Sports
Dialog meets HNB in Mercantile cricket final
Hatton National Bank ‘B’ (HNB) skippered by veteran Damitha Hunukumbura will go out as favourites when they take on Dialog Axiata led by Damith Weerasinghe, in the sixth FairFirst Insurance sponsored Mercantile Cricket Association ‘F’ Division 25 Over final on Saturday at MCA Grounds. Both teams are unbeaten in the competition.
HNB ‘B’ reached the finals having beaten Union Bank, Hilton Colombo Residencies, EB Creasey, Atire, Emerchemie NB and Empire Tea, in the group stage.
In the knockout stage, they beat Camera LK in the pre-quarter-finals and Seylan Bank in the quarter-finals. They met Ansell Lanka in the semi-final and secured a closely fought 21 run win.
Dinesh Panditharatne has been holding the HNB ‘B’ side together having posted 438 runs in nine innings with a hundred and three half-centuries. He has been well backed up by Kaveen S. Bandara and Damitha Hunukumbura.
Several all-rounders have come up with impressive performances for HNB ‘B’. While Achintha S. Akalanka scored 150 runs and picked up 17 wickets, Dellon Peiris managed 99 runs and ten wickets. Madushan Pathirage also has ten wickets and 135 runs to show.
Dialog Axiata excelled beating Softlogic Life, Asiri Hospitals, Ansell Lanka, IPD Colombo, Standard Chartered Bank and CW Mackie. At the knockout stage, they overcame Commercial Bank ‘B’, MAS Active and Maliban Biscuits ‘B’.
The top performers for Dialog have been Dilan Harshana Bandara, who scored 462 runs in nine innings with a hundred and three half-centuries.Rajitha Ranatunga has managed 278 runs in eight innings while Damith Weerasinghe has excelled with the bat and ball scoring 244 runs and taking 13 wickets.
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Tom Latham, Mitchell Santner fifties prop up New Zealand
Half-centuries to Tom Latham and Mitchell Santner added some gloss to a battling New Zealand innings on the opening day of the third and final Test against England in Hamilton.
Whereas the second Test was a maelstrom of match-shaping moments, this Test progressed at an altogether more believable pace but the situation at stumps was similar, New Zealand having blown a position of strength in the face of a persistent England performance that left the day evenly poised, thanks in no small part to Santner’s unbeaten fifty off 54 balls with his side nine wickets down.
In Wellington, New Zealand ended the first day on the back foot at 86 for 5 in response to their opponents’ 280, clawed back from 4 for 43. Here, an opening partnership of 105 between Latham and Will Young – standing in while Devon Conway is on paternity leave – had the hosts in unfamiliar territory for this series before they lurched to 231 for 7, losing five wickets for 59 runs.
But a neat cameo of 23 in 10 balls from Tim Southee in his farewell match, which included three sixes to take his tally to 98 from his 107-Test career, and Santner’s late charge lifted them to 315 for 9 at the close, the Black Caps adding 76 runs off the last eight overs of the day.
England’s bowlers lacked bite in the first session but they frustrated New Zealand through the middle session and lured them into some loose shot selection during the evening.
Latham’s half-century underpinned the hosts’ steady start after Young failed to add to his 42 runs after lunch – a staggering 40 of those coming in fours – and Kane Williamson couldn’t convert, falling for 44 when he was bowled in slow-motion trying in vain to kick a Mathew Potts delivery away from his stumps.
Were it not for Santner’s freewheeling knock, New Zealand could have been in a worse state with no other batter passing Southee’s score from No. 10.
New Zealand’s recalibrated opening partnership of Latham and Young expertly navigated the morning session, reaching lunch at 93 without loss after being sent in by England under skies which had turned from bright to overcast within the hour before play, then returned to blazing sunshine after the main meal break.
Young made a watchful start, facing 10 deliveries before he got off the mark with four off Potts, himself making his first appearance of the series in replacing Chris Woakes.
Young was into his work after that, no doubt to the delight of New Zealand fans who had been willing his inclusion after his Player-of-the-Series performance on the Black Caps’ successful tour of India which was just a matter of weeks ago but felt so distant as their side slid to a 2-0 deficit against England.
He was streaky to begin with, his next two boundaries coming off the edge through backward point and piercing the cordon. But by halfway through the morning session, Young and Latham had negotiated a nibbling pitch to ease their way to 46 without loss, already more than double New Zealand’s previous best opening partnership this series.
Shortly after the first drinks break, Young had helped himself to six fours all up, punishing Brydon Carse twice in one over as the England quick struggled to nail his lengths.
Latham was dropped on 12 and 53 by Ben Duckett, either side of England breaking his stand with Young, prised out by an excellent Gus Atkinson delivery which drew an edge to Harry Brook at second slip.
Williamson – unaccustomed to waiting so long to be called upon in this series – pulled a Carse short ball through deep backward square for four. And, when Potts finally had Latham caught down the leg side, it looked like Williamson would again need to stand up for his team, albeit from a superior position of 142 for 2.
