Tuesday 9th February, 2010

Tuesday 9th February, 2010

Shehan Ambepitiya wascrowned as South Asia’s fastestman after the young Sri Lankanfinished first in the men’s 100meters event at the South AsianGames in Dhaka yesterday.Ambepitiya, who won goldmedal at Commonwealth YouthGames in Pune in 2008, finishedthe 100 meter dash with a time of10:46 seconds with India’s AbdulNajab winning silver medalclocking 10:56 seconds. LikmaAli of Pakistan secured bronzemedal after coming third with atiming of 10:63 seconds.

India’s Najab, who also wonthe 200 meters final, was the hotfavourite to win the 100 meterdash, but was stunned by the SriLankan.

“I have worked hard toachieve this feat. This momentis unforgettable, I saw myselfahead of others at the 50 metermark and I started to say that ifnot this time then it would benever. I felt the thrust withinmyself and accelerated thespeed from thereon”

“I am a devoted admirer ofUsain Bolt and I follow his style

and steps. The title has insertedmore confidence in me to go for-ward and bring laurels tomy country. My nexttarget is theCommonwealthGames and theAsian Games, Idon’t knowwhere I willstop but beingthe fastestman of thesubcontinentmotivates me torepeat the featagain and again,”Ambepitiya said speak-ing to journalists after theevent.

The women’s 100 meterevent too had a surprise winneras Pakistan’s Nasim Fatima,making her first appearance inan international event, wonPakistan’s first ever interna-tional medal in a short distanceevent by a female athlete. Shefinished ahead of Sri Lanka’sPremila Priyadarshini margin-ally, with a timing of 11:81 sec-onds. Priyadarshini finished

the event clocking 11:93 sec-onds. The bronze medal also

was won by Sri Lanka withAchala Dias finishing

the event with a tim-ing of 12:12 sec-

onds.Sri Lanka

were havinghigh hopes ofwinning boththe men’s andwomen’s 4x400

relays, butthose hopes were

shattered by theIndian teams. The

Sri Lankans had to set-tle for silver medals in bothevents.

In this year’s South AsianGames, the Sri Lankans havewon seven gold medals, five sil-ver and eight bronze medals inathletic events, a steep declinefrom the last edition’s games,where they won a rich haul ofmedals when Colombo hostedthe event. On that occasion in2006, Sri Lanka won 14 goldmedals, 12 silver and sevenbronze in athletic events.

Sri Lanka’s Priyangika Madumanthi crosses the bar on her way to the women’s high jump gold medalat the South Asian Games in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Sunday. (AP)

Ambepitiya wins100 meters gold

by Reemus Fernando

Lumbini Collegecruised to a huge ten wick-ets victory over Sri RahulaCollege, Katugastota asspinners RavijaSandaruwan with a fivewicket haul and MadukaLiyanapathiranage with amatch bag of seven wicketsexcelled for the home teamin their Inter-School Under-19 match ended at BRCGround yesterday.

Scores:Sri Rahula 143 all out

in 63.5 overs (GihanViduranga 32, AmithThilakaratne 48; RavijaSandaruwan 5/11, MadukaLiyanapathiranage 4/49)and 125 all out in 52.2 overs(Sandun Dilhan 31, AmithThilakaratne 46; VikumSanjaya 4/22, MadukaLiyanapathiranage 3/38,Prabath Jayasuriya 2/25)

Lumbini 230 all out in53.3 overs (RavijaSandaruwan 24, DamithPriyadharshana 42, VikumSanjaya 86, PrabathJayasuriya 23n.o; RoshanSubasinghe 4/60, AmithThilakaratne 4/86) and 39for no loss in 4.2 overs(Ravija Sandaruwan 30n.o)

Moratu Vidyalaya amassmammoth 467 for 9

Moratu Vidyalaya tookcommand in their matchagainst President’s Collegeas Sanka Ramesh andJanindu Devinda scoredcenturies to post a mam-moth 467 runs for ninewickets at close in reply tothe visitor’s 130 runs on thefirst day of the Under-19tournament match startedat Moratuwa yesterday.

While Ramesh cracked162 runs in 124 balls(22x4s,4x6s), Devindascored 118 inclusive of 13fours and five sixes. Theyput on a fifth wicket standof 219 runs.

