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 Sri Lanka 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 not out in a total of 219 for eight, where No 8 Nuwan Kulasekara top-scored with an undefeated 42, and the unorthodox spinner then took three wickets 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 captain William Porterfield’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 Max Sorensen and George Dockrell’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-wicket, and Niall O’Brien, leg before. However, he must have been run close by Kulasekara who, as well as making runs, removed the dangerous Paul Stirling with the last ball of his first over. Ed Joyce, who has started the season DUBLIN: Ireland captain William Porterfield plays a shot as Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Thirimanne looks superbly for Sussex, lasted only six balls before on the stumps during a One Day International cricket match. —AFP he was caught behind off Suranga Lakmal, 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 Twenty20 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, Gary Wilson 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 Angelo Mathews 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 Kumar Sangakkara, 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) Bowling: 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.