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Ramesh Mendis Fifer script Sri Lanka’s thumping win Vs Ireland
Ireland tour of Sri Lanka second test match
Ramesh Mendis shone with the ball with a fifer as Sri Lanka thumped Ireland by an inning and 10 runs in the second Test to bag the series 2-0.
Sri Lanka, which made its first Test appearance in 1982 against England, won the first Test by an innings and 280 runs. Friday’s victory was the country’s 100th Test win.
Harry Tector fought a lone last-day rearguard action to try to bat out a draw, scoring 85 and mounting a 41-run stand for the ninth wicket, but Mendis took 5-64 as Ireland was bowled out for 202 in their second innings.
When Ireland slowly dragged the match to a draw pacer Asitha Fernando came to the rescue to bowl Tector with a yorker to end the resistance and accounted for last man Ben White with the very next ball to wrap up another emphatic win in style.
Earlier the visitors posted 492 in their first innings after Sri Lanka declared on 704-3.
Ireland resumed the fifth and last day on 54-2, hoping to hold on for a draw.
But Sri Lanka bowlers led by Ramesh Mendis were too hot to handle for the Irish as they never gave a breathing space for the visitors to play freely as Sri Lanka wrapped up things quite comfortably.
Highlights of the day were, the hero of the first test Parabath Jayasuriya became the quickest-ever spinner to take 50 wickets, in just seven Tests.
Fellow left-armer Alf Valentine of West Indies had taken eight games to the milestone more than seven decades earlier.
Brief Scores: Ireland 492 & 202 (Harry Tector 85, Andrew Balbirnie 46; Ramesh Mendis 5-64, Asitha Fernando 3-30) lost to Sri Lanka 704/3 decl. (Kusal Mendis 245, Nishan Madushka 205, Dimuth Karunaratne 115; Graham Hume 1-87) by an inning and 10 runs
Sri Lanka is on the brink of a victory
Nishan Madushka and Kusal Mendis smashed maiden double centuries to help Sri Lanka take control of the second test match against Ireland as they ended their first innings on 704-3.
Earlier Madushka converted his maiden Test century into a double hundred, becoming the second-youngest Sri Lankan to score a Test 200 after Mahela Jayawardene before he was dismissed for 205 in the third over after lunch when he was struck lbw off Andy McBrine’s bowling.
On the other hand, Kusal Mendis, showing his class with the bat reached his first Test 200 and went on to score 245 runs before he was caught at long-off.
Scoreboard reading at 3-629,
Angelo Mathews was dismissed for a duck in the first Test and bounced back to score a quick unbeaten century to lay the final touches for the Sri Lankan innings. It also registered as the quickest century the former skipper had scored.
Scoreboard reading at 704-3 skipper Dimuth Karunaratne declared their innings with a lead of 212 runs.
Earlier Captain Dimuth Karunaratne also contributed with a watchful 115 from the top of the order.
At stumps on day four, Ireland for their second innings was 54 for the loss of two wickets that of openers James McCollum (10) and Peter Moor (19) and still 159 runs from making Sri Lanka bat again.
McCollum was brilliantly bowled by offspinner Ramesh Mendis and Moor was dismissed when Angelo Mathews held a superb low catch at short extra cover.
Other highlights of the day were Dinesh Chandimal who lasted only 14 balls before having to retire hurt. The wicketkeeper-batter appeared to have hurt his shoulder while diving into the crease to avoid a runout, and couldn’t continue.
According to sources at SLC the wicket keeper batter has been sent to the hospital to obtain an x-ray.
Brief Scores: Ireland 492 & 54/2 (Ramesh Mendis 1-17, Prabath Jayasuriya 1-28) trail Sri Lanka 704/3 decl. (Kusal Mendis 245, Nishan Madushka 205, Dimuth Karunaratne 115; Graham Hume 1-87) by 158 runs
රමේෂ් මෙන්ඩිස්ගේ විශිෂ්ට ක්රිකට් ක්රීඩාවෙන් අයර්ලන්තයට එරෙහිව ශ්රී ලංකාව ලැබූ ජයග්රහණය.
අයර්ලන්ත ශ්රී ලංකා සංචාරය (දෙවන ටෙස්ට්)
රමේෂ් මෙන්ඩිස් පන්දුවෙන් දස්කම් දැක්වූ අතර ශ්රී ලංකාව අයර්ලන්තය සමඟ පැවැති දෙවැනි ටෙස්ට් තරගය ඉනිමකින් සහ ලකුණු 10කින් පරාජය කරමින් තරගාවලිය 2-0ක් ලෙස ජය ගත්තේය.
