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McGrath sinks Sri Lanka with one-day best ADELAIDE, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath took his one-day best of five for 40 to send Sri Lanka sliding to an 80-run defeat in their triangular series match on Sunday. McGrath produced a fiery display of pace and bounce as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 190 in 41.4 of their 50 overs in reply to Australia’s 270 all out at the Adelaide Oval. The lanky paceman dispatched five of the top six batsmen in the order in his 10 overs, helping to reduce Sri Lanka to 53 for six at one stage. McGrath won the man-of-the-match award for firing Australia to their third win in the sixth of their 10 qualifying games in the series. England lead the standings on eight points from six games, with Australia on six points. Sri Lanka, who won their previous two matches, including Saturday’s controversy-marred victory over England, have four points from six fixtures. The top two ultimately qualify for the best-of-three finals. Sri Lanka were back on the Adelaide Oval for the second straight day, with off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who was sensationally called for throwing against England on Saturday, taking his place in the side. But this time it was McGrath and not the Sri Lankan bowler who was in the spotlight. McGrath was irresistible, finding consistent line and length to add to his disconcerting lift as he tore through the Sri Lankan top order. His figures passed his previous limited-overs best of five for 52 against Pakistan at Lahore in 1994-95. At one point on Sunday, he had five for 19 off 40 balls. McGrath drew first blood when opener Romesh Kaluwitharana was caught by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist for nine. One run later he had Marvan Atapattu caught by captain Shane Warne for a duck. Then followed opener Sanath Jayasuria for 12, caught by Brendon Julian, to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 30 for three after 6.2 overs. The slide continued as paceman Adam Dale, providing effectively economical support, removed Mahela Jayawardene for nine. Jayawardene had hit a superb 120 as Sri Lanka beat England by one wicket on Saturday. McGrath continued to inflict damage by dispatching captain Arjuna Ranatunga (0) and Hashan Tillekeratne (10) to leave Sri Lanka at 53 for six after 15 overs. Sri Lanka fought back, however, as Upul Chandana (38) and Roshan Mahanama, top scorer with 55, put on 90 for the seventh wicket. Their resistance was broken when Shane Lee took two wickets with successive balls in his first over of the day-night encounter. Lee’s brisk medium pace had Chandana lbw and then Chaminda Vaas caught behind for a duck to leave Sri Lanka at 143 for eight, with Greg Blewett taking the final two wickets. Australia, without the injured Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan, looked set for a big score after openers Mark Waugh (57) and Adam Gilchrist (41) shared a quick-fire stand of 86 off 83 balls. Blewett (40) and Darren Lehmann (40) put on 68 for the fourth wicket. SCOREBOARD Australia innings A.Gilchrist c Muralitharan b
Wickremasinghe 41 Extras (lb-2 w-3 nb-3) 8 Fall of wickets: 1-86 2-116 3-135 4-203 5-208 6-233 7-258 8-259 9-261 Bowling: Vaas 10-0-63-3 (nb-2 w-1), Wickremasinghe 7-0-45-1 (w-1), Muralitharan 10-0-51-1 (w-1), Jayasuriya 10-0-48-2, Chandana 10-0-44-2 (nb-1), Jayawardene 3-0-17-0. Sri Lanka innings S.Jayasuriya c Julian b McGrath 12 Extras (lb-3 w-4 nb-18) 25 Fall of wickets: 1-26 2-27 3-30 4-40 5-40 6-53 7-143 8-143 9-177 Bowling: McGrath 10-0-40-5 (nb-6), Dale 10-2-31-1 (nb-1), Julian 5-0-37-0 (nb-8 w-1), Warne 9-0-53-0 (nb-2 w-3), Lee 6-0-20-2 (nb-1), Blewett 1.4-0-6-2. Tri-Series standings Standings in the tri-series tournament after Sunday’s match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Adelaide Oval:
Sumathipala flies to prepare defence by Allaam Ousman The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) Thilanga Sumathipala has been empowered to provide legal assistance to captain Arjuna Ranatunga, who faces an ICC (International Cricket Council) code of conduct hearing. The executive committee of the BCCSL which sat in emergency sessions yesterday, has given Sumathipala a unanimous mandate to get the best lawyers in town to fight Ranatunga’s case if he is charged for violating the ICC’s code of conduct. Ranatunga has been apparently hauled up by ICC Match Referee Peter Van Der Merwe for leading the players off after engaging in a heated argument with umpire Ross Emerson, who called off-spinner Muttiah Muralitheran for throwing in Saturday’s Carlton & United Series encounter against England at the Adelaide Oval. The maximum penalty for misconduct is either three Tests or six one-day international matches plus a portion of the match fee. Speaking to ‘The Island’ before his departure to Australia last night, Sri Lanka’s Cricket Board chief while not condoning Ranatunga’s actions, sprang to Muralitharan’s defence by saying "we will continue to play him" when it was pointed out that Emerson is scheduled to stand in Sri Lanka’s next game against England on Friday. He added that he would be having discussions with officials of the Australia Cricket Board (ACB) on Tuesday. "In anticipation of this, we made our case to the ACB five months. As hosts, they have the jurisdiction over appointment of umpires. But in the interest of the game, both sides should be accomodating," he said. "But whatever happens, the tour will go on." "We are sad an upset over this situation. We have to work within the rules but we expect