Kusal Mendis struck his maiden Test century in a match in which no other batsman has managed 50 to power Sri Lanka to 282-6 at stumps on day three of the first Test against Australia yesterday.
The 21-year-old remained unbeaten on 169 — 52 more than his entire team managed in the first innings — after forging the match’s first century-plus partnership with Dinesh Chandimal (42) to help the hosts take a 196-run lead.
Dilruwan Perera was at the other end on 5 not out after Dhananjaya de Silva was caught of Nathan Lyon’s bowling for 36.
Photo: AP
Sri Lanka erased the 86-run first-innings deficit in the morning before dominating the post-lunch session, adding 137 runs at a run rate of over four for the loss of Chandimal’s wicket.
Mendis brought up his century in style, slog-sweeping spinner Steve O’Keefe over mid-wicket for six.
The visitors’ woes were compounded when spinner O’Keefe hobbled off the ground with Cricket Australia later confirming in a tweet that he had a “right-hamstring issue.”
Earlier, resuming on 6-1, Sri Lanka received an early jolt with Mitchell Starch trapping Dimuth Karunaratne LBW for the second time in the match with the third delivery of the day.
O’Keefe dismissed Kaushal and spin partner Lyon sent back home captain Angelo Mathews (9) to reduce Sri Lanka to 86-4.
ZIMBABWE, NZ
Staff writer
Neil Wagner ripped through the Zimbabwe top order, but the tail wagged as New Zealand bowled their way into a position of strength in the first Test in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, yesterday.
Zimbabwe scored 164 with the final wicket falling at press time last night, with Wagner returning figures of 6-41.
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