1982 වසරේ එංගලන්තයට එරෙහිව පළමු ටෙස්ට් තරගයට එක් වූ ශ්රී ලංකාව පළමු ටෙස්ට් තරගය ඉනිමකින් සහ ලකුණු 280කින් ජය ගැනීමට සමත් විය. සිකුරාදා ජයග්රහණය එරට 100 වැනි ටෙස්ට් ජයග්රහණය විය.
හැරී ටෙක්ටර් අවසන් දිනයේ හුදකලා සටනක් කරමින් ලකුණු 85ක් ලබාගෙන ලකුණු 41ක සබඳතාවයක් නවවැනි කඩුල්ලට ගොඩනැගූ නමුත් මෙන්ඩිස් ලකුණු 5-64ක් ලබා ගත්තේ අයර්ලන්තය සිය දෙවැනි ඉනිමේදී ලකුණු 202කට දැවී ගිය බැවිනි.
අයර්ලන්තය සෙමෙන් තරගය ජය පරාජයෙන් තොරව ඇදගෙන යද්දී වේග පන්දු යවන ක්රීඩක අසිත ප්රනාන්දු ගලවා ගැනීමට පැමිණ ප්රතිරෝධය නිමා කිරීමට ටෙක්ටර් යෝකර් එකකින් දවා ගැනීමට සමත් වූ අතර ඊළඟ පන්දුවේදීම අවසන් ක්රීඩකයා වන බෙන් වයිට් වෙත තවත් විශිෂ්ට ජයග්රහණයක් ලබා ගැනීමට හැකි විය.
ශ්රී ලංකාව ලකුණු 704-3ක් ලබා සිටියදී පළමු ඉනිමේදී ලකුණු 492ක් රැස්කළේය.
අයර්ලන්තය ලකුණු 54-2ක් ලෙස පස්වැනි සහ අවසන් දිනය ආරම්භ කළේ තරගය ජය පරාජයෙන් තොරව පවත්වා ගැනීමේ අපේක්ෂාවෙනි.
නමුත් රමේෂ් මෙන්ඩිස්ගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් ශ්රී ලංකා පන්දු යවන්නන් ඉර්සිට හැසිරවීමට නොහැකි තරම් උණුසුම් වූ අතර ඔවුන් කිසි විටෙකත් අමුත්තන්ට නිදහසේ ක්රීඩා කිරීමට හුස්ම ගැනීමේ ඉඩක් ලබා නොදුන් අතර ශ්රී ලංකාව ඉතා සුවපහසු ලෙස දේවල් ඔතා ගත්හ.
දිනයේ විශේෂත්වය වූයේ පළමු ටෙස්ට් තරගයේ වීරයා වූ පරබත් ජයසූරිය ටෙස්ට් තරග 7කදී පමණක් කඩුලු 50ක් දවාගත් වේගවත්ම දඟ පන්දු යවන්නා බවට පත්වීමයි.
බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව් කණ්ඩායමේ සෙසු වමත් ක්රීඩක ඇල්ෆ් වැලන්ටයින් දශක හතකට පෙර මෙම සන්ධිස්ථානයට තරඟ 8ක් ගෙන තිබුණි.
සංක්ෂිප්ත ලකුණු: අයර්ලන්තය 492 සහ 202 (හැරී ටෙක්ටර් 85, ඇන්ඩෲ බල්බිර්නි 46; රමේෂ් මෙන්ඩිස් 5-64, අසිත ප්රනාන්දු 3-30) ශ්රී ලංකාව හමුවේ 704/3 ඩී. (කුසල් මෙන්ඩිස් 245, නිශාන් මධුෂ්ක 205, දිමුත් කරුණාරත්න 115; ග්රැහැම් හියුම් 1-87) ඉනිමකින් සහ ලකුණු 10කින්
ரமேஷ் மெண்டிஸின் அபார கிரிக்கெட் மூலம் அயர்லாந்துக்கு எதிராக இலங்கையின் வெற்றி.
அயர்லாந்து இலங்கை சுற்றுப்பயணம் (2வது டெஸ்ட்)
இரண்டாவது டெஸ்டில் அயர்லாந்தை இன்னிங்ஸ் மற்றும் 10 ரன்கள் வித்தியாசத்தில் இலங்கை தோற்கடித்து தொடரை 2-0 என கைப்பற்ற, ரமேஷ் மெண்டிஸ் பந்து வீச்சில் பிரகாசித்தார்.
