Meets Nepal in the T20 quarter finals today:

Lankan cricketers make debut

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from China

Sri Lanka will be at full strength when they take on Nepal in the quarter finals of the 16th Asian Games Twenty20 cricket tournament to be played at Guanggong Cricket Stadium here on Wednesday.

Coach Sumithra Warnakulasuriya said Sri Lanka will not take any chances and will play its full team for the opening quarter final game. “Since this is a knock out and we are playing directly in the quarter final without any preliminary round experience on the wicket, we are not going to take any chances,” Warnakulasuriya told the Daily News after today’s final practice session.

“We had a look at Nepalese side in their preliminary round game against Hong Kong. Their strength is bowling and fielding though the same could not be said about Nepal’s batting. Hence, this is a knock out, we take this game seriously without underestimating our opponents,” he said.

Sri Lanka coach said the toss will play a decisive role. “The wicket is onto the slow and turning side. They are using only two tracks for the entire tournament.

Hence, winning the toss toss batting will be a big advantage,” he said. If Sri Lanka skipper Jehan Mubarak calls correct, they will not hesitate to take first lease of the wicket.

“If we can bat first and set a big total, we could keep them under pressure. But if they bat first, we have to make sure that we restrict them to a low total,” Warnakumasuriya said, adding that the team is in good shape, anxiously waiting to make their Asian Games debut. In the first quarter final scheduled for Wednesday morning session, Group ‘D’ table leaders Hong Kong will meet Afghanistan. The winners of this game will play Pakistan in Thursday’s semi finals.

The second quarter final between Sri Lanka and Nepal will be played in the afternoon session at the same venue. If Sri Lanka wins their quarter final game against Nepal, they will advance to play Bangladesh in the second semi final to be played on Thursday. Bangladesh made it to the last four, when they beat Malaysia by 70 runs in their quarter final match played today. Electing to bat first this morning, Bangladesh made 150 for 7 in 20 overs with opener Mohammed Mithun making a top score of 39. In reply, Malaysia were bowled out for 80 in 19.4 overs.

Manjula Kumara - sixth

Cricket remains Sri Lanka’s probably its’s only medal hope after high jumper Manjula Kumara Wijesekera sixth in men’s final. Starting his jumps from 2.10m, the Los Angeles-based former Asian Championship gold medalist cleared both 2.10m and 2.15m in his first attempts. Though he failed with his first attempt at 2.19m, he was successful in his second attempt. Misfortune struck Wijesekera when he attempted to clear 2.23m, much lower than his career best leap of 2.27m. He almost made it in his third attempt but at the last point of clearance, his right leg slightly distracted the crossbar.

“It was so unfortunate. I thought I would almost make it. I tried my best to give a medal for Sri Lanka but it was not my day,” Wijesekera said after the event. Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar bagged the men’s high jump gold with a performance of 2.27m, the identical mark which Wijesekera initially cleared to set Sri Lanka record way back in 2004 to qualify for the Athens Olympics.

Sri Lanka’s outside chance for a place in women’s long jump too did not materialise as Dilrukshi Priyadharshani finished 12th in the final with a performance of 5.92m. Taking her jump against the wind, Soonok Jung of South Korea had a season’s best leap of 6.53m to take the gold medal. Olga Rypakova took the silver, also with a season’s best mark of 6.50m.

Sri Lanka enter women’s 4 x 100m final

Sri Lanka’s women’s relay team, comprising of Yamuna Niranjala, Jani Chathurangani Silva, Sujani Buddhika and Chandrika Subashini, had a surprise chance of making it to the finals of women’s 4 x 100m event after two teams were disqualified. In their absence, Sri Lanka team, which finished third out of five teams that competed in heat two, clocked 45.49 seconds to make it to the last eight. Japan won the heat in 44.73 seconds, followed by China (44.78) and Sri Lanka.

But misfortune struck Sri Lanka in the men’s 4 x 100m due to a fault in the baton change before the anchor lap. China won the heat 2 with a season’s best 39.03 seconds.

The other gold medalists produced in today’s track and field events at Aoti Main Stadium were Hong Liu of China (a season’s best one hour, 30 minutes and 20 seconds in women’s 20km race walking), Maryam Yousuf Jamal of Bahrain (four minutes and 08.22 seconds in women’s 1,500m), Yanfeng Li of China (a season’s best 66.18m in women’s discus throw), Tareq Mubarak Taheer of Bahrain (8:25.89 in men’s 3,000m steeple chase) and Mohammed Shaween of Saudi Arabia (three minutes, 36.49 seconds in men’s 1,500m).

Lankan rugby team humiliated

Sri Lanka rugby team continued its dismal performance, losing to Taiwan and Malaysia to finish sixth while Japan underlined its rugby supremacy to win the gold medal. Sri Lanka’s only consolation for the day was a hard-fought 21-17 win over Thailand after leading 14-5 at half time.

Earlier in the morning, Sri Lanka rugby team lost to Hong Kong 14-19 after trailing 7-12 at half time. But Sri Lanka played better rugby in the second half during which both teams scored a goal each. Saliya Handapangodage scored both tries for Sri Lanka in either side of the half time and both of them were converted by skipper Radhika Hettiarachchi.

In the next consolation round game, Sri Lanka had an unimpressive 21 points (three goals) to 17 (one goal and two tries) win over Thailand.

Captain Hettiarachchi, Anuruddha Walpola and Vishwa Jayasinghe scored a try each. Hettiarachchi added extra points on all three occasions.

In the play off game for the fifth position, Sri Lanka, after leading 7-5 at half time, were beaten by Malaysia 7-27. While restricting Sri Lanka a single scoring opportunity, Malaysia ran down four tries in the second half to make a magnificent comeback as Sri Lanka ate humble pie. Malaysia scored their points from one goal and four tries while Sri Lanka had a solitary goal, scored by Anuruddha Walpola and converted by skipper Hettiarachchi.

Asian rugby heavyweights Japan lived up to expectations to win the gold medal with an exciting 28 points to 21 victory over Hong Kong. Japan got off to a solid start and led 21-7 at half time.

Hong Kong dominated the second half’s play but Japan’s early advantage was good enough to secure the gold.

South Korea won the bronze medal of the men’s rugby sevens, when they edged out China by 21 points to 14 in the play-off match for the third place. The gold medal in the women’s seven-a-side tournament of the Games was won by Kazakhstan which had a close 17-14 win over China in the final after trailing 5-7 at half time.

Poor show in Archery, Squash & Cycling

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka continued its poor form in archery, squash and cycling. Shashikala Kumarasinghe lost to North Korean (0-4) while Dilhara Salgado went down to China’s Ming Cheng (0-4) in their women’s individual elimination matches of the archery competition.

Sri Lanka’s Lasantha Gunatillake finished 25th out of 26 competitors who competed in the women’s 100km individual road race which consisted of five 20km laps. Gunatillake cut a sorry figure in clocking two hours, 47 minutes and 54.06 seconds with an average speed of 35.735kmph.

Taiwan’s Mei Yu Hsiao won the gold medal, returning a timing of 2:47:46.12, maintaining an average speed of 35.764kmph. Indonedia’s Santia Trikusuma (2:47:46.52) won the silver, followed by Na Zhao of China (2:47:46.63 - bronze).

The other disappointing story for Sri Lanka at the Asian Games came in squash after the local team suffered a humiliating 0-3 defeat at the hands of Kuwaitis, who are competing under the IOC flag as their NOC is still defunct. Nasser Al Ramezi beat Gihan Suwaris 0-3 in 17 minutes 11-4, 11-9, 11-2.

Navin Samarasinghe lost to Abdullah Almezayen in almost similar fashion 1-11, 5-11, 6-11. Binura Jayasuriya battled for 20 minutes before losing to Ammar Altemimi, also in straight sets 7-11, 2-11, 5-11. Sri Lanka’s continuous poor form saw them finishing at the bottom of the Group ‘A’, having lost all their three ties played here.

Hong Kong and Pakistan share the top slots, winning three ties each. The group ‘B’ of the men’s team event in squash is jointly headed by India and Malaysia with four wins each.

GUANGZHOU, Tuesday.