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New Zealand Thrash Sri Lanka to level series 1-1
Sri Lanka tour of New Zealand (Second T20)
Adam Milne’s five-wicket haul and Tim Seifert’s unbeaten 79 helped New Zealand register a thumping nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second Twenty20 International on Wednesday. The win also saw New Zealand level the series 1-all.
Seifert was the hero in the chase smashing six sixes in his 43-ball blitz as New Zealand reached the target with 5.2 overs to spare.
Earlier, Milne ripped through Sri Lanka’s batting lineup with a career-best 5-26 to help bowl out the Lankans for below par score of 141 in 19 overs on a pitch known as a batting paradise.
Sri Lanka was off to a sloppy start losing their openers cheaply. Sri Lanka was in some sort of trouble in the early stages of the innings Kusal Perera (35), Dhananjaya de Silva (37) and Charith Asalanka (24) shored them up and the wheels came off their innings in the second half.
At one stage it looked like Sri Lanka could post a competitive total of 180-200 without any hindrance but another middle-order collapse saw they were skittled out for 141 runs.
In reply, New Zealand’s chase got off to a blazing start with Chad Bowes laying the perfect foundation by scoring boundaries all over the park for his 16 balls and 31 runs.
New Zealand at a decent position of 40-1 at the end of the 4th over, Sri Lanka was eventually rewarded with the wicket of set batter Chad Bowes when he was caught deep off Kasun Rajitha’s bowling.
Despite a fierce start to their innings, Seifert continued their domination smashing the Sri Lankan bowlers with no respite to help set up New Zealand’s victory with back-to-back sixes.
Sri Lankan bowlers had a tough day at the office, all being hit for cleaners.
Also, Sri Lanka’s fielding was not up to the mark as their sloppy catching did not help their cause either as they dropped both Seifert and home captain Tom Latham, who remained unbeaten on 20.
Meanwhile, another highlight of the match was Auckland-born Cotton became the first female umpire to stand in a men’s international match between two International Cricket Council full-member countries.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 146/1 in 14.4 overs (Seifert 79*, Bowes 31) beat Sri Lanka 141 in 20 overs (De Silva 37, Perera 35, Milne 5-26) by nine wickets
නවසීලන්තය ශ්රී ලංකාව පරදවා තරගාවලිය 1-1ක් ලෙස සම කරයි
ශ්රී ලංකා නවසීලන්ත සංචාරය (දෙවන T20)
Adam Milne ගේ කඩුලු 5 සහ Tim Seifertගේ නොදැවී ලකුණු 79 හේතුවෙන් බදාදා පැවති දෙවන විස්සයි 20 ජාත්යන්තර තරඟයෙන් නවසීලන්තය ශ්රී ලංකාවට එරෙහිව කඩුලු 9 ක විශිෂ්ට ජයක් වාර්තා කිරීමට සමත් විය. මෙම ජයග්රහණයත් සමඟින් නවසීලන්තය තරගාවලිය 1-1 ලෙස සම කිරීමට ද සමත් විය.
නවසීලන්තය පන්දුවාර 5.2ක් ඉතිරිව තිබියදී එම ඉලක්කය සපුරාගත් සීෆර්ට් පන්දු 43කදී හයේ පහර 6ක් එල්ල කරමින් හඹායාමේ වීරයා විය.
මීට පෙර, මිල්න් ශ්රී ලංකා පිතිකරණ ලැයිස්තුව බිඳ දැමුවේ, පිතිකරණ පාරාදීසයක් ලෙස හැඳින්වෙන තණතීරුවකදී ඕවර 19 කදී ලකුණු 141 ට වඩා අඩු ලකුණු සංඛ්යාවකට ලංකා ක්රීඩකයින් දවාලීමට උපකාර කිරීම සඳහා 5-26ක් ලෙසින් ශ්රී ලංකා පිලේ හොඳම පන්දු යැවීමයි.
ශ්රී ලංකාව ඔවුන්ගේ ආරම්භක පිතිකරුවන් ලාභදායි ලෙස අහිමි කර ගනිමින් ආරම්භය මන්දගාමී විය. ශ්රී ලංකා ඉනිමේ මුල් අදියරේ දී කුසල් පෙරේරා (35), ධනංජය ද සිල්වා (37) සහ චරිත් අසලංක (24) ඔවුන්ව ගොඩට ගෙන ගිය අතර දෙවැනි භාගයේ දී ශ්රී ලංකා ඉනිමේ රෝද ගැලවී ගියේය.
ශ්රී ලංකා පිලට කිසිදු බාධාවකින් තොරව ලකුණු 180-200ක තරගකාරී මුළු ලකුණු සංඛ්යාවක් ලබා ගත හැකි බව එක් අවස්ථාවක පෙනුනද තවත් මැදපෙළ කඩා වැටීමක් හේතුවෙන් ඔවුන් ලකුණු 141කට දැවී ගියේය.
