Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], March 19 (ANI): Sri Lanka Legends will meet India Legends in the summit clash of the Road Safety World Series T20 at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. And, it was only after Tillakaratne Dilshan’s outfit easily got the better of Jonty Rhodes’ South Africa Legends by eight wickets on Friday night.
Sri Lankans were always favourite on paper and they delivered up to their potential and form as they romped home to a comfortable win, chasing down a 126-run target with 16 balls to spare.
Riding on No.4 batsman Chinthaka Jayasinghe’s (47*) and south-paw Upul Tharanga’s (39*) partnership of 70 runs for the third wicket, Sri Lanka finished at 129 for the loss of two wickets in 17.2 overs. Captain and in-form Dilshan scored 18 and Sanath Jayasuriya, too, got as many runs.
Earlier, Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan won the toss and elected to field first. The move clicked as the Lankans folded out South Africans for a low score of 125 in 20 overs. Seamer Nuwan Kulasekara was the wrecker-in-chief for the Sri Lankans with five wickets for 25 runs. For South Africans, it was opener Morne van Wyk who starred with a half-century from 57 balls including eight boundaries.
South Africa began on a positive note with Van Wyk giving a solid start, but the Lankans immediately put the brake on African surge as Kulasekara got his in-form partner Andrew Puttick for a duck. In need of a big partnership, the South Africans got one in Van Wyk and Alviro Petersen. The duo was not aggressive but did not shy away from getting that odd boundary or rotate strike before Farveez Maharoof got the scalp of Petersen as the scoreboard read 65/2.
Later, Van Wyk got his maiden half-century of the tournament before Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya got him trapped in front of the wickets for 53. Once the opener went home, it was all formality for Sri Lanka. Other than Van Wyk and Petersen, only Justin Kemp could get into the double-digit score as the rest of the South African batsman fell for single digits. South Africa lost its seven wickets for 29 runs, all thanks to Kulasekara’s super spell.
Brief scores: South Africa 125 all out in 20 overs (Morne van Wyk 23, Alviro Petersen 27; Nuwan Kulasekara 5/25) lost to Sri Lanka Legends 129/2 in 17.2 overs (Upul Tharanga 39, Chinthaka Jayasinghe 47, Tillakaratne Dilshan 18, Sanath Jayasuriya 18) by 8 wickets. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], March 19 (ANI): Hosts India had a good opening competition day as three shooters, world number one Divyansh Singh Panwar and Arjun Babuta in the Men’s 10M Air Rifle and Anjum Moudgil in the corresponding women’s event, made it through to the finals at the end of the 60-shot qualifying round here at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range on Friday.
The men started the ball rolling as India number two Arjun Babuta shot a high-quality 631.8 to finish third in the 39-strong field. World number one Divyansh Singh Panwar also followed him to the eight-man final slated for Saturday, with a 629.1 which gave him sixth position overall.
Nam Taeyun of Korea topped the Men’s field with a 632.1 and given his current world rank of 18 and the fact that all other finalists are not eligible except his own teammate Choo Byounggil who is ranked way below him, should bag the only available Tokyo Olympics quota based on world rankings. Deepak Kumar, the third Indian in the field finished 12th with a score of 626.4.
In the Women’s 10M Air Rifle, world number four and Tokyo quota holder Anjum Moudgil was the lone Indian to qualify. She shot 629.6 to come in second in the 48-strong field, behind Hungary’s Denes Eszter who shot 629.8.
World number one Elavenil Valarivan of India missed out, however, finishing 12th with a score of 626.7. So did her teammate Apurvi Chandela who finished 26th with 622.8.
The world-ranking quota in the Women’s event is up for a fight though, with Dane Ibsen Rikke Maeng (world rank 11) and American Mary Tucker (world rank 20) making it to the finals among others.
Both the Men’s and Women’s 10M Air Rifle finals are scheduled for Saturday afternoon. As many as four blockbuster finals are lined up on Saturday with the Men’s and Women’s 10M Air Pistol finals also scheduled on the same day. (ANI)

