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Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne said Sunday it had been “a very emotional day” after his 100th and final Test ended with a defeat to Australia.The veteran opening batsman Karunaratne was given the honour of bowling the final few balls as Australia wrapped up a nine-wicket win and series sweep before lunch on the fourth day in Galle.”It has been a long career — after my family and friends, I was spending most time with my teammates,” he said.”I am leaving them, but this team will be always in my heart.”The 36-year-old former skipper was a rock at the top of the Sri Lankan order for more than a decade, but had gone 25 innings without a century.He had announced before the second Test in Galle that it would be his farewell to the five-day game.”When I started my cricket, I just wanted to play one Test match,” he said. “To go on to play 100 Tests was amazing. Playing cricket for so long has been a privilege”.Renowned for his cool head and affable nature, Karunaratne also proved a shrewd leader.Taking over the captaincy at a turbulent time in 2019, he led Sri Lanka to a historic series win in South Africa. To this day, Sri Lanka remain the only Asian team to conquer the Proteas in their own backyard.Karunaratne relinquished the captaincy in 2023, saying it was time for younger cricketers to lead.He said that after a playing career with “lots of happy memories” he now wanted to spend time with his family, and move into coaching.”I intend to take up coaching,” he said Sunday. “I want to get qualified … I will start coaching either here or overseas.

Australia wrapped up a dominant 2-0 sweep of the Test series against Sri Lanka at Galle on Sunday, romping to a nine-wicket victory before lunch on day four.Set a modest target of 75 to win, Australia lost only Travis Head as they stormed to a commanding victory in a ruthless display from the world’s top-ranked Test side.Head and Usman Khawaja put on 38 for the first wicket, looking at ease on a turning wicket.Prabath Jayasuriya removed Head, caught behind but Marnus Labuschagne with 26 and Khawaja, 27, knocked off the runs.With three runs required for the win, Dimuth Karunaratne, playing his 100th and final Test match, was called up to bowl.Labuschagne flicked his third delivery to midwicket to level the scores, and with another flick on the next ball, sealed the win 16 minutes before lunch.- ‘It’s been a privilege’ -“When I started my cricket, I just wanted to play one Test match,” said Karunaratne. “To go on to play 100 Tests was amazing. Playing cricket for so long has been a privilege”.Australia had inflicted an innings and 242-run defeat on Sri Lanka in the first Test, the host’s worst ever defeat.The second Test victory triggered jubilant celebrations among the Australian fans, who far outnumbered the home contingent in the stands.Many were perched on top of the centuries-old Galle Fort. One banner declared “South Africa, you’re next!” in reference to the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June.Australia had been aware of the dangers of Galle’s turning pitches and had prepared with a week-long training camp in Dubai on similar tracks.The Australian batting unit delivered a masterclass, with a double hundred and four centuries in the two matches. No Sri Lanka batsman managed a century, with Kusal Mendis’s unbeaten 85 the highest individual score.Steve Smith’s men began Sunday’s fourth day by bundling Sri Lanka out for 231 from 211-8 overnight.Sri Lanka’s resistance lasted just 26 minutes, losing Kusal Mendis for 50 and Lahiru Kumara for nine. Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon shared the spoils with four wickets apiece in the innings. But left-arm spinner Kuhnemann, playing just his fifth Test, upstaged the seasoned Lyon in the series to finish as the leading wicket-taker with 16.Lyon did go past 550 Test wickets in the match, becoming only the third Australian after Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath to reach the milestone.Sri Lanka’s fragile batting meant their fortunes rested heavily on Kusal Mendis, who had already played a fine hand in the first innings with an unbeaten 85.In the second innings, he carried on the fight, bringing up his half-century with a crisp punch through covers off Lyon.Off the next ball, Mendis was done in by extra bounce, top-edging an attempted flick straight into the hands of Steve Smith for his 200th Test catch.The Australian skipper became only the fifth player in Test history to complete 200 catches –- alongside Rahul Dravid, Joe Root, Mahela Jayawardene and Jacques Kallis.Winning skipper Smith praised his side. “The way the guys have played is exceptional,” he said.