Having burned a review as Ben Stokes hopefully sought to have Latham out caught behind off his own bowling, the England captain wisely over-ruled wicketkeeper Ollie Pope’s insistence that he’d snaffled Williamson down the leg side off Stokes for 20, replays vindicating Stokes’ decision.
Rachin Ravindra spooned Carse straight to Duckett at gully for a soft dismissal and, apart from Williamson’s freakish dismissal trying to fend Potts back down the pitch only to lose the ball behind him as it evaded his searching boot and dribbled into the base of middle stump, the loose wickets continued.
Daryl Mitchell picked out Stokes at mid off, Glenn Phillips swung wildly at a Potts ball outside off and sent it straight to Zak Crawley at backward point and Blundell chipped Carse to cover point, where Jacob Bethell took a strong catch above his head.
It took some special fielding by Brook to remove Matt Henry hooking Stokes to the young England star, who pulled the ball down inside the boundary rope and parried it up before he went over, jumping back in to complete the catch.
Santner, brought in as a frontline spinner for this game at the expense of Nathan Smith, was hit on the top of the helmet by a Stokes bouncer but he shrugged off the blow to play a key role in New Zealand’s recovery.
Southee delighted his home crowd when he swung Stokes for back-to-back sixes, eliciting an involuntary grin from Stokes, who conceded 17 off the over.
Seemingly determined to reach his ton of maximums, Southee slammed the first delivery with the second new ball for another six over deep midwicket off Atkinson and a fumble on the boundary by Duckett resulted in four off the next ball. Two balls later, however, Southee’s fun was over when he tried to go down the ground and skied to Carse at mid-off.
A four off Potts in the final over drew Santner within reach of his fifty and he grabbed it in style, launching the last ball of the day for six over long-off. Potts ended with 3 for 75 and Atkinson 3 for 55.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 315 for 9 in 82 overs (Tom Latham 63, Mitchell Santner 50*, Will Young 42, Kane Williamson 44, Tom Blundell 21, Tim Southee 23; Gus Atkinson 3-55, Mathew Potts 3-75, Brydon Carse 2-78) vs England
[Cricinfo]
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Khawaja, McSweeney steady for 13.2 overs before rain ruins day one of Gabba Test
Only 13.2 overs were possible on a rain-hit first day in Brisbane, where India strove without success after choosing to bowl first in the third Border-Gavaskar Test match.
Overcast conditions and a grassy pitch prompted India to insert Australia after winning their third straight toss, and perhaps recent history informed their decision too, with the team bowling first having won six of the last seven Tests at this venue. It took a while for India’s quicks to find their lengths, however, and the openers looked mostly untroubled in the first 5.3 overs before a drizzle sent the players off the field, with Usman Khawaja putting away anything a touch too straight or short while getting to 13 off 22 balls.
Play resumed after a half-hour interruption, and the bowlers began to ask more questions, shifting their lengths fuller and finding more movement. Akash Deep, who came into the side in place of Harshit Rana, looked particularly impressive as first change, swinging and nipping the ball into the right-handed Nathan McSweeney and getting the odd ball to climb awkwardly too.
But just as the contest was beginning to heat up, with India conceding only nine runs in 7.5 overs after the break, the rain returned, this time with greater intensity. The fast-draining Gabba outfield promised a quick resumption as and when the rain stopped, but the wait for that to happen dragged on and on, taking in both the lunch and tea breaks. The downpour relented at around 3 pm but returned soon after. Play was eventually called off at 4.13pm.
Apart from Akash Deep, India also brought Ravindra Jadeja into their side for his first appearance of the series, in place of R Ashwin. This change meant they had played three different spinners in each of the first three Tests. For Australia, Josh Hazlewood returned after recovering from his side strain, displacing Scott Boland from the pace attack.
Brief scores:
Australia 28 for 0 (Usman Khawaja 19*, Nathan McSweeney 4*) vs India
[Cricinfo]
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India’s Gukesh beats China’s Ding to become youngest chess world champion
Teenager Gukesh Dommaraju of India became the youngest undisputed chess world champion by beating defending champion Ding Liren of China in a dramatic turn of events in the last game of a 14-game match in Singapore.
Gukesh, 18, is four years younger than Garry Kasparov, who had been the youngest world champion since 1985 when he beat Anatoly Karpov.
Gukesh won Thursday’s game with the black pieces after Ding wilted under pressure and blundered in what commentators considered to be a comfortable position, snatching the title with a final score of 7.5-6.5.
The 14th game appeared to be heading for a draw but with a one-pawn advantage – supported by a rook and a bishop – a tenacious Gukesh pressed on and was richly rewarded for it.
“My whole strategy for this match was to push as much as possible in every single game,” Gukesh told reporters. “It just takes one game for the strategy to pay off.”
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