Cardiff, June 18
Sri Lankan fans danced and sang all the way out of the Oval ground to the streets of central London yesterday, after all. Australia were down to 80/5, but they nearly broke Sri Lankan hearts; but Sri Lanka prevailed in the fading light. The result knocked out two Antipodean neighbours, Australia and New Zealand.

It set up another confrontation between two other neighbours — Subcontinental, south Asian neighbours. That amazing catch by Tillakaratne Dilshan, when the noisy Sri Lankan fans had lost their hopes and voices, means that Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men face Sri Lanka in the semifinal here on Thursday.

India thrashed Sri Lanka in their warm-up match for this tournament. Mahela Jayawardene, Man of the Match against Australia, knows India must be respected, though not feared. “I think they're playing some really good cricket. Their batting looks really strong, so those are key areas that we need to focus a bit on,” he said at the Oval.

Sri Lanka, India’s bittersweet neighbour, the emerald teardrop to our south, has given Indian cricket great joy, and much grief. Their classy cricketers have enthralled Indian fans; they have also caused many heartbreaks.

In Test cricket, Sri Lanka troubled India right from the beginning, though they’ve never won a Test on Indian soil, and India have a 14-6 win/loss record against them. But the first India-Sri Lanka Test that didn’t end in a draw was won by Sri Lanka — this was also the young Test team’s first win, three years after they gained Test status. They’ve played five Twenty20 Internationals against each other, and India have won three of them.

In ODIs too, India hold the edge — 75 wins and 52 losses. The two teams have been meeting quite regularly in the last two decades. They had 43 match-ups in the 1990s and 56 in the 2000s; in the current decade, they’ve already played 21 times.

The Lankans had taken a head-start in the ODIs. India had a 0-3 win/loss record against Sri Lanka after their first four World Cup matches; it took no less than a score of 373 for India to beat Sri Lanka for the first time in the World Cup, in 1999. India won their match in 2003 too but then, in 2007, defeat to Sri Lanka (six days after the loss to Bangladesh) knocked India out of the World Cup.

After India beat Sri Lanka in the final of the 2011 World Cup, their record has been quite good — eight wins in 11 matches including that win in the final.

In the Asia Cup, they have nine wins each; in the Champions Trophy, though, India have won their only two encounters.

Jayawardene, though, said on match day, past would be irrelevant. “It's the semifinal. Warm-up games or whatever, it doesn't count right now,” he said. “It's a big tournament. It's the semifinal, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Jaywardene had made a stunning 88-ball 103 in the 2011 World Cup final; over 20 percent of his ODI runs, 2280 out of 11022, have been made against India. He’s not a man who would be overawed by reputations, and the Indian bowling isn’t exactly fearsome, though the Indian batting is.

He was asked if he would be “desperate” to do well against India. “I'll be desperate for every game to win, simple as that. It's not about trophies or whatever, it's just to win matches,” he said. “So I'll have that same passion and same desperation to win games, doesn't matter if it's a semifinal or final or just a group game. As long as I have that attitude and the rest of the boys, we'll go a long way.”

Cardiff, June 18
Sport and politics do mix, and they mix all the time —that’s a fact, very distant though it is from the idealistic notions about sport.

The seat of the British government, at the Whitehall in London, has been the site of a continuing protest. Called Kesari Lehar, it is organised mainly by Sikh immigrants who wish to protest against the “abuse of human rights in India”. They are demanding the abolishment of the death penalty in India; specifically, they are protesting against the death sentence awarded to Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted for his involvement in the 1993 bombing of the All Indian Youth Congress office in New Delhi.

These protestors shiver in the summer nights of London, which remain extremely cold; the currents of the Thames nearby add to the chill of the night. They have not taken their protests to the cricket grounds, but they do say that India should be boycotted in all sports, including cricket. “Yes, no team should play against India, or host India, in any match in any sport,” says a protester, Param.

Sri Lankan Tamil protestors have been spotted near the grounds. In 2009 during the Twenty20 World Cup, thousands of protestors marched through central London in June, a month after the decisive battle against the LTTE ended. They had been protesting against the alleged cold-blooded killings of the Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan army.

They do that now too, though in much smaller numbers. Tamil protestors have been spotted in all of Sri Lanka’s matches in the Champions Trophy. They say they wish to “raise awareness about the atrocities that were committed by the Sri Lankan government and the on-going human rights abuses of Tamils” in Sri Lanka.

They are likely to blame India, too, and Sonia Gandhi in particular. “India let down Tamils in Sri Lanka, they did nothing at all to protect them,” says Gowri, one of the protestors. “More evidence has now emerged in the recent months about how the Sri Lankan army killed Tamil non-combatants in cold blood. There was a Channel 4 documentary that presented strong evidence about this. The atrocities have not ended. It is sad that the world doesn’t pay heed to the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.”

