27th July 1997

Contents

• Well done Capt. Cool
• President sends congratulatory message
• Havies beat Old Trinitians
• Rain delays afternoon play
• Dravid: the right choice
• CR-Kandy grudge battle today
• Can Thurstan topple Isipatana?
• Sixteen nations fight for Women's Rugby World

Well done Capt. Cool

World champions take Asia Cup in swashbuckling style

By Marlon Fernandopulle

Sri Lanka added another jewel to their crown when they completely outplayed India and beat the defending champions by eight wickets to win the glittering Pepsi Asia cup with 13 overs to spare at the Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

(Adjudicator John Reid, a famous New Zealand captain and opening bat, described Sri Lanka's Captain Arjuna Ranatunga as 'Capt. Cool.'

Indian Captain Sachin Tendulkar playing a strong tribute to Sri Lanka at the presentation ceremony gave the World Champions a "target 1000" rating - indicating that the way Sri Lanka batted yesterday, even a target of 1000 would have been within their reach.

Other former world cricket stars described Sri Lanka's performance as "incredible" and "stupendous". One commentator summed up the match as a ruthless destruction of India by the Sri Lankan "juggernauts.")

The victory marked the class of Arjuna Ranatunge's world champion team.Their bowlers strangled the Indian batsmen with some accurate bowling while the fielders held on to some breathtaking catches leaving the spectators spellbound.To cap it all, their batsmen flayed the Indian attack to all corners of the field with a spirited and entertaining performance that thrilled the capacity crowd.

It was Sri Lanka's third title in only four months. Earlier Sri Lanka won the Champions Trophy (Sharjah) and the Independence Cup (India)

Needing to score at an asking rate of 4.8 runs per over after restricting India to 239 for 7, Sri Lanka's record breaking openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu provided another copybook one day start.They treated the Indian bowling attack with scant respect to hoist the 50 in only 32 balls.

Atapattu, who usually plays second fiddle to his partner, made his intentions clear when he stroked a couple of boundaries early in his innings and also hoisted Anil Kumble for a six over long-off in only the ninth over.

Not content watching Atapattu do the scoring, Jayasuriya soon stepped into a destructive mood and tore into the Indian bowlers.

Choosing the right ball to go over the top, Jayasuriya blazed his way to a series of boundaries to reach his half century in only 36 balls. The openers put on 100 runs in only the 11th over and continued to send the visitors on a leather hunt as Sachin Tendulkar and his team watched helplessly.

After adding 137 runs with Marvan in 19.1 overs, Jayasuriya mistimed a drive and gave Sidhu at mid-off an easy catch. Sanath departed for 63 in 52 balls but had once again paved the way for victory.

Aravinda de Silva departed soon as skipper Arjuna Ranatunge who scored an unbeaten century against India last week took charge once again to plunder the visitors' attack. Ranatunge took the bowling by the scruff of the neck to score another run-a-ball half century which included three towering sixes off debutant Kulkarni.The in form skipper remained unbeaten on 62 to take his aggregate in the tournament to 272 with an average of 135. He later went on to win the man of the series award. Attapattu dropped anchor once again to remain unbeaten on 82.

Earlier in the day Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and elected to bat first. Navjot Sidhu opened the batting with Ganguly, but were contained by some tidy and intelligent bowling by Chaminda Vaas and Sajeewa de Silva. Silva struck first when he scalped the wicket of Sidhu with the score on 32 in the 10th over.Soon after Kumar Dharmasena prised the wicket of Ganguly for 34 with the score at 51. Stylish batsman Rahul Dravid was next to go, caught brilliantly by a diving Mahanama at mid-wicket as the visitors slumped to 59 for 3.

India's most experienced pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Azharuddin then guided the ship out of troubled waters.

SCOREBOARD

India

S. Ganguly c A.de. Silva b Dharmasena 34
N.Sidhu c Muralitharan b S.Silva 10
R.Dravid c Mahanama v Vaas 7
S.Tendulkar c Kalpage b Muralitharan 53
M.Azharuddin c Muralitharan b Dharmasena 81
A.Jadeja run out 22
R.Singh c A.de. Silva b Vaas 9
A.Kumble not out 7
S.Karim not out 1

Extras: 15

Total (for 7 wkts in 50 overs) 239

Fall of Wickets: 1-32; 2-51; 3-59; 4-168; 5-215; 6-225; 7-234.

Bowling: 

C.Vaas 8-1-32-2; S.de. Silva 9-1-44-1; 
K.Dharmasena 10-1-54-2; 
M.Muralitharan 10-1-37-1; 
S.Jayasuriya 10-0-46-0; 
R. Kalpage 3-0-16-0.

Sri Lanka

S.Jayasuriya c Sidhu b Kulkarni 63
M.Atapattu not out 84
A.de.Silva c & b Ganguly 6
A.Ranatunga not out 62

Extras: 25

Fall of Wickets: 1-137; 2-144.

Bowling: 

V.Prasad 4-0-43-0; 
R.Singh 3-0-26-0; 
A.Kumble 8-0-54-0; 
S.Tendulkar 3-0-20-0; 
N.Kulkarni 10-0-48-1; 
R.Dravid 2-0-6-0;
A.Jadeja 1.5-0-8-0; 
S.Ganguly 5-0-26-1.

President sends congratulatory message

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has sent a congratulatory message to the Sri Lanka cricket team from London on their winning the Asia Cup. yesterday.

The message says: "My heartiest congratulations to Arjuna Ranatunga and the Sri Lanka cricket team on winning the Asia Cup. I, together with the people of Sri Lanka, salute the Sri Lanka team. I would like to express my gratitude to them all for winning the tournament once again and proudly congratulate skipper Ranatunga and each and every member of the team on this proud occasion."

Havies beat Old Trinitians

By Shane Seneviratne

Havelocks beat Old Trinitians by 27 points (2 goals, 4 tries and a penalty) to 15 (three tries) in their A Division Inter-Club first round league encounter for the Carlsberg Trophy at Nittawela yesterday.The winners led 17-10 at 'lemons'.

For the Havies, Leonard de Zylva, Rushdi Faiz, Ice Sukanaivalu, Thushara Jayalath, Gabrield Jackson and Gideon Raka scored a try each with Chanaka Jayaweera goaling two tries and putting over a penalty.

For the Old Trinitians, M.Farhad scored two tries and R.Botha scored the other.

Referee Anil Jayasinghe.

Rain delays afternoon play

LEEDS, England, July 26 (Reuter) - Rain delayed the

afternoon session of play on the third day of the fourth test between England and Australia on Saturday.

The players had gone off shortly before lunch, with Australia 201 ahead at 373 for five in their first innings.

The local weather forecast was for persistent rain, heavy at times, which appeared to give England their best hope of avoiding a defeat likely to cost them the Ashes series.

Victory for Australia, needing only a drawn series to retain the Ashes, would put them two-one ahead with two to play.

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