The Island, Wednesday 4th January, 2006 Jayasuriya slips out of series

by Rex Clementine in Opening batsman Sanath Jayasuirya’s injury woes continued when he fell in the bathroom on the morning of the third and in Christchurch and dislocated his already damaged right-shoulder. The 36-year-old veteran will not be able to bat for a week and bowl for two weeks, Michael Tissera, the manager of the Sri Lankan team told ‘The Island’. “Sanath fell in the bath this morning and dislocated his right-shoulder while trying to reach the bottle of shampoo,” Tissera said. “He’s definitely out of the remainder of the series and we are consulting the selectors whether to fly in a replacement or to go ahead with the personnel we’ve got here and we should hear something from Colombo before tomorrow,” Tissera further said. The veteran batsman has had a torrid time with injuries of late and the latest setback comes as a severe blow for the Sri Lankans who are struggling to make a mark in . Jayasuriya first injured his right- shoulder during a one-day international against India in Dambulla and then fur- ther aggravated the injury during a team boat ride in the south coast. Despite the injury he took part in the ODIs in India, but was left out for the Test series due to form and fitness. He was chosen for the New Zealand series after a fitness test and made 12 runs in the Queenstown ODI and bowled nine overs for 36 runs and a . Sri Lankan opener Upul Tharanga celebrates after scoring 100 runs. Nathan Astle watches his shot go for four runs. - AFP Pix. SCOREBOARD in box Sri Lanka U. Tharanga c Fulton b Oram 103 A. Gunawardene c Marshall b Bond 3 seat in final Test Lankans pay heavy price K. Sangakkara out (Bond) 36 M. Jayawardene c McCullum b Mills 6 Sydney Jan 3, (AFP) - South Africa M. Atapattu run out (Astle) 52 amassed a huge first innings total and T. Dilshan c Oram b Cairns 11 followed up with three Australian wick- F. Maharoof b Mills 7 ets to seize the momentum in the final R. Arnold 22 cricket Test at the Sydney Cricket C. Vaas not out 0 Extras (lb 2, w 10, nb 3) 15 Ground on Tuesday. for no balls at the death Total (7 wkts) 255 The Proteas, trailing 1-0 and needing a Fall of : 1-24, 2-133, 3-150, 4-169, 5-198, 6- win to square the three-match series, 217, 7-254. called a halt to their stoic 11-hour occu- provided an electrifying Rex Clementine reporting Bowling: Mills 10-1-44-2 (1nb, 1w), Bond 10-0-39-1 pation of the crease at 451 for nine, giving from Christchurch start for the Kiwis hammering 46 runs (1nb, 3w), Cairns 8-0-50-1 (1w), Oram 10-0-51-1 (1nb, themselves 15 overs to bowl at the off 44 balls with seven fours and a six. 2w), Vettori 9-0-52-0 (1w), Styris 3-0-17-0 Australians late on the second day. Fast bowler Dilhara Fernando has Apart from Astle’s match winning 90 off Overs: 50 And they were richly rewarded with had a few problems with overstepping 125 balls with seven fours and a six Australia tottering on 54 for three at since the start of his career five years Peter Faulton contributed 32 and Scott New Zealand stumps. Ricky Ponting, playing in his L. Vincent c Sangakkaara b Maharoof 46 back with the 27-year-old getting quite a Styris 28. 100th Test match, was on 11 and Brad few wickets off no balls. Enough work to Although the tourists were disap- J. How c Mubarak b Vaas 12 N. Astle not out 90 Hodge out in the last over of the day for help the bowler to rectify the problem pointing with their bowling, their field- P. Fulton c Jayawardene b Dilshan 32 six. seems to have not taken place and ing looked sharp with Kumar In the course of his innings, Ponting Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and H. Marshall lbw Muralitharan 12 Fernando and Sri Lanka paid a heavy S. Styris c Dilshan b Maharoof 28 passed 8,000 Test runs. Dilshan pulling off sensational catches. price yesterday at the Jade Stadium in C. Cairns not out 10 Australia lost openers Matthew Earlier, left-handed