Scores:President’s 130 all out

in 29.5 overs (LahiruKamburugamuwa 41,Thanuj Vithanage 39;Asanka Silva 4/25, SudeepaKelum 3/27)

Moratu Vidyalaya 467for 9 at close in 63.4 overs(Sudeepa Kelum 48, Sanka

Ramesh 162, Ishan Peiris25, Avishka Peiris 29,Janindu Devinda 118,Janitha Nimesh 44n.o;Yashan Kuruwita 4/132,Kanishka Perera 2/42)

Kumara resurrectsMahanama

Mahanama Collegerecovered from being 124for nine wickets at onestage to post 187 runs asIndunil Kumara hammeredan unbeaten 92 runs in 66balls (11x4s 6x6s) on thefirst day of their Under-19match against NalandaCollege at Campbell Placeyesterday.

Kumara put on a tenthwicket stand of 63 runswith Dilshan Rusiru.

Later Nalanda posted232 for six wickets at closewith AdeeshaNanayakkara top scoringwith an unbeaten 50 runsfor them.

Scores:Mahanama 187 all out

in 37.3 overs (HashanPerera 21, Indunil Kumara92n.o, Dilshan Rusiru 20;Adeesha Nanayakkara5/21, Suranga Tennakoon2/38)

Nalanda 232 for 6 atclose in 57.4 overs (PrashanWickramasinghe 47,Chandimanthu Rodrigo 36,Nipun Karunanayake 44,Adeesha Nanayakkara50n.o; Indunil Kumara2/54)

Cambrians 150, Thomians 61/2

S. Thomas’ College were61 for two wickets at closein reply to Prince of WalesCollege’s 150 runs on thefirst day of their Under-19tournament match startedat Mount Lavinia yesterday.

Scores:Prince of Wales 150 all

out in 64.2 overs (NipunPeiris 23, Sithum Fernando36, Buddhika de Alwis 36,Nuwantha Peiris 23n.o;Lalindra Peiris 2/32,Dinesh Walpita 3/23,Neyomal Wickramasekara2/19, Chamod Pathirana2/38)

S. Thomas’ 61 for 2 atclose in 30 overs (KavinduPerera 24n.o)

Lumbini in tenwickets win

NAGPUR, India (AP) - Dale Steynled South Africa’s attack with eight wick-ets to dominate the third day of the firsttest, ripping through Indian batting toforce the follow on at Vidarbha CricketAssociation Stadium.

In their second innings, India alsolost both openers as Gautam Gambhirwas bowled by Morne Morkel for 1 and

Virender Sehwag followed for 16, leav-ing the home side on 66-2, still 259 runsbehind South Africa’s first-inningstotal of 558 declared.

India batsmen Murali Vijay andSachin Tendulkar were unbeaten on 27and 15, respectively.

Steyn emerged as the chief threatfor the hosts as he bagged his eight for

65 runs, with seven coming in the firstinnings.

The paceman attributed his successto “good planning and execution” ofreverse swing.

“In a flat pitch like this, reverseswing came handy,” Steyn said. “I wastrying to work it out at the nets.”

Steyns return was a career best,beating the 6-49 he achieved atCenturion against New Zealand in

2007.Morkel, Wayne Parnell and Paul

Harris also chipped in with one wicketapiece during India’s first innings.

Murali Vijay and Sachin Tendulkar,who scored 4 and 7, respectively, inIndia’s first innings, managed to stemthe rot the second time around. Vijayhit 4 boundaries off 60 deliveries andTendulkar added two boundaries off 40balls.

South Africa, 1st Innings 558 declaredIndia, 1st Innings G. Gambhir c Boucher b Morkel 12V. Sehwag c Duminy b Parnell 109M. Vijay b Steyn 4S. Tendulkar c Boucher b Steyn 7S. Badrinath c Prince b Steyn 56M. S. Dhoni c Kallis b Harris 6W. Saha b Steyn 0Harbhajan Singh lbw Steyn 8Zaheer Khan b Steyn 2A. Mishra b Steyn 0Ishant Sharma not out 0Extras: (14b 6lb 5w 4nb) 29Total: (all out) 233Overs: 57Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-40, 3-56, 4-192, 5-221, 6-221, 7-222, 8-226, 9-228.