Sony PlayStation’s online services came back online on Saturday, the Japanese group said, after a 24-hour outage frustrated gamers around the world. PlayStation Network “has been restored. You should be able to access online features without any problems now,” said a statement on X around midnight GMT Sunday, 24 hours after a message acknowledged users were experiencing “difficulty launching games, apps or network features.” “Sorry for the inconvenience!” the post added, without providing further details on the reasons for the outage. The network’s failure prevented many owners of Sony consoles including the PS4 and the PS5 from playing multiplayer games such as the hugely popular “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty.”  The specialized site DownDetector.com had reported that users’ difficulties peaked sharply around 7:00 pm US Eastern time on Friday (midnight GMT Saturday), before falling steadily, but not quite returning to normal levels. Players expressed impatience and anger on social media during the outage. One user said on X that it was “criminal” to have a PlayStation outage on a Friday evening, but another quipped more equably that it was time for him to reintroduce himself to the woman he married five years ago. 

Glenn Phillips cracked a maiden century and Mitchell Santner grabbed three wickets to help New Zealand overpower Pakistan by 78 runs in the opening match of a tri-nations series in Lahore on Saturday.Phillips hit 106 not out from 74 balls, with seven sixes and six boundaries to help the tourists post an impressive 330-6 in 50 overs before Santner’s 3-41 helped dismiss Pakistan for 252 in 47.5 overs.South Africa are the third team in the series, a warm-up event for the Champions Trophy from February 19 to March 9 in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.Phillips also added the prized wicket of Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman who top-scored with a 69-ball 84 including four sixes and seven boundaries.Fakhar and Babar Azam, promoted to open the innings, had given Pakistan a solid start of 52 before Michael Bracewell broke through with the wicket of Azam who made just ten.Santner then exploited the slow Gaddafi Stadium pitch, dismissing Kamran Ghulam (18), skipper Mohammad Rizwan (three) and Khushdil Shah (15) to put Pakistan on the back foot.Salman Agha (40) and Tayyab Tahir (30) added 53 for the fifth wicket but that wasn’t enough in a tough chase.Pacer Matt Henry took 3-53 and Bracewell 2-41. Earlier, Phillips built on the good work by Daryl Mitchell (81) and Kane Williamson (58) after New Zealand chose to bat. Phillips added a quickfire 54 off just 47 balls with Bracewell for the sixth wicket. Bracewell scored 31 from 23 balls, with three sixes.New Zealand plundered 123 runs in the last 10 overs, including 84 from the final five.Phillips smashed a boundary and two sixes off pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi to reach his hundred off 72 balls, taking 25 in the 50th over.Shaheen ended up with expensive figures of 3-88 from his 10 overs, although he gave Pakistan an early breakthrough by removing opener Will Young for four with the fourth ball of the match.Spinner Abrar Ahmed had opener Rachin Ravindra caught and bowled for 25 but Williamson and Mitchell then added 95 off 112 balls to rebuild the innings.Williamson hit seven boundaries in his 46th half century, his first one-day international since November 2023, before edging Shaheen to wicketkeeper Rizwan.Mitchell appeared well set for a hundred but miscued a shot off Abrar in the 38th over to be caught after hitting four sixes and two boundaries.Pakistan was hit hard when pace bowler Haris Rauf walked off in the 37th over after suffering a side strain, having bowled 6.2 overs that included the wicket of Tom Latham for nought. Brief Scores:New Zealand 330-6 in 50 overs (G. Phillips 106 not out, D. Mitchell 81, K. Williamson 58; Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-88, Abrar Ahmed 2-41) v Pakistan 252 in 47.5 overs (Fakhar Zaman 84, Salman Agha 40; M. Santner 3-41)Result: New Zealand won by 78 runs Toss: New ZealandNext match: New Zealand vs South Africa, Lahore on Monday