Another team with strife at home, Pakistan, also has been attracting strong and passionate protests. However, they are just their long-suffering cricket fans, who have been humiliated and angered by their team’s ineptness. They’ve hurled abuses and plastic bottles at the team, but there has been nothing political about all that.

London, June 18
India have strengthened their number one position on the ICC ODI Championship Table as they have added two more rating points to their kitty with an unbeaten run in the group stage of the Champions Trophy. India had entered the tournament on 119 ratings points and have moved to 121England are now ranked second after moving up two places from fourth, thereby pushing Australia to third position.

Meanwhile, among the players, in form Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja has entered the top-5 as he gained three places to be at number four in the ODI bowlers' list. R Ashwin though dropped a place to 15th. —PTI

London, June 18
India's Javagal Srinath was appointed as match referee for the first Champions Trophy semifinal between England and South Africa at the Oval on Wednesday.Kumar Dharmasena and Rod Tucker will be the on-field umpires while Bruce Oxenford and Steve Davis have been appointed as third and fourth umpires, respectively.

The following day, India and Sri Lanka go head to head in the second semi-final at Cardiff Wales Stadium. Richard Kettleborough and Aleem Dar will be the on-field umpires, with Nigel Llong and Ian Gould as third and fourth umpires, respectively.The match referee will be Chris Broad. — PTI

Cardiff, June 18
The Indian team, possibly tired of all the inaction, the off days, the ease of wins over the last few days, turned up in full force for their optional practice session this afternoon.

The pretty Sophia Gardens ground here has been good to the Indian batting in the two One-day Internationals they’ve played here. Both time they topped 300, against England in 2011 and South Africa earlier in this tournament. They lost to England, though, on D/L calculations; but they defended their 331/7 against South Africa. In the warm-up match too, they had a good time here — after racking up 308/6, they had dismissed Australia for 65.

The Indians today did their routine stuff here —football to warm up, batting in the nets. Suresh Raina was the first to reach, and he settled down for a session of batting against throw-downs from a staff member. Shikhar Dhawan was the cynosure of all eyes in the nets, as was Ravindra Jadeja. In London, meanwhile, the world’s best fast bowler was hopeful of playing in the semifinal. This tournament has sorely lacked top-class, inspirational fast bowling, sadly, and that has been largely due to the fact that Dale Steyn has been injured. He played only one match, the tied match against West Indies, in which he bowled only five overs.

Steyn did not do much in the training today, as he has been feeling some discomfort in his “groin region”, according to South Africa manager Mohammed Moosajee. Captain AB de Villiers said that Steyn was close to peak fitness. “He's got a few niggles around, which is very worrying, but we're going to do all we can to get him on the park tomorrow," de Villiers said. “He's close to 100%, he's running around. We didn't want to run him too much today because we knew he's one of the best in the world and he's got the skill to just rock up and do the business. He's working on his rehab making sure we give him the best chance to play tomorrow." Steyn’s fitness would be reviewed tomorrow morning, said de Villiers.

London, June 18
England topped Group A and will play South Africa in the last-four stage after Sri Lanka knocked holders Australia out of the tournament with a 20-run win at The Oval last night.

South Africa will look to shed their big tournament 'chokers' tag that has haunted them for long as they go into the first semifinal against strong contenders England here tomorrow in what promises to be a thrilling showdown.

England topped Group A and will play South Africa in the last-four stage after Sri Lanka knocked holders Australia out of the tournament with a 20-run win at The Oval last night.

Sri Lanka, who finished second in Group A, will take on reigning world champions and Group B toppers India in the second semifinal at Cardiff on Thursday. South Africa advanced to the semifinals on superior net run-rate after their rain-marred last Group B match against the West Indies in Cardiff ended in a tie. For South Africa — often dubbed 'chokers' for losing from promising positions —their only ICC trophy came way back in 1998 when they won the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy. — PTI

He (Ludivion) climbs coconut trees, he climbs all kinds of things and then he comes training. Ludivion earns his money as part of a conservation scheme in Tahiti — Eddy Etaeta, Tahiti coach

Belo Horizonte, June 18
The professionals of Nigeria, Spain and Uruguay have probably never played against an opponent who earns his living climbing coconut trees and mountains but when they take on Tahiti that is exactly what they will be up against.

Nigeria, the champions of Africa, Spain, champions of Europe and the world and South American champions Uruguay will take on defender Teheivarii Ludivion and his fellow Tahiti amateurs in Group B at the Confederations Cup in Brazil.

"We have guys doing different jobs, but nine of the squad are unemployed. Some of them are delivery boys, a truck driver, some of them are PE teachers, some are accountants," said Tahiti coach Eddy Etaeta, holding court in a media briefing.

"And we also have a player -- Teheivarii Ludivion -- he wakes up every day at 4.30 in the morning and climbs mountains all day long.

