A late batting onslaught by Ramnaresh Sarwan and Denesh Ramdin saw the West Indies snatch victory with a ball to spare in the one-day international against New Zealand yesterday.
In a match reduced to 28 overs per side after a lengthy disruption caused by thunder and hail, New Zealand made 152 for eight and under the Duckworth-Lewis system the West Indies were set a target of 158 to win.
Man-of-the-match Sarwan fittingly hit the winning run off the penultimate delivery to finish unbeaten on 67 off 65 balls, while Ramdin was also unbeaten on 28 from 18.
PHOTO: AFP
For much of the innings the target had seemed out of reach for the West Indies.
Midway through the 23rd over, when Ramdin came to the crease at the fall of Kieron Pollard’s wicket, they were 110 for five.
With three overs remaining the West Indies still required 30 runs, before Sarwan and Ramdin fully opened up, taking 12 off a Tim Southee over and then 14 off Jeetan Patel.
In a desperate final over, Ramdin took two off the first delivery bowled by Southee and then he and Sarwan took singles off the fourth and fifth balls to seal the match.
In between both, Brendon McCullum and Grant Elliot missed shies at the stumps that could have resulted in run outs.
New Zealand were rocked in the third over when Fidel Edwards had the big-hitting Brendon McCullum caught behind by Ramdin for 1 and they never recovered.
Edwards came back late in the match, when New Zealand were trying to up the batting rate, to remove Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori in the space of two balls and return the best bowling figures for the West Indies of three for 26.
Jesse Ryder, who was on 20 when the storm broke in the seventh over, top scored for New Zealand with 32 off 43 balls.
For the most part New Zealand were hampered by tight West Indies fielding and at one stage went 12 overs without a boundary.
Oram broke the drought when he clubbed a six and two fours off a Gayle over, before being caught in the next over by Chattergoon off Edwards for 25.
Jamie How contributed 27, while Grant Elliot at the end finished unbeaten on 30.
New Zealand also had early bowling success when Chattergoon was bowled by Southee in the fourth over for 6.
Vettori then made a key breakthrough when he captured the West Indies most-prized wicket of Chris Gayle, clean bowled for 36.
With their illustrious skipper back in the pavilion, the West Indies appeared to lose their way as Xavier Marshall, Brendan Nash and Pollard all fell cheaply, before Sarwan and Ramdin turned their fortunes around.
■BANGLADESH V S LANKA
AP, CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH
Tillakaratne Dilshan scored a century and put on a 173-run stand with Chamara Kapugedara yesterday to steer Sri Lanka to 371-6 at stumps on the first day of the second Test against Bangladesh.
Dilshan smashed 21 fours and two sixes to hit 162 from 165 balls for his sixth Test century. It helped rescue Sri Lanka after the visitors were 75-4 at one stage, with opening bowler Mashrafe bin Mortaza taking two early wickets.
Kapugedara was 93 not out at the end of play after collecting 12 boundaries in 117 balls as he shared in a Sri Lankan record sixth-wicket stand with Dilshan. Opener Malinda Warnapura hit 63 and was the only other batsman to make more than 19.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and opted to bat on a spin-friendly, slow pitch. But Mortaza trapped Prasanna Jayawardene leg before wicket for a duck in the first over and bowled Kumar Sangakkara for 5 in the third to leave Sri Lanka on 7-2.
Jayawardene and Warnapura steadied the innings, before Shakib Al Hasan had the captain caught behind for 11 with 32 runs added to the total.
Warnapura and Thilan Samaraweera batted through to lunch and added another 36 runs in the second session, before Samaraweera (19) was bowled by Shahadat Hossain.
Then a 119-run fifth-wicket stand between Warnapura and Dilshan put Sri Lanka in command, with the visitors adding 164 in 30 overs in the second session.
Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful finally ended the partnership, dismissing Warnapura lbw after a 151-ball innings that contained six boundaries. It was his fifth Test half-century.
Dilshan’s century in his 50th Test match came off 93 balls and included 14 boundaries and a couple of sixes. His innings was ended when he was bowled by Enamul Haque with the visitors on 367-6.
■AUSTRALIA V S AFRICA
STAFF WRITER
At close of play on the first day of the third Test in Sydney, Australia were 267-6 in their first innings.
When Joan Monfort took photographs of Lionel Messi with a baby for a charity calendar almost 17 years ago, he knew the long-haired young man would make it big in soccer. He could not have imagined the little boy would as well. The baby in the photos — which have gone viral — was none other than Lamine Yamal, the Spanish wunderkind, who at 16 is showing such promise that he is already being compared with the greats. He is the youngest person to have played for Spain and the youngest to compete in the European Championship. The long-forgotten photo from 2007
Taiwanese tennis ace Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jan Zielinski of Poland on Friday advanced to the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon, just one step away from clinching their first mixed doubles title at the tournament. Hsieh and Zielinski, who won the Australian Open title earlier this year and who had reached the semi-finals at the French Open, battled past second seeds Michael Venus and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand 7-6, (7/0), 6-3. In the first set, the Taiwanese-Polish duo saved a set point, pushing the set into a tiebreaker. They clinched the set by winning the tiebreaker with seven straight points. The duo
CHALLENGE SET: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Poland’s Jan Zielinski are to play against New Zealand’s Michael Venus and Erin Routliffe in the mixed doubles semi-finals Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and her Polish partner, Jan Zielinski, on Thursday advanced to the mixed doubles semi-final at Wimbledon in a tight battle that ended in a super tiebreaker. The seventh-seeded duo, who won the Australian Open mixed doubles title earlier this year and reached the semi-finals of the French Open, needed 125 minutes to beat Britain’s Jamie Murray and the US’ Taylor Townsend 7-6, 6-7 (10-5). Hsieh and Zielinski took the first set with a 7-2 win in the tiebreaker and seemed poised to close out the match in the second set tiebreaker when they took a 4-0 lead. With the Taiwan-Poland
Modern pentathlon has obstacles ahead as it bids farewell to the horse at the Paris Olympics and prepares for a future more familiar to fans of Ninja Warrior and Tough Mudder. The blend of fencing, freestyle swimming, show jumping, pistol shooting and cross-country running caused a commotion at the 2021 Tokyo Games when a German coach struck a horse that refused a fence. The sport was dropped from the initial list for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, but reinstated after the governing Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), led by 77-year-old German Klaus Schormann, decided the equestrian element would be replaced by