Jayasuriya becomes the oldest centurion in one-day internationals and goes past the 13,000-run mark, but his valiant efforts go in vain as India overhaul the 247-run target losing four wickets

Dambulla, January 28
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit an unbeaten 61 in 65 balls to lead India to a six-wicket victory in the opening one-dayer against Sri Lanka today.

Set 247 to win after Sanath Jayasuriya had scored 107 for the home side, opener Gautam Gambhir laid the foundations with 62 and added 113 for the second wicket with Suresh Raina (54).

Earlier, the 39-year-old Jayasuriya became the oldest centurion in one-day internationals and went past the 13,000-run mark after cracking 10 fours and one six. All-rounder Farveez Maharoof, promoted up the order, also chipped in with 35.

Dhoni had won the toss and chose to bowl first in the hope of exploiting early seam movement. Tillakaratne Dilshan was run out for a duck in the first over but Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara negotiated the initial threat of the new ball with intelligent batting.

Jayasuriya put on 118 for the second wicket with fellow left-hander Sangakkara (44).

Sri Lanka looked poised for a large total but India pegged them back in the latter stages of the innings.

Thilina Kandamby (17) spooned a catch to mid off and Jayasuriya skied another catch to mid off, reducing the hosts to 171 for four.

Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene's low-scoring run continued as he top-edged a sweep and was out for 11.

Paceman Ishant Sharma was the most successful of the Indian bowlers, claiming three for 52.

India's reply started badly when Sachin Tendulkar (5) was unfortunate to be judged lbw to an inswinger from Thilina Thushara that pitched outside leg-stump.

That was counter-balanced by a reprieve for Gambhir who was lucky to get the benefit of the doubt after a caught and bowled decision was referred to the TV umpire. Sri Lanka were also guilty of poor fielding as Dilshan grassed a simple chance at backward point when Raina had made six.

The home side clawed their way back into the game when Gambhir was caught in the deep and Raina was run out, leaving India 137 for three. Dhoni, however, took command by adding 44 with Yuvraj Singh (23) and an unbroken 66-run stand with Rohit Sharma (25 not out). The second game in the five-match series is in Colombo on Saturday. — Reuters

Sri Lanka:

Dilshan run out 0

Jayasuriya c Patel b Zaheer 107

Sangakkara c Raina b Ohja 44

Kandamby c Zaheer b Ishant 17

Maharoof b Ishant 35

Jayawardene c Rohit b Ishant 11

Kapugedera run out 15

Thushara not out 12

Kulasekera not out 0

Extras (w-3 nb-2): 5

Total (for 7, 50 overs): 246

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-118, 3-169, 4-171, 5-204, 6-222, 7-245.

Bowling: Zaheer 10-2-40-1, Munaf 5-0-32-0, Ishant 10-1-52-3, P Ohja 10-0-52-1, Irfan 7-0-32-0, Raina 4-0-16-0, Rohit 4-1-22-0.

India:

Gambhir c Kandamby b Murali 62

Tendulkar lbw b Thushara 5

Raina run out 54

Yuvraj c Murali b Maharoof 23

Dhoni not out 61

Rohit not out 25

Extras (8-lb, 8-w, 1-nb): 17

Total (for 4, 48.1 overs): 247

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-126, 3-137, 4-181.

Bowling: N Kulasekara 7-0-32-0, T Thushara 8-0-44-1, F Maharoof 8-0-35-1, A Mendis 10-0-47-0, M Muralitharan 10-0-52-1, T Dilshan 5.1-0-29-0.

Rajkot, January 28
Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid starer South Zone will lock horns with North Zone in a four-day Duleep Trophy semifinal starting at Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground here tomorrow.

South Zone had ensured a berth in semifinal by taking thin but valuable three runs first innings lead over Central Zone in quarterfinal played at Bangalore.

Along with former Indian stumper Dinesh Karthik, Robin Utthappa and skipper S Badrinath, Dravid will be the mainstay in batting for the South Zone.

Dravid had scored 103 runs in quarter final against Central Zone while Karthik had made back-to-back century in both innings in the match.

