England’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals were left hanging by a thread as Sri Lanka inflicted their third crushing defeat of the World Cup yesterday, while Pakistan began a salvage operation with a tense 20-run win over Zimbabwe.
Sri Lanka cruised to a seemingly stiff target of 310-1 with 16 balls to spare as Lahiru Thirimanne (139 not out), and Kumar Sangakkara (117 not out) shared an unbroken second-wicket partnership of 212 in Wellington.
The 37-year-old Sangakkara went to three figures off 70 balls, including 10 fours and two sixes.
Photo: Reuters
It was the quickest of all the veteran left-hander’s 23 one-day international centuries and the second in as many matches after he marked his 400th one-day match with an unbeaten 105 against Bangladesh.
Yet Sangakkara insisted he still planned to retire from white-ball cricket after the World Cup as he was “getting old.”
“Everything I tried came off,” Sangakkara said after a win that left 1996 champions Sri Lanka, losing finalists at the past two World Cups, on course for the last eight.
Photo: AFP
England opened the World Cup with a 111-run loss to Australia, before suffering an even more humiliating eight-wicket defeat by New Zealand, the other tournament co-hosts, before defeating non-Test nation Scotland.
What made yesterday’s nine-wicket loss all the worse was that they posted a total of 309-6, with 24-year-old Joe Root becoming the youngest England batsman to score a World Cup century on his way to 121.
England were unable to gain much movement on a ground where New Zealand’s Tim Southee took seven for 33 when they were bowled out for just 123 last week, although Root, distracted by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, dropped Thirimanne, on 3, in the slips off Stuart Broad.
Photo: AFP
Broad and James Anderson, England’s senior bowlers, saw their combined 18 wicketless overs cost 115 runs.
“At ‘halftime’ we went in thinking we had a more than par score,” England captain Eoin Morgan said. “Joe Root was exceptional.”
However, Morgan did not spare his bowlers’ feelings.
“We were way off the mark. When we are bowling well, it’s a good attack, but you can pick it apart when we’re not bowling well,” he said.
In Brisbane, Australia, Pakistan just got the better of Zimbabwe.
Before the match, skipper Misbah-ul-Haq sought inspiration from Imran Khan’s Pakistan side who, on the brink of elimination, “fought like cornered tigers” to win the 1992 World Cup — the last time the tournament was staged in Australia and New Zealand.
Pakistan went into the match bottom of Pool B and without a win after defeats by archrivals India (76 runs) and the West Indies (150 runs).
Zimbabwe, whose only win of the tournament to date has come against the amateurs of the United Arab Emirates, restricted Pakistan to 235-7 after Misbah won the toss.
Misbah again played the anchor role with 73, before tail-ender Wahab Riaz boosted the total with a timely 54 not out, his maiden one-day international half-century.
It was the first half of a fine all-round display by left-arm seamer Riaz, whose return of four for 45 saw him become the first Pakistan player to score a half-century and take four wickets in a World Cup match.
Mohammad Irfan, another left-arm paceman, rocked Zimbabwe early on his way to an one-day international best four for 30.
Brendan Taylor (50) and Sean Williams (33) batted well, but could not finish the job.
Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura, restricted after injuring himself while fielding, kept going, but a target of 24 off the last over, bowled by Riaz, proved too steep, with the skipper last man out as Zimbabwe were dismissed for 215 with two balls to spare.
“The whole team really worked hard, and believed in me and my batting,” Riaz said.
“It is always disappointing to lose a game like this when you feel you have a chance to win,” Chigumbura added. “Our weakness has been that we have not had one guy scoring a hundred or batting through the innings.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB