Fri, Dec 03, 2010 page20

• Rain halts Sri Lanka push in final Test

  • Reuters, KANDY, Sri Lanka
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  Sri Lanka took two West Indies wickets in the afternoon session before rain brought play to an early end on the second day of the third and final Test at Pallakele yesterday.

  The tourists lost Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 54 and Dwayne Bravo without scoring to reach 244-5 before play was halted prior to the scheduled tea interval with Brendan Nash unbeaten on 62 and Carlton Baugh on nought.

  Sri Lanka made a vital breakthrough soon after lunch by ending a 99-run fourth wicket stand between Chanderpaul and Nash.

  Ajantha Mendis removed the defiant Chanderpaul when Mahela Jayawardene pulled off a brilliant diving catch at slip, centimeters off the ground.

  Seven balls later left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who was brought into the attack rather late in the innings, made up for lost time by taking the wicket of Bravo.

  Wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene brought off a smart stumping when Bravo charged forward, but missed the sharp-turning ball.

  The wicket of Darren Bravo was all hosts Sri Lanka had to show for their morning’s work as the West Indies reached 229-3 at lunch.

  The West Indies, resuming on 134-2, went into lunch with fourth-wicket pair Chanderpaul and Nash putting together an unbroken stand of 87 off 173 balls.

  Nash reached his half-century before the break off 74 balls, with five fours helping him to 55. Left-hander Chanderpaul played the anchor role, batting throughout the session to 46.

  Chanderpaul survived a suicidal reverse sweep shot off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath at 38.

  The umpire ruled him out LBW, but he successfully challenged the decision, the replay showing the ball clearly hit his gloves.

  There was no such luck for Darren Bravo, however, who added only five runs to his overnight score of 63 before Dilhara Fernando trapped him LBW in the fourth over of the day.

  Bravo asked for a referral, but the ball was shown to have thudded into his pads, hitting him between leg and middle.

  The three-match series is tied at 0-0 after the first two Tests were drawn.

  INDIA VS NEW ZEALAND

  AFP, JAIPUR, India

  India’s stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir cracked an unbeaten 138 off 116 balls to lift the hosts to an eight-wicket win over New Zealand in the second one-day international on Wednesday.

  The left-hander’s eighth one-day century enabled India to surpass New Zealand’s challenging 258-8 with seven overs to spare in the day-night match at the Sawai Man Singh stadium in Jaipur.

  The emphatic victory gave India a 2-0 lead in the five-match series after the hosts had won the first game in Guwahati on Sunday by 40 runs.

  Gambhir put on 87 for the first wicket with Murali Vijay (33) and 116 for the second with Virat Kohli, who followed up his century in Guwahati with a fluent 64. The skipper hit 18 boundaries in his fluent knock.

  Gambhir led India as regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was rested for the series along with other senior players including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

  “Getting a century as captain was special, but winning the game was even more special,” the 29-year-old Gambhir said. “I think 258 was a decent total, but Vijay and Virat batted very well. Hopefully, we can carry the same form into the next game and win the series.”

  Fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth set up the win by grabbing four wickets after Gambhir won the toss and elected to field in good batting conditions.

  Martin Guptill top-scored for the Black Caps with a dour 70, before Scott Styris boosted the total with 59 off 54 balls.

  Sreesanth removed Styris and skipper Daniel Vettori (31) off successive balls in the 46th over, after the pair had put on a quickfire 58 for the fifth wicket.

  Nathan McCullum prevented a hat-trick as New Zealand recovered from a middle-order slump to smash 88 runs in the last 11 overs.

  “I was impressed with the way we batted, but we bowled extremely poorly,” Vettori said. “Gambhir played one of the best one-day innings I have seen. We should have bowled better. We gave him too much width and he made us pay for that. If you do that on slow wickets, it’s difficult to control the run-rate. We have to be positive for the remaining games and improve in a lot of areas.”

  New Zealand were without the injured duo of Brendon McCullum and Daryl Tuffey, but Vettori was back after missing the first game with a back injury. The third match will be played in Vadodara on Saturday.

  THE ASHES

  AFP, ADELAIDE, Australia

  Australia’s final bowling spot appears to be down to a contest between seamer Ben Hilfenhaus and Ryan Harris for today’s second Ashes Test against England at the Adelaide Oval.

  Skipper Ricky Ponting, after confirming that Mitchell Johnson was dropped for the Adelaide match, indicated that the last place in the team hinged on the diverse bowling qualities of Hilfenhaus and Harris.

  Hilfenhaus appears under pressure after taking the wicket of Andrew Strauss on the third ball of the Gabba Test but then going wicketless in his ensuing 50 overs.

  Harris, who had a mid-year right knee cartilage operation, is in contention with his ability to bowl reverse swing in the likely conducive conditions of the deteriorating Adelaide wicket over the final days of the second Test.

  Ponting did not show which way the selectors were leaning and said both bowlers have strong qualities to merit selection as Australia look to find an attack to take 20 wickets.

  “Hilfy’s strengths are his ability to swing the new ball, he’s a very consistent bowler and bowls in good areas to tie batters down,” Ponting told reporters yesterday. “Ryan’s strengths are that he has played much of his cricket here, he’s probably slightly quicker in the air, he hits the wicket harder than Ben does and probably he’s the better reverse-swing bowler for later in the game.”

  “Ben did a terrific job for us in the India in conditions that will probably be similar to what the wicket will be like here, particularly over the last couple of days,” he added. “It makes that decision a pretty difficult one which is why we need a fair bit of time to think about it.”
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