opener Upul Christchurch when they lost the third Extras (b 1, lb 14, w 3, nb 8) 26 Hayden (4) and Justin Langer (25), both One Day International against New Tharanga smashed an elegant hundred Total (5 wkts) 256 bowled by seamer Charl Langevelt. Then Zealand by five wickets. He was let off again when Chaminda making up for the absence of Sanath Fall of wickets: 1-59, 2-71, 3-143, 4-170, 5-219 Hodge popped a catch to close-in fielder Sri Lanka set the Kiwis a target of 256 Vaas came on to bowl the 48th over with Jayasuriya who had to pull out of the Bowling: Vaas 10-1-43-1 (4nb, 2w), Maharoof 6-0-41-1 Jacques Rudolph off Andre Nel to give and managed to get the opposition under New Zealand needing 18 runs off 18 game after dislocating his already dam- (1nb), Fernando 9-0-61-0 (3nb), Dilshan 10-0-38-1, South Africa full reward for their calcu- pressure in the run chase with Nathan deliveries and the Sri Lankans went up aged shoulder. Muralitharan 10-0-40-1 (1w), Arnold 3-0-18-0 lated innings of attrition. Overs: 48 Astle trying hard to keep phase with the when Vaas bowled Astle for 77, but once The 20-year-old was an absolute treat The South Africans, grafting at under increasing run rate. Astle who was origi- again it was a no ball and the error cost to watch as he timed the ball to perfec- three runs an over with Jacques Kallis against the lowly Bangladesh at home nally dropped from the side and got a Sri Lanka dearly when the hosts tion finding gaps frequently making it (111) and Ashwell Prince (119) accumulat- early this year. game only due to the absence of smashed off 19 runs in the over to secure look so easy. The NCC opener hit 103 off ing centuries, dawdled to their declara- He added 113 runs for the second was returning back to victory and the series 3-0 with two more 125 balls with 14 fours and was unfortu- tion off 154.4 overs. wicket with Kumar Sangakkara, who form and Sri Lanka needed to get his games to go. nate to end up in the losing side. Home fans were frustrated by too batted elegantly for his 36 before wicket desperately. Earlier on, Sri Lanka’s bowling inad- For a long time now, the Sri Lankans Australia’s inability to dominate despite getting run out. Captain Atapattu The Sri Lankans supporters were equacies were exposed when Fernando have been moaning for the lack of qual- their all-star bowling attack. looked solid too when he smashed 52 in quite relieved when Astle top edged a and Farveez Maharoof were hit all over ity youngsters coming through the sys- Kallis was rock-solid in reaching his 46 deliveries with the help of seven off Fernando and was caught by the park in their first spells. Fernando’s tem, but this bloke certainly looks dif- 23rd Test hundred, his second against fours. That was Atapattu’s 56th one-day T.M. Dilshan, but the joy didn’t last long first two overs alone went for 28 runs. ferent. Predominantly an off-side player, Australia, before he was caught by Glenn fifty and helped Sri Lanka to get pass when they saw the outstretched arm of But both the seamers looked sharp Tharanga just played one attacking shot McGrath at fine leg off Andrew Symonds 250. Russel Arnold too chipped in with a the umpire indicating the no ball. Astle when they came back for their second on the on-side, but there were plenty of nearing lunch. useful 21 off 16 balls with three fours, was on 74 at that time and New Zealand spells but finally, however, basic mis- elegant strokes on the off-side. He chiselled his runs off 275 balls in but it always looked that the Sri needed more than a run a ball to win the takes like overstepping cost them the This was his second hundred in the just a little over six hours with 17 bound- Lankans were about 20-30 runs short. game. game. 12th game with the first one coming aries.

Published by Upali Newspapers Ltd, 223, Bloemendhal Road, Colombo 13. and Printed at 195/187, High Level Road, Homagama on Wednesday 4th January, 2006