WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014 SPORTS

Durant named NBA Photo of the day Most Valuable Player

NEW YORK: Oklahoma City Thunder for- Durant shot better than 50 percent for a ward Kevin Durant, the NBA’s top scorer for second consecutive season and 39.1 per- the fourth time in five seasons, was named cent from three-point range. His 703 free Tuesday as the league’s Most Valuable throws made from 805 attempted were Player for the 2013-14 campaign. both league highs, giving him an 87.3 per- It’s the first MVP award for the Thunder cent success rate from the line. superstar, who received 1,232 points in bal- He led Oklahoma City to 59 regular-sea- loting for the MVP award. That included son victories and the second seed in the 119 first-place votes from a panel of 124 Western Conference behind San Antonio, voters that consisted of sportswriters and even though star teammate Russell broadcasters throughout the United States Westbrook missed almost half of the sea- and Canada as well as an NBA.com MVP fan son. vote. Miami’s LeBron James, winner of the “It’s his leadership,” teammate Serge last two MVP awards and four of the last Ibaka said. “I saw it when Russell was out. five, finished second in the voting with 891 He was able to keep the team up, not only points and six first-place ballots. on offense, but he has been getting better As reports spread on Monday that on defense too. He has been rebounding Durant would shortly be named MVP, the ball, he has been passing the ball really James offered his congratulations. “Much well in the regular season. respect to him,” James said. “He deserves it. “That type of stuff made him a different He had a big-time MVP season.” player this season.” During the regular sea- Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers son, Durant put together a streak of 41 was third with 434 points, Chicago’s Joakim games in a row with 25 points or more, sur- Noah fourth on 322 and Houston’s James passing Jordan’s 40-game run for the third- Harden fifth on 85. longest such streak in NBA history. Durant, 25, averaged a career-best 32.0 And he came through when it mattered, points per game and averaged a career- leading all players this season in “clutch high 5.5 assists and 7.4 rebounds a game. points”-points scored in the final five min- Only Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and utes of a game when five points or less sep- Elgin Baylor had such high marks in each arated the contestants. category in a single NBA season. Durant became the first player in the “He is self-motivated,” Thunder coach history of the franchise, which began as the Scott Brooks said. “He’s a tremendous kid Seattle Supersonics, to claim the MVP hon- that does everything for his team. We are or. Durant has been active in the team’s The 205 T16 and Peugeot 2008 DKR revealed in Nanterre, France.— www.redbull.com proud of him because he gives everything community outreach efforts as well as a he has. He does it every night and his con- star on the floor. sistency is remarkable.” “To have someone like that in our With four career season scoring titles, organization, but also in our community is Durant matched Allen Iverson and George a great, great thing,” Thunder general man- Gervin for third on the all-time list, trailing ager Sam Presti said. “It’s certainly not prove too only Jordan’s 10 and seven by Chamberlain. something to be taken for granted.”—AFP strong for Ireland