justice," said Dhammika Ranatunga, the Chief Executive of the BCCSL who has also been in constant touch with ACB chairman Dennis Rogers and his counterpart Malcolm Speed. ADELAIDE, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga is to face an International Cricket Council (ICC) code of conduct hearing following his team’s controversial one-day match against England on Saturday. It is not known what charges are to be brought against Ranatunga, who briefly stopped play by leading his players to the side of the ground after off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was no-balled for throwing. England’s cricketers escaped disciplinary action after the incident-packed triangular series game that was marked by heated exchanges, but they have been given a slap on the wrist by team management. Ranatunga’s hearing was originally to have been on Monday but it was put back a day after a request from the Sri Lankan team, who wanted extra time to prepare their defence. An Australian Cricket Board (ACB) spokesman said the hearing would be in front of the triangular series match referee, South African Peter Van Der Merwe. England manager David Graveney said in a statement on Sunday he had warned his squad to improve their conduct after a meeting with Van Der Merwe. Graveney said Van Der Merwe would not take action against any members of the England team, despite physical and verbal clashes between Roshan Mahanama and captain Alec Stewart and fast bowler Darren Gough in the final overs. Arjuna’s conduct
‘appalling’, says Stewart CRICKET was facing a new crisis yesterday after a one-day international in which Muttiah Muralitharan was plunged into a new throwing controversy and the England and Sri Lankan players came dangerously close to physical blows. Alec Stewart, the England captain, criticised his opposite number Arjuna Ranatunga for his conduct during Sri Lanka’s remarkable one-wicket win, earned with two balls to spare in this triangular series match here in Adelaide. Their successful chase of 303 was completely overshadowed by ugly incidents which prompted Stewart to call it "the least enjoyable match I’ve ever played in". After the match Peter van der Merwe, the South African match referee, was seeking urgent talks with David Richards, the International Cricket Council chief executive based in London, to receive guidance on how the situation can be addressed before the teams meet again in Perth on Friday. "Certain things happened that you would never want to see on any cricket field," said Stewart, who was seen to barge into Sri Lanka’s Roshan Mahanama shortly after the Sri Lankan had clashed with Darren Gough. "Sri Lanka were under pressure after what happened with Muralitharan but if an umpire makes a decision you accept it and get on with the game. Today that didn’t happen. The way Ranatunga went about dealing with the umpire after the no-ball call was out of order. Things got very tense after that." Stewart was heard by a television stump microphone, in the extraordinary closing stages, telling Ranatunga that "your conduct today has been appalling for a country’s captain", and when he was asked to confirm it later he said: "Yes, words were exchanged and they were pretty similar to how you understand it." The whole sorry saga, arguably the closest England players have come to physical confrontations with their opponents since John Snow pushed Sunil Gavaskar of India in 1974, all revolved around the latest public humiliation of Muralitharan, who was no-balled for throwing by Ross Emerson, the umpire who called him seven times during a one-day international _against the West Indies in Brisbane three years ago. The call by Emerson, standing at square leg, came in the 18th over of the England innings, immediately after Muralitharan had bowled his 10th ball. It was the signal for Ranatunga to become embroiled in the most animated on-field argument with an umpire since the Mike Gatting-Shakoor Rana affair of 1987. After words were exchanged and fingers were jabbed, Ranatunga led his side to the boundary edge for a 14-minute delay while Sri Lankan officials consulted with their board members both in Australia and Colombo. It was the length of that delay which so enraged England. Meanwhile Ian Botham, commentating on Australia’s Channel 9 at the time, launched into Emerson, saying: "Sorry umpire, you are out of order. It’s bizarre, it’s unnecessary, it’s totally out of hand. It’s one man’s moment of glory." Ranjit Fernando, the Sri Lankan manager, followed that up by emphasising that Muralitharan has been cleared by the ICC advisory panel on illegal deliveries and added: "Someone out there decided to play god today." Doug Insole, the England representative on the advisory panel and a spectator in Adelaide yesterday, said: "When we looked at Muralitharan in 1997 it was felt that his action was legitimate." Stewart was adamant that the consequent bad feeling was a direct result of this incident, the regrettable scenes culminating with Mahanama clearly obstructing Gough as he ran for a quick single in the frantic run chase. Gough and Stewart appealed for obstruction, Emerson turned them down and Gough appeared to aim a butt at the Sri Lankan which he withdrew before contact was made. "That was just Darren Gough being a showman," insisted Stewart, who went on to say that his own contact with Mahanama was merely a brush of shoulders. "I don’t call that a collision. What happened two balls before [when Mahanama obstructed Gough] was a collision." David Graveney, chairman of the England selectors and their one-day manager, appeared satisfied that nothing was wrong with the England players’ behaviour on the field and no disciplinary action was forthcoming last night from Van der Merwe. The saga, however, is far from over. Emerson is due to stand again when the teams meet in Perth on Friday. Telegraph Group, London,1999 ‘Chucking’ issue must be taken out