පිළිතුරු ලෙස නවසීලන්ත හඹායාම උණුසුම් ආරම්භයක් ලබා ගත්තේ චැඩ් බෝව්ස් ඔහුගේ පන්දු 16ක් සහ ලකුණු 31ක් සඳහා උද්යානය පුරා හතරේ පහරක් එල්ල කරමින් පරිපූර්ණ අඩිතාලම දැමීමත් සමඟය.
4 වැනි ඕවරය අවසානයේ ලකුණු 40-1ක් ලෙස හොඳ තත්ත්වයක සිටි නවසීලන්ත පිල අවසානයේ කසුන් රාජිතගේ පන්දුවකට උඩපන්දුවක් දෙමින් දැවී ගිය ශ්රී ලංකාවට පිතිකරු චැඩ් බෝව්ස්ගේ කඩුල්ල හිමිවිය.
ඔවුන්ගේ ඉනිමේ දරුණු ආරම්භයක් තිබියදීත්, සීෆර්ට් ඔවුන්ගේ ආධිපත්යය දිගටම කරගෙන ගියේ ශ්රී ලංකා පන්දු යවන්නන් දවාලීමට කිසිදු විවේකයක් නොමැතිව නවසීලන්ත ජයග්රහණයට පිට පිට හයේ පහරවල් එල්ල කරමිනි.
ශ්රී ලංකා පන්දු යවන්නන් කාර්යාලයේ දුෂ්කර දවසක් ගත කළ අතර, සියල්ල පිරිසිදු කරන්නන් සඳහා පහර වැදී ඇත.
එසේම, ශ්රී ලංකා පිලේ පන්දු රැකීම ලකුණු මට්ටමට නොපැමිණියේ ඔවුන්ගේ අලස උඩපන්දුව ඔවුන්ගේ ජයග්රහණයට උදව් නොකළ නිසා ඔවුන් සීෆර්ට් සහ නොදැවී ලකුණු 20 ක් ලබා සිටි ගෘහස්ථ නායක ටොම් ලැතම් යන දෙදෙනාම දැවී ගිය බැවිනි.
මේ අතර, තරගයේ තවත් විශේෂත්වයක් වූයේ ඕක්ලන්ඩ්හි උපන් කපු ජාත්යන්තර ක්රිකට් කවුන්සිලයේ පූර්ණ සාමාජික රටවල් දෙකක් අතර පිරිමි ජාත්යන්තර තරගයකට පෙනී සිටි පළමු කාන්තා විනිසුරුවරිය වීමය.
කෙටි ලකුණු:
නවසීලන්තය ඕවර 14.4කදී 146/1 (සෙයිෆර්ට් 79*, බෝව්ස් 31) ශ්රී ලංකාව ඕවර 20කදී 141 (ද සිල්වා 37, පෙරේරා 35, මිල්නේ 5-26) විකට් 9කින්
நியூசிலாந்து அணி இலங்கையை வீழ்த்தி தொடரை 1-1 என சமன் செய்தது
இலங்கை நியூசிலாந்து சுற்றுப்பயணம் (இரண்டாவது டி20)
ஆடம் மில்னேவின் ஐந்து விக்கெட்டுக்கள் மற்றும் டிம் சீஃபர்ட்டின் ஆட்டமிழக்காமல் 79 ரன்களுக்கு உதவியது, புதன்கிழமையன்று நடந்த இரண்டாவது இருபதுக்கு 20 சர்வதேச போட்டியில் நியூசிலாந்து இலங்கைக்கு எதிராக ஒன்பது விக்கெட் வித்தியாசத்தில் அபார வெற்றியைப் பதிவு செய்தது. இந்த வெற்றியின் மூலம் நியூசிலாந்து தொடரை 1-ஆல் சமன் செய்தது.
நியூசிலாந்து 5.2 ஓவர்கள் மீதமிருக்க, வெற்றி இலக்கை எட்டியபோது, தனது 43 பந்துகளில் 6 சிக்ஸர்களை அடித்து சேஸிங்கில் நாயகனாக இருந்தார் சீஃபர்ட்.
முன்னதாக, பேட்டிங் சொர்க்கம் என்று அழைக்கப்படும் ஒரு ஆடுகளத்தில் 19 ஓவர்களில் 141 ரன்களுக்கு குறைவான ஸ்கோருக்கு இலங்கை வீரர்களை அவுட்டாக்க மில்னே 5-26 என்ற கணக்கில் இலங்கையின் பேட்டிங் வரிசையை முறியடித்தார்.
