Kumar Sangakkara became the first batsman to score four consecutive one-day international centuries as Sri Lanka thrashed Scotland by 148 runs at the World Cup in Hobart, Australia, yesterday.
The left-hander hit 124 off 95 balls and Tillakaratne Dilshan made 104 as Sri Lanka piled up 363-9 and then bowled Scotland out for 215 in 43.1 overs in their Pool A match at the Bellerive Oval.
Skipper Preston Mommsen (60) and Freddie Coleman (70) put on 118 for the fourth wicket, but they provided the only challenge as seamers Dushmantha Chameera and Nuwan Kulasekara claimed three wickets each.
Photo: AFP
Sangakkara also took two catches to overtake Adam Gilchrist as the most successful World Cup wicketkeeper with 54 dismissals. The Australian had 52 victims to his name.
Sri Lanka ended the league with four wins from six matches and now await an undecided opponent in the first quarter-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday next week.
Scotland’s fifth successive defeat means they will take an early flight home after their final league match against Australia at the same venue on Saturday.
Sangakkara, 37, who will retire from one-day cricket after the World Cup, had made 105 not out against Bangladesh, an unbeaten 117 against England and 104 against Australia.
He is the the leading scorer in the ongoing tournament with 496 runs from six games, followed in second place by 38-year-old Dilshan with 395 runs.
The pair put on 195 for the second wicket after Lahiru Thirimanne had been snapped up in the slips off Alasdair Evans in the sixth over after Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat.
Scotland had to wait until the 35th over for their next success as Sangakkara and Dilshan toyed with the bowling in good batting conditions.
Both batsmen reached their centuries off successive balls from Kyle Coetzer in the 34th over, Dilshan taking a single to record his second century at the tournament, before Sangakkara followed next ball with two runs.
Sangakkara leapfrogged six players who had scored three one-day international centuries in a row — Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar of Pakistan, the South Africa trio of Herschelle Gibbs, A.B. de Villiers and Quinton de Kock, and Ross Taylor of New Zealand.
“I’ve been on my knees asking Kumar not to retire, but we have to respect his wishes because we are thankful for all the times he has represented the country,” Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said. “The boys played really well, and credit should go to Dilshan and Sangakkara, they are getting better and better with age.”
Despite his form, Sangakkara, who has played 403 one-day internationals and made more than 14,000 runs, insisted that there would be no going back on his decision.
“Retirement is not about form, it is about time and place, and whether it feels right. It is never about whether you can play or not,” Sangakkara said.
Dilshan followed his unbeaten 161 against Bangladesh with his fourth World Cup century before he holed out in the deep off seamer Josh Davey.
Davey struck two quick blows soon after, getting rid of Mahela Jayawardene and Sangakkara off successive balls as Sri Lanka slipped from 216-1 to 244-4.
Jayawardene, 37, who will also retire after the World Cup, made 2 when he was caught at mid-off by Calum MacLeod.
Sangakkara edged the next delivery to the wicketkeeper.
Skipper Mathews smashed 51 off 21 balls at the end, slamming four sixes in a row off spinner Matt Machan, before being caught next ball on the midwicket fence.
Sri Lanka lost eight wickets for 147 runs as the lower-order attacked the inexperienced Scotland attack.
“Today was a huge learning experience, especially watching some of the best batsmen in the world,” Scotland captain Mommsen said. “Sangakkara is definitely No. 1 in terms of the players we have had to play against.”
Sri Lanka go into the quarter-finals beset with injuries, with seamer Dhammika Prasad ruled out of the tournament before it started, while Jeevan Mendis, Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal have been sidelined during it.
Spinner Rangana Herath is yet to recover from a finger injury.
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