Sports
Thomians hold the edge over Royal
144th Battle of the Blues
by Reemus Fernando
Pacemen will hold the key to success when S. Thomas’ meet arch-rivals Royal in the 144th Battle of the Blues which commences at the SSC today.
With both teams fielding wicket-taking speedsters who have collectively done better than their counterparts from other Colombo schools, the skippers are likely to back their quicks to share majority of the bowling duties on conditions favourable for them.
However, of the two pace departments, the Thomians are ahead with new ball bowlers taking credit for the matches they won. The big plus for them is the number of matches their pacemen have taken part in during this season.
Due to injury or for other reasons the four Royal pacemen have played only a limited number of matches compared to their opponents.
The Thomian pace trio of Akash Fernando, Nathan Caldera and Kavindu Dias have accounted for nearly 140 wickets as they played throughout the season.
The Royalists seemed to be experimenting with speedsters until the tail end of the season resulting in their speed quartet accounting for just over 50 wickets. Ranuka Malaviarachchi, who struck form in the quarter-final match against Trinity and the traditional encounter against Prince of Wales has bowled more than any other speedster from Reid Avenue and has 21 wickets against his name. Bulan Weeratunga, who is the only other paceman to have bowled more than 100 overs during the entire season has 16 wickets. Dan Poddiwela commenced the season on a positive note but has bowled just over 60 overs. Sandesh Ramanayake is another player who has not bowled much.
Skipper Dasis Manchanayake, Ramiru Perera and Nethwin Dharmarathne will perform spin duties for Royal, while batting will revolve around Manchanayake and their Sri Lanka Under 19 player Sineth Jayawardana, who has received an exemption from Sri Lanka Cricket to join the National Youth team in UAE after the conclusion of the Big Match.
Manchanayake is among the leading batsmen of the season after having scored over 1000 runs including a double century to an outstanding average of 62 runs. It would be interesting to note how Jayawardana fits into a three-day match after training with the Youth team for a Limited Overs tournament. Rehan Peiris, Uvindu Weerasekara and Sanvidu Senaratharachchi are the other batsmen the Royalists will rely on.
The Thomians have a long batting lineup with skipper Romesh Mendis leading from the front. Mendis has over 700 runs, while Thisen Eheliyagoda, Mahith Perera and Dineth Goonewardene have all contributed for the team to remain unbeaten this season.
When the two teams take the field the D S Senanayake Memorial Shield is in the possession of S. Thomas’ having last won under Sithara Hapuhinna’s captaincy in 2019. Royal last won in 2016 under G. Panditharathne. The Thomians count the victory tally of this historic series 36-35 in their favour, while Royalists claim it to be level 35-35. The difference is due to the disputed result of the 1885 match where Royal had been bowled out for nine runs in the first innings.
Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of their 3-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka last on similarly slow tracks. Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by a target that was kept by Mohammed Shami, who took his sixth ODI five-for and became the quickest man to 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled to get there.
Both sides will rue missed opportunities in their Champions Trophy opener. Bangladesh won a crucial toss on a tired pitch with no dew expected to make chasing easier, but they got off to such a poor start that they needed three dropped catches and a superlative fighting hundred from Towhid Hridoy to stay in the contest. India had Bangladesh down at 35 for 5, Axar Patel was on a hat-trick, and Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter followed by two lives for the record-breaking sixth-wicket stand. It allowed Bangladesh to get to a target that denied India a net-run-rate boost, which can prove crucial if they happen to lose one of their three matches.
India will still consider this a banana peel survived having misread the conditions and decided to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn’t wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.
Bangladesh were 35 for 3 when Axar was introduced in the ninth over. Tanzid Hasan, the only batter who had looked comfortable, played him for the turn and paid the ultimate price with an outside edge. Mushfiqur Rahim, arguably batting too late at No. 6 especially in the absence of the injured Mahmudullah, played the original line, and was done in by the rare one that turned. Axar slowed down the hat-trick ball even more, Jaker Ali obliged with an edge, which Rohit spilled.
Soon Hardik Pandya dropped Hridoy on 23 in Kuldeep Yadav’s first over. Scoring runs was still a task on the sluggish surface, more than 10 overs went without a boundary, but also India went the middle overs without a single wicket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup final. Jaker did provide an opportunity on 24 but this time KL Rahul missed the stumping off Ravindra Jadeja.
The duo found their touch deeper into the innings, but Hridoy was hampered by cramps all over his body. Shami returned to the challenging task of bowling with a short leg-side boundary but used the slower ball wide outside off to not just deny them boundaries but also collect three more wickets. A cameo from Rishad Hossain and Hridoy’s fight despite crippling cramps took Bangladesh to a fighting total.
