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| Sri Lanka Right Lakshapana Falls in Full glory Left Sri Lankan Flag among other international flags |
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| Chinese tennis player Shengnan Sun plays a shot against her Italian opponent Mara Santangelo during the first round match of the WTA Bangalore Open in Bangalore. Santangelo won the match 6-2,7- |
| Shengnan Sun |
| Mahela blames bowlers for their poor performance
From Vishakapatnam CRICKET: Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena blamed his bowlers for his teams five wicket defeat and called for an improved performance when the fourth and deciding one day international gets underway at the Indira Priyadarshani Stadium in Vishakapatnam on Saturday. India after been reduced to 94 for 4 at one stage recovered well to reach their target of 230 runs with three overs to spare and also leveled the series one all in front of a capacity crowd of 27,000 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Margao on Wednesday. Skipper Jayawardena admitted that Rahul Dravid’s innings was certainly the turning point of the match. Dravid hit a matchwinning knock of 66 and also became only the sixth player to complete ten thousand runs in one day internationals. The Sri Lankan captain believed that his team had a great chance of pulling off another victory following the early wickets of Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh. “Rahul Dravid and Dhoni batted well and they took singles pretty well to keep up with the run rate. Dravid’s innings was a calming influence and his innings really made a difference. If we had taken a wicket at that time we would have had a good chance to win the game.” Even then skipper Jayawardena said that the efforts of pacemen Nuwan Kulasekera and Dilhara Fernando were really encouraging as they brought the Lankans back into the game through some inspired bowling. Kulasekera captured the prize scalp of Sachin Tendulkar while Fernando got rid off the out of form opener Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. Skipper Jayawardena also defended his decision to bat first after the match was delayed by half an hour due to the overcast conditions. He added that it was a good wicket to bat but unfortunately they lost too many early wickets. The Lankans lost their top three batsmen Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara within the first three overs and were reeling at six for three wickets at one stage. |
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| LEFT Sunrise in Horton Plains RIGHT Horton Plains during the day |
| Lankans fly to Guyana confident of winning World Cup
Elmo Rodrigopulle in West Indies CRICKET: The jubilant Sri Lanka cricketers flew out of Trinidad exuding confidence that they were going to repeat the feat of 1995/96 when they won the World Cup in Lahore. And the Sri Lankans have reason to believe that they can do it. Three victories in a row where they beat Bermuda, Bangladesh and India convincingly has given them the confidence to shoot at the teams in the Super 8 and bring them down. At a press briefing after the success against India, skipper Mahela Jayawardena, who it must be said is doing a marvellous job as captain, said that there is no reason why they should not take the Cup back home. "We have been putting in a lot of hard work during the past 12 months and the results are now beginning to show. We take our training sessions very seriously and after a team training we allow individuals to do their own training in the fields that they are outstanding. "We pay special emphasis on fielding. In this kind of game, fielding is important. And we have the fielders who will fling themselves at catches, because it is said that 'catches win matches'. The Lankans next fling is Guyana where they front up to the stronger teams in the Super 8 and on form there is no reason why the Lankans should not get the better of teams such as Ireland, West Indies, England and New Zealand and then aim at the World Cup. Jayawardena went on to say that before a game they plan strategy and have a game plan. "So far it has worked beautifully and we hope to continue that way." |
| Jayawardena said in a tournament, like this, one bad game could see a team out of the tournament, like what happened to India. To a question Jayawardena said: "Obviously they (India) is a strong team and carrying two points into the Super 8 is an advantage... but we would also have liked to have India come along with us because they could beat some teams in the next round and help us out." Indian skipper Rahul Dravid who was visibly upset that his team had been knocked out of the tournament said they always try to win, but it just did not work this time. To a question from me whether he regretted winning the toss and asking Sri Lanka in, Dravid said: "Not really. In the circumstances we did the right thing. Sri Lanka lost early wickets. But the middle order brought them back into the game," said Dravid. Greg Chappell the Indian coach said that at the end of the day we did not play well. He said that the performance of the star-studded squad was a collective responsibility and his side was unable to live up to the high expectations of themselves and a demanding public. As for me the India who were the losing finalists in the previous tournament in South Africa, the slide began with the appointing of Chappell as coach. Immediately after taking over the coaching of the team, he ran into turbulence when he wanted Sourav Ganguly moved out of the captaincy role which opened the doors for the ill-feeling that continued and finally blew out at the World Cup. Chappell chopping and changing of the team came in for scathing criticism by the Indian public and media, which also led to his assault by a irate cricket fan which also necessitated security for the coach.
In India and Pakistan cricket is religion. For them winning is the last line. Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad, Sunday |
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| The Sri Lankan captain said that his middle order batsmen however did a fantastic job to help them get a decent score of 230 runs at the end. “This was a good score to defend but we did not bowl that well during the later stages of the innings”.
He was also pleased with performance of left hander Russel Arnold who returned to form with a battling half century having collected just 85 runs from his previous seven one day internationals. Skipper Jayawardena also defended the decision to include Dilhara Fernando ahead of Lasith Malinga saying that it was their policy of giving every player the opportunity to make an impact during this tour. Fernando bowled a hostile opening spell to push the Indians on the back foot before returning figures of two wickets for 43. The Sri Lankan captain said that the team would now make an all out effort to pull off the next match and win the series which will give them a psychological advantage going into the World Cup next month in the West Indies. Sri Lanka and India are drawn in the same group along with Bangladesh and debutants Bermuda for the ICC World Cup in the Caribbean on March 13. Meanwhile Wednesday’s one day international between Sri Lanka and India turned out to be a huge success to the organizers the Goa Cricket Association following their infamous ticket scandal which took place during the last one day match between India and England in April 2001 where 128 genuine ticket holders were stranded outside the Nehru Stadium. But this time no one got canned, nobody was left stranded outside the stadium and there seemed to be no sign of the duplicate tickets that were reported to have printed during that match. Even then the Goa Cricket Association was not prepared to take any risks as the Government had deployed a huge amount of policemen for this game in and around the Nehru Stadium. As a result the trial of many a sensitive criminal cases in Margao had to be adjourned in the Sessions Court for want of police personnel to escort the under suspects trials from the jail premises to court. Many a senior government officials in the District were unavailable throughout Wednesday as they were deployed for magisterial duties at the Nehru Stadium. Vishakapatnam , Thursday. |