Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka 160 for 2 (Nissanka 77*, Samarawickrama 65*) beat England 156 (Stokes 43, Kumara 3-35) by eight wickets England’s World Cup defence is not dead yet. And more’s the pity, to judge by this latest hollow-eyed display from Jos Buttler’s ex-worldbeaters. The humiliations are coming so thick and fast that they are losing their

The light at the end of the tunnel was a train. England have spent the last four weeks travelling around India talking about responding to setbacks and awaiting the statement performance that has never arrived. If their defeats to New Zealand, Afghanistan and South Africa were bad, this might have been the worst of the

Angelo Mathews had made peace with the circumstances that led to him not being a part of Sri Lanka’s initial World Cup squad, but wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. It didn’t matter that he had played all of seven ODIs since the start of 2020 – including three earlier this year in

Pathirana is Sri Lanka’s second injury loss this World Cup after their captain Dasun Shanaka was ruled out due to a quadriceps tear, which he had also picked up during the match against Pakistan. Chamika Karunaratne had taken Shanaka’s place in Sri Lanka’s squad, with wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis standing in as captain. They are also

Sri Lanka 263 for 5 (Samarawickrama 91, Nissanka 54, Dutt 3-44) beat Netherlands 262 (Engelbrecht 70, van Beek 59, Madushanka 4-49, Rajitha 4-50) by five wickets An unbeaten 91 from Sadeera Samarawickrama shepherded home a tricky chase as Sri Lanka overcame a resilient Dutch outfit and finally got points on the board. The result means

Big picture: Netherlands are catching up When these two sides met a little over three months ago, the picture could not have been more dissimilar. Sri Lanka had just racked up a clean sweep of the World Cup Qualifier and dispatched the Dutch twice over the course of the tournament. While the first was an

Chameera, 31, would have been a first-choice pick in Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad but was not fit enough for selection by the deadline. He last played for Sri Lanka in June against Afghanistan and in the warm-ups of the World Cup qualifier. After that, he was initially out with a torn pectoral muscle, which

But an “independent inquiry committee” appointed by SLC has now recommended an “immediate lifting of [Gunathilaka’s] cricketing ban, allowing him to resume regular activities and return to national duty”. Gunathilaka, 32, has himself expressed a strong desire to return to training and cricket since being found not guilty in a Sydney court on September 23.

Sri Lanka’s batting has been lopsided in all their three World Cup games so far but it was only against Australia that it was truly exposed. After racking up a 125-run opening stand, they lost 10 wickets for just 84 runs. While it’s easy to say it was just a bad day, it would be

Australia 215 for 5 (Inglis 58, Marsh 52, Labuschagne 40, Maxwell 31*, Stoinis 20*, Madushanka 3-38) beat Sri Lanka 209 (Perera 78, Nissanka 61, Zampa 4-47, Cummins 2-32, Starc 2-43) by five wickets Australia chased down Sri Lanka’s sub-par 209 with some ease, cantering to a five-wicket win in Lucknow to revive their flagging World

Big Picture Even in a tournament with nine group-stage matches which allows room for a slip up or two, you don’t want to be 0-3 early in the competition but that’s the situation which will confront one of these teams after they face off in Lucknow in what already shapes as a contest to retain

Sri Lanka’s team management confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Kusal Mendis will lead in Shanaka’s stead, as he has served as the team’s vice-captain for the past few months, and in fact led them in one of Sri Lanka’s warm-up matches, which Shanaka had missed. Team manager Mahinda Halangoda also said that despite Shanaka exiting the

South Africa 428 for 5 (van der Dussen 108, Markram 106, de Kock 100) beat Sri Lanka 326 (Asalanka 79, Mendis 76, Shanaka 68, Coetzee 3-68) by 102 runs Progressively more emphatic centuries from Rassie van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram would in the end prove to be the decisive contributions as

Sri Lanka will be without Maheesh Theekshana for their World Cup opener against South Africa, head coach Chris Silverwood has confirmed on the eve of the game, with the spinner not yet fully recovered from the hamstring tear he suffered in the Asia Cup. Sri Lanka, however, will have the services of both Kusal Perera

Afghanistan 116 (Zadran 51, Thushara 4-17) beat Sri Lanka 108 (Arachchige 22, Qais 3-16, Naib 3-28) by eight runs After opting to field, Sri Lanka struck with the seventh ball of the match when Nuwan Thushara cleaned up Sediqullah Atal. Noor and Mohammad Shahzad then added 54 for the second wicket but both batters struggled