"He is a mountain climber, but he will climb anything. He climbs coconut trees, he climbs all kinds of things and then he comes training. So this is his daily life. He climbs coconut trees and mountains. Ludivion earns his money as part of a conservation scheme in Tahiti, whose whole squad, apart from captain Marama Vahirua who plays in France, are amateurs.

"So this is a very different, rich experience for my players but one they have earned and we will learn from this experience," added Etaeta, whose media session was interrupted by a local TV reporter declaring his undying love for Tahiti and handing him a Brazilian good luck charm.

Tahiti open their campaign against Nigeria at the Mineirao Stadium on Monday before facing Spain and Uruguay in their other group fixtures.

Sydney, June 18
Substitute Josh Kennedy's dramatic goal seven minutes from time sent Australia to the World Cup finals for the fourth time on Tuesday, ending a nervous night for 80,523 rain-soaked fans packed into Sydney's Olympic Stadium.

Six minutes after coming on as a substitute for Tim Cahill, Kennedy rose alone in the middle of the penalty area to head Mark Bresciano's cross past the dive of Iraq goalkeeper Noor Sabri and into the net.

The stadium erupted and Kennedy was mobbed by his team mates as they celebrated the goal that secured the win they needed to seal second place in Asian qualifying Group B and a ticket to Brazil 2014. The Australians will now make their third successive trip to the World Cup finals and a fourth in total after 1974, 2006 and 2010.

Nigeria thump Tahiti 6-1 in Confederations Cup

Belo Horizonte: Tahiti suffered a 6-1 thrashing by Nigeria in the Confederations Cup on Monday although the amateurs did find the net as Jonathan Tehau scored at both ends when they made their debut in a major tournament.

Tehau became the first player to score for both teams in a Confederations Cup match having headed in for the Oceania champions after 54 minutes before finding his own net 15 minutes later. Tahiti strung some neat moves together, frustrating Nigeria, until the islanders ran out of steam in the last 20 minutes.

Local club to attend FIFA Confed Cup event

Chandigarh: Youth Football Club, Rurkakalan (YFC) has been selected to attend the official event of the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil- 2013 named as 'Football for Hope' which will be organized by FIFA, the 2014 FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee and the host city of Belo Horizonte (June 26 to 29). — Agencies

BRIEFLY

Sania, Huber in quarters of Eastbourne WTA event
Eastbourne: Sania Mirza and Liezel Huber were made to work hard for points as they struggled past Darija Jurak and Heather Watson to move to the quarterfinals of the WTA Aegon International, here on Wednesday. The second seeded Indo-American pair recorded a 7-6 (4) 7-6 (3) win over unseeded Czech-British combo in one hour and 36 minutes in the first round of the USD 690,000 tournament, leading to Wimbledon. Sania and Huber will now fight it out with Romania's Monica Niculescu and Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova for a place in the semifinals.

Thulasi, Arundhati, Sai Praneeth in main draw
Singapore: Indian shuttlers P.C. Thulasi, Arundhati Pantawane and B. Sai Praneeth entered the main draw after winning the qualification rounds of their respective categories at the Singapore Open Super Series here Tuesday. Sai Praneeth, who sent legendary Taufik Hidayat into retirement last week, won both his men's singles qualification matches. The youngster beat Japanese Riichi Takeshita 21-12, 22-20 in 36 minutes after overcoming Malaysian Muhammad Hafiz Hashim 21-13, 21-15 in 26 minutes. He will face second seed Yun Hu of Hong Kong in the first round of the main draw Wednesday. Arundhati and Thulasi also entered the women's singles main draw. Arundhati, who hails from Nagpur, first thrashed Russian Anna Astrakhantseva 21-5, 21-10 in 17 minutes before beating local girl Xiaoyu Liang 21-14, 21-16 in half an hour.— PTI

French footballers’ underage prostitute trial adjourned
Paris: The trial of French football stars Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema over claims they paid for sex with an underage call girl was adjourned for procedural reasons on Tuesday until 2014. Benzema, a Real Madrid striker, and Ribery, a Bayern Munich winger, are to be tried on charges of paying Zahia Dehar, a prostitute-turned-fashion muse, for sex in 2008 and 2009, when she was only 16, then 17 years old. Neither footballer showed up in court on Tuesday. The pair, both players in France's national squad, have been under investigation since 2010 over the affair. They risk up to three years in jail and fines of 45,000 euros if found guilty.

Dutch teen footballers jailed for kicking linesman to death
Lelystad, Netherlands: A Dutch court found six teenage footballers and a player's father guilty on Monday of beating an amateur linesman to death, an incident that shocked the nation and prompted soul-searching over soccer violence and race. Linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen, 41, was attacked by the soccer players - mostly of Moroccan origin - while he was officiating at an under-17 match at Almere, near Amsterdam. Nieuwenhuizen was kicked repeatedly by the youth players, who were 15 and 16 years old at the time, and the adult. He collapsed hours after the match and died the following day. The adult was jailed for six years and the minors received sentences of between 12 and 24 months' youth detention. — Agencies