Sports
Sithuka rattles Ananda as Isipatana continue unbeaten run

by Reemus Fernando
Left-arm spinner Sithuka Gunawardana picked up five wickets as Isipatana rattled Ananda for 66 runs before cruising to a ten wicket victory in their final group match of the Under-19 Division I Tier ‘B’ tournament at BRC on Wednesday.
The massive win reconfirmed Isipatana as the unbeaten champions of their group in the Division I Tier ‘B’ competition.
St. Peter’s pulled off a decisive win against Mahinda to conclude the league stage as unbeaten champions in their group, also in Tier ‘B’. Despite a defeat, Mahinda as the runner up of that group have qualified for the knockout stage.
St. Anthony’s, Wattala emerged as the champions in Group ‘Z’ of Tier ‘B’ as they recorded a win against St. Sylvester’s.
In Tier ‘A’, Royal finished their group matches unbeaten as Ahan Wickramasinghe with a half century and Resandu Thilakarathne with a run a ball 42 helped them top 300 runs against D.S. Senanayake. Abishek Liyanarachchi’s century was in vain for DSS as they finished the group stage with just a solitary win in five outings.
While Royal are the champions in Group ‘X’, Trinity who beat Gurukula yesterday are the runners up.
De Mazenod earned their only win of the tournament when they handed Wesley a shocking 29 runs defeat.
Meanwhile in a traditional match Ryan Fernando scored a century for S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia to post 262 for eight wickets against St. Anthony’s, Katugastota. The match is played at Sooriyawewa. The Thomians are playing the match there to prepare for the Big Match. The Battle of the Blues will be played at the venue in May.
Results
Tier ‘A’
Royal beat DSS at Reid Avenue
Royal
319 for 7 in 50 overs (Sineth Jayawardena 49, Ahan Wickramasinghe 70, Uvindu Weerasekara 22, Sadisha Rajapaksha 33, Resandu Thilakarathne 42n.o., Kavindu Pathirathna 30, Extras 42; Amitha Dabare 2/60, Imesh Adeesha 3/62)
DSS
255 all out in 48.4 overs (Abishek Liyanarachchi 107, Maneendra Jayathilaka 68, Kenula Gunaratne 26; Dan Poddiwela 4/37, Uvindu Weerasekara 2/24)
Trinity beat Gurukula at Asgiriya
Trinity
243 all out in 49.2 overs (Umair Raizan 71, Pawan Pathiraja 22, Ranuda Somaratne 52, Abhishek Anandakumara 24, Vibhawith Ehelepola 27; Kemira Nayanatharu 2/32, Thushara Wanigasinghe 3/35, Vihanga Iranjana 2/53)
Gurukula
184 all out in 40 overs (Kemira Nayanatharu 38, Sithija Chamod 82; Shenuka Ilukkumbura 3/33, Umair Raizan 2/31)
De Mazenod beat Wesley at Kandana
De Mazenod
261 for 9 in 50 overs (Lester Jayaweera 100, Salindu Pathirana 44, Senash Fernando 28, Thareen Sanketh 24n.o.; Denuwana Mendis 3/47, Thenuka Perera 2/29, Anudith Wickramasinghe 2/59)
Wesley
232 all out in 45.5 overs (Sahil Dias 32, Semila Liyanage 38, Denuwana Mendis 33, Rakitha Fernando 39; Senash Fernando 2/45, Thareen Sanketh 2/29)
Thurstan win according to Parabola Method at Galle
(Parabola target 224 in 43 overs)
Thurstan
237 for 6 in 49.5 overs (Dananja Silva 100, Ruvinda Dilshan 34, Bawantha Jayasinghe 64; Mihiranga Nimsara 2/36, Sandun Madushanka 2/35)
St. Aloysius’
146 for 5 in 43 overs (Bashana de Silva 52, Omal Sadith 33, Dineth Nimsara 36; Ranga Rasanka 3/43)
St. Peter’s beat Mahinda at Galle
Mahinda
230 all out in 48 overs (Navod Paranavithana 91, Sandew Induwara 25, Rashmika Madushanka 26, Dhanuja Induwara 24n.o.; Vinuda Liyanage 2/42, Jesuran Benjamin 4/41)
St. Peter’s
236 for 4 in 45.1 overs (Shanuka Galagoda 63, Shenal Botheju 41, Rusanda Gamage 27, Lahiru Chethaka 36, Wanuja Kumara 57; Kavindu Lakshan 2/30)
Isipatana rout Ananda at BRC
Ananda
66 all out in 31.4 overs (Maoshada Fernando 19; Sithuka Gunawardana 5/15, Amaan Thaha 2/14)
Isipatana
68 for no loss in 9.1 overs (Tharush Nethsara 38n.o., Naveen Kanishka 20n.o.)
St. Anthony’s beat St. Sylvester’s at Wattala
St. Sylvester’s
261 for 9 in 50 overs (Malith Lakshan 24, Sadeepa Halangoda 39, Charith Samuditha 41, Maleesha Silva 56, Nimsha Deshan 67; Romesh Suranga 4/39)
St. Anthony’s
262 for 8 in 50 overs (Gihan Sathmika 64, Dilip Fernando 47, Kaveesha Dulanjana 41, Kanishka Gimhan 24; Malith Lakshan 2/37, Shashika Gihan 2/44)
Thomians post 262/8 at Sooriyawewa against St. Anthony’s, Katugastota
S. Thomas’
262 for 8 in 78.4 overs (Shalin de Mel 19, Anuk Palihawadena 22, Ryan Fernando 100rtd. Mahith Perera 63; Nimnaka Jayathilaka 4/64, Kaneesha Rajapakshe 2/13)
Sports
Rajapaksa, Arshdeep deliver winning start for PBKS