தொடக்க ஆட்டக்காரர்களை மலிவாக இழந்த இலங்கை ஆரம்பமானது. குசல் பெரேரா (35), தனஞ்சய டி சில்வா (37), சரித் அசலங்கா (24) ஆகியோர் இன்னிங்ஸின் ஆரம்ப கட்டத்தில் ஒருவித சிக்கலில் இருந்த இலங்கை, இரண்டாவது பாதியில் அவர்களின் இன்னிங்ஸில் சக்கரங்கள் வெளியேறின.
ஒரு கட்டத்தில் இலங்கை 180-200 என்ற போட்டித் தொகையை எந்தத் தடையும் இல்லாமல் பதிவு செய்யலாம் என்று தோன்றியது, ஆனால் மற்றொரு மிடில் ஆர்டர் சரிவில் அவர்கள் 141 ரன்களுக்கு ஆட்டமிழந்தனர்.
பதிலுக்கு, நியூசிலாந்தின் துரத்தல் ஒரு பிரகாசமான தொடக்கத்தை பெற்றது, சாட் போவ்ஸ் தனது 16 பந்துகள் மற்றும் 31 ரன்களுக்கு பார்க் முழுவதும் பவுண்டரிகளை அடித்ததன் மூலம் சரியான அடித்தளத்தை அமைத்தார்.
4வது ஓவரின் முடிவில் 40-1 என்ற நல்ல நிலையில் இருந்த நியூசிலாந்து, இறுதியில் கசுன் ராஜிதவின் பந்துவீச்சில் டீப் கேட்ச் ஆனபோது, செட் பேட்டர் சாட் போவ்ஸின் விக்கெட்டை இலங்கைக்கு பரிசாக அளித்தது.
அவர்களின் இன்னிங்ஸுக்கு கடுமையான தொடக்கம் இருந்தபோதிலும், சீஃபர்ட் அவர்களின் ஆதிக்கத்தைத் தொடர்ந்தார், இலங்கை பந்துவீச்சாளர்களை எந்த ஓய்வும் இல்லாமல் அடித்து நொறுக்கினார்.
இலங்கை பந்துவீச்சாளர்கள் அலுவலகத்தில் ஒரு கடினமான நாள், அனைத்து துப்புரவு பணியாளர்கள் தாக்கப்பட்டது.
மேலும், இலங்கையின் பீல்டிங்கும் குறிக்கு ஏற்றதாக இருக்கவில்லை, ஏனெனில் அவர்களின் ஸ்லோபி கேட்ச்சிங் அவர்களின் காரணத்திற்கு உதவவில்லை, ஏனெனில் அவர்கள் 20 ரன்களுடன் ஆட்டமிழக்காமல் இருந்த சீஃபர்ட் மற்றும் ஹோம் கேப்டன் டாம் லாதம் இருவரையும் வீழ்த்தினர்.
இதற்கிடையில், போட்டியின் மற்றொரு சிறப்பம்சம், ஆக்லாந்தில் பிறந்த காட்டன், இரண்டு சர்வதேச கிரிக்கெட் கவுன்சில் முழு உறுப்பினர் நாடுகளுக்கு இடையிலான ஆண்கள் சர்வதேச போட்டியில் நின்ற முதல் பெண் நடுவர்.
சுருக்கமான மதிப்பெண்கள்:
நியூசிலாந்து 14.4 ஓவர்களில் 146/1 (சீஃபர்ட் 79*, போவ்ஸ் 31) 20 ஓவர்களில் 141 ரன்களுக்கு இலங்கையை வென்றது (டி சில்வா 37, பெரேரா 35, மில்னே 5-26) ஒன்பது விக்கெட்டுகள்
Football
European Parliament Members Push for FIFA Inquiry Over Balogun Suspension Decision
A group of European Parliament members is seeking a formal investigation into FIFA President Gianni Infantino following the controversial decision to allow United States forward Folarin Balogun to play after receiving a red card earlier in the tournament.
The lawmakers argue that the move raises serious concerns about FIFA’s independence and whether political influence played a role in altering a disciplinary decision during the FIFA World Cup.
Balogun, 25, was sent off in the United States’ July 1 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under standard tournament regulations, the dismissal would have ruled him out of his team’s next fixture. However, FIFA’s disciplinary authorities later lifted the suspension, enabling the striker to feature in Monday’s match.
The decision came after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly appealed directly to Infantino on Balogun’s behalf, prompting criticism from European lawmakers who say football’s governing body compromised the integrity of its own rules.
In a joint statement, Members of the European Parliament Barry Andrews, Lara Wolters and Niels Fuglsang described the decision as “a disgrace and a perversion of justice,” arguing that changing the application of red-card suspensions during an ongoing tournament undermines confidence in the sport’s disciplinary system.
