Sports
T20 World Cup blues behind them, Pakistan and Bangladesh switch focus to red-ball cricket
Pakistan are two places ahead of Bangladesh in the World Test Championship table but both teams are in the bottom half. And both are playing their first series since the T20 World Cup. Bangladesh exited from the Super Eight while Pakistan couldn’t even reach that stage, leaving both sets of fans disappointed with their performances. This Test series will be a chance to make amends. Luckily, there has been a considerable gap from the World Cup, which will allow the teams to play with a fresh perspective.
Given their record, Pakistan are the clear favourites. Their captain Shan Masood has a new red-ball coach in Jason Gillespie. It is an interesting combination as they can look back at their respective recent county stints to bring stability to Pakistan’s Test team.
Barring Aameer Jamal, Pakistan have all first-choice players available. In fact, they named their XI two days before the Test. They are going with an all-pace attack on this Rawalpindi pitch, while Saim Ayub has been given another chance as an opener.
Bangladesh faced a different type of challenge in the lead-up to the series. They were not able to train in Dhaka, so the BCB took up PCB’s invitation to train for three extra days in Lahore before three more sessions in Rawalpindi. While Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe is satisfied with his team’s preparation, he remained cautious about their batting, which has been on a downward swing for the last 12 months.
Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto hasn’t been in form, while Litton Das, whom Masood called his favourite batter in the Bangladesh side, has also been struggling for a long time. That leaves senior batters Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque with a lot of responsibility.
Pakistan, though, will not take Bangladesh lightly as the visitors’ in-form weapon is their pace attack. It may be short on experience but the likes of Khaled Ahmed and Shoriful Islam have done well with the new ball. Hasan Mahmud and Nahid Rana are also quick and energetic. So it will be an interesting battle against the home batters.
The likes of Mondo Duplantis, Grant Holloway and Jakob Ingebrigtsen added to their ever-growing medal collection on Saturday (22) at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25.
Duplantis picked up his third world indoor pole vault title, doing so with a winning vault of 6.15m. Holloway also claimed his third world indoor crown, winning the 60m hurdles in 7.42. Ingebrigtsen’s 1500m triumph marked his first world indoor title, adding to the numerous global golds he has earned outdoors.
Ethiopia’s 3000m winner Freweyni Hailu and 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland collected their second world indoor crowns, adding to the ones they won in 2024 and 2022 respectively.
Some new faces also emerged, though, as the likes of triple jump champion Leyanis Perez Hernandez, pole vault winner Marie-Julie Bonnin and 400m champions Amber Anning and Chris Bailey earned their first individual major international gold medals on a day where nine titles were decided.
[World Athletics]
The first IPL after the mega auction brings with it much anticipation of new alliances and loyalties. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will be thrilled that their latest acquisitions played an impactful role in their emphatic start to IPL 2025 against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Josh Hazelwood used the spongy bounce to scuttle KKR’s powerplay and death overs with analysis of 4-0-22-1, Krunal Pandya ended Ajinkya Rahane’s high-intent fifty in a spell of 4-0-29-3, Suvash Sharma salvaged an ordinary night with the massive wicket of Andre Russell, and Phil Salt killed the chase with 56 off 31, identical score to Rahane’s. A regular fixture at RCB, Virat Kohli then sealed the game with 59 off 36 with 22 balls to spare in the chase of 175.
Known for pushing convention, KKR played safe with their captaincy choice post the auction. Rahane the batter will have to allay doubts practically every day, but he got off to a good start as he and Sunil Narine smashed 98 runs in overs four to ten. However, KKR were outplayed pretty much throughout the night outside those seven overs.
It was just two overs at the top but that comprises 10% of the innings in T20s. Hazlewood, unavailable last IPL, was re-acquired by RCB at the auction. Coming off a long injury layoff, he started as if he had never been away: hard length, good pace, extra bounce. He had Quinton de Kock dropped before getting him two balls later in the first over. Then he had Narine swinging and missing through the third over.
RCB did help Rahane out, but he allayed some of the doubts around his batting with a high-intent innings even as Narine struggled to come to terms with the uneven bounce on the pitch. RCB kept feeding him straight balls, and Rahane kept picking them up over the leg side: all his first 30 runs came there. Once Narine joined the mayhem, that slow start was exorcised.
One of the key moments was Narine going after his former team-mate Suyash, who tends to get the better of batters when they play him as a legspinner. Narine kept going over the off side as 22 came off the ninth over.
