Sports
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| Aussie
experience prevail There they met the reigning champions Australia since 1995. The little Lankans led by Asela Pathirana had the Kangaroos on the hop, but the Aussie experience prevailed ultimately to see them home by 22 runs. Australian skipper Scott Johnson electing to bat after winning the toss could muster only 70 runs in their allotted 16 overs. The Lankans only three and half years in the game gave a fantastic effort itself to enter the W.C. final. They bowled accurately and gave nothing away. On numerous occasions the Aussie batsmen were stranded. Jayarathne was the pick of the bowlers with 4 dot balls in one over. Jayaratne was well supported by Gonaduwa and Iroshan de Silva (in the Aussie third over there were three run outs and they managed only 10 runs in 4 overs.) The Lankans were given a rollicking start by Chrishantha Peiris and Tharindu Mendis, who put 40 runs in the first quarter. At this point they just had 31 runs to make in 12 overs to make Indoor World Cup history. The Australians never lost hope. Their abundant experience and skills saw the Lankans falling by the way side, with some sharp bowling backed by brilliant fielding. The last pair Asela Pathirana and Zoysa could muster only 7 runs. 16 runs in the 8 balls - the pair was dismissed on 7 occasions - Australia won by 22. A big crowd including Sri Lanka 96 World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga watched the final. Scores:
Men Batting Sri Lanka -48 (Chrishantha Peiris 21, Tharindu Mendis 19, Dilshan Witharana 05, Sanjeewa Jayaratne 10, Iroshan de Silva 05, Sachindra Gonaduwa 05, Asela Pathirana 05, Thushendra Zoysa 12). Meanwhile in the morning session the Australian Women's team led by Donna Dalby came up with a superb allround team effort to defeat South Africa by 16 runs in a hard fought final at the 5th Hutch men/women World Cup 2004 indoor cricket championship played here, today. The Kangaroo girls made 4 in a row. In the Women's W.C. held in England in 1995. They continued their winning streak to date from the year 2002 . And last morning despite stiff opposition coming from the Proteas led by Altra Kotze with superior skills played on excellent game, where their agile fielding proved to be a winning factor electing to bat first the Aussie girls made 92. The South African girls lost to Australia in the semis in a tall scoring match 140 - 129. But defeated the Kiwi girls to enter the last two. The South African girls bowled and fielded brilliantly. Hilda Nienaper bowled to a fine line with 4 dot balls one run out and 2 dismissals though beaten, the Proteas were not disgraced and won rounds of applause for their gritty display. |
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