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Kusal Mendis Heroics set up Dambulla Aura’s thrilling win at Lanka Premier League
Kusal Mendis’s 46-ball 87 set up Dambulla Aura’s thrilling 10 runs win over Colombo Strikers in the eighth match of the ongoing Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2023 worked off at Pallekele international stadium on Saturday (5).
After being invited to bat first, Dambulla Aura was struck with an early blow when they lost the wicket of Avishka Fernando cheaply.
However, despite a shaky start, Dambulla revived their innings with a clinical 120-run partnership between captain Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama for the second wicket.
Skipper Kusal Mendis leading from the front scored 87 off 46 before falling to Naseem Shah, while Samarawickrama scored 59 runs from 35 balls as both fell in successive overs.
At one stage it looked like Dambulla could go past the 200-run mark but a tight bowling effort towards the death overs denied such an opportunity as they were restricted to 192/6.
During the chase, Colombo Strikers were off to a similar start when they lost the first wicket that of their skipper Niroshan Dickwella with just 17 runs on the board.
Following an early breakthrough Pakistan star Babar Azam joined Pathum Nissanka in the middle and revived their innings to a certain extent with a 62-run partnership for the second wicket but it was cut short when Babar Azam was trapped LBW off Noor Ahmed’s bowling.
His partner Nissanka too failed to hang on as he departed for 22 runs.
With both st batters back in the pavilion Colombo strikers desperately needed someone to step up and change gears to aggressive mode was what exactly Nuwanindu Fernando did as he hammered unbeaten 56-runs which featured four boundaries and as many sixes to almost taking his team over the line.
Fernando glimmered a ray of hope for the Strikers to pull off the run chase with belligerent hitting but his efforts came up as his side succumbed to a 10-run defeat.
In the bowling front, Noor Ahmad claimed 2/34 while Dhananjaya de Silva and Hayden Kerr shared a wicket among them.
*Wanindu Hasaranga shine in B-Love Kandy’s thumping win over Jaffna Kings *
Meanwhile, in the other match played under lights between B-Love Kandy and Jaffna Kings, the latter thrashed defending champions by 8 wickets.
An all-round show by skipper Wanidu Hasaranga highlighted B-Love Kandy thumping win against three times Champions Jaffna Kings at the Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium.
Wanidu Hasaranga was named player of the match for his unbeaten 52 off 22 balls, 4-0-09-3 and two catches.
*Brief Scores: *
*Dambulla Aura vs Colombo Strikers *
Dambulla Aura 192/6 in 20 overs (Kusal Mendis 87, Sadeera Samarawickrema 59; Naseem Shah 2-29, Chamika Karunaratne 1-55, Matheesha Pathirana 3-31) beat Colombo Strikers 182/4 in 20 overs (Barbar Azam 41, Pathum Nissnaka 22, Nuwanidu Fernando 56, Chamika Karunaratne 20; Hayden Kerr 1-27, Dhananjaya de Silva 1-25, Noor Ahamad 2-34) by ten runs
B-Love Kandy Vs Jaffna Kings
Jaffna Kings 117/9 in 20 overs (David Miller 21, Priyamal Perera 22, Dunith Wellalage 38; Angelo Mathews 2-08, Wanidu Hasarana 3-09, Isuru Udana 1-17, Nuwan Pradeep 3-36) lost to B Love Kandy 118/2 in 13 overs (Fakhar Zaman 42, Dinesh Chandimal 22, Wanidu Hasaranga 52; Maheesh Theekshana 1-35, Nandre Burger 1-17) by eight wickets
ලංකා ප්රිමියර් ලීග් තරඟාවලියේ කුසල් මෙන්ඩිස්ගේ දස්කම් නිසා දඹුල්ල කණ්ඩායමට තියුණු ජයක්.
2023 ලංකා ප්රිමියර් ලීග් (LPL) තරඟාවලියේ 8 වන තරඟයෙන් සෙනසුරාදා (5) පල්ලෙකැලේ ජාත්යන්තර ක්රීඩාංගනයේ දී ක්රියාත්මක වූ කුසල් මෙන්ඩිස්ගේ පන්දු 46 කදී ලකුණු 87 කින් දඹුල්ල අවුරා පිල කලම්බු ස්ට්රයිකර්ස් පිලට එරෙහිව ලකුණු 10 ක තියුණු ජයක් ලැබීය.
පළමුවෙන් පන්දුවට පහරදීමට ආරාධනා කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව අවිශ්ක ප්රනාන්දුගේ කඩුල්ල දැවී යාමත් සමග දඹුල්ල අවුරා පිලට තරඟය ආරම්භයේදීම අපහසු විය.
