Kohli’s century guides India to 5-0 clean sweep against Sri Lanka

November 17, 2014

Kohlis centuryRanchi, Nov 17: Virat Kohli’s sensational unbeaten 139 guided India to a 5-0 series clean sweep against Sri Lanka with a three-wicket win in the fifth One-Day International (ODI) between India and England at Ranchi on Sunday. Kohli and Angelo Mathews dominated proceedings, as both men scored tons — a maiden ODI century for Mathews, and the 21st for Kohli — to become the only two men to cross 1,000 ODI runs in 2014.

India started off on a terrible note, as openers Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma were cleaned up by Mathews to leave India reeling at 14 for two. Ambati Rayudu and Virat Kohli then came together for what proved to be a tremendous partnership of 136 runs. Rayudu scored his fifth ODI half-century while Kohli went on to make his 21st hundred in ODIs.

However, Ajantha Mendis ran amok in the middle overs, knocking over Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Stuart Binny, and Ravichandran Ashwin in quick succession. In Akshar Patel, Kohli found a steady partner, and together they scored off the remaining runs in clinical fashion. Kohli remained unbeaten at the end, and even paid tribute to hometown hero MS Dhoni when he played a semi-helicopter shot for six in the penultimate over of the match off Mendis.

Sri Lanka got off to a poor start despite a severely depleted Indian new-ball attack. Dhawal Kulkarni and Stuart Binny opened the bowling, and between them got rid of both openers by the sixth over. Kulkarni induced a false shot from debutant Niroshan Dickwella and Ambati Rayudu dove forward to take a good catch. Binny then cleaned up a dangerous-looking Tillakaratne Dilshan for a 24-ball 35 with a slower in-cutter.

Dinesh Chandimal and Mahela Jayawardene then combined for a strange 28-run stand; it was strange because most of those runs came from the serene blade of Jayawardene, but Chandimal scratched around like a cat on a hot tin roof to crawl to five off 31 balls. Jayawrdene was soon dismissed as well, edging Ravichandran Ashwin to Ajinkya Rahane at slip.

At 85 for four, Sri Lanka were in serious trouble of meandering away to an early close, but then had the leading run-scorers in ODIs this year in the middle: Angelo Mathews. With Lahiru Thirimanne for company, Mathews took his time accumulating runs in the ones and twos, and hitting the occasional boundary. The duo put on a superb 128-run stand for the fifth wicket. Thirimanne was out soon after getting his half-century, but Mathews just kept going. He tore into the spinners, first hitting part-time off-spinner Ambati Rayudu for two sixes and a boundary and then dishing out the same treatment to Karn Sharma. Mathews got his maiden ODI ton in the 47th over, taking 138 games to reach the landmark. He wasn’t done though; Akshar Patel was slammed for three more sixes in the ante-penultimate over of the innings.

Thisara Perera was out towards the end, but Mathews just kept going; Ashwin was hoisted over midwicket and then down over long-off in the 49th over. In the end, Mathews’ superb ton was but a footnote in another script written by Kohli.

Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first. Dickwella made his debut at the expense of Kusal Perera, while Kedar Jadhav made his debut for India, coming in for Suresh Raina. Umesh Yadav too was replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin. India have already won the series 4-0.

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA:

N Dickwella c Rayudu b Kulkarni 4

T Dilshan b Binny 35

D Chandimal c K Sharma b A Patel 5

M Jayawardene c Rahane b Ashwin 32

A Mathews not out 139

L Thirimanne c Rayudu b Ashwin 52

T Perera c Jadhav b A Patel 6

S Prasanna c A Patel b Kulkarni 0

A Mendis c K Sharma b Kulkarni 0

EXTRAS: (b4, lb2, w7) 13

TOTAL: (8 wkts, 50 overs) 286

FOW: 1-32, 2-45, 3-73, 4-85, 5-213, 6-258, 7-285, 8-286

BOWLING: D Kulkarni 8-0-57-3, S Binny 8-1-28-1, A Patel 10-0-45-2, R Ashwin 10-1-56-2, K Sharma 10-0-61-0, A Rayudu 4-0-33-0

