CRICKET
Azharuddeen, Vinil send Ripples through KCL
Left arm pacer T.S. Vinil’s fiery spell upfront and Mohammed Azharuddeen’s blitzkrieg during the chase powered the Alleppey Ripples to an eight-wicket win over Trivandrum Royals in the ongoing Kerala Cricket League at the Sports Hub Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
Vinil’s spell in the PowerPlay, which included a double wicket maiden over, broke the back of Royals batting, and it limped to 126 for eight in 20 overs. Azharuddeen (68, 29b, 8×4, 5×6), dropped on eight by Sijomon, sealed the Royals’ fate in the PowerPlay. After his dismissal, skipper Sachin Baby (26 not out) and K.A. Arun (24 not out) guided Ripples home with 43 balls to spare.
A Royal collapse didn’t seem to be on the cards when Vishnu Vinod smoked the first ball of the match from Vinil through covers for a boundary. However, Vinil’s twin strikes in his second over turned the contest on its head. Vinil got the ball to jag back and pinned Vishnu (7) in front and dismissed Abhishek P. Nair for nought.
Royals’ skipper Krishna Prasad felll short while going for a non-existent third run as Royals slumped to 26 for four in the PowerPlay. Sijomon Joseph (46) and K. Ajeesh (23) counterattacked to add 39 runs for the seventh wicket, which enabled Royals to cross 100.
Azharuddeen started imperiously, hitting Vinod Kumar for consecutive boundaries, but Sijomon, at covers, failed to latch onto a mistimed drive from the batter in the same over. Azhar made Royals pay for the grave error and took the game away with his scintillating knock.
BRIEF SCORES
Trivandrum Royals 126/8 in 20 overs (Sijomon Joseph 46, T.S. Vinil 3/19, Jalaj Saxena 2/22) lost to Alleppey Ripples 127/2 in 12.5 overs (Mohammed Azharuddeen 68, Sachin Baby 26 n.o.).
-M. R. Praveen Chandran
SQUASH
Southern Slam squash: Purav, Shravin and Akanksha, Esha to clash for U-19 crowns
Shravin Jain in action during his semifinal match against Yuvaditya Jain at the Southern Smash.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Shravin Jain in action during his semifinal match against Yuvaditya Jain at the Southern Smash.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Top seed Purav Rambhia will meet Shravin Jain for the boys’ U-19 crown, and Akanksha Gupta will take on Esha Shrivastava in a clash between the top two seeds for the girls’ U-19 title in the Southern Slam squash following commanding semifinal wins at Indian Squash Academy in Chennai on Friday.
Meanwhile, Dhruv Johri caused an upset in the boys’ U-15 semifinals, taking out Singaporean top seed Jackrish Sashikumar, and will lock horns with second seed Fareed Andrabi for the title.
Results (semifinals; Indians unless specified):
Boys U-19: 1-Purav Rambhia bt Raghav Vashishtha 13-11, 11-2, 11-9; Shravin Jain bt Yuvaditya Jain 11-8, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8.
Boys U-17: 1-Shreyansh Jha bt Saharsh Shahra 5-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-6; 2-Lokesh Subramani bt Hridhaan Shah 11-7, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9.
Boys U-15: Dhruv Johri bt 1-Jackrish Sashikumar (SGP) 14-12, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5; 2-Fareed Andrabi bt Ruan Ram Tadanki 12-14, 11-9, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9.
Boys U-13: 1-Kaelen Evan Low (SGP) bt Zeyn Ali 11-7, 11-4, 11-5; 2-Ridaan Gupta bt Vihaan Chandhok 11-6, 11-13, 11-2, 11-5.
Boys U-11: 1-Yuchen Mason Han (SGP) bt Viraaj Wadhwani 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7; Vedant Shinde bt 2-Agastya Uppal 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10.
Girls U-19: 1-Akanksha Gupta bt Devashree Arora 11-3, 11-9, 11-3; 2-Eesha Shrivastava bt Vyomika Khandelwal 11-7, 11-6, 11-7.
Girls U-17: Aarika Mishra bt Riyansika Verma 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7; Yushan Jacintha Han (SGP) bt Kaashvi Mangal 12-10, 8-11, 8-11, 11-1, 11-5.
Girls U-15: Diva Parasrampuria bt 1-Kelihla Cheong (SGP) 11-6, 11-5, 11-6; 2-Goushika M bt Divyanshi Jain 12-10, 11-6, 11-7.
Girls U-13: 1-Keerti Bala (MAS) bt Aadhya Grover 11-6, 11-8, 11-4; 2-Riyaa Dalal bt Akshara Makhija 12-10, 11-5, 6-11, 17-15.
Girls U-11: 1-Meera Ruthiran (MAS) bt Inaya Andrabi 11-6, 11-8, 11-6; 2-Gaurvi Ajmera bt Anshika Kumari 11-5, 11-2, 11-6.
-Team Sportstar
Published on Aug 21, 2026
