WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016 SPORTS S Lanka to probe alleged drinking, squabbling on NZ tour COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s demoralised cricket ended tour. “There was scandalous behav- Tests 0-2 and the one-day series 1-3 to the also focus on finding a long-term coach Lanka head coach in the past five years. team faces an investigation into alleged iour,” the minister told AFP. “They have not hosts. “When they return, I want to call the after Marvan Atapattu quit weeks before his The 45-year-old took over the team in “scandalous behaviour” during its dismal only attended drinking parties till three and team and along with Thilanga contract was due to expire in September September 2014 after Englishman Paul tour of New Zealand, including drinking four in the morning, but there was a lot of (Sumathipala, new Sri Lanka Cricket presi- last year. Sri Lanka appointed Jerome Farbrace abruptly quit months earlier to parties and squabbling, the sports minister tension and friction among members.” Sri dent) try to find out what happened,” the Jayaratne as interim coach, initially for the become England’s deputy coach. Since said yesterday. Lanka went to New Zealand as defending minister said. “My main concern is the home series against the West Indies and 2010, Trevor Bayliss, Stuart Law, Rumesh Dayasiri Jayasekera said he had been champions of the shortest form of the breakdown in discipline. When that is then for the New Zealand tour. Jayaratne, Ratnayake, Geoff Marsh and Graham Ford handed photos of national players attend- game, but slipped to third position this affected, the team naturally performs bad- 49, had been head of coaching at Sri Lanka have also held stints as Sri Lanka coach. ing all-night parties just before crucial month behind the West Indies and Australia ly,” he said of reported squabbling between Cricket but his elevation to oversee the Jayaratne, a former Under 19 interna- matches against hosts New Zealand, who after their resounding defeat in the players, including the captain, and the national team was seen as a stop-gap tional, had headed the coaching depart- achieved a virtual clean sweep in the just- Twenty20 matches. Sri Lanka also lost the coach. The minister said Sri Lanka would arrangement. Atapattu was the seventh Sri ment for seven years. — AFP PERTH: Australia’s Steve Smith, right, attempts to play a shot against India during their one day international cricket match in Perth, Australia, yesterday. — AP Smith, Bailey tons power Australia to 5-wicket win PERTH: Steve Smith and George Bailey both runs needed for victory he chipped Sran to cover Shikhar Dhawan (9) in the sixth over when he scored centuries as Australia cruised to a five wick- where Virat Kohli claimed an easy catch, leaving top-edged an attempted pull from Josh SCOREBOARD et win over India in the first one day international James Faulkner to hit the winning run. Hazlewood straight to Mitchell Marsh at deep at the WACA ground yesterday. “I thought we did well in the field to restrict backward square leg. After Indian opener Rohit Sharma scored an them to 309,” Smith said. “They looked like they However, that brought Kohli to the crease and PERTH, Australia: Scoreboard from the first ODI between Australia and India at the WACA unbeaten 171 to lead his country to an imposing were going to get 350 at one stage.” India must signalled a long period of complete dominance ground in Perth yesterday: 309-3, Australia got away to a rocky start when have been confident of defending their total after over the Australian attack as he raced to the high- left arm seamer Barinder Sran removed both Sran’s impressive start. est individual ODI score against Australia on India D. Warner c Kohli b Sran 5 openers in his first three overs. He brilliantly caught and bowled Finch (8) in Australian soil, eclipsing Viv Richards’ 153 not out R. Sharma not out 171 S. Smith c Kohli b Sran 149 Playing on a lifeless pitch which offered noth- his second over, then had the dangerous Warner for the West Indies in 1979. S. Dhawan c Marsh b Hazlewood 9 G. Bailey c Kumar b Ashwin 112 ing for the bowlers, Bailey and Smith played bril- (5) caught at midwicket by Kohli in his third. Sharma smashed 13 fours and cleared the V. Kohli c Finch b Faulkner 91 G. Maxwell c Dhawan b Ashwin 6 liantly to frustrate the Indian attack. They rotated But the ease with which Australia chased the boundary seven times to the delight of the large M. Dhoni c Boland b Faulkner 18 M. Marsh not out 12 the strike throughout the innings to keep the score down showed that India had not scored contingent of Indian fans at the ground. R. Jadeja not out 10 J. Faulkner not out 1 score moving, taking quick singles and hitting quickly enough in the middle of their innings and He built his innings steadily, bringing up his Extras (lb6, w4) 10 Extras (lb5, w12) 17 boundaries when they needed to increase the were at least 20 runs short of a competitive total. 