India’s Hindu-nationalist ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated a landslide victory Saturday in key elections in the capital province Delhi, with the former chief minister suffering a crushing defeat.”Development has won, good governance has won,” Modi said after the city’s ex-leader — a key opposition figurehead to the premier — was confirmed as having lost his seat.Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in government in the national parliament but has not controlled the local legislature in the capital Delhi since 1998, so it is a symbolic and strategically important victory.”We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the overall development of Delhi and making the lives of residents better,” Modi said in a post on social media.Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat to Modi’s BJP, reflecting wider damaging losses by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).Kejriwal’s AAP had governed the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people for most of the past decade.”We accept the verdict and congratulate the BJP,” Kejriwal said in a video statement.Chanting BJP supporters danced for joy outside its New Delhi headquarters as vote results from Wednesday’s election were counted, waving flags and posters of Modi.Counting is in the last stages and the BJP has already secured a stunning two-thirds of the 70-seat assembly, having won 47 seats, according to the election commission. It is tipped to win at least one more seat. BJP’s Parvesh Sahib Singh, who is widely tipped to be the capital’s next chief minister, defeated Kejriwal.  “Delhi has chosen development,” Singh said in his victory statement. Singh, 47, comes from a family of politicians, and his father served as Delhi’s chief minister in the early 1990s. A former national lawmaker, Singh courted controversy in 2022 when he appeared to call for a “total boycott” of Muslims, although he did not explicitly refer to the community by name.”Our victory is a sign of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of progress,” interior minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said in a statement.”The Delhi mandate shows that people can’t be misled with lies every time.”- ‘Very strong position’ -Kejriwal, who rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago, spent several months behind bars last year over accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences, along with several fellow party leaders.He has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government.He was one of the key pillars of an opposition bloc formed ahead of India’s general elections last year, when the BJP suffered significant losses despite holding on to power. Kejriwal’s defeat in his Delhi stronghold puts the BJP “back in a very strong position”, said Rahul Verma of the Centre for Policy Research think tank in New Delhi.”Now it seems what happened in the general elections was a temporary lapse,” Verma said. “And it has put AAP in a difficult position going ahead.”Despite hectic weeks-long campaigning, little was said about Delhi’s crippling air pollution crisis, which smothers the city for months in hazardous fumes.New Delhi is regularly ranked the worst capital in the world for choking smog, which often surges as much as 60 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.Years of piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths annually and particularly affecting the health of children and the elderly.

Glenn Phillips cracked a maiden century to lift New Zealand to 330-6 against Pakistan in the tri-series opener in Lahore on Saturday.Phillips hit 106 not out from 74 balls, with seven sixes and six boundaries, after New Zealand won the toss and batted.He was ably supported by Daryl Mitchell with 81 and Kane Williamson (58).Phillips added a quickfire 54 off just 47 balls with Michael Bracewell for the sixth wicket. Bracewell scored 31 from 23 balls, with three sixes.New Zealand plundered 123 runs in the last 10 overs, including 84 from the final five.Phillips smashed a boundary and two sixes off pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi to reach his hundred off 72 balls, taking 25 in the 50th over.Shaheen ended up with expensive figures of 3-88 from his 10 overs, although he gave Pakistan an early breakthrough by removing opener Will Young for four with the fourth ball of the match.Spinner Abrar Ahmed had opener Rachin Ravindra caught and bowled for 25 but Williamson and Mitchell then added 95 off 112 balls to rebuild the innings.Williamson hit seven boundaries in his 46th half century, his first one-day international since November 2023, before edging Shaheen to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.Mitchell appeared well set for a hundred but miscued a shot off Abrar in the 38th over to be caught after hitting four sixes and two boundaries.Pakistan was hit hard when pace bowler Haris Rauf walked off in the 37th over after suffering a side strain, having bowled 6.2 overs that included the wicket of Tom Latham for nought. 