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 19 (ANI): The star Indian pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra made their way into the mixed doubles final at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament after they defeated Singapore’s Koen Pang Yew En and Lin Ye 4-2 in the last-4 clash in Doha on Friday.
The World No. 19 Indian pair has now set up the final clash against World No. 8 Korean pair of Sang-Su Lee and Jihee Jeon on Saturday and is now a win away from qualifying for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Having already secured the singles berths on Thursday and now aiming for double qualification, Sharath and Manika faced a tough challenge in the initial part of the match as the scores were levelled at 2-2 after the fourth game. However, the 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist pair managed to hold an edge over the opponent and bagged two successive games to complete a 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11 victory in 50 minutes.
Meanwhile the Korean duo Lee and Jeon entered the final with 4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, 11-8 victory against Thailand’s Padasak Tanviriyavechakul and Suthasini Sawettabut.
Earlier on Thursday, all the four Indian paddlers Sharath, Manika, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan and Sutirtha Mukherjee earned themselves singles qualification at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. While Sathiyan and Sutirtha emerged winners in their respective categories of the South Asian Group, Sharath and Manika sealed Tokyo berths by virtue of being the highest-ranked second-placed players. (ANI)

Baramulla (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 19 (ANI): The Torna Battalion of the Indian Army, under the aegis of Pir Panjal Brigade, recently organised the Inter School Girls Volleyball Championship in Baramulla.
The event, which was conducted in alliance with local school authorities and civil administration, saw participation of five schools of Boniyar area of Baramulla district as more than 50 female students participated in the championship. The matches were conducted over two days.
At the culmination of the event, a felicitation ceremony was organised where both players and spectators expressed their gratitude towards the Indian Army for conducting the event and hoped that more such events are conducted in the coming days.
“Five teams participated in this tournament from different zones. In this event, they participated in their first competition after the schools reopened. Girls were happy to resume the sports activities after more than a year. I hope these events will continue in the future,” co-organiser of the championship, Aquib Ahmad, told ANI.
“We want more girls should get the opportunity to play sports. I want to thank my teachers, coaches and the Indian Army,” one of the participants said.
“I thank the organisers for creating such a platform for us to shine in the field of sports,” added another. (ANI)

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], March 19 (ANI): Tvesa Malik managed to stay afloat and keep her nerves as she overcame an over-par round and won the sixth leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour by two strokes at the Rambagh Golf Club.
The bubbly Gurgaon golfer, Tvesa also ended an 18-month winless drought dating back to 2019, a season in which she won three times. Tvesa, leading by three shots when the final round began, was 2-over after the first four holes but managed to hang in with a birdie on 17th as the leaders started on the back nine.
Jahanvi Bakshi gave Tvesa a run for her money as she came within a shot of the leader with birdies on the first and second. Tvesa and Jahanvi bogeyed the Par-4 third hole and the gap of one stayed as both players parred from fourth to seventh. When Jahanvi bogeyed the Par-5 eighth, Tvesa pulled two ahead with a par. A par from both on ninth, the closing hole, ended the race in Tvesa’s favour.
Tvesa shot 2-over 72 for 1-under 209 as Jahanvi carded 1-over 71 for 1-over 211. Tvesa’s last win was in September 2019, while Jahanvi won last week.
Tvesa was happy with the win but felt her game could have been better. She said, “The game has been good and I have been feeling good about my game so far this year. Obviously, I had a couple of rounds that have been off but overall games has felt good. Every week has felt like it should have been better and it had a potential to be a lot better. I feel like it’s been games in trending in the right direction.”
“I still think there is a long way to go for my putting. I think I just need work to do but I am still happy with the week even though I know today was not as good as I would have wanted to be. I would have liked to win on a better note. I think it was a tricky day out there, not just for me but for everybody,” she added.
Amateur Kriti Chowhan showed her familiarity at the Rambagh course with the day’s best card of 1-under 69 to finish third. She had four birdies against three bogeys.
Hitaashee Bakshi (71) was fourth and Amandeep Drall (72) was fifth, but managed to stay atop the Hero Order of Merit, which is being combined for 2020 and 2021.
Ridhima Dilawari (77) was sixth, Vani Kapoor (73) was seventh, amateur Avani Prashant (77) was eighth while Ananya Datar (75) and Seher Atwal (76) completed the top-10. (ANI)

Colombo [Sri Lanka], March 19 (ANI): Bangladesh will be playing a two-Test series in Sri Lanka, announced Sri Lanka Cricket on Friday. Both the matches will be played at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy.
Bangladesh will arrive in Sri Lanka on April 12. The first Test will be played from April 21 to 25 and the second will be played from April 29 to May 3.
Bangladesh was initially scheduled to play three Tests in July 2020. The series was rescheduled to be played in October-November but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sri Lanka is currently in the West Indies, participating in three T20Is, three ODIs and two Tests. The limited-overs leg of the tour has been completed with the Test series scheduled to start from March 21.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, is in New Zealand where both teams will play three ODIs and as many T20Is between March 20 to April 1.
Both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are out of contention to play the WTC final. India and New Zealand are slated to face each other in the summit clash, set to be played from June 18-22 in Southampton. (ANI)