of umpires’ hands PRIVATE#I DON’T believe Muttiah Muralitharan gains any unfair advantage from his action and as a batsman that’s all I ever worried about. Having done a fair bit of experimenting in the nets, I believe that to gain any real advantage from throwing it has to be so blatant as to be obvious to even a novice umpire. The fair delivery law and the definition of a throw are less than clear-cut and leave the impression that if all bowlers followed them to the letter of the law they wouldn’t be very penetrative and there would be a lot of boring batting exhibitions. They also don’t appear to leave much room for unusual actions and Muralitharan’s is highly unnatural. However, he shouldn’t be called just because he’s different or because he can do things with his wrist that no one on the International Cricket Council judging panel can do. The law states that a bowler shouldn’t be precluded from using the wrist and Muralitharan uses a lot of wrist. Former Australia captain Allan Border says, "Murali is actually a wrist spinner". He makes a good point. The one delivery that umpire Ross Emerson felt transgressed at the Adelaide Oval didn’t appear to be any different (on videotape) to any other off-break Muralitharan has delivered on this tour. Muralitharan is singled out, but in my opinion his former team-mate Kumara Dharmasena’s action was an open and shut case - he threw. There is no way a bowler with a suspicious action should be allowed to reach first-class level, never mind international standard. The officials must implement a system where any schoolboy bowler with a dubious action is given help and if he can’t find a solution he is then told to pursue another career. That way we wouldn’t have the embarrassing situation where a bowler is humiliated in front of a large crowd and an umpire has to end a player’s career and cut off his livelihood. The final decision has to be left in the umpires’ hands, but most of the spadework should be done off the field. Umpire Emerson’s credibility was tarnished a few years ago when he called Muralitharan at the Gabba for throwing, and some of those deliveries were leg-breaks. Yet Emerson was given another Sri Lankan game and when he called Muralitharan from square leg it started a chain reaction of events that hasn’t been matched at the Adelaide Oval since the ‘Bodyline’ Test when the crowd threatened to jump the fence. This was not a pretty sight, especially at a time when cricket has had its name dragged through the mud over a number of issues, none of which has been satisfactorily resolved by the ICC. It is time for action from the officials - and I don’t mean dubious action. Telegraph Group, London, 1999 ESCO-Sri Lanka invited to U.S.A. ‘Ambassadors of Goodwill’ from ESCO Sri Lanka, which brought much repute to the country at the FESPIC Games last week, gaining the largest number of medals (10) in any international event, and participated in a series of cultural performances by the reputed ESCO Performing Arts Troupe of the Disabled invited by the National Cultural Commission, Bangkok, has now been invited to perform in Los Angeles, U.S.A. This invitation from the prestigious Very Special Arts International to attend the Art and Soul International Festival supported by the U.S. government is considered as an honour to Sri Lanka as the selections were made after evaluation of video presentations by several high powered panels. Moors record third successive victory A superb team effort helped Moors SC notch up their third successive win over the strong S.S.C. by one wicket in their Premier League cricket encounter at Braybrooke Place yesterday. Chasing a target of 167 runs, Moors scampered home after a middle order collapse. Resuming from their overnight total of 108 for three wickets, S.S.C. were dismissed for 204 runs. Shantha Kalavitigoda top scored with 63. Seamer Chaminda Haturusinghe and his brother Chandika shared Six wickets while Primal Salgado claimed three wickets. Moors chasing a target of 167 runs, went along smoothly during the run chase. The fourth wicket pair of S. Perera (30) and Chandika Haturusinghe (45) put on 83 runs to lead them towards victory. But after their departure, there was a major collapse and the eighth wicket pair of C. Bandaratilake (13) and R. Herath (26). Figured in a 37-run partnership to steer them to victory C. Boteju captured four wickets for 33 runs. First innings win for NCC All-rounders Anil Ridigammanagedera and Ruwan Kalpage spearheaded NCC to a first innings win over Tamil Union at Sara Stadium yesterday. Resuming from their overnight total of 17 for no loss, Tamil Union were bowled out for 175 runs. Seamer Ridigammanagedera and off-spinner Ruwan Kalpage ran through the Tamil Union innings by capturing four wickets each. N. Weeraman top scored with 41. NCC were 60 for two wickets at stumps in the second essay after piling up a mamoth first innings total of 313 for nine wickets. Bloomfield win Bloomfield defeated Colts on the first innings at Reid Avenue yesterday. Resuming from their overnight score of 35 for one wicket, Colts were bundled out for 106 runs. Priyankara Wickremasinghe (4 for 39) and Pulasthi Gunaratne (3 for 42) put the skids on their rivals. Bloomfield in their second essay were 187 for seven wickets at close. |
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