Australia were on the verge of a four-day victory in the final Test and a series clean sweep after a Sri Lanka batting collapse on the third day at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday.
For a time it looked as if Sri Lanka could make a contest of it as Dimuth Karunaratne and skipper Mahela Jayawardene almost wiped out the 138-run innings deficit with a century stand before wickets tumbled.
At the close, Sri Lanka were a shaky 225-7, giving them a lead of 87. The not out batsmen were Dinesh Chandimal on 22 and Rangana Herath on 9.
Photo: Reuters
After lunch, opener Tillakaratne Dilshan failed for the fifth time since his 147 in the first Test in Hobart when he was caught centimeters from the ground by Phil Hughes at third slip off Mitchell Johnson in the seventh over.
Jayawardene then watched four batting partners depart as he tried to keep his team’s innings together, but upon his dismissal for 60 just inside the final hour it was all downhill for Sri Lanka.
Karunaratne edged Jackson Bird to wicketkeeper Matthew Wade for 85 to end a 108-run stand with Jayawardene in the 34th over when Sri Lanka were still trailing by six runs.
First innings topscorer Lahiru Thirimanne survived a leg before review before he fell hooking Johnson to Bird at fine leg in the 41st over. The left-hander made 7.
Thilan Samaraweera completed a wretched series when he went after spinner Nathan Lyon and skied to long-on, where Mike Hussey took the catch to a huge roar from the home crowd celebrating the Australian veteran’s farewell Test.
Samaraweera’s third-ball duck followed scores of 7, 49, 10, 1 and 12 in the three-Test series.
A mix-up led to Angelo Mathews being run out for 16 after he failed to beat a throw from David Warner.
Jayawardene was out four balls later, ending his 200-minute resistance when he edged Peter Siddle to Michael Clarke at first slip and the tourists had tumbled to 178-6 and a lead of only 40.
Dhammika Prasad became Mitchell Starc’s first wicket when caught behind for 15 heading into the final half-hour.
In the morning session Wade scored a thrilling unbeaten century as Australia added 90 more runs before declaring to lead Sri Lanka by 138.
Wade opened up in a last-wicket stand of 39 with Bird to grab his second Test century and gave skipper Clarke the opportunity to declare his team’s innings at 432-9 in the half hour before lunch.
Wade rushed towards his teammates in the Sydney Cricket Ground Members Stand and kissed his helmet after crashing Suranga Lakmal for a boundary to raise his century off 158 balls, after setting out on the third day on 47.
He was dropped by Prasad at fine leg two balls later going for another big heave before Clarke called a halt with the declaration.
Bird provided staunch support to give Wade his chance to go after his against-the-odds century. Wade was on 70 when the fast bowler came to the crease. Bird made an unbeaten 6.
Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath finished with 4-95 off 31 overs.
Australia lost the wickets of Siddle (38), Starc (2) and Lyon (4) on the third morning.
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