Afghanistan 261 for 4 (Gurbaz 119, Rahmat 93) beat Sri Lanka 294 (Mendis 158, Samarawickrama 39, Nabi 4-44) by six wickets via DLS method After Afghanistan lost opener Ibrahim Zadran early in their chase of 295, Gurbaz and Rahmat played steadily and was unbeaten on 53 and 51 respectively, when rain halted the play in

Sri Lanka batter Danushka Gunathilaka has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a Tinder date through the act of “stealthing”. Judge Sarah Huggett acquitted the 32-year-old as he sat at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Thursday listening to the decision. “The evidence establishes that there was no opportunity for the accused to remove

It’s official – Sri Lanka will be without Dushmantha Chameera and Wanindu Hasaranga at the ODI World Cup. Dasun Shanaka, whose role as captain had been under much speculation over the past few weeks, will lead the side in India through October and November. The rest of the 15-member squad has formed up as expected,

Sachithra Senanayake, the former Sri Lanka offspinner, has been granted bail by the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s court, the police media division has confirmed. Senanayake had been arrested on September 6 on charges related to match-fixing. Bail was granted on two sureties of LKR 5,000,000 each, while the previously court-imposed travel ban is still in effect.

Sri Lanka allrounder Wanindu Hasaranga may be out of the World Cup completely, and may even require surgery, after aggravating his Grade 3 hamstring tear over the past few days. Meanwhile, fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera, and spinner Maheesh Theekshana also still on the road back from injury. But there is greater hope those two can

Sri Lanka 84 for 2 (Sanjeewani 32, Putthawong 2-21) beat Thailand 78 for 7 (Sutthiruang 31, Priyadharshani 4-10) by eight wickets Inoshi Priyadharshani‘s career-best returns of 4 for 10 backed up by a quick 32 from Anushka Sanjeewani helped Sri Lanka brush aside Thailand by eight wickets and advance to the semi-finals of the Asian

Sri Lanka Cricket has resumed its domestic cricket season, which was halted nearly three weeks ago, after coming to an understanding with the country’s sports ministry over a dispute surrounding the restructuring of the domestic tournaments. As such the Major Club three-day tournament and the Tier B Club three-day tournament will resume on Friday, September

Sri Lanka have announced a young squad for the 2023 Asian Games – essentially a Sri Lanka A side – with Sahan Arachchige set to lead the 15-member squad. A majority of the team have however appeared in the Lanka Premier League (LPL), so fans may not be completely unfamiliar with some of these names,

After Jasprit Bumrah went boom in the first over of the Asia Cup final, it was over to Mohammed Siraj. Bang, bang, bang, bang he went in the fourth, ripping out the Sri Lankan top order. It was just the fourth instance of four wickets going to a bowler in an over in men’s ODIs

Rain was a constant in the Sri Lanka leg of matches at the Asia Cup, and the groundspersons in Pallekele and Colombo put in a heroic effort to ensure more cricket was played than might have been thought possible. From the winning India side, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, at different points in the tournament,

“But if we take today out of the equation, we’ve seen two youngsters put their hands up, in Dunith Wellalage, and Matheesha Pathirana. We’ve seen two of them really put up their hands on the world stage. Sadeera [Samarawickrama]‘s played some good knocks (he hit 215 runs at 35.83). [Kusal] Mendis has come back into

Sri Lanka are the team you want to love, and why not? In 16 men’s Asia Cups – across ODIs and T20Is – they have made 12 finals and won six. They might not have the big guns of the past like Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene or Muttiah Muralidaran, but in Dasun Shanaka, they have

Sri Lanka spinner Maheesh Theekshana has been ruled out of the final of the men’s Asia Cup against India because of a hamstring injury, but he will “definitely be ready” for the World Cup starting next month. Theekshana injured himself in Sri Lanka’s last-ball win against Pakistan. While captain Dasun Shanaka said Theekshana had a

Criticising the decision to add a reserve day for the Asia Cup Super Four match between Pakistan and India – the only game in the tournament apart from the final to get the advantage – after the tournament had started, Arjuna Ranatunga has warned that favouring one team (read India) over others will put international

Nat Sciver-Brunt expects to return to England’s bowling attack for their winter tour of India after playing a curtailed role with the ball through the summer. The world’s top-ranked allrounder and batter in ODIs, Sciver-Brunt returned to England’s 50-over side against Sri Lanka purely as a batter having sat out the T20s to rest. After