කෙසේ වෙතත් ආරම්භය දෙදරා ගියද දඹුල්ල කණ්ඩායම සිය ඉනිමට පණ දුන්නේ නායක කුසල් මෙන්ඩිස් සහ සධීර සමරවික්රම එක්ව දෙවැනි කඩුල්ල සඳහා ලකුණු 120ක සබඳතාවක් ගොඩනැගූ බැවිනි.
එක් අවස්ථාවකදී දඹුල්ල පිලට ලකුණු 200 සීමාව පසුකර යා හැකි බව පෙනුනද, අවසන් ඕවරය දක්වා දැඩි පන්දු යැවීමක නිරත වීම නිසා ඔවුන් ලකුණු 192/6කට සීමා වීම නිසා එම අවස්ථාව අහිමි විය.
හඹා යාමේදී කලම්බු ස්ට්රයිකර්ස් පිලේ නායක නිරෝෂන් දික්වැල්ලගේ පළමු කඩුල්ල ලකුණු 17ක් පමණක් ලබා සිටියදී දැවී යන විටත් එවැනිම ආරම්භයක් ලබාගෙන සිටියේය.
ආරම්භක පිතිහරඹයකින් පසුව, පැතුම් නිශ්ශංක සමඟින් එක්ව දෙවැනි කඩුල්ලට ලකුණු 62ක සබඳතාවක් ගොඩනැගූ පාකිස්තානු ක්රීඩක බබාර් අසාම්, නූර් අහමඩ්ගේ පන්දුවකට කඩුල්ල මුවා කිරීමකට හසුවූ බබාර් අසාම් දැවී යාමත් සමඟින් ඔවුන්ගේ ඉනිම තරමක් දුරට අඩාල තත්වයකට පත් විය.
නුවනිඳු ප්රනාන්දු හතරේ පහර 4ක් සහ හයේ පහරවල් රැසක් සමඟින් නොදැවී ලකුණු 56ක් ලබා තම කණ්ඩායම උඩට ගෙන යාමටයි.
ප්රනාන්දු සටන්කාමී පහරවල් සමඟින් ලකුණු හඹා යාම සාර්ථක කර ගැනීමට ස්ට්රයිකර්ස් වෙත බලාපොරොත්තුවේ කිරණක් දැල්වූ නමුත් ඔහුගේ ප්රයත්නය ඉවත ගියේ ඔහුගේ කණ්ඩායම ලකුණු 10ක පරාජයකට පත්වීමත් සමඟය.
පන්දු යැවීමේ පෙරමුණේ නූර් අහමඩ් 2/34 ට හිමිකම් කියූ අතර ධනංජය ද සිල්වා සහ හේඩ්න් කර් ඔවුන් අතර කඩුල්ලක් බෙදා ගත්හ.
B-Love Kandy වෙතින් යාපනය කිංග්ස් පරදා වනිඳු හසරංග විශිෂ්ට ජයක්
මේ අතර, බී-ලව් මහනුවර සහ යාපනය කිංග්ස් අතර ආලෝකය යටතේ පැවැති අනෙක් තරගයෙන් කඩුලු 8 කින් වත්මන් ශූරයන් පරාජය කිරීමට අවසන් මහා ක්රීඩකයෝ සමත් වූහ.
නායක වනිදු හසරංග විසින් පල්ලෙකැලේ ජාත්යන්තර ක්රිකට් ක්රීඩාංගණයේදී තුන් වතාවක් ශූරයන් වූ යාපනය කිංග්ස් කණ්ඩායමට එරෙහිව B-Love Kandy හි පෙරළිකාර ජයග්රහණය ඉස්මතු කරන ලදී.
පන්දු 22කදී නොදැවී ලකුණු 52ක්, 4-0-09-3ක් සහ උඩපන්දු දෙකක් ලබාගත් වනිදු හසරංග තරගයේ වීරයා ලෙස නම් කෙරිණි.