The lawmakers are calling on football associations across European Union member states to urge FIFA’s Ethics Committee to examine Infantino’s conduct. They want investigators to determine whether political pressure from the Trump administration influenced the reversal of Balogun’s suspension and to assess what they describe as other possible violations of FIFA’s principle of political neutrality, including the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize to Trump.
FIFA has maintained that the decision to overturn Balogun’s suspension was made independently by its disciplinary committee.
According to the lawmakers, support for the initiative is growing, with 35 members of the European Parliament already backing the proposal.
“The beauty of sport lies in the consistent and transparent application of its rules,” the statement said. “When political influence determines who is eligible to compete, the principle of fairness is fundamentally weakened.”
News
Sri Lanka dominate Ceylon Masters with 36 gold medals
Sri Lankan shuttle experts recorded a majestic dominance at the claiming a record overall tally of 137 medals at the CMB Masters International Badminton Championships 2026, successfully held at the AIR Sports Complex in Rajagiriya. Out of the total Sri Lanka won a straight tally of 101 medals through their experienced shuttlers, while the remaining 36 were added from collaborations in Doubles with shuttlers from other nations.
From the tally of 101, Sri Lanka claimed 22 gold, 27, silver and 52 bronze medals to lead the medals tally at the end of the five-day competition held with the participation of over 500 leading Masters’ shuttlers representing 15 countries. India finished overall second with 65 medals – 19 each of gold and silver and 27 bronze medals.
Malaysia finished behind at third with nine medals, three each of gold and bronze and a silver to their tally. Chinese Taipei, China, Nepal, Switzerland, UAE, France, Australia and Indonesia followed in behind one another to complete the medal board, while certain nations claimed medals from Doubles events collaborating with shuttlers from other countries.
Among the standout performers for Sri Lanka were Niroshan Wijekoon, Nadeesha Gayanthi, Renu Chandrika de Silva, Thushari Brahmanage, Niluka Karunaratne, Rohan de Silva, Hasitha Chanaka, Duminda Jayakody and Deshani Bandara, who were among a host of local players to produce outstanding performances throughout the tournament. Many of the leading Sri Lankan competitors are former national players who represented the country during their prime, while several are former national champions. Their continued success highlighted the depth of experience and enduring quality within Sri Lanka’s Masters badminton circuit.
The strong participation of overseas players also reflected the growing appeal of the event on the international calendar. Players from 15 countries competed in the championships, reinforcing Sri Lanka’s potential to develop sports tourism by hosting major international Masters events.
The CMB International Badminton Championships 2026, organised by Ceylon Masters Badminton (CMB), also received strong backing from the corporate sector. Some of the country’s leading companies, including McLarens Group, Mobil, Prime Group, 3M, Cool Max, Iodex, Li-Ning, Hundred, RovinAds, Seylan Bank, Sampath Bank, HNB Finance, Ceylon Biscuits Ltd, Mr. FixIt, McFoil and Elite Badminton, stepped forward as sponsors, playing a key role in the successful staging of the tournament.
Cricket
Sooryavanshi fireworks see India ‘A’ thump Sri Lanka to clinch title
A breathtaking assault from teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi powered India ‘A’ to a commanding 66-run victory over Sri Lanka ‘A’ in the final of the Tri-Series 2026, as the visitors lifted the title in emphatic fashion.
After being asked to bat, India ‘A’ piled up a daunting 377 for 9 in their 50 overs, thanks largely to Sooryavanshi’s explosive 94 off just 29 balls. The left-hander unleashed a stunning display of power-hitting, smashing 10 fours and eight sixes at a remarkable strike rate of 324.13.
Together with Priyansh Arya, who made a brisk 39, he put on 132 runs for the opening wicket in less than nine overs, leaving the Sri Lankan bowlers reeling.
Although Sooryavanshi fell agonisingly short of a century, India maintained the momentum through Ruturaj Gaikwad (40) and captain Tilak Varma, who anchored the middle overs with a well-compiled 67. Kumar Kushagra contributed 36, while Anukul Roy provided a late flourish with an unbeaten 39 from just 15 deliveries, including four sixes.
For Sri Lanka, Wanuja Sahan was the most economical bowler and claimed two wickets, while Ravindu Fernando and Kugathas Mathulan also picked up two scalps each.
Faced with a formidable target, Sri Lanka ‘A’ launched a spirited chase but were eventually bowled out for 311 in 47.1 overs. Sadeera Samarawickrama led the resistance with an attractive 52 off 44 balls, while Wanuja Sahan produced a fighting 62. Captain Sahan Arachchige chipped in with 38 and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth added 39, but the required rate continued to climb.
India’s bowlers struck at regular intervals, with Yash Thakur and Vipraj Nigam claiming three wickets apiece. Anukul Roy supported well with two wickets as Sri Lanka’s challenge faded in the closing stages.
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