1982ஆம் ஆண்டு இங்கிலாந்துக்கு எதிராக முதல் டெஸ்ட் போட்டியில் களமிறங்கிய இலங்கை அணி, முதல் டெஸ்டில் இன்னிங்ஸ் மற்றும் 280 ரன்கள் வித்தியாசத்தில் வெற்றி பெற்றது. வெள்ளியன்று கிடைத்த வெற்றி அந்நாட்டின் 100வது டெஸ்ட் வெற்றியாகும்.
ஹாரி டெக்டர் கடைசி நாள் ரீர்கார்ட் ஆக்ஷனைப் போராடி டிரா அவுட் செய்ய முயன்றார், 85 ரன்கள் எடுத்தார் மற்றும் ஒன்பதாவது விக்கெட்டுக்கு 41 ரன்கள் எடுத்தார், ஆனால் மெண்டிஸ் 5-64 எடுத்தார், அயர்லாந்து தனது இரண்டாவது இன்னிங்ஸில் 202 ரன்களுக்கு ஆட்டமிழந்தது.
அயர்லாந்து மெதுவாக ஆட்டத்தை இழுத்துச் சென்றபோது, வேகப்பந்து வீச்சாளர் அசித்த பெர்னாண்டோ, டெக்டரை யார்க்கரால் பந்துவீச, எதிர்ப்பை முடிவுக்குக் கொண்டு வந்து, அடுத்த பந்திலேயே பென் வைட்டைக் கைப்பற்றி, ஸ்டைலில் மற்றொரு உறுதியான வெற்றியைப் பெற்றார்.
முன்னதாக, இலங்கை அணி 704-3 ரன்களுக்கு டிக்ளேர் செய்த பிறகு, பார்வையாளர்கள் தங்கள் முதல் இன்னிங்ஸில் 492 ரன்கள் எடுத்தனர்.
ஐந்தாவது மற்றும் கடைசி நாள் ஆட்டத்தை 54-2 என்ற கணக்கில் அயர்லாந்து மீண்டும் தொடங்கியது.
ஆனால் ரமேஷ் மெண்டிஸின் இலங்கை பந்துவீச்சாளர்கள் இர்சிக்கு கையாள முடியாத அளவுக்கு சூடாக இருந்தனர், ஏனெனில் அவர்கள் பார்வையாளர்களுக்கு சுதந்திரமாக விளையாடுவதற்கு மூச்சு விடவில்லை, ஏனெனில் இலங்கை மிகவும் வசதியாக விஷயங்களை முடித்தது.
அன்றைய சிறப்பம்சங்கள் என்னவென்றால், முதல் டெஸ்ட் போட்டியின் நாயகனான பரபத் ஜெயசூர்யா, ஏழு டெஸ்டில் விளையாடி மிக வேகமாக 50 விக்கெட்டுகளை வீழ்த்திய சுழற்பந்து வீச்சாளர் ஆனார்.
மேற்கிந்திய தீவுகளின் சக இடது கை வீரர் ஆல்ஃப் வாலண்டைன் ஏழு தசாப்தங்களுக்கு முன்னர் எட்டு ஆட்டங்களை மைல்கல்லுக்கு எடுத்திருந்தார்.
சுருக்கமான ஸ்கோர்: அயர்லாந்து 492 & 202 (ஹாரி டெக்டர் 85, ஆன்ட்ரூ பால்பிர்னி 46; ரமேஷ் மெண்டிஸ் 5-64, அசிதா பெர்னாண்டோ 3-30) இலங்கையிடம் 704/3 டிக்ளில் தோல்வியடைந்தார். (குசல் மெண்டிஸ் 245, நிஷான் மதுஷ்கா 205, திமுத் கருணாரத்ன 115; கிரஹாம் ஹியூம் 1-87) இன்னிங்ஸ் மற்றும் 10 ரன்கள் வித்தியாசத்தில்
Football
Asia Leads the Charge as 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Begin to Take Shape
The road to the historic 2026 FIFA World Cup is gaining momentum, and Asia is already making its mark on football’s grandest stage. With an expanded format featuring 48 teams and co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, this edition promises to be the most inclusive and diverse yet — and Asia is stepping up early.
🇯🇵 Japan Sets the Benchmark for Asia
Japan was the first nation worldwide to book their ticket to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, underscoring their dominance in Asian football. Unbeaten in their qualifying campaign with six wins and one draw, the Samurai Blue continue to be the standard-bearers for the continent.
