Tuesday 28th April, 2009 Kyokushin karateka Sangakkara steers Punjab to victory Lasantha wins full CAPE TOWN, South Africa find a solution. The bowlers are contact tourney (AP) - Kings XI Punjab pro- not firing." duced a fine bowling and field- His opposite number Yuvray ing performance, after Kumar Singh praised Sangakkara, who Sangakkara hammered 60 runs, struck 60 - including seven fours to beat defending champion the and one six - and Irfan Pathan, Rajasthan Royals by 27 runs in who scored 39 off 33 balls for an lifting Punjab to a respectable match Sunday at Newlands. total. After batting first and scor- "We needed a partnership ing 139-6, Punjab's bowlers and those two gave us that," he restricted Rajasthan to 112-7 said. "We defended the total bowling a full length and swing- nicely too." ing the ball sharply. Punjab had slumped to 4-48 South African pace bowler before Sangakkara and Pathan Yusuf Abdulla was the pick of came to the rescue. W.G.Nalaka Lasantha of Sri Lanka the bowlers with 3-21, Kyokushin-Kan International was while allrounder Irfan SCOREBOARD adjudged the winner of the heavy Pathan and spinner Punjab weight category in the inaugural full Piyush Chawla both R. Bopara c Patel b K. Khan 11 contact martial arts tournament held at chipped in with two K. Goel run out 0 the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium gym- apiece. K. Sangakkara run out 60 nasium, recently. Rajasthan were on Yuvraj Singh c Rawat b Pate l 2 According to a release issued by Sri M. Jayawardene c K. Khan b Patel 7 the backfoot as early as Lanka Kyokushin-Kan International, I. Pathan b K. Khan 39 the second over when P. Chawla 6 Lasantha has practiced kyokushin Swapnil Asnodkar (3) W. Mota not out 1 karate for six years and is the holder of was caught by Ramesh Extras: (2b, 2lb, 9w) 13 the first Dan Black Belt. Powar off a delivery TOTAL: (for six wickets) 139 Lasantha was trained for the tourna- from Pathan. Overs: 20. ment by Sensai Prasanna Fernando. Graeme Smith (2) Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-21, 3-38, 4-48, 5-123, 6-130. As many as 16 martial arts associa- then edged a swinging Did not bat: R. Powar, V. Singh, Y. Abdulla. tions that promote full contact fighting Pathan delivery to wicke- Bowling: Kamran 4-0-15-2 (3w), Mascarenhas 4-0- had fielded participants at the tourna- keeper Kumar 29-0, Patel 4-0-24-2 (1w), Y. Pathan 4-0-30-0 (4w), ment. Warne 4-0-37-0 Sangakkara to leave The tournament was organized by Rajasthan Rajasthan on two wickets S. Asnodkar c Powar b I. Pathan 3 the National Karate do Federation and down with just nine runs G. Smith c Sangakkara b I. Pathan 2 held under the patronage of the Sports on the board. R. Quiney c Sangakkara b Abdulla 7 Ministry. (RN) The only two Y. Pathan c Goel b Chawla 10 Rajasthan players to D. Mascarenhas b Abdulla 4 make any real impres- R. Jadeja b Abdulla 37 sion with the bat were A. Raut c Powar b Chawla 1 After London Marathon… Ravindra Jadeja, who S. Warne not out 34 made 37 off 44 balls M. Rawat not out 4 Cooray qualifies for Extras: (5lb, 5w) 10 before he was bowled by TOTAL: (for seven wickets) 112 Abdulla, and captain Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-9, 3-23, 4-27, 5-36, 6-42, 7- C’wealth Games Shane Warne who struck 102. by Reemus an unbeaten 34. Did not bat: M. Patel, K. Khan. Fernando Warne was clearly Bowling: Powar 2-0-10-0 (1w), I. Pathan 4-0-26-2 unimpressed with his (3w), Abdulla 4-0-21-3 (1w), V. Singh 4-0-19-0, Sri Lanka’s 2004 team's effort. Chawla 4-0-22-2, Yuvraj Singh 2-0-9-0. Athens Olympic "We haven't found the Result: Punjab won by 27 runs. participant, right combination," Toss: Punjab. Anuradha Indrajith Warne said. "the blokes Umpires: M. Erasmus, (SA), K. Hariharan, (Ind). Cooray has Kings XI Punjab's Kumar Sangakkara plays a shot during the game against the Rajasthan Royals at the Indian Premier Third umpire: M. Benson, (Eng). at the top are not doing a achieved League match in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, April 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam) Match referee: G. Viswanath, (Ind). good job. We've got to Commonwealth Games qualifying standards by finish- A. I. Cooray ing the reputed London Marathon in creditable two hours 21 minutes and 02 seconds. Cooray taking part in a competitive athletic event after nearly four years fin- ished 22nd in London on Sunday which is now considered the second fastest marathon in the world. “I was thrilled to find that I could run to the timing I was doing some four years ago. I had not taken part in a marathon for four years when I took part in the London Marathon,” Cooray told ‘The Island’ speaking from London yesterday. Cooray’s timing of 2 hours 21.02 min- utes is a minute ahead of the qualifying standard set for the Delhi Commonwealth Games which will be held in 2010 in India. The qualifying standard for Delhi Commonwealth Games is set at 2 hours 22 minutes and 14 seconds for men’s marathons and incidentally the qualify- ing period for the Games started on April 25. “I wanted to see whether I could achieve World Championship standards. I wanted to run below 2 hours and 18 minutes. But I missed it as I ran too fast in the first 20 kilometers,” Cooray regretted. “Since I had not taken part in any events for the last four years I couldn’t manage my run properly,” Cooray said. The 31-year-old athlete left for England after taking part in the Athens Olympics in 2004 and is a SAF Games Gold medalist. Cooray achieved his personal best of two hours 16 minutes and 38 seconds in the SAF Games held in Islamabad in 2004 (Gold) and it was the best Marathon performance in SA Games by a Sri Lankan. Cooray said that he had very little time to practice as he works for a firm there but was happy that he could come- back to his form after starting training some seven months ago.

Tuesday 28th April, 2009