A power-packed, collective performance with the bat set the platform for Punjab Kings’ winning start as they downed Kolkata Knight Riders by seven runs (DLS method) at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Saturday (April 1). Bhanuka Rajapaksa (50 off 32) registered his maiden IPL fifty while Shikhar Dhawan struck a 29-ball 40, and along with useful contributions from the rest of the batters, PBKS posted a formidable 191/5. Andre Russell top-scored for KKR but they lost wickets at regular intervals and eventually fell short of the DLS par score as they finished with 146/7 in 16 overs when rain forced the players off the field.
Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 191/5 in 20 overs (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 50, Shikhar Dhawan 40; Tim Southee 2-54) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 146/7 in 16 overs (Andre Russell 35; Venkatesh Iyer 34; Arshdeep Singh 3-19) by 7 runs (DLS method).
Sports
Ruturaj 92 in vain as Titans win opening game

A brilliant 92 from Ruturaj Gaikwad went in vain as defending champions Gujarat Titans beat Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad on Friday (March 31) in the tournament opener. Gaikwad’s innings was nullified to an extent initially by Shubman Gill before a few vital blows towards the end of the game from the Titans middle order got the job done for them with four balls to spare.
Chennai Super Kings 178/7 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 92; Rashid Khan 2/26, Mohammed Shami 2/29) lost to Gujarat Titans182/5 in 19.2 overs (Shubman Gill 63; Rajvardhan Hangargekar 3/36) by 5 wickets
Sports
Bowlers, Stirling lead Ireland to their first win in Bangladesh in any format

Ireland finally notched a win on their tour of Bangladesh by scoring a seven-wicket win in the final T20I in Chattogram on Friday. Mark Adair led the bowling charge with three wickets as Bangladesh were bowled out for 124, and Paul Stirling, later named Player of the Match, was at his inventive best as he struck a 41-ball 77 to headline the chase. It was Ireland’s first T20I win over Bangladesh since 2009 and their first win in any format in the country.
Bangladesh had already taken the series after winning the first two games earlier in the week, and made two changes, perhaps to try out alternatives. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman went out; Rishad Hossain was handed a debut and Shoriful Islam made a comeback. It was the batting that came unstuck, though.
After opting to bat, Bangladesh were 61 for 7 in nine-and-a-half overs. Shamim Hossain, however, scored his first international half-century, making 51 off 42 balls with five fours and two sixes to give them a competitive 124. One of those sixes was a particularly eye-catching shot, when he reverse-whipped Curtis Campher hit over backward point for six.
But with Stirling in blistering form, and playing a few inventive shots of his own, the chase was done and dusted in 14 overs.Bangladesh’s slide started in the second over. Litton Das’ slash towards deep point against a wide Adair delivery landed in George Dockrell’s lap. It was the first time Bangladesh had lost a wicket in the powerplay after three matches.
Najmul Hossain Shanto was next to go, hitting a slog-sweep off Harry Tector straight to deep midwicket. Campher juggled the catch but clung on. In the next over, Campher himself got a wicket, when Rony Talukdar holed out at deep midwicket.
Towhid Hridoy and Shakib Al Hasan, however, went for their shots in keeping with Bangladesh’s new approach, and hit a couple of big ones, but both were gone in the space of three balls. Shakib was caught at short midwicket mistiming a pull off Adair, while Hridoy holed out off Ben White in the seventh over
Matthew Humphreys had two wicketless ODIs in Sylhet, but the left-arm spinner had a better start to his T20I career. He took a wicket off his first ball when he yorked Rishad for 8.
That made him the first Ireland bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in T20Is. This was, however, not the first time a debutant had done this against Bangladesh. Previously, Rory Kleinveldt, Pragyan Ojha, Lockie Ferguson and Cole McConchie have all achieved the feat.
Humphreys added his second off his third ball, when Taskin Ahmed was caught at deep midwicket for a duck.Shamim and Nasum Ahmed added 33 runs for the eighth wicket before Nasum was caught in the covers off Gareth Delany’s legspin. Adair took his third when he removed Shoriful, before Fionn Hand took Shamim’s wicket in the final over.
Stirling didn’t get going at the start, as there were two early wickets, of Ross Adair and Lorcan Tucker, but once he was set, there was no stopping him. He cut and swept Shakib for fours to kickstart the chase, and then deposited Hasan Mahmud’s half-tracker for his first six next over. No bowler escaped his wrath, or his inventiveness, as he hit ten fours and four sixes in his 41-ball innings.
Many of those came in one Shoriful over, the 11th of the innings, when he pulled a six and hit three fours to take 20 runs. Rishad put an end to the mayhem when he had Stirling caught at long-on in the 13th over – it was Stirling’s 22nd half-century in T20Is and Rishad’s first international wicket – but Campher closed out the chase with a four and a six off Taskin.
Brief scores:
Ireland 126 for 3 (Stirling 77, Campher 16*, Tector 14*, Rishad 1-19) beat Bangladesh 124 (Shamim 51, Adair 3-25, Humphreys 2-10) by seven wickets
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