Australia are two wickets away from ending Sri Lanka’s second innings in the second Test Saturday, with the hosts reeling at 211-8 at stumps on day three in Galle.With Sri Lanka leading by only 54 runs, Steve Smith’s side will be eager to mop up the tail early Sunday and seal a 2-0 sweep.Angelo Mathews was the linchpin of Sri Lanka’s innings, holding things together as wickets tumbled at the other end.But just 15 minutes before the close of play, he swept Nathan Lyon straight to square leg, where Beau Webster pocketed a sharp chance.The 37-year-old warhorse had dug deep for a fighting half-century, but Sri Lanka needed a marathon knock, not his well-compiled 76.Mathews finds himself in the crosshairs, with just one fifty in his last eight innings.Ahead of this Test, the selectors had made it clear -– unless he starts churning out big runs, his spot in the next cycle of the World Test Championship was not fixed.His sixth-wicket partnership with Kusal Mendis worth 70 runs was a lifeline for Sri Lanka, preventing an innings implosion and ensuring the game stretched into a fourth day.There was an unusual moment in the afternoon session when a delivery from Lyon drifted down the leg-side.It clipped the helmet placed behind the wicketkeeper for a close-in fielder, and triggered an automatic five-run penalty for Sri Lanka, a rare bonus in a match where runs were hard to come by.With the picturesque Galle Fort providing a natural grandstand, hundreds of Australian supporters perched themselves atop the historic ramparts to enjoy a commanding performance from their side.The fans celebrated as off-spinner Lyon became only the third Australian to claim 550 Test wickets, joining the exalted company of Shane Warne (708) and Glenn McGrath (563). Lyon was well-supported by Matthew Kuhnemann, sharing seven wickets between them.Earlier, Alex Carey turned entertainer-in-chief with a swashbuckling 156 -– his career-best knock, peppered with 15 boundaries and two towering sixes. While Smith (131) also took another big hundred –- his second of the series -– it was Carey who made batting look easy.With Sri Lanka on the ropes and Australia poised for the knockout punch, day four promises high drama.The visitors have already put the Warne-Murali Trophy beyond Sri Lanka’s reach, having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead with a crushing victory in the first Test.That innings and 242-run humiliation stands as Sri Lanka’s worst defeat in Test history.

Sri Lanka were reeling at 98-4 at tea on day three in Galle on Saturday and staring at their second loss in the two-Test series against a dominant Australia.The hosts still require a further 60 runs to avoid an innings defeat, with survival looking improbable.With the picturesque Galle Fort providing a natural grandstand, hundreds of Australian supporters perched themselves atop the historic ramparts to enjoy a commanding performance from their side.The fans celebrated as off-spinner Nathan Lyon became only the third Australian to claim 550 Test wickets, joining the exalted company of Shane Warne (708) and Glenn McGrath (563).Fittingly, Lyon’s Test career began at Galle in 2011 and he celebrated the milestone in style, tightening the screws on Sri Lanka.Despite Australia losing seven wickets in the morning session to be bowled out for 414, their first-innings lead of 157 put them well ahead.Alex Carey turned entertainer-in-chief with a swashbuckling 156 -– his career-best knock and the highest score by an Australian wicketkeeper in Asia.Prabath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s spin spearhead, claimed his 11th five-wicket haul, but it was only a consolation with the visitors remaining firmly in control.Sri Lanka’s reply got off to a shaky start, with left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann making early inroads.Dimuth Karunaratne, playing in his final Test innings, walked off to a standing ovation after he fell to Kuhnemann for 14, with even the Australian players acknowledging his stellar career.The veteran opener, who became only the seventh Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests, bows out as the nation’s fourth-highest run-scorer and their most prolific opener.Lyon’s landmark wicket was straight out of a coaching manual.With long-off and long-on left vacant, he dangled the carrot for Dinesh Chandimal, who attempted an ambitious lofted shot.But the former captain failed to get the required elevation and the ball nestled safely in the hands of mid-off — a classic trap, perfectly executed.Kamindu Mendis, recently named ICC Emerging Player of the Year, endured a series to forget, failing to reach fifty after four innings.His poor run continued when he chipped a simple catch to mid-off, handing Lyon his second wicket of the innings.The visitors have already put the Warne-Murali Trophy beyond Sri Lanka’s reach, having taken an unassailable 1-0 lead with a crushing victory in the first Test.That innings and 242-run humiliation stands as Sri Lanka’s worst defeat in Test history.