was likely to have been called dead. “Actually, the ball hit on my pad and then my bat,” he said. “So I thought he can’t get me run-out now, because the ball already hit on my pad and my bat.

“I was just trying to give him the ball back. I was not looking for the run or anything like that, but he already decided [to make the run-out].”

Agha however regretted his angry reaction. “It was just heat-of-the-moment kind of stuff,” he said. “If you ask me what would I have done, I would have done things differently. But it was everything, whatever happened after that, it was in the moment.”

He was also involved in a robust exchange with Bangladesh wicketkeeper Litton Das, though he didn’t divulge many of the details.

“I can’t remember what I was saying and I can’t remember what he was saying,” he said. “I’m sure I wasn’t saying nice things, and I’m sure he wasn’t saying nice stuff as well. But it was just heat of the moment, so we are fine.

Asked if he had patched things up with Mehidy, Agha said: “I haven’t yet, but don’t worry, I’ll find him.”

Pakistan won the match by 128 runs via the DLS method.

[Cricinfo]