England vs Sri Lanka: Malinga, Mathews keep Sri Lanka's semifinal hopes alive

Agencies
June 22, 2019

Leeds, Jun 22: Angelo Mathews hit a patient fifty before veteran pacer Lasith Malingareturned with a sensational four-wicket haul as Sri Lanka stunned hosts England by 20 runs in a low-scoring thriller to keep their World Cup semifinal hopes alive on Friday.

Electing to bat, Sri Lanka managed a modest 232 for nine, riding on an unbeaten 115-ball 85 by Mathews.

The 1996 champions then returned to dismiss England for 212 in 47 overs to register only their second win in this World Cup.

Malinga (4/43) emerged as the star for Sri Lanka as he dismissed the top three -- James Vince (14), Jonny Bairstow (0) and Joe Root (57) and also accounted for Jos Buttler (10).

Off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva (3/32) then mopped up the tail with a quick three-wicket burst.

After Root's 89-ball fifty, Ben Stokes kept England in the hunt with a 89-ball 82* but he ran out of partners.

The win took Sri Lanka to fifth spot with six points from six matches, while England remained in third spot with eight points from six games.

Earlier, Mathews added 71 and 57 runs with Kusal Mendis (46) and Dhananjaya de Silva (29) for the fourth and sixth wickets, respectively, as Sri Lanka recovered from three for 2.

Playing his first World Cup game, Avishka Fernando, too, contributed with a 39-ball 49.

Chasing the total, England could not recover from the twin strike by Malinga and could score only 38 for two in the powerplay.

Root and Eoin Morgan (21) added 47 runs for the third wicket before Isuru Udana (2/41) produced a stunning caught-and-bowled effort to remove the skipper as England slipped to 73 for 3 in 18.4 overs.

Root completed his fifty off 78 balls and soon new man Stokes brought up the team hundred with a boundary off Pradeep.

Malinga then brought Sri Lanka back in the match when he had Root caught behind off a ball drifting down the leg side.

De Silva then had Moeen Ali holed out to long-off, while Chris Woakes' thin edge was caught by the keeper and another edge sent Adil Rashid back to the hut as England slipped to 178 for 8.

Earlier, Sri Lanka lost Dimuth Karunaratne (1) and Kusal Perera (2) in three balls to be reduced to three for 2.

Fernando then blasted six fours and two sixes, sharing some valuable runs with Mendis. But an upper cut gone wrong saw Sri Lanka lose Fernando and slip to 62 for three.

Leg-spinner Rashid struck twice on successive balls, removing Kusal Mendis and new man Jeevan Mendis (0), as Sri Lanka slumped to 133 for five in the 30th over.

Mathews and Dhananjaya then took the team close to the 200-mark.

Once Dhananjaya was removed by Archer in the 44th over, it was a lonely battle for Mathews.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Jun 10: "It is never too late to fight for the right cause," said opening batsman Chris Gayle as he came out in support of former T20 World Cup-winning skipper Darren Sammy. The debate around racism in sport has kickstarted once again after former Windies T20 World Cup-winning skipper Darren Sammy alleged racism during his stint with SunRisers Hyderabad in the 2014 Indian Premier League. Taking note of Sammy's revelation, Gayle tweeted: "It's never too late to fight for the right cause or what you've experienced over the years! So much more to your story, @darensammy88. Like I said, it's in the game".

Earlier, Gayle had also revealed that he too has been a victim of racism, and added that racism is something that has been bothering cricket as well.

On Tuesday, Sammy had released a video specifying that the racial slurs against him were used within the SunRisers camp.

"I have played all over the world and I have been loved by many people, I have embraced all dressing rooms where I have played, so I was listening to Hasan Minhaj as to how some of the people in his culture describe black people," Sammy said in a video posted on his Instagram account.

"This does not apply to all people, so after I found out a meaning of a certain word, I had said I was angry on finding out the meaning and it was degrading, instantly I remembered when I played for SunRisers Hyderabad, I was being called exactly the same word which is degrading to us black people," he added.

Sammy said that at the time when he was being called with the word, he didn't know the meaning, and his team-mates used to laugh every time after calling him by that name.

"I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called as that word I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, I did not know what it meant, every time I was called with that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought teammates are laughing so it must be something funny," Sammy said.

The former Windies skipper has been a vocal supporter of the protests that are currently going on in the United States over the death of an African-American man named George Floyd.

Sammy had also made an appeal to the ICC and other cricket boards to support the fight against social injustice and racism.

Ever since the demise of Floyd, protests erupted from the demonstrations in cities from San Francisco to Boston.

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News Network
February 5,2020

Aukland, Feb 5: Striker Navneet Kaur scored a brace to guide the Indian women's hockey team to a convincing 3-0 win over New Zealand in the last game of its five-match tour here on Wednesday.

Navneet found the net in the 45th and 58th minutes, while Sharmila scored a field goal in the 54th minute as India drew curtains on the New Zealand tour on a bright note.

After a goalless opening two quarters, Navneet finally broke the deadlock for India in the 45th minute.

Sharmila then doubled the lead when she struck a powerful shot past the New Zealand goalkeeper in the 54th minute. Navneet found the net again just two minutes from the final hooter with a beautiful field strike.

India began the tour by thrashing New Zealand Development squad 4-0 before suffering close 1-2 and 0-1 defeats to the home senior team.

In penultimate game of the tour, skipper Rani's lone strike handed India a 1-0 win over Great Britain.

"...I am happy we produced three goals against New Zealand in the last match. This tour gave us a good insight about where we need to improve and one of the things is to create faster play than we do now," said India's chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne.

Commenting on his side's performance during the tour, Marijne said, "Sometimes we tend to keep the ball too long on the stick and then we create pressure. We need to avoid that by passing faster.

"On the defence side, we need to be a bit more calmer and need to improve our tackling. We will have a four week camp after a short break when we return home and we will be working on these points."

The Indian team will return home on February 7.

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Agencies
March 13,2020

New Delhi, Mar 13: The remaining ODI series between India and South Africa has been called-off amidst the rising concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

"The second and third ODI between India and South Africa in Lucknow and Kolkata respectively are called off," the BCCI source told media persons.

The first match of the series was abandoned due to rain and wet outfield without a toss at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) stadium on Thursday.

The second and third ODI was scheduled to be played at Lucknow and Kolkata on March 15 and 18 respectively. Earlier on Thursday, the BCCI has decided to play the remaining two ODIs behind closed doors.

"After holding discussions with the MYAS and MOHFW, the BCCI on Thursday announced that the remaining two One-day Internationals (ODIs) of the three-match series of South Africa tour of India, 2020, will be played without any public gathering, including spectators," the BCCI had said in a statement.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has advised all the federations to avoid large gatherings.

World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday had declared the coronavirus outbreak a 'pandemic' and expressed deep concerns.

The coronavirus disease was first detected in Wuhan in China's Hubei province, in late December, and has since spread worldwide.

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