KKR were 107 for 1 in 9.5 overs when Narine tried to crash Rasikh Salam over the off side but was done in by the extra bounce. Struggling for options until that point, RCB could then go back to Krunal as Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer can both be shut down by spin. In each of his last three overs, Krunal, who used clever changes in pace, picked up a wicket with quicker balls. Rahane holed out to deep midwicket while Venkatesh and Rinku Singh were castled.
The wicket of Rinku brought in Russell, cue for RCB to bowl legspin. Russell’s ordinary record against the wrong’un continued as he failed to pick one from Suyash and lost his middle stump. Since 2018 he averages 13.41 and strikes at 123.24 against the wrong’un. That wicket was worth about 40 runs.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi couldn’t get going as the ball gripped the surface. Hazlewood and Yash Dayal used the middle of the pitch masterfully to concede just 23 in the last four overs.
Salt, who played a huge role in KKR’s title run with an average of 58.33 and a strike rate of 185.18 in Kolkata last year, soon reminded KKR they should not have let him go. The first ball of the chase was crashed wide of mid-off for four. The intent never stopped especially with Kohli turbo-charged during the powerplay. KKR were forced to bring in Varun Chakravarthy in the fourth over, and Salt took 20 off him. Also, the ball had stopped gripping by then possibly because of the dew.
By the time Varun got the better of Salt, RCB had reached 95 in 8.3 overs. The asking rate had dropped under seven, and Kohli was never going to let such a chase slip. However, what will thrill RCB is that Kohli kept the intent up and sought to get them a big net-run-rate boost. He slog-swept Varun for a six in his last over when it would have been easy to just play him out. New captain Rajat Patidar played the perfect little hand at the other end with 34 off 16 as RCB romped home.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 177 for 3 in 16.2 overs (Virat Kohli 59*, Phil Salt 56, Devdut Padikkal 10, Rajat Patidar 34,Liam Livingstone 15*; Vaibhav Arora 1-42, Varun Chakravarthy 1-43,Sunil Narine 1-27) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 174 for 8 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 56, Sunil Narine 44, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 30, Rinku Singh 12; Krunal Pandya 3-29, Josh Hazlewood 2-22, Yash Dayal 1-25, Rasikh Salam 1-35, Suyash Sharma 1-47) by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
Sprinter Chamod Yodasinghe gave Sri Lanka enough reasons to celebrate by securing a semi-final berth in the 60 metres dash on day one of the World Indoor Athletics Championship in Nanjing China on Friday.
The athlete trained by Sanjeewa Weerakkody clocked a blistering time of 6.70 seconds to secure a third place decided by photofinish. He was aiming at bettering Yupun Abeykoon’s 60 metres national indoor record at the world stage but was behind even his own personal best competing less than 24 hours after landing in China. Despite not going beyond the semi-final stage Yodasinghe’s achievement will augur well for the sport.
Sri Lanka Athletics has been largely depending on Italy based sprinter Yupun Abeykoon for country’s representation at global events in the shortest sprint. With his semi-final appearance Yodasinghe has proved beyond doubt that he is ready to impress at the big stage.
Yodasinghe’s heat performance was ranked 24th among a field of 58 athletes who faced starter’s orders in eight heats.
While Kaveesha Bandara was scheduled to compete in the 60 metres hurdles heat yesterday (Saturday) Sri Lanka’s men’s and women’s 4×400 metres relay teams are set to compete in the relay finals in the final two events of the three-day competition.
by Reemus Fernando
Japan, S Korea, China meet to strengthen ties at ‘turning point in history’
Niger declares three days of mourning after mosque attack kills 44
At least two dead as wildfires rage in South Korea
-
Business2 days agoCargoserv Shipping partners Prima Ceylon & onboards Nestlé Lanka for landmark rail logistics initiative
-
Sports5 days agoSri Lanka to compete against USA, Jamaica in relay finals
-
Business2 days agoSri Lankans Vote Dialog as the Telecommunication Brand and Service Brand of the Year
-
News1 day agoDefence Ministry of Japan Delegation visits Pathfinder Foundation
-
Features2 days agoThe Vaping Veil: Unmasking the dangers of E-Cigarettes
-
News1 day agoBan on altar girls upsets nuns, stirs talk on women’s church roles
-
Editorial1 day agoWhen promises boomerang
-
News2 days ago‘Deshabandu is on SLC payroll’; Hesha tables documents