Heavy rain and bad light yesterday hit the second day of the historic Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s first home Test since a deadly attack in 2009.
Sri Lanka, resuming at 220-5, had progressed to 225-5 in 7.5 overs when heavy rain in the morning forced the teams to have early lunch.
Play was stopped for 2 hours, 43 minutes, but when it resumed only 10 overs were possible, with Sri Lanka losing Niroshan Dickwella for 33 before bad light accompanied by rain forced play to be abandoned at 3:30pm.
At the close, Sri Lanka were 263-6 with Dhananjaya de Silva unbeaten on 72 and Dilruwan Perera not out on 2.
The stop-start play left both teams frustrated, as well as 2,000 fans in attendance to watch the revival of Test cricket in Pakistan.
When play resumed after lunch, Pakistan took the second new ball and with it lanky pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi removed Dickwella, caught at gully by Babar Azam.
Dickwella, who hit four boundaries, added 67 for the sixth wicket with De Silva, thwarting Pakistan’s attempts for early wickets.
De Silva has hit 11 boundaries in his 131-ball stay.
Earlier, the brief period of play saw wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan claim a catch to dismiss De Silva off the bowling of 16-year-old Naseem Shah, but third umpire Richard Illingworth ruled that the ball had bounced.
On the next ball, De Silva completed his half-century with two runs off Naseem, who at 2-65 was the pick of Pakistan’s bowlers.
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