World champions Sri Lanka held off an England fightback to win by nine runs in a Twenty20 international at The Oval on Tuesday helped by an explosive innings from Thisara Perera and superb bowling from Lasith Malinga.
Perera’s quick-fire 49 runs from 20 balls, having survived a dropped catch by Michael Carberry, enabled the tourists to post a total of 183-7 from their 20 overs, while Malinga’s figures of 3-28 kept England at bay in response.
“The last couple of years, I’ve been used to bowling in pressure situations. I’m used to it and I work hard in those situations,” Sri Lanka captain Malinga told Sky Sports. “I really enjoy it, it doesn’t matter, I used to say to captains to give me the ball.”
Sri Lanka’s innings had been ticking along at a steady pace with Kithuruwan Vithanage’s 38 runs from 26 balls and Lahiru Thirimanne, who was eventually dismissed for 40, helping them to 122-5 when Perera came to the crease.
By the time he was run out on the final ball of the tourists’ innings, he had added rocket fuel to an average total and propelled them to 183, with 22 runs coming from the penultimate over bowled by Chris Jordan.
England started poorly in reply with opening batsman Carberry, making his Twenty20 international debut, falling for 7 in the second over and Ian Bell, playing his first T20 since January 2011, following soon after for 13.
England needed opener Alex Hales to repeat his batting heroics from the World Twenty20 in March, when his scintillating 116 off 64 balls helped them beat Tuesday’s opponents and eventual winners. However, after moving to 66 from 40 balls, his off-stump was sent tumbling by the brilliant Malinga.
With England edging toward their target, Malinga effectively snuffed out their hopes with a superb penultimate over in which he took Jordan’s wicket and conceded four runs.
“Lasith Malinga is world class, we have come up against him many times and he normally comes out on top,” England captain Eoin Morgan said.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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