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Wellalage, Asalanka headline Sri Lanka’s spin ambush
On a sluggish surface with sharp turn and variable bounce, Sri Lanka’s spinners led by young Dunith Wellalage made merry to bundle out India for an underwhelming total of 213. The left-arm spinner snared the first five wickets to fall and the part-time spin of Charith Asalanka accounted for four scalps as India’s innings was derailed by the spin choke.
The start was contrastingly different as Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had gotten India off to another strong start in the first PowerPlay. In hindsight, Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka possibly erred by bowling just two overs of spin in the first ten overs. The overs from the seamers were wayward and it allowed Rohit in particular to get off to a flier. The Indian captain looked in ominous touch and stroked a typically effortlessly six to bring up 10000 ODI runs, thereby becoming the second fastest to achieve the feat in the format.
At 80/0, it seemed like India were cruising towards posting yet another big score in the tournament. Things changed dramatically on the introduction of Wellalage who exploited the surface from the get-go with his disciplined approach. He stuck to the basics and bowled wicket-to-wicket, leaving the rest to the pitch. And the track did respond as he cleaned up Gill with a ripper in his very first over. Virat Kohli fell shortly, chipping a dolly to short mid-wicket while Rohit was undone by a slider that kept very low. From 80/0, they had fallen to 91/3. It was just the beginning.
KL Rahul looked confident after his comeback century in the previous game and started positively. He was probably the only batter who looked comfortable against Wellalage but the latter had the last laugh, forcing Rahul to gift the simplest of return catches. Ishan Kishan never looked in and had a very scratchy innings in the middle. Seeing the amount of turn on a slowing surface, Shanaka brought on more spin. Dhananjaya de Silva got some overs and Asalanka also was given a chance to roll his arm over.
Wellalage duly completed his fifer by producing a peach to sign off his spell, Hardik Pandya the victim. Asalanka followed up the good work with more disciplined bowling as India kept losing wickets. If not for Axar Patel’s cameo at the end and his 27-run last-wicket stand with Mohammed Siraj, India would have fallen well below the 200-run mark. Asalanka had a chance of picking up the second fifer of the game but he wasn’t given a tenth over. Maheesh Theekshana duly picked up the final wicket to close out the innings. There was a slight rain delay after 47 overs but no overs were lost on resumption.
This is the first instance of India losing all their ten wickets in an ODI to spinners.
Brief scores:
India 213 in 49.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 53; Dunith Wellalage 5-40, Charith Asalanka 4-18) vs Sri Lanka
(Cricbuzz)
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Food Policy and Security Committee recommends importation of rice to ensure an uninterrupted supply
The Food Policy and Security Committee has recommended the importation of rice in the near future to ensure an uninterrupted supply for consumers.
A notable increase in rice prices has been observed in the market, along with reports of shortages of certain rice varieties, despite the current harvest season.
Given this situation, discussions were held regarding the need for the Cabinet to prioritize the maintenance of sufficient stock, through rice imports.
The Committee, chaired by Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation K.D. Lalkantha and Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Vasantha Samarasinghe, convened for the fifth time at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday (01). The meeting aimed to formulate policy decisions to ensure food security.
During the discussions, it was revealed that due to excessive rainfall this year, crop damage occurred on two occasions, leading to a significant reduction in the expected harvest.
Furthermore, during the meeting it was stated that the improper use of rice for animal feed is another major reason contributing to the rice shortage. As a result, the Committee also focused on the importation of broken rice for animal feed and the use of alternative feeds to mitigate the impact on livestock production.
Accordingly, the Food Policy and Security Committee approved the formation of a Committee, led by the Director General of Agriculture, to oversee the importation of the required quantity of broken rice through proper mechanisms.
Secretary to the Prime Minister Pradeep Saputhanthri, Senior Additional Secretary to the President Kapila Janaka Bandara, and other members of the Food Policy and Security Committee, including Ministry Secretaries, participated in the discussions.
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Cabinet appoints ministerial committee to submit report on sanctions imposed on 04 Sri Lankans by the United Kingdom
Attention of the Cabinet of Ministers have been drawn on the decisions taken by the United Kingdom to impose sanctions on four Sri Lankan individuals recently, and have decided to appoint a committee comprised of three ministers to submit a report with recommendations on the further measures to be taken after studying the facts in the regard and to empower the committee to obtain the service of any officer/intellect deemed to have subject expertise in the relevant field and considered essential.
The committee will comprise of :
– Vijitha Herath Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism
– Attorney – at – Law Harshana Nanayakkara Minister of Justice and National Integrity
– Aruna Jayasekara Deputy Minister of Defence
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