Fernando to play despite injury
Sri Lankan fast bowler Dilhara Fernando will play in the Test series against England beginning on December 1 in Kandy despite a recurring ankle injury, his captain Mahela Jayawardene has said. Fernando is a key member of Lanka’s pace attack along with Lasith Malinga and 99-Test veteran Chaminda Vaas, and his availability is crucial in the absence of the injured Farveez Maharoof.
Anand finishes second in Blitz
World Champion Viswanathan Anand finished second in a strong field at the World Blitz chess championship that concluded at Moscow, reports PTI from New Delhi.
Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine won the tournament scoring 25.5 points out of a possible 38 while Anand finished a point behind on 24.5.
Final standings: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 25.5) 1; Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 24.5) 2; Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 23.5) 3; Gata Kamsky (Usa, 23.5) 4; Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 21.5) 5; Leko Peter (Hun, 21.5) 6; Sergei Rublevsky (Rus, 21.5) 7; Morozevich Alexander (Rus, 21.0) 8; Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 20.5) 9.
Samaraweera dropped
Sri Lanka have axed middle-order batsman Thilan Samaraweera from their 14-man squad for the first Test against England beginning in Kandy on December 1, reports Reuters from Colombo.
Squad: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Michael Vandort, Chamara Silva, Jehan Mubarak, Prasanna Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga, Malinga Bandara, Sujeewa de Silva.
Unbeaten ton by Raju
Sunil N Raju made an unbeaten 104 (196b, 14x4) and Aditya Sagar took six for 101 as Karnataka clinched first-innings honours in their all-India under-19 cricket tournament tie for the Cooch Behar Trophy against Delhi in Gwalio, reports DHNS.
Karnataka picked up three points by virtue of their 14-run lead on the first-innings in the four-day match which ended in a stalemate on Friday.
Brief scores: Delhi: 225 all out in 72.4 overs and 317 all out in 101 overs (Ishan Bakshi 86, Rahul Yadav 84, Gaurav Jhanira 53; Aditya B Sagar 6-101) drew Karnataka: 239 all out in 80 overs and 246/4 in 91 overs (S Sanjay Kumar 61, Manish Pandey 54, Sunil N Raju 104 n.o.; Anurag Tyagi 2-41, Manah Sharma 2-69).
Bangalore South, Belgaum triumph
Bangalore South and Belgaum districts won the boys and girls titles respectively in the State-level pre-university badminton championships conducted by the Department of Pre-university and Vocational Education in Gulbarga.
Results (final): Boys: Bangalore South bt Belgaum 2-0 (Aditya R Prakash bt Dhruv Shanbag 21-17, 21-17; Aditya R Prakash/ MD Anup Kiran bt Darshan Kulkarni/ Dhruv Shanbag 17-21, 21-17, 21-15). Girls: Belgaum bt Davanagere 2-0 (Sayali Malgave bt Menaka Kayi 21-12, 21-7; Sayali Malgave/ Apoorva Jagdale bt Menaka Kayi/ Neha Manjunath 21-7, 21-15).
Das emerges champion
Manav Das fired a brilliant two-under 68 to clinch the LG Western India amateur golf championship, report agencies from Mumbai.
Final scores (after 72 holes): 276: Manav Das (71, 70, 67, 68); 283: Vikram Rana (67, 69, 71, 76); 289: Abhishek Jha (73, 77, 71, 68); 294: L Selvadurai (70, 75, 76, 73), Gagan Verma (76, 71, 73, 74), Abhinav Lohan (71, 73, 76, 74); 295: Rudresh Sharma (75, 73, 72, 75); 296: HS Kang (77, 74, 75, 70), Moin Malak (74, 75, 76, 71), SK Lakra (69, 75, 76, 76); 297: Samaresh Sardar (74, 72, 76, 75), Rahul Bajaj (75, 70, 76, 76); 299: Akshay Buta (74, 74, 71, 80); 300: Surabh Bahuguna (71, 77, 81, 71), Tarun Ghogale (77, 68, 80, 75).
Karnataka bow out
Karnataka crashed out of the Junior National (under-19) football tournament for the Dr B C Roy Trophy after suffering a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Bengal in Faridabad on Friday. In the quarterfinal league tie, Deepankar Chatterjee scored one goal (48th, 88th) in each session.
