Friday, October 29, 2010

Sri Lankans fine-tune with another win

Sri Lankans 4 for 167 (Jayawardene 59) beat New South Wales 2 for 100 (Khawaja 32*) by 22 runs on D/L method
Scorecard


Mahela Jayawardene guides one to third man on his way to a half-century, New South Wales v Sri Lankans, Tour Match, Sydney, October 27, 2010
Mahela Jayawardene was quick off the mark, racing to 59 in 35 balls © Getty Images

The Sri Lankans controlled their final warm-up before running into Australia as they recorded a 22-run victory over New South Wales in Sydney. After the visitors posted 4 for 167 from their 20 overs, the local innings was interrupted by rain - the target was reduced to 123 in 14 overs - and they finished at 2 for 100.

The game started 15 minutes late because the Sri Lankans were caught in traffic on the way to the ground at Blacktown in western Sydney, but the captain Mahela Jayawardene quickly put on the accelerator after he won the toss. Jayawardene, who replaced the resting Kumar Sangakkara, raced to 59 in 35 balls as he and Tillakaratne Dilshan opened with 57 in 5.3 overs.

Dilshan fell for 21 as the main batsmen found some decent practice ahead of Friday's Twenty20 international against Australia in Perth. Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews both collected 24 while Chamara Kapugedera picked up 26 off 18. Brett Lee was upset to be overlooked by Australia this week, but did not impress in giving away 44 runs in his four overs, including being hit for six twice by Kapugedera.

New South Wales started well in their reply but........

Score card
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Anxious World Cup bidders await outcome of FIFA meeting

(Reuters) - Bidding nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will seek an eagerly awaited measure of clarity when FIFA considers the troubled process at a meeting on Friday.

The campaign, already dogged by confusion over the voting format, has been hit by a corruption scandal, with allegations of vote-selling by two FIFA executive committee members and collusion by unnamed bidding nations.

FIFA's executive committee is due to choose the hosts in Zurich on December 2 although there have been calls for the election of at least the 2022 hosts to be postponed to a later date. However, FIFA has so far ruled out this possibility.

With barely more than a month to go, the voting process has....


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