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday that “development had won” with his Hindu nationalist party tipped to win back control of the capital province Delhi in local elections.”Development has won, good governance has won,” Modi said, with counting still underway but with the city’s former chief minister — a key opposition leader to the prime minister — confirmed having lost his seat.Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to election commission results, reflecting expected wider losses by his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — which has governed the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people for most of the past decade.”We accept the verdict and congratulate the BJP,” Kejriwal said in a video statement.Modi’s BJP is in government in the national parliament, but has not controlled the local legislature in the capital Delhi since 1998, and a win would be a symbolic and strategically important victory.”We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the overall development of Delhi and making the lives of residents better,” Modi said in a post on social media.Chanting BJP supporters danced in joy outside its New Delhi headquarters as vote results from the election on Wednesday were counted, waving flags and posters of Modi.Counting continues — the BJP were only marginally ahead of AAP with just over a third of seats declared — but the election commission say Modi’s party is leading in more than two-thirds of the 70-seat assembly.”Our victory is a sign of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of progress,” interior minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said in a statement.”The Delhi mandate shows that people can’t be misled with lies every time.”- ‘Very strong position’ -Kejriwal, who rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago, spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences, along with several fellow party leaders. Kejriwal has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government. He was one of the key pillars of an opposition block formed ahead of India’s general elections last year, when the BJP suffered significant losses despite holding on to power. Kejriwal’s defeat in his stronghold puts the BJP “back in a very strong position”, said Rahul Verma, of the Centre for Policy Research think-tank in New Delhi.”Now it seems what happened in general elections was a temporary lapse,” Verma added. “And it has put AAP in a difficult position going ahead.”Despite hectic weeks-long campaigning, little was said about the capital’s crippling air pollution crisis, which smothers the city for months in hazardous fumes.New Delhi is regularly ranked the worst capital in the world for choking smog, which often surges as much as 60 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.Years of piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths annually and particularly impacting the health of children and the elderly.

A key Indian opposition leader and the former chief minister of the capital province Delhi lost his seat in local elections Saturday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party tipped for victory.Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to election commission results, reflecting expected wider losses by his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — which has governed the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people for most of the past decade.Modi’s BJP is in government in the national parliament, but has not controlled the local legislature in the capital New Delhi since 1998, and a win would be a symbolic and strategically important victory.Chanting BJP supporters danced in joy outside its New Delhi headquarters as vote results from the election on Wednesday were counted, waving flags and posters of Modi.Counting continues — with the AAP and BJP level on nine declared seats — but the election commission say Modi’s party is leading in more than two-thirds of the 70-seat assembly.”Our victory is a sign of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of progress,” interior minister and BJP stalwart Amit Shah said in a statement.”The Delhi mandate shows that people can’t be misled with lies every time.”Kejriwal, who rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago, spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences, along with several fellow party leaders. Kejriwal has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government. He was one of the key pillars of an opposition block formed ahead of India’s general elections last year, when the BJP suffered significant losses despite holding on to power. Kejriwal’s defeat in his stronghold puts the BJP “back in a very strong position”, said Rahul Verma, of the Centre for Policy Research think-tank in New Delhi.”Now it seems what happened in general elections was a temporary lapse,” Verma added. “And it has put AAP in a difficult position going ahead.”