INDIA:

A Rahane b Mathews 2

R Sharma b Mathews 9

A Rayudu run out 59

V Kohli not out 139

R Uthappa c Mathews b Mendis 19

K Jadhav b Mendis 20

S Binny st Chandimal b Mendis 12

R Ashwin lbw b Mendis 0

A Patel not out 17

EXTRAS: (b4, w7) 11

TOTAL: (7 wkts; 48.4 overs) 288

FOW: 1-6, 2-14, 3-150, 4-180, 5-215, 6-231, 7-231

BOWLING: Mathews 7-1-33-2, Gamage 4-0-25-0, Eranga 7-0-45-0, Prasanna 10-0-42-0, Perera 3-0-20-0, Mendis-9.4-0-73-4, Dilshan 8-0-46-0

TOSS: SRI LANKA

UMPIREs: B Oxenford, S Ravi

TV UMPIRE: Anil Chaudhary

MATCH REFEREE: David Boon

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News Network
February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."

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News Network
March 28,2020

Milan, Mar 28: Juventus star Paulo Dybala revealed how he "struggled to breathe" after contracting coronavirus which has killed over 9,000 people in Italy.

The Argentine international announced last Saturday he was one of three Juventus players to catch the virus along with Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi, who both had no symptoms.

"I feel better now after some strong symptoms," the 26-year-old Dybala told JTV channel.

"A couple of days ago I was not well, I felt heavy and after five minutes of movement I had to stop because I was struggling to breathe.

"Now I can move and walk to start trying to train, because when I tried in the past few days I started to shake too much.

"I gasped for air and as a result I couldn't do anything, after five minutes I was already very tired, I felt the body heavy and my muscles hurt.

"Now I'm fine. My fiancee Oriana (Sabatini) has also overcome the symptoms."

Dybala has scored 13 goals in all competitions this season, including in league leader's Juventus's last game against Inter Milan before Serie A and all sport in Italy was suspended.

"The goal against Inter was the greatest emotion, (Aaron) Ramsey provided the perfect assist - it's a pity that there was no public," added Dybala.

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News Network
January 10,2020

Karachi, Jan 10: Former Pakistan batsman and current U-19 head coach Ejaz Ahmed feels that his side can beat defending champions and arch-rivals India in the forthcoming ICC Youth World Cup beginning in South Africa on January 17.

"India has a very good cricket system and it is organized but I know that we have more passion than them when we play against each other and that is how we also beat them in the semi-finals of the recent Asian Emerging Nations Cup," Ejaz said.

Ejaz, who has played 60 Test and 250 ODIs, was head coach of the Pakistan Emerging side which beat India before eventually winning the title in Bangladesh last year.

"Even in the past, we beat India because of our greater passion and this time also I know the passion of our players will prevail over them although they have a very strong outfit," he added.

The 51-year-old Ejaz, however, said at the end of the day it would be all about how a team plays on that particular day.

"It is the same in the World Cup it does not matter which team is number one or defending champions what will matter is how a team plays on a given day. I personally feel our team is well balanced," he said.

Ejaz did not believe that India would get advantage of having played a four-nation tournament with South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe in South Africa before the World Cup.

"Our players have also trained hard in Lahore and we have played around 11 matches. We will also reach South Africa nine days before the World Cup and we have some practice games and I think our preparations are also very good for the tournament," he said.

The former batsman also said the absence of fast bowler Naseem Shah will not impact much on the team's performance. Naseem was withdrawn from the Pakistan U-19 squad after he played for the senior team in three Test matches against Australia and Sri Lanka.

"Look there was no controversy at all. The way we now see things is that you can't expect a MBA to go and take BA exams. That is how we look at Naseem Shah, he has made the grade for Pakistan and now he should be performing for the senior team," said the head coach.

"We have a couple of exciting young talent in the ranks. I expect Rohail and Haider to play for the senior team in two to three year's time, they are that good."

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