50 from 63 balls, his century from 122 and his 150 Total (3 wickets; 50 overs) 309 Total (5 wickets: 49.2 overs) 310 pace. Bailey was the more aggressive early and “I think it’s important that after you score 300 runs from 155, mixing quick singles with some power- Fall of wickets: 1-36 (Dhawan); 2-243 (Kohli), Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Finch), 2-21 (Warner), 3- reached his century before his captain, taking just you bowl well and I think in the middle overs ful boundary hitting. It was the fourth time 3-286 (Dhoni) 263 (Bailey), 4-273 (Maxwell), 5-308 (Smith) 106 balls with six boundaries and two sixes. Smith when the spinners were bowling they gave up too Sharma had scored 150 in ODIs, a record only sur- Did not bat: A. Rahane, M. Pandey, R. began to accelerate and followed Bailey to three many runs,” Dhoni said. “I was quite happy with passed by countryman Sachin Tendulkar. Ashwin, U. Yadav, B. Kumar, B. Sran Did not bat: M. Wade , S. Boland, J. figures soon after, off only 97 balls including six the fast bowling performance-I thought they Sharma lost Kohli with the score on 243 and Bowling: Hazlewood 10-0-41-1, Paris 8-0- Hazlewood, J. Paris fours and a towering six. bowled well and hit the right spots.” was joined at the crease by Dhoni, who joined 53-0 (1w), Marsh 9-0-53-0 (1w), Boland Bowling: Sran 9.2-0-56-3 (3w), Kumar 9-0-42- Bailey eventually fell when he tried to smash in with 18 rapid runs before he was caught 10-0-74-0, Faulkner 10-0-60-2 (1w), 0 (4w), Sharma 1-0-11-0, Yadav 10-0-54-0 another six off Ravi Ashwin and was caught on the TOOTHLESS ATTTACK brilliantly at mid-on by Boland. However, (3w), Jadeja 9-0-61-0 (1w), Aswhin 9-0-68-2 boundary by Bhuvneshwar Kumar but Smith con- Earlier Sharma and Kohli (91) shared a 207-run despite the late flourish the Indians fell short Maxwell 3-0-22-0 (1w) (1w), Kohli 2-0-13-0 tinued his incredible vein of form. partnership for the second wicket against a and Australia were able to draw first blood in Australia He smashed his way to 149 but with only two toothless Australian attack. India lost opener the five-match series. — AFP A. Finch c and b Sran 8 Result: Australia won by five wickets. Gayle under De Villiers faces fire again for bigger challenge BBL no-run JOHANNESBURG: AB de Villiers faces the enced bowler in the line-up. The bowlers SYDNEY: West Indies star Chris Gayle was under biggest challenge of a glittering career when took some severe punishment at the hands fire again yesterday for his actions in Australia’s he captains South Africa in the third Test of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow at Big Bash League, days after a storm over his sexist against England, starting at the Wanderers Newlands, although they performed better comments to a female television presenter. Stadium tomorrow. Arguably the world’s in the second innings. Gayle, who made headlines after attempting to best batsman - he is ranked third in Tests and Picking the right bowling line-up will be flirt with Network Ten reporter Mel McLaughlin first in one-day internationals - De Villiers, 31, a key factor for South Africa, with Kyle during an live interview, was savaged by com- made no secret of his ambition to captain Abbott and the uncapped Hardus Viljoen, mentators for refusing to take what appeared to the South African Test team following the who plays for the Wanderers-based Lions be an easy single for his Melbourne Renegades retirement of Graeme Smith in 2014. franchise, coming under consideration. team against Sydney Thunder late Monday. He But Cricket South Africa decided to There is also a possibility that South Africa was criticised by the match commentators for appoint Hashim Amla instead, with De might decide to go without specialist spin turning back his fellow opening batsman Tom Villiers continuing to lead the one-day side. bowler Dane Piedt, which could mean a Cooper, who was keen to take a run in a format Now De Villiers has the job he wanted, fol- recall for batsman and part-time spinner JP where one run can mean the difference between a win and loss.