Bowling: Steyn 16.4-6-51-7, Morkel 15-4-58-1 (4nb),Harris 17-2-39-1, Parnell 7-1-31-1 (1w), Kallis 6-0-14-0, Duminy 3-0-20-0.India, 2nd InningsG. Gambhir b Morkel 1V. Sehwag c Smith b Steyn 16M. Vijay not out 27S. Tendulkar not out 15Extras: (2b, 5w) 7Total: (for 2 wickets) 66Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-24.Bowling: Steyn 4-0-14-1, Morkel 6-2-21-1(1w),Parnell 2-0-12-0, Harris 7-3-12-0,Kallis 4-2-5-0.Umpires: Ian Gould, Steve DavisMatch Referee: Andy PycroftToss: SA

India in trouble against Proteas

South Africa’s DaleSteyn bowls duringthe third day of thefirst cricket testmatch against India,in Nagpur, India,Monday, Feb. 8,2010. (AP)

Scoreboard

LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan onMonday left out coach Intikhab Alam andwicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmalfrom its 14-man side to face England intwo Twenty20 matches.

There is speculation Alam will besacked over Pakistan’s humiliating 3-0Test and 5-0 one-day series whitewash inAustralia last month, but a PakistanCricket Board (PCB) official denied hehad been dismissed.

“Alam is not sacked,” PCB chief oper-ating officer Wasim Bari told AFP.

“There is no decision on Alam’sfuture as yet, but it will be taken subse-quently,” he added.

PCB has ordered a six-man evaluationcommittee to look into why Pakistan wasrouted in Australia, summoning Alam,team manager Abdul Raqeeb and captainMohammad Yousuf to appear for ques-tioning on Friday and Saturday.

Chief selector Iqbal Qasim hasalready resigned following the defeat inAustralia, refusing to reverse his decisiondespite a request from the PCB.

A panel of four selectors, without anychief selector, chose the team for the twoTwenty20 matches, said Bari.

“Akmal is our main player and sincewe want to groom other players as wellwe have rested Akmal,” said Bari. Akmalwas criticised for poor wicket-keeping inAustralia, dropping several importantcatches.

Shoaib Malik, sacked as captain inJanuary last year after Pakistan’s 2-1home series defeat against Sri Lanka,will lead the team in the Twenty20 match-es, to be played in Dubai on February 19and 20.

Pakistan’s original Twenty20 captainShahid Afridi will be part of the squadbut cannot play in the first match follow-ing a ban of two Twenty20 internationalmatches for ball-tampering.

Pacemen Mohammad Asif andMohammad Aamir are also not part ofthe team. Aamir is recovering from agroin injury and Asif was not consideredafter UAE authorities refused to revoketravelling restrictions imposed on him.

Asif was deported from Dubai in June2008 after he was found in possession ofopium. He was detained for 19 days.

The squad includes promising pace-men in Wahab Riaz and MohammadTalha.

Squad: Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat,Khalid Latif, Umer Akmal, Shoaib Malik(captain), Fawad Alam, Shahid Afridi,Abdul Razzaq, Sarfraz Ahmad, Umar Gul,Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Arafat, Wahab Riaz,Mohammad Talha.

ISLAMABAD(AP) - FormerPakistan all-rounder WasimAkram has beenappointed to thePakistan CricketBoard’s inquirycommittee lookinginto the nationalteam’s poor per-formance on its just completed tour ofAustralia.

Akram replaces ex test batsman andPCB director of cricket developmentHaroon Rasheed, who resigned from theinquiry committee last week, the PCBsaid in a statement Monday.

Chief operating officer Wasim Bariheads the committee which alsoincludes cricket board’s director ofoperations Zakir Khan, former managerYawar Saeed, legal adviser TafazzulRizvi and governing board memberWazir Ali Khoja.

The committee is expected to meetlater this week and submit its findingsby the end February.

Australia whitewashed Pakistan inboth the test (3-0) and one-day series (5-0). Pakistan also lost the tour’s onlyTwenty20 international by two runsFriday.

Akram joins PCBinquiry committee

Wasim Akram

Pakistan snubscoach, Akmal forEngland Twenty20