Rahul Dravid struck his 28th century and Zaheer Khan took a wicket off the first ball of Sri Lanka’s innings as India tightened their grip on the second Test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur, India, yesterday.
Dravid smashed 15 fours and a six in his 144-run knock to guide India to an imposing 642 in their first innings, while Yuvraj Singh and Venkatsai Laxman also joined in the run-feast with half-centuries.
In reply, Sri Lanka had reached 66-1 by the close on the second day, trailing India by 576 runs with nine wickets in hand. Tharanga Paranavitana and captain Kumar Sangakkara were both unbeaten on 30 when stumps were drawn for the day.
Sri Lanka’s innings began on a shaky note with in-form opener Tillakaratne Dilshan misjudging left-arm fast bowler Zaheer to be caught by debutant Pragyan Ojha at mid-on.
But Paranavitana and Sangakkara saw off some spirited bowling by India in fading light to ensure no further setbacks.
Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath took 5-121 to help Sri Lanka bowl out India shortly after tea, but by then the hosts had ensured a huge first-innings total.
Laxman (63) hit five fours on the way to his 41st Test half-century while Yuvraj cracked four boundaries and two sixes in his 67-run knock to enthrall a 25,000 strong crowd at the Green Park stadium.
The pair also shared 102 runs for the fifth wicket before Laxman was caught by Dilshan off Herath.
Herath struck twice more, dismissing Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh to bring some cheer to the Sri Lankan camp in the post-lunch session.
Dravid, who scored 177 in the drawn first Test at Ahmedabad, shared 94 runs for the third wicket with Sachin Tendulkar (40) to build on India’s overnight score of 417-2.
He was the third Indian batsman to score a century after Gautam Gambhir (167), and Virender Sehwag (131) put on 233 runs for the opening wicket to lay the platform for a huge first innings total.
Dravid reached his 28th century with an elegantly driven four off paceman Chanaka Welegedara to the mid-off boundary.
The batsman is now ninth in the list of all-time century makers, surpassing Australia’s retired captain Allan Border and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene, who both have 27 centuries against their names.
Dravid also overtook Border (11,174) to become the fourth highest Test scorer, with 11,267 runs behind Tendulkar, West Indies’ Brian Lara and Australia’s Ricky Ponting.
Sri Lanka tasted success early in the morning session when Mendis foxed Tendulkar. Tendulkar lofted Mendis for a six but fell in the same over by holing out to Thilan Samaraweera at mid-off.
Dravid was run out in a bizarre fashion, with Herath managing to hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end after deflecting a sharp drive from Laxman.
■N ZEALAND V PAKISTAN
STAFF WRITER
New Zealand made good progress yesterday on the rain-shortened second day of the first Test against Pakistan in Dunedin. The Kiwis finished on 404 for eight with Iain O’Brien unbeaten on two and Shane Bond eight not out.
Daniel Vettori took his overnight score of 40 to 99 before he was caught by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal off Umar Gul. Earlier, Brendon McCullum was Gul’s first victim of the day when he was bowled by the paceman for 78.
Only 36 overs of play were possible yesterday because of rain and bad light.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with