සංක්ෂිප්ත ලකුණු:
දඹුල්ල අවුරා vs Colombo Strikers
දඹුල්ල අවුරා ඕවර 20 කදී 192/6 (කුසල් මෙන්ඩිස් 87, සධීර සමරවික්රම 59; නසීම් ෂා 2-29, චාමික කරුණාරත්න 1-55, මතීෂ පතිරණ 3-31) කලම්බු ස්ට්රයිකර්ස් 3-31, කලම්බු ස්ට්රයිකර්ස් 182/4 පැරදවීම ඕවර 20, පත්තම් නිස්නක 22, නුවනිදු ප්රනාන්දු 56, චාමික කරුණාරත්න 20, හේඩ්න් කර් 1-27, ධනංජය ද සිල්වා 1-25, නූර් අහමඩ් 2-34) ලකුණු දහයකින්
B-Love Kandy Vs Jaffna Kings
යාපනය කිංග්ස් ඕවර 20 කදී 117/9 (ඩේවිඩ් මිලර් 21, ප්රියමාල් පෙරේරා 22, දුනිත් වෙල්ලාලගේ 38; ඇන්ජලෝ මැතිව්ස් 2-08, වනිදු හසරණ 3-09, ඉසුරු උදාන 1-17, නුවන් ප්රදීප් 3-36) බී ලව් හමුවේ පරාජයට පත්විය. මහනුවර ඕවර 13 කදී 118/2 (ෆකාර් සමාන් 42, දිනේෂ් චන්දිමාල් 22, වනිදු හසරංග 52; මහේෂ් තීක්ෂණ 1-35, නන්ද්රේ බර්ගර් 1-17) කඩුලු 8 කින්
News
Strengthening Ties Through Sport: China Donates Five Dragon Boats to Sri Lanka
The People’s Republic of China has donated five dragon boats worth LKR 5 million to Sri Lanka, marking a significant step in promoting water sports across the island.

The donation was made during the China-Sri Lanka Friendship Dragon Boat Championship, organized by NACKSL – the National Association of Canoeing and Kayaking Sri Lanka, held on May 31 at the Diyawanna Rowing Center. The championship saw the participation of 25 teams from various regions of the country.
The event was graced by:
- Minister of Youth and Sports Sunil Kumara Gamagedara
- Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs Eranga Gunasekara
- Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong
Trophies and certificates were awarded to the winning athletes, and the official handover of the dragon boats was completed at the same event.
A Symbol of Friendship and Cultural Exchange
Minister Gamagedara emphasized that the China-Sri Lanka Dragon Boat Championship, and the donation of dragon boats, symbolize the strong cultural, sporting, and diplomatic ties between the two nations. He extended his gratitude to the Chinese Embassy and stated that this generous gift would be instrumental in expanding and developing water sports across Sri Lanka.
“From North to South and East to West, we are committed to promoting water sports across the country,” said the Minister.
He further noted that this donation would help create pathways for Sri Lankan youth in canoeing, kayaking, and dragon boat racing, while also boosting sports tourism.
Celebrating Unity and National Inclusion
Special appreciation was extended to student participants from schools in Jaffna, highlighting the championship’s role in fostering national unity and showcasing the talent and commitment of young athletes from all regions.
The Deputy Minister also expressed hope that more youth with exceptional talent in water sports would be provided with sports scholarships in the future.
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Cricket
Kusal Mendis Falls Short in High-Stakes IPL Eliminator Clash
Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis failed to rise to the occasion during a crucial IPL 2025 Eliminator as Gujarat Titans fell short in their chase against Mumbai Indians at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium in New Chandigarh.
Chasing a steep target of 229, Gujarat Titans needed early momentum. While opener Sai Sudharsan led the charge with a composed 80 off 49 deliveries, Kusal Mendis—expected to play a key supporting role—could not live up to expectations on this competitive stage.
Mendis, who had the platform to make an impact, started aggressively with two sixes in his 10-ball 20 but threw away his wicket in an uncharacteristic manner—getting out hit wicket to Mitchell Santner. In a high-pressure match where composure was vital, Mendis’s dismissal was a major setback for GT, stalling their momentum during a promising phase of the innings.
This was an opportunity for Mendis to demonstrate consistency and reliability at the highest level of franchise cricket, especially with the eyes of selectors and fans fixed on performances under pressure. However, the lack of game awareness and a reckless approach led to a soft exit at a crucial moment.
GT eventually managed 208/6, falling short by 20 runs. With Mendis’s early exit, the middle order was left exposed to the mounting run rate, and despite brief resistance from Washington Sundar and Rahul Tewatia, the chase fizzled out.
While Mendis has shown flashes of brilliance in previous matches, this performance serves as a reminder of the demands of knockout-stage cricket. With playoffs being the toughest test of mental and technical strength, Sri Lanka’s white-ball star must tighten his game to deliver when it matters most.
News
Awareness Media Briefing on New Sports Regulations
A special media briefing on the new regulations under the Sports Act was held on May 30, 2025, at the Department of Government Information, with the aim of raising public awareness on the upcoming changes to Sri Lanka’s sports governance framework.
The event featured key officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, including:
- Sunil Kumara Gamagedara – Minister of Youth and Sports
- Sugath Thilakaratne – Deputy Minister of Sports
- Aruna Bandara – Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Sports
- Shemal Fernando – Director General of Sports
- Priyantha Ekanayake – Chairman, National Sports Council
These leaders addressed the media on the impact, scope, and enforcement of the new regulations, highlighting their importance in ensuring transparency, accountability, and modernization in Sri Lanka’s sports sector.
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