🇮🇷 Iran Continues Consistent Form
Iran soon followed Japan, securing their seventh overall World Cup appearance and fourth consecutive berth. The team remained undefeated in their group, showcasing the experience and tactical depth that has made them a fixture on the world stage.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan Makes Historic Debut
In one of the most emotional stories of the qualifiers so far, Uzbekistan qualified for their first-ever FIFA World Cup. A gritty 0-0 draw against the UAE was enough for the Central Asian side to clinch a spot, sparking nationwide celebrations. Their rise highlights the growing strength of second-tier Asian nations on the global stage.
Asia’s Presence Grows in 2026 Format
Asia is guaranteed eight slots in the 2026 World Cup — a significant jump from previous editions — allowing the region to showcase more talent, depth, and emerging football powerhouses. With teams like South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Australia still in the hunt, the continent could make a serious impact come 2026.
Global Context
The tournament’s expanded format and host countries in North America mark a new era for international football. With 104 matches, 16 host cities, and an increased number of participants, it will be a celebration of global diversity — and Asian nations are ready to shine.
Countries Qualified So Far
- Asia: 🇯🇵 Japan, 🇮🇷 Iran, 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
- Oceania: 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- South America: 🇦🇷 Argentina
(Additional qualifiers from other confederations are ongoing.)
As the countdown to 2026 begins, all eyes are on Asia’s rising stars — ready to challenge the world and redefine the future of football.
Cricket
Sachithra Senanayake Indicted in Landmark Match-Fixing Case Under Sri Lanka’s Anti-Corruption Law
Former Sri Lankan cricketer Sachithra Senanayake has been formally indicted before the Hambantota High Court, marking a historic first in Sri Lanka’s efforts to criminalize corruption in sports. The charges stem from an alleged match-fixing attempt during the 2020 Lanka Premier League (LPL), making Senanayake the first player to face prosecution under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Offences Related to Sports Act No. 24 of 2019.
Senanayake, currently out on bail, is accused of attempting to influence Colombo Kings player Tharindu Ratnayake to underperform during the tournament. The incident reportedly occurred via a WhatsApp message, which was later flagged by a local anti-corruption officer, prompting an official investigation in 2020.
The case falls under the landmark legislation introduced in 2019 by then Sports Minister Harin Fernando, which criminalizes match-fixing and related offenses in the country. If convicted, Senanayake could face a prison term of up to 10 years, a fine reaching Rs. 100 million, or both.
The indictment signals a serious shift in Sri Lanka’s approach to tackling corruption in sports. Authorities hope this high-profile case will serve as a strong deterrent against similar offenses in the future.
Senanayake, once a celebrated off-spinner and a member of Sri Lanka’s victorious 2014 ICC T20 World Cup squad, now faces the grim prospect of being remembered not for his achievements on the field, but for his role in one of Sri Lanka’s most significant match-fixing scandals.
As the case unfolds, it casts a spotlight on the broader issue of corruption in sports and reinforces the urgent need for integrity, vigilance, and transparent governance across all levels of competition in Sri Lanka
Cricket
Harbhajan Singh Criticizes Jayawardene and Malinga for Over-Involvement in MI Dugout During IPL Qualifier
In a surprising turn of events during IPL 2025 Qualifier 2, cricket legend and former Mumbai Indians player Harbhajan Singh has voiced concern over what he termed “excessive involvement” by Mahela Jayawardene and Lasith Malinga during Mumbai Indians’ defeat against Punjab Kings.
Speaking on his YouTube channel after MI’s seven-wicket loss at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Harbhajan took issue with the coaching staff’s frequent instructions from the dugout — especially during tense moments when MI bowlers were under pressure.
Too many signals, too much talking — even with someone like Jasprit Bumrah, who knows exactly what he’s doing,” Harbhajan remarked. “At times, you need a calm and collected environment, especially during high-pressure games. Coaches should guide, not command every move from the sidelines.
Punjab Kings chased down a formidable target of 204, with captain Shreyas Iyer anchoring the innings with an unbeaten 87 to secure a place in the final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Despite Mumbai posting a solid total, their bowlers failed to contain the opposition — a point that Harbhajan feels may have been worsened by the atmosphere in the MI dugout.
Jayawardene, MI’s Head of Global Performance, and Malinga, the bowling coach, were both seen actively engaging with players during the game, a move Harbhajan believes may have unintentionally undermined the confidence of seasoned campaigners like Bumrah.
I’ve been part of that setup. The coaching staff means well, but showing visible desperation can impact player morale,
Harbhajan added.
With this loss, Mumbai Indians miss out on a shot at their sixth IPL title, while discussions surrounding the balance between guidance and over-coaching during matches are sure to continue
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