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guyanatimesGY.com
tuesday, july 7, 2015
Younis, Masood tons put Pakistan ahead S
han Masood and Younis Khan came together at 13 for 2 in a chase of 377, and responded with the highest fourthinnings partnership ever for Pakistan, leaving the visitors 147 runs adrift of achieving the highest suc-
SCOREBOARD Sri Lanka 1st innings 278 Pakistan 1st innings 215 Sri Lanka 2nd innings 313 Pakistan 2nd innings (target: 377 runs) Shan Masood not out 114 0 Ahmed Shehzad b Lakma Azhar Ali c †Chandimal b Prasad 5 Younis Khan not out 101 Extras:(lb 6, w 1, nb 3) 10 Total:(2 wickets; 63 overs) 230 To bat: Misbah-ul-Haq*, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed†, Ehsan Adil, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali, Imran Khan Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-13 Bowling: KTGD Prasad 13-2-42-1, RAS Lakmal 12-2-34-1, N Pradeep 10-2-32-0, AD Mathews 6-115-0, PHT Kaushal 20-1-92-0, J Mubarak 2-0-9-0.
cessful chase ever in Sri Lanka. The duo had to contend with a charged up threeman pace attack running in with a new ball. Masood had to overcome considerable nerves in general in his first Test outside the UAE, and discomfort against the short ball in particular. Their ally was the pitch, having slowed down enough for the ball to lose nearly all its threat along with its shine. Their pressure release was the inexperienced offspinner Tharindu Kaushal,
who went for 92 in 20 wicketless overs. The first ball of Pakistan’s innings had summed up the task that lay ahead, when Dhammika Prasad squared up Masood with a ripper. Suranga Lakmal bettered that testing first over, beating Ahmed Shehzad with one that moved away and then uprooting his off stump with one that came in. Misfortune added to Pakistan’s worries when Azhar Ali nicked behind down the leg side off Prasad in trying to whip a wide one. The scoreline of 13 for 2 would not have helped Masood’s jittery beginning, but the arrival of Younis did. Younis was eager to move across and solidly got behind the line of deliveries. He was also keen to look for the single. Slowly, Masood started to find some confidence. He was still not comfortable against the shorter lengths but moved forward to drill a few drives down the ground when the seamers overpitched. The introduction of Kaushal in the 14th over changed the situation. The offspinner could not control his lengths, and repeatedly served up short balls and full tosses. Masood stepped out to lift him for fours, Younis pulled powerfully. By tea, Kaushal had conceded 43 from seven overs and the partnership had grown to 86 in 22. Younis had been in no trouble till tea; he became almost imperious after the break. He started jumping across and thumping the fast bowlers on the up through the covers. He whipped Prasad through midwicket and cover-drove him for successive fours to
march past fifty. Masood had settled down, and though he was still getting beaten on the cut, he was also working the ball into gaps. With his fast bowlers flagging, and his offspinner leaking runs, Angelo Mathews tried himself, and almost broke through. Sri Lanka reviewed for leg-before against Masood, on 79, but with replays inconclu-
had stretched Sri Lanka’s lead to 376, even as Imran Khan picked up his maiden five-for with the second new ball.The overnight pair of Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal had furthered their rebuilding act to strengthen Sri Lanka’s position, adding 50 runs more to extend their sixth-wicket partnership to 117. The lead was nearing 350 when Imran finally got
Younis Khan flays the ball through the leg side
sive about whether there was an inside edge, the third umpire had to go with the on-field call. Sri Lanka’s spread-out fields helped Masood and Younis to keep rotating the strike. Masood reached his maiden Test hundred stepping out and lifting Kaushal for a straight six. Younis never allowed the offspinner to settle, trying the reverse sweep now and then, and made it 30 Test centuries with a swept four in the last over of the day. He also became the first man to make five fourth-innings hundreds. In the morning, Mathews’ fifth Test century
reward for his accuracy in the 16th over of the day, Chandimal going leg-before for 67. Prasad bagged a king pair, feathering one to the keeper. Imran, who had bowled lucklessly in the first innings, wrapped up proceedings to herald lunch, when Mathews chased a wide one on 122, and became the fourth successive man to be caught by Sarfraz Ahmed. By then, he had left Pakistan the task of mounting the second-highest successful chase in Asia to win the series. Masood and Younis’ 217-run partnership seems to have put Pakistan firmly on that path. (Cricinfo)
McIlroy sustains major ankle injury in build-up to Open W orld number one and defending champion Rory McIlroy is a doubt for the Open after totally rupturing an ankle ligament playing football with friends. The 2015 Open begins in nine days’ time at St Andrews in Scotland. McIlroy, 26, wrote on Instagram: “Total rupture of left ATFL (ankle ligament) and associated joint capsule damage in a soccer kickabout with friends. “Continuing to assess extent of injury and treatment plan day by day. Rehab already started.” A spokesman for the Northern Irishman, who will have further scans on his ankle over the next 48
