Tillakaratne Dilshan continued his superb form by smashing his fifth century this year as Sri Lanka made a spirited reply in the first Test against India yesterday.
Dilshan hit 112, his 10th Test hundred, as Sri Lanka cruised to 275-3 by stumps on the second day in reply to India’s first innings total of 426.
The right-hander put on 74 for the first wicket with Tharanga Paranavitana (35) and 115 for the second with skipper Kumar Sangakkara, who made 31.
PHOTO: AFP
Former captain Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera built on the good start by adding 81 for the unbroken fourth wicket before stumps were drawn for the day.
Jayawardene was unbeaten on 36 and Samaraweera was on 45, with Sri Lanka 151 runs behind India with seven wickets in hand.
Dilshan, who passed a late fitness test on a sprained ankle to play the match, reveled in excellent batting conditions at the Motera stadium to hit 12 fluent boundaries.
The 33-year-old opener has scored 961 runs in nine Tests this year at an average of 73.92, with 162 against Bangladesh in January being the best of his five centuries in 2009.
Sri Lanka, who were comfortably placed at 189-1 soon after tea, lost Dilshan and Sangakkara in successive overs from Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan to slip to 194-3. The left-arm seamer had Dilshan top-edging an intended pull to Rahul Dravid at gully, before Sangakkara hooked Zaheer to fine-leg where Sachin Tendulkar took a well-judged catch.
Left-hander Paranavitana was the lone batsman to be dismissed in the post-lunch session, caught by Indian captain and wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Ishant Sharma.
India, who earlier resumed at Monday’s score of 385-6, lost their last four wickets for 41 runs and were all out soon after the first drinks break.
Dravid, whose unbeaten 177 on the first day helped India recover from a disastrous 32-4, failed to add to his overnight score when he was bowled by Chanaka Welegedara in the morning’s third over.
Zaheer brought up India’s 400 by slashing two consecutive deliveries from Dammika Prasad over the slips to the third man fence.
Prasad responded with a full toss at Zaheer’s mid-riff that sent the batsman sprawling to the ground. The bowler immediately apologized to Zaheer, indicating the ball had slipped from his sweaty hand.
Zaheer and Harbhajan Singh carried the total to 414 when left-arm spinner Rangana Herath broke the partnership by earning a leg-before verdict against Zaheer.
TV replays showed that umpire Daryl Harper had misjudged the direction of the ball, which appeared to miss the leg stump.
Harbhajan made 22 with the help of two boundaries when he was bowled while attempting a reverse sweep off the prolific Muttiah Muralitharan.
Muralitharan, the world’s most successful Test bowler, had last man Ishant Sharma stumped four balls later to finish with three wickets in the innings and take his overall tally to 786.
Welegedara, playing only his second Test, returned with the wickets of India’s first four batsmen — Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Tendulkar and Dravid — against his name.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier