Akalanka Peiris – 50m backstroke national record holder
Sri Lanka fought valiantly against a strong Indian side to fall short by 19 runs in the Women’s Cricket Gold Medal Match yesterday (25) at Hangzhou, China. This is India’s maiden gold in cricket and their second in the Asian Games medal tally. India didn’t feature a team in the 2010 and 2014 editions. In the last two editions, Pakistan have been dominating, winning gold, with Bangladesh ending as runner-up. Sri Lanka won bronze at the 2014 games in South Korea.
India won the toss and decided to bat first with Smriti Mandhana (46 off 45) and Jemimah Rodrigues (42 off 40) setting up a crucial 73-run partnership for the second wicket. Udeshika Prabodhani, Sugandika Kumari, and Inoka Ranaweera picked up two wickets each to restrict the neighbours to 116 for 7 in the allotted 20 overs.
Chasing a relatively easy target of 117, Sri Lanka were reeling at 15/3 when Titas Sadhu led India’s bowling by bagging three wickets and a double-wicket maiden in her opening over. Hasini Perera and Nilakshi de Silva tried their level best to salvage Sri Lanka from disaster with a 36-run stand. The Lankans were limited to 97 for 8 by the strong Indian bowling unit.
Brief Scores:
India – 116/7 in 20 overs (Smriti Mandhana 46, Jemimah Rodrigues 42; Udeshika Prabodhani 2/16, Inoka Ranaweera 2/21, Sugandika Kumari 2/30)
Sri Lanka – 97/8 in 20 overs (Hasini Perera 25, Nilakshi de Silva 23; Titas Sadhu 3/6)
India won by 19 runs
Meanwhile Bangladesh beat Pakistan to clinch the bronze medal at the women's third place playoff.
Swimming – Former Peterite star swimmer Akalanka Peiris broke his own Sri Lanka national record as he clocked 26.01 seconds to place fourth in the men’s 50m backstroke heats. His previous best was 26.12 secs. Hailing from the star-studded Abeysinghe family, Matthew Abeysinghe finished fourth at the men’s 50m freestyle heats. Ganga Senavirathne finished eighth in the women’s 50m backstroke heats.
Rugby – Sri Lanka register first win!
Sri Lanka contesting under the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) flag registered their maiden win at rugby sevens beating Afghanistan 36-10. The Lankans also got the better of Philippines 21-12 in a tightly-contested game. Hosts China pulled off a surprise win against strong contenders Hong Kong 33-nil.
In the men’s placing 9-13, Sri Lanka will face Nepal today (26) at 09.35 a.m. Sri Lanka time and Thailand at 1.55pm.
Sailing – Tharen Nanayakkara placed third in the boys’ dinghy – ILCA4 race 09. Arianna Taalya finished sixth in the girls’ dinghy – ILCA4 race 09.
Rowing – Mohamed Nafiran was unlucky to finish fourth in the men’s single sculls – final B. Maheshi Bhadra was placed fifth in the women’s single sculls – final B.
Taekwondo – Chalinda Sampath Liyanage beat Sam Youdeth of Cambodia 2-0 in the men’s 58kg – round of 32 clash. Liyanage lost to Jang Jun of South Korea 2-0 at the round of 16. Jang went on to clinch the gold medal in the 58kg category, beating Iran’s Haji Mahdi 2-0.
Chess - Susal Thewjan defeated his Hong Kong counterpart 1/0 in a round one game. Later he drew (0.5-0.5) against his Uzbekistani opponent. Thewjan lost to his Chinese contender 1-0 in the individual round three game.