On the other side, North Zone have no such big names and its skipper Akash Chopra also admitted that opposition was a better side. "South has a better side on paper than us, but our players are looking forward to do well in the match," Chopra told mediapersons here.

Teams:

South Zone: S Badrinath (capt), Abhinav Mukund, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Laxmipathy Balaji, S Sreesanth, Vinay Kumar, Saurav Babdekar, M, Suresyh and Anoop Pai.

Melbourne, January 28
World number one Rafael Nadal set up a semifinal showdown with fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco after subduing France’s Gilles Simon 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 at the Australian Open on Wednesday. Simon was easily accounted for in the first set but then refused to go quietly into the warm Melbourne night and he threatened to take a set off the Spaniard for the first time in the tournament.

Nadal, however, was in no mood to hang around longer than necessary and took the match in two hours, 27 minutes. “Today was tough because playing against Simon is always difficult,” Nadal told reporters.

Spain’s Fernando Verdasco benefited from the cooler conditions created by the closed roof and rolled men’s fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. The 14th seed showed no ill-effects from his gruelling five-set victory over Britain’s Andy Murray in his previous match as he overwhelmed Tsonga in a little under three hours.

Nadal’s meeting with Verdasco on Friday will be the first time two Spanish men have met in the semi-finals at the Australian Open since the tournament opened its doors to professionals in 1969.

Serena Williams survived the onset of a once-in-a-century heatwave and endured an out-of-body experience on Wednesday to oust Svetlana Kuznetsova and join a trio of Muscovites in the semifinals. Only the American’s refusal to buckle and the organisers’ decision to close the roof as the mercury soared, prevented a Russian sweep of the quarter-finals after Elena Dementieva had earlier endured the brutal conditions to advance.

Dementieva beat unseeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-2. The fourth seed’s compatriots Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina booked their semifinal berths on Tuesday. “Me against the Russians now, I guess,” Williams quipped after her 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 victory. — Reuters

Indian players rounded off a brilliant day at the Australian Open amid soaring temperatures with Leander Paes advancing to the men's doubles semifinal and Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza making the last-four stage of the mixed doubles event here today.

Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, seeded fourth, quelled a late challenge from unseeded Italians Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi 6-1 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, Sania and Mahesh rallied to beat Canadians Aleksandra Wozniak and Daniel Nestor to seal a semifinal berth in the mixed doubles event.

The unseeded Indian pair overcame a first-set lapse to carve out a 3-6 6-4 10-5 win in one hour and 15 minutes.

Sania and Bhupathi, the runners-up here last year, dropped their serve twice in the first set and wasted one break point to hand the opener to their opponents.

In the super-tie breaker, the Indians held their nerves to emerge winners. They next face the Czech pair of Iveta Benesova and Lukas Dlouhy.

Among the juniors, top seed Yuki Bhambri extended his winning run to quarterfinals after defeating 13th seed Croat Dino Marcan 6-3 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals of the boys singles competition. Yuki, along with Liang-Chi Huang of Taipei, was also scheduled to compete in the boys' doubles quarterfinals but the match was cancelled due to excruciating heat. — PTI

Karachi, January 28
Batting legend Javed Miandad today resigned as director-general of the Pakistan Cricket Board in protest against the "limited responsibility" given to him by the Board's top brass.

Miandad, a former Pakistan captain and coach, cited disagreement with the Board on terms of his contract as prime reason for his resignation.

"I have taken this decision since I am not satisfied with the terms of the contract given to me, in particular my areas of responsibility which is limited.

"I have no hard feelings towards anyone but a cricketer of my stature cannot be happy with the responsibilities they are giving me," Miandad told PTI.

Miandad's resignation comes less than 24 hours after PCB sacked captain Shoaib Malik from the post and appointed senior batsman Younis Khan in his place.

PCB had held emergency meetings with former and current players before removing Malik in the wake of the recent ODI series defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka.

Miandad, who has been the coach of the team thrice in the past, though admitted he had opposed the immediate removal of Malik as captain.

"I just felt the captain deserved better treatment because if team loses and batting fails, all players are responsible and even the coach who made tactical mistakes in the last two games.

