Skip to main content

Sri Lanka is deeply in trouble in third test

Thursday, July 23, 2009 COLOMBO: Pakistan remained on course to win the third and final cricket Test against Sri Lanka after denting the home team's chase of a world record target on Thursday.Sri Lanka, set an improbable 492 to sweep the series 3-0 after they had won the first two Tests, were 183-3 in their second knock at stumps on the fourth day at the Sinhalese sports club.When play begins on the fifth day for the first time in the series -- the first Test ended in four days and the second in three -- Pakistan will need seven wickets and Sri Lanka a further 309 runs in 90 overs.No team has scored 492 runs in the fourth innings to win a Test match. The highest successful chase so far is 418-7 by the West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2003.Sri Lanka were given a minimum of 150 overs to get the runs after Pakistan declared their second innings at 425-9 soon after lunch with former captain Shoaib Malik making 134.Sri Lankan openers Malinda Warnapura and Tharanga Paranavitana put on 83 for the first wicket in 25 overs, their best partnership of the series, to raise visions of a history-defying feat.But the fall of three wickets in the final session set Sri Lanka back even as skipper Kumar Sangakkara returned unbeaten on 50, having surpassed the 7,000-run mark in his 83rd Test on the way.Thilan Samaraweera was the other batsman at the crease on 20.Warnapura, who made 31, was unfortunate to be given out caught by English umpire Ian Gould as television replays showed the ball from Danish Kaneria go off the pad to the short-leg fielder.Paranavitana went on to make a fluent 73 before tapping an easy catch to Fawad Alam at forward short-leg off Malik to make Sri Lanka 139-2.Kaneria picked up his second wicket soon after when Mahela Jayawardene, who plodded for 29 minutes to make two, poked at a wide ball and edged a catch to wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

Cuba's world-famous cigar festival closes in Havana

Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...