Inexperienced Sri Lanka Beat India by 5 Wickets in T20 Opener
India’s winning sequence in T20 internationals came to an embarrassing end after a heavily depleted Sri Lankan side pulled off an upset five-wicket victory to take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Put into bat on a lively track, which had fair amount of bounce and seam movement, India were skittled out for a paltry 101 in 18.5 overs with rookie pace trio of Kasun Rajitha (3/29), Dashun Shanaka (3/16) and Dushmantha Chameera (2/14) doing bulk of the damage.
Sri Lanka reached the target with two overs to spare.
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It was More English Wicket Than Indian, Says Dhoni
A livid India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni took a dig at the pitch prepared for the first T20 International terming it an “English” rather than Indian track.
Indian batsmen were all at sea against the seam and bounce extracted by rookie Sri Lanka pacers to get all-out for 101 in 18.5 overs thereby losing the match by five wickets.
“The wicket was completely different to what we have been playing in the last one month (in Australia). It was more like an English wicket. There was spongy bounce, and variable pace. The wicket was also not rolled properly. Looking at the wicket, we should not have played a few big shots that we played,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
India Steamroll Sri Lanka to Enter Fifth World Cup Final
Three-time champions India marched into their fifth ICC Under-19 World Cup final with an emphatic 97-run win over Sri Lanka in the semifinals.
India reached 267/9 after a shaky start before putting up an impressive effort with the ball to dismiss Sri Lanka for 170 in 42.4 overs. The batting stars were Anmolpreet Singh (72 off 92) and Sarfaraz Khan (59 off 71), who amassed his fourth fifty plus scores in five innings player in the tournament.
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India Continue Domination with Another Golden Day at SAG
India plundered most of the gold on offer for a fourth successive day with swimmers, archers and track-and-field athletes ensuring that the host country’s top position on the medals tally remained unchallenged at the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati.
Continuing their terrific show, Indians took their overall medal count to 122 (76 gold, 36 silver and 10 bronze).
The swimmers swept 7 gold medals followed by track-and-field athletes and archers. The archers won all five golds of the day, while the athletes also won similar number of gold along with six silver and three bronze. India also won both the men’s and women’s gold in volleyball.
Heath Streak to be Bowling Coach of Gujarat Lions
Former Zimbabwe all-rounder Heath Streak is set to become the bowling coach of Gujarat Lions.
Streak is currently the bowling coach of Bangladesh but he doesn’t have an exclusive contract with the national team and that enables him to take up the IPL job, according to ESPNcricinfo.
Bangladesh have done well since Streak was appointed in May 2014, winning home ODI series against India, Pakistan and South Africa.
Australian Brad Hodge has been named as Gujarat Lions coach and Suresh Raina captain.
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