"But the reason I resigned is that the authority and responsibilities promised to me are not part of the contract offered to me," he said. — PTI

Patiala, January 28
Punjab archers have finally put an end to a three-year draught and won an individual medal and a team event at the 29th Senior National Archery Championship that was held at Chhatrapati Shivaji Stadium, Pune, from January 19 to January 25. The team returned to the city yesterday.

In the men’s compound category, Amarinder Singh, a student of Punjabi University, Patiala, who recently won a silver medal at the 1st Asian Open Compound Championship that was held at Yangon, Myanmar, won a silver medal in the 30 m distance. He set a new national record jointly at this distance by scoring 359/360 points. Amarinder along with Surinder Singh, Jiwanjot Singh and Navdeep Brar also qualified for the next National Games.

On being questioned about his performance, a delighted Amarinder was all praises for his coach Jiwanjot Singh. He gave his coach a lot of credit for his performance. He said, “I worked day and night for this tournament as this was the biggest event of the year and my coach also had been with me throughout to help me attain this level. I am glad I could fulfill my coach’s dream.”

In the women’s category, a team comprising Gagandeep Kaur, Manveer Kaur, Gaganjot Kaur and Rajbir Kaur won a silver medal in the compound championship and thus also qualified for the National Games.

BRIEFLY

Bindra, Gagan among world’s top five
New Delhi: Ace shooter Gagan Narang climbed up one spot to reach number five in the latest men’s air rifle World Rankings issued by the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF). The Hyderabad-based shooter recently won the gold medal in the World Cup finals at Bangkok and had also set a new world record in the process. “I am happy to break into the top five of the world rankings in the new year, my aim this year is to be world number 1 once again,” Gagan said. However there was no change in the top two rankings held by Beijing Olympic medal winners Zhu Qinan of China (1) and India’s Abhinav Bindra (2). Ronjan Sondhi also maintained his 10th spot in the men's double trap event while no other Indian managed to be in the top 10 of any event. — PTI

Malik disappointed but not discouraged
Karachi: Shoaib Malik on Wednesday admitted that he was disappointed at losing the captaincy of Pakistan cricket team but said he had no issues playing under new captain Younis Khan and will try to give his best to the side. “Obviously anyone would be disappointed at losing the captaincy,” Malim told PTI on Wednesday. “But the chairman of the Board requested me to step down at this stage and I agreed because nothing is bigger then the team,” he said. Malik was on Tuesday asked to step down in the wake of Pakistan’s lost a one-day series to Sri Lanka with the team being bowled out for 75 in the final match at Lahore. The Pakistan Board has appointed Younis Khan as the new captain while Misbah-ul Haq remains the vice-captain. — PTI

Principal Harbhajan Singh All-India football
Chandigarh: The Forty Seventh edition of Principal Harbhajan Singh All-India Football Tournament kicked off at Mahilpur on Wenesday with four matches being played in the college teams category. In the first match between Naroor Panchhat college and Sports Wing Kharar Achharwal Naroor Panchhat won 1-0. A very interesting duel was witnessed between S.G.G.S Khalsa College Mahilpur and DAV College Jalandhar where the Mahilpur team won 4-0. Khalsa College, Garhshankar, beat Layall pur Khalsa College Jalandhar by 3-2. The Garhshankar team scored all their goals in the first half The fourth match of the day resulted in G.N. College Phagwara beating Dalbir Academy Patiala by 2-0, with both the goals being scored by Vijay in the 28th and 47th minute. — TNS

Mansoor shines in cricket tourney
NEW DELHI: A deadly spell of 4 for 15 by Mohd. Mansoor helped Malik Sports beat Air India by 24 runs and entered the final of the 13th Sahibzada Ajit Singh Cricket Tournament played at the Sri Guru Gobind Singh College ground here on Wednesday. Scores: Malik Sports: 121 (Rajiv Rawat 43, Abid Khan 3 for 17, Iresh Saxena 2 for 15, Ajit Chandela 2 for 18, Naman Sharma 2 for 23). Air India: 97 (Sonu Sharma 27, Mohd Mansoor 4 for 15, Sharad Kumar 2 for 11, Lokender 2 for 30). — TNS