hours, said he has not ruled himself out of the Open. But Dr Peter Larkins, a former Olympic steeplechaser who now provides insight into Aussie Rules injuries for television, said the recovery time for a ruptured ankle ligament could be up to 12 weeks. “It’s six weeks wearing a moon boot and six weeks of physio,” he told BBC Sport. “Could he play at the Open? It’s a tricky one. It depends how much pain he can tolerate. If the ankle is very loose and badly swollen, I can’t imagine him walking around for miles for four rounds. “The swelling can ease in a week with plenty of therapy, but that won’t
Rory McIlroy
leave much time for practice.” Scottish golfer Richie Ramsay tweeted that he suffered a similar injury, which resulted in a lengthy recovery period. “I had a full tear of liga-
ments in my ankle not long ago. It takes a lot longer than you think to heal,” he said. “Three months until I played, and even then getting my foot to work the right way was tough.” McIlroy, who has won four majors, was set to play in the Scottish Open this week, but will definitely miss that event. He could also miss the chance to defend his US PGA Championship title in mid-August. McIlroy has had a mixed season so far, finishing fourth at the Masters in April, and joint ninth at last month’s US Open. Both tournaments were won by Jordan Spieth. (BBC Sport)
CONCACAF details rebuilding plans after FIFA bribery scandal P lunged into crisis by a second FIFA bribery scandal in four years, CONCACAF wants to pass sweeping new leadership rules to help rebuild. The North and Central American and Caribbean governing body published anti-corruption proposals Monday after its past two presidents and general secretaries were implicated in an American federal investigation of racketeering in international footall. CONCACAF’s president since 2012, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, and an executive committee colleague Eduardo Li of Costa Rica are fighting extradition to the United States from prison cells in Zurich where they were arrested in May. Its top administrator, Enrique Sanz, is suspended from all footall duty by FIFA and CONCACAF after being linked to arranging bribes for Webb from the rights-holding sports marketing agency where he used to work. “From a crisis standpoint, this is a pretty big crisis,” CONCACAF legal adviser Sam Gandhi said. “We have to solve our own problems and we need to show we are a leader.” The reform proposals include: Imposing term limits on CONCACAF presidents and executive committee members; appointing independent outsiders to the policy-making executive panel executive committee; publishing salaries and expenses of top officials. “The whole world has acknowledged that independent board members are important to avoid conflicts of interest,” Gandhi said of an idea FIFA refused to enact in its own reform process two years ago. CONCACAF also wants to run background checks on potential commercial partners, hire a compliance officer and run a whistleblower hotline. The detailed plans for “systemic organizational change” were published Monday, one day before CONCACAF’s Gold Cup tournament kicks off in the United States “We are going to be able to put on a great event and going to be able to pay prize money,” Gandhi, a partner with law firm Sidley Austin, said in a telephone interview. “We have had no restrictions on our operations.” Still, CONCACAF’s marquee competition was named in a stunning 164page indictment published in May by the U.S. Department of Justice. It alleged widespread
Jeffrey Webb
corruption over 24 years in the award of broadcast rights for international football events. Gold Cup rights through 2021 are held by the Traffic Sports USA Inc agency, whose president Aaron Davidson is one of 14 football and marketing officials named in the indictment. The company has made a guilty plea to wire fraud conspiracy. Webb and Li are also among those 14 indicted in the widening American federal investigation, as was former CONCACAF president Jack Warner, a longtime FIFA vice president, who is resisting extradition from his native Trinidad and Tobago. Two of Warner’s sons already made guilty pleas. Warner’s former righthand man at CONCACAF, American Chuck Blazer also had his guilty plea unsealed in May. Between them, they ran CONCACAF for more than two decades until Blazer turned whistleblower in 2011 to implicate Warner and then-FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar in a vote-buying plot. CONCACAF’s reputation was battered and within a year Webb was elected and Sanz hired on a joint pledge to clean house and restore its standing. Instead, American federal agencies allege that Webb was already seeking and getting bribes from Sanz’s former employer Traffic Sports. Monday’s reform document was accepted Saturday at a CONCACAF executive meeting after being drafted by Gandhi and an emergency panel formed by the leaders of the Canada, Mexico and U.S. football federations. Changes must be approved at a congress of the full 41-nation CONCACAF membership, likely within a year. “We and, more importantly, the ExCo (executive committee) realize we need to do the right thing to right the ship otherwise there will not be a confederation,” Gandhi said. (Digicel
Sportsmax)