DUBLIN: Ajantha Mendis starred with both bat and ball as Sri Lanka enjoyed a comfortable start to their tour of the British Isles with a 79-run win over Ireland in the first one-day international in Dublin yesterday. Mendis made a useful 18 in a total of 219 for eight, where No 8 top-scored with an undefeated 42, and the unorthodox spinner then took three for 27 runs. Once Sri Lanka, who had been struggling at 95 for five, had set Ireland 220 to win on a slow Clontarf pitch, the game was always out of the reach of the leading Associate or non-Test nation. Despite losing four for 11 runs in 29 balls either side of the 20th over, Ireland put up some late resistance before being bowled out for 140 with 10.1 overs remaining. The difficulty of facing such a talented attack was highlighted by normally-free-scoring Ireland ’s innings of 33, which used up 87 balls. Indeed, only in-form Leicestershire batsman Niall O’Brien, with 33 from 39 balls including five fours, looked comfortable until and ’s lusty blows near the end. Mendis was named man-of-the-match-two of his three wickets were the important ones of Porterfield, caught at deep mid-, and Niall O’Brien, leg before. However, he must have been run close by Kulasekara who, as well as making runs, removed the dangerous with the last ball of his first over. , who has started the season DUBLIN: Ireland captain William Porterfield plays a shot as Sri Lanka’s looks superbly for Sussex, lasted only six balls before on the stumps during a match. —AFP he was caught behind off , a hammer blow to Ireland’s hopes of threatening a shared an unbroken ninth wicket stand of 43 in around and the bowlers, even without Lasith shock victory against the World cham- 22 balls with Mendis. It was a decisive turn- Malinga and Rangan Herath, did the rest. —AFP pions. But a third-wicket stand of 57 put Ireland SCOREBOARD back on course. Then came the wickets which “killed us”, in the post-match words of DUBLIN: Final scoreboard in the first one-day international between Ireland and Sri Lanka at Porterfield. Clontarf yesterday: After Mendis had dismissed O’Brien, and Porterfield were left stranded in mid- Sri Lanka Ireland pitch with the former adjudged run out. Kevin K. Perera c K O’Brien b Murtagh 0 W. Porterfield c Perera b Mendis 37 O’Brien then pulled his first ball straight to deep U. Tharanga c Wilson b Thompson 24 P. Stirling b Kulasekara 4 mid-wicket and when a bemused Stuart L. Thirimanne c Wilson b Cusack 8 E. Joyce c Chandimal b Lakmal 0 Thompson was Mendis’s third victim, Ireland D. Chandimal c and b K O’Brien 39 N. O’Brien lbw b Mendis 33 were 74 for six. A. Matthews run out (Thompson) 30 G. Wilson run out (Sennayake) 3 Sri Lanka captain rang the K. Vithanage c Joyce b Stirling 5 K. O’Brien c Senanayake b Lakmal 0 changes to let his bowlers get adjusted to the A. Priyanjan c Joyce b Dockrell 31 S. Thompson lbw b Mendis 1 pitch, which they were all seeing for the first N. Kulasekara not out 42 A. Cusack b Lakmal 10 time. S. Senanayake c Dockrell b Murtagh 3 M. Sorensen lbw b Kulasekara 17 Ominously for Ireland with their eye now in, A. Mendis not out 18 G. Dockrell not out 18 Sri Lanka will be confident of completing a series Extras (lb1, w18) 19 T. Murtagh lbw b Senanayake 10 win in the second and final game tomorrow. Total (8, wkts 50 overs) 219 Extras (lb3, w4) 7 The Sri Lankans have arrived in Dublin with- Did not bat: S Lakmal Total (all out, 39.5 overs) 140 out five of their star players , Fall of wickets 1-0 (Perera), 2-25 (Thirimanne), 3-57 Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Stirling), 2-5 (Joyce), 3-63 (N for one, preparing for the upcoming Test series (Tharanga), 4-90 (Chandimal) 5-95 (Vithanage), 6- O’Brien), 4-67 (Wilson), 5-69 (K O’Brien), 6- against England by playing in the County 135 (Matthews,) 7-160 (Priyanjana), 8-176 74(Thompson), 7-86 (Porterfield), 8-97 (Cusack), 9- Championship for Durham, although he was out (Senanayake) 125 (Sorensen), 10-140 (Murtagh) : Lakmal for a duck on Tuesday. Bowling: Murtagh 10-1-21-2; Sorensen 8-1-31-0 8-1-29-3 (1w); Kulasekara 8-3-30-2; Mathews 2-0-6-0; In the end they coped without them, (1w); Cusack 8-1-53-1 (3w); Thompson 4-0-19-1 (2w); Senanayake 7.5-1-27-1; Mendis 10-1-27-3 (2w); A although Sri Lanka needed a fine innings from Dockrell 10-0-45-1 (2w); K O Brien 2-0-10-1 (1w); P Priyanjan 3-0-11-0 (1w); Vithanage 1-0-7-0 Kulasekara. His 42 not out came off 34 balls with Stirling 8-1-39-1 (2w) Result: Sri Lanka won by 79 runs three fours and two sixes and, crucially, he

SHEFFIELD: England’s Mark Selby poses with the trophy after beating England’s Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final of the World Snooker Championships. —AP Selby lifts snooker title Modi return to office

SHEFFIELD: Mark Selby completed one played well.” of the great comebacks in world snooker Sullivan, gunning for a sixth career faces BCCI challenge championship history to beat two-time world title, scored his third century of the defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan final to level at 12-12 at the beginning of in the final for his maiden title on the evening session. But O’Sullivan kept MUMBAI: Former however, after the BCCI wasted little time ducted in December and the result was Monday. giving Selby openings, and Selby chis- chief Lalit Modi was named president of in suspending the Rajasthan authority, announced by a court-appointed observer From 8-3 and 10-5 down, Selby held elled away. He moved ahead 14-12 to the Rajasthan Cricket Association yester- pending disciplinary proceedings against yesterday. his nerve to win 18-14 at the Crucible lead by two for the first time, and a break day but his hopes of defying a life ban on it on charges of misconduct. The Rajasthan body is expected to chal- Theatre. Selby ended O’Sullivan’s 14- of 56 gave him a three-frame lead. holding any position with an administra- “Keeping in mind the interests of the lenge the BCCI sanction in court. The com- match winning streak at the worlds by O’Sullivan stylishly cut the lead to one, tive body in India were challenged imme- sport of cricket and in order to safeguard bative billionaire was vice president of the clearing the colors, then punching the air but Selby gave a champion’s response diately. the best interests and welfare of the crick- BCCI from 2005 until September 2010, in joy. “You want to win it with Ronnie in with his first century, a total clearance of The flamboyant 50-year-old was banned eters playing the game in different age- soon after he had been removed from his the tournament, and there’s no better 127, and didn’t stop there. by an Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) discipli- groups and their future, an ad-hoc commit- position in charge of the IPL. Modi has way than playing him in the final,” Selby “He just outfought me, out-battled nary committee last year over financial and tee will be constituted shortly by the BCCI,” long been the most vocal critic of told the BBC. me,” O’Sullivan said. “He had me in all administrative irregularities during his the board said in a statement. Narayanaswami Srinivasan, the industrial- “I was just my usual self, dug in, and sorts of trouble for two days. I tried my stint as chairman of the Twenty20 league’s Modi, who has denied any wrongdoing, ist who has run the BCCI since 2011 and never gave in. I didn’t play pretty snooker best but he was too tough, and he’s a first three editions. stood for election as the head of the will become chairman of the International early in the match but towards the end I worthy champion.” —AP His latest appointment is unlikely to last, Rajasthan Cricket Association in a poll con- Cricket Council (ICC) in July.—Reuters