Rohit continued his high-intent starts of recent times, and Gill matched him shot for shot as India raced away from the three Bangladesh quicks. Just before the field was about to spread, Rohit fell for 41 off 36 in a bid to make one last use of the field restrictions. Immediately, scoring became laborious. Even the master accumulator Virat Kohli struggled to manipulate the ball into gaps before falling to a legspinner again, this one with the letters of Rashid scrambled to Rishad.
Shreyas Iyer played the conditions for a while, but once he got a couple and a boundary off Mustafizur Rahman, he overreached and lobbed a slower ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 15 off 17. Promoted for the dual tasking of breaking the sequence of right-hand batters and also have an eye on the net run rate, Axar skied a slog-sweep, failing to read the Rishad topspinner.
The last three wickets had fallen for 75 runs and had taken 20.2 overs. You would have thought the sight of KL Rahul would have brought calm to the proceedings, but he tried an uncharacteristic hoick early on only to be dropped by Jaker, whom he had himself reprieved earlier in the day. That proved to be the last opportunity for Bangladesh even as India overcame the ghosts of the failed chases in Sri Lanka last year.
The man to thank was Gill, who anchored the chase and made sure he was there at the end. He was 26 off 23 when Rohit got out, but as the conditions changed he tightened his game and took only selective risks. His next boundary came only when the skiddy fast bowler Tanzim Hasan came back. In the 32nd over. By that time had brought up his slowest half-century.
Gill was content with singles off the spinners and even Mustafizur, who bowls a wicked slower ball to make use of these conditions. He scored just 30 off the 52 balls following Rohit’s dismissal, then went into middle gears before finishing it off in glory. He needed 12 out of the 19 runs to bring up a hundred, and hit a six and a four off Tanzim to get to the mark off 125 balls and take his customary bow. Rahul took India home with a six off Tanzim with 21 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
India 231 for 4 in 46.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 41, Shubnam Gill 101*, Virat Kohli 22, KL Rahul 41*; Taskin Ahmed 1-36, Mustafizur Rahman 1-42, Rishad Hossain 2-38) beat Bangladesh 228 in 49.4 overs (Towhid Hridoy 100, Tanzid Hasan 25, Jaker Ali 68; Mohammed Shami 5-53, Harshit Rana 3-31, Axar Patel 2-43) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) imposed a fine of US$ 10,000 on Dasun Shanaka for breaching the terms of the player contract he entered into with SLC.
The decision follows an incident where Shanaka, after playing for his domestic club in the ongoing Major Club Three-Day Tournament, withdrew early due to an injury.
This is following the player submitting a medical certificate, which recommended Shanaka to rest, and hence he did not take part in the remainder of the match.
However, on the same evening, he traveled to Dubai and participated in a franchise league match.
This action was deemed a breach of several contractual clauses that require players to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and commitment to Sri Lanka Cricket.
During the inquiry, Shanaka acknowledged his actions and expressed regret for any inconvenience caused.
He also clarified that he did not act with dishonest intent and assured SLC that he would exercise better judgment in the future.
Sri Lanka Cricket remains committed to maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards and will continue to take necessary measures to uphold the integrity of the game.
by Reemus Fernando
Paceman Sethmika Senavirathne took seven wickets as Trinity rattled Maris Stella for 32 runs before cruising to a ten wickets victory in the Under 19 Division I limited overs tournament match at Asgiriya on Thursday.
Sethmika shared ten wickets with Malith Rathnayake to dismiss the visitors within 11 overs. The first six batsmen in the Maris Stella batting line up did not score a single run.
With his seven wicket haul Sethmika has now accounted for the best bowling performance of the ongoing limited overs tournament. His stunning performance (5.3-2-9-7) has come just a day after St. Benedict’s paceman Ayesh Gajanayake took similar number of wickets (9-2-27-7) to bowl out Lumbini for 60 runs.
In the other limited overs matches, St. Sebastian’s beat Lumbini by seven wickets while St. Anne’s pulled off a twelve runs win over St. Anthony’s College Wattala.
Trinity rout Maris Stella at Asgiriya
Scores
Maris Stella
32 all out in 10.3 overs (Hasmika Nethshan 12n.o.; Sethmika Senavirathne 7/09, Malith Rathnayake 3/18)
Trinity
36 for no loss in 6.2 overs (Dimantha Mahavithana 28n.o.)
Gill ton helps India ace tricky chase after Shami five-for
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