COLOMBO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - India paceman Ishant Sharma and three Sri Lankan players have been charged for misconduct during the ongoing third test between the neighbours, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Tuesday.

Rafael Nadal schooled the 18-year-old Coric over the first two sets. (Source: AP)

Rafa Nadal showed flashes of his top form under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium to beat young Croat Borna Coric 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4 and close Day One at the U.S. Open tennis championships on Monday.

The first two sets brought a vintage performance on a sultry night from Nadal, who has dropped to world number eight in what has been a lackluster season for the 29-year-old Spaniard.

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Given his last chance to keep alive a 10-year streak of winning at least one grand slam title, 14-times major winner Nadal schooled the 18-year-old Coric over the first two sets.

But Coric responded with his best tennis and broke the Spaniard in the 10th game of the third set to send the match to a hard-fought fourth set.

The Spaniard finally prevailed thanks to a service break on a forehand service return winner in the seventh game.

“It’s a very happy moment for me,” said Nadal, returning to Flushing Meadows for the first time since his 2013 U.S. Open triumph after missing last year with a wrist injury.

“Last year was very hard not having chance to being back in one of my favorite tournaments.”

Nadal avenged a 6-2 7-6 loss to Coric last year at Basel in his only previous encounter with the up-and-coming Coric, who at number 33 is the youngest player in the world’s top-50.

“I think I played great. The first two sets I played a very high level of tennis,” said Nadal, who served brilliantly over the first two sets and in the fourth.

“Then I get a little bit tired. I was sweating a lot.

“He is a great player and has an amazing future.”

Coric, who reached the semi-finals this year in Dubai and Nice, leads all teenagers with 22 wins this season on the ATP Tour, nine more than Alexander Zverev of Germany.

“It was the first time in my life on such a big court,” said Coric, who two years ago won the U.S. Open junior title. “I played a solid match, so very good.”

Nadal next meets Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, a 6-3 6-2 6-2 winner over Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer.

MELBOURNE, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Shane Watson's pads have never tired of planting themselves between ball and stumps but on Monday in Cardiff their failure to do so delivered the ultimate punchline at the Australian's expense.

Novak Djokovic won each set 6-1 in a one hour 11 minute romp to victory. (Source: Reuters)

Top-seeded world number one Novak Djokovic raced into the second round of the U.S. Open with a 6-1 6-1 6-1 demolition of Joao Souza of Brazil to close Monday’s first day session at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Djokovic had to wait in the wings for Venus Williams to complete a two-hour, 40-minute win at Ashe, but once the Serb hit the court he played as if he had a taxi meter running outside the National Tennis Center.

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Ones were wild for Djokovic, who won each set 6-1 in a one hour 11 minute romp to victory for the reigning Australian and Wimbledon champion.

“There’s something I love about number one, for sure,” Djokovic told the crowd in an oncourt interview.

Djokovic, who said he is playing with newfound serenity since becoming a father last October, was pleased to have produced such an emphatic opening win.

“I lost three games the entire match against a player I never played against before,” he said. “It can always be tricky because you’re approaching the match without really knowing how he’s going to react.

“I couldn’t ask for a better opening of this year’s U.S. Open. Hopefully I can continue in that rhythm.”

Despite going 56-5 this year, Djokovic said a victory like Monday’s can give the nine-times grand slam singles winner a boost.

“With a dominant win like the one today, it adds to your confidence, your self-belief,” he said. “It’s also making a statement for everybody that is out there watching. We are all seeing how each other progresses.

“It’s important you’re out on the court with the right intensity and you’re sending a good message, and I’ve done so.”
Djokovic will next meet either Canadian Vasek Pospisil or Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria.

Live Cricket Score, India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Day 5: India eye series win against Sri Lanka in third on Tuesday. (Source: Reuters)

India, seven wickets away from a historic win, will look to wrap up the Sri Lanka innings as soon as possible and claim their first series win in Sri Lanka after 22 years. For the hosts, still 319 run behind the 386-run target, Angelo Mathews and Kaushal Silva will look to avoid the defeat. Catch the live cricket score and live cricket updates from the India vs Sri Lanka Test match here.

Live Cricket Scorecard: India vs Sri Lanka

Live updates

0943 hrs IST: Angelo Mathews and Kaushal Silva will resume for Sri Lanka.

0940 hrs IST: Sri Lanka will resume at 67/3, still needing 319 runs for a win while India need seven wickets.

0935 hrs IST: We are 10 minutes away from start of play on what promises to be an exciting day of cricket.

 

Recap Day 4

India need seven wickets, Sri Lanka miracle

Live Cricket Score, India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Day 5: Ishant Sharma was at his animated best, both during his stint with the bat and ball. (Source: Reuters)

SO far during this Test series, whenever it’s been time for Rohit Sharma to walk out to bat, you would have thought it is a prima donna whose arrival is imminent. For, such has been the level of expectancy surrounding each of his entrances.

It’s the kind of anticipation you expect just before a maverick performer is about to take the stage. Will he be imperious and enthrall or will be impudent and infuriate? You’ll never know till it is show-time. Like you never know with Rohit.

The argumentative Indian versus the hot-headed Sri Lankan

Live Cricket Score, India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Day 5: Ishant Sharma gestures to Dhammika Prasad, ostensibly telling the bowler to aim for his head on Day Four of the third Test at the SSC on Monday. (Source: AP)

Before Monday, Test cricket had witnessed its fair share of ridiculous and outrageous wicket-celebrations, and more so from its fast bowlers. If one would morph into a mock aeroplane, there was another who used to start an invisible lawn-mower. There were some who would put their finger to the lips after having mouthed off a plethora of expletives in the build-up to the dismissal, some of these brutes have even dared to blow kisses of death at their victim. Never before, had we quite seen a pacer turn masochistic while celebrating his victim’s downfall.

Stats: Batsmen suffer as bowlers improve individual records

Live Cricket Score, India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Day 5: Virat Kohli is averaging 21.80 in the third match innings as compared to his average of 27.72 in the first match innings. (Source: AP)

Statistical highlights on the fourth day of the third and final cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka in Colombo on Monday.

Live Cricket Score, India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Day 5: Rohit Sharma admitted that all the tracks in this Test series has been of different nature. (Source: Reuters)

“Nowhere written that No. 4 belongs to this person, No. 3 belongs to that person”

There was a lot of criticism from all quarters when Rohit Sharma was moved down the batting order from one drop to No 5 but the talented right-hander is of the opinion that “no one owns any particular batting slot” in this team.

Rohit ended the Test series as the second highest run-getter (202 runs) behind skipper Virat Kohli with his second half-century in the series.

Serena Williams was out there for only 27 minutes and took 32 of the 37 points that were played. (Source: Reuters)

Even before Serena Williams set foot in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night, her path through the U.S. Open to complete a true Grand Slam became a lot easier thanks to losses by other top women.

And when it was the No. 1-seeded American’s turn to play her first-round match, she was not tested one bit by a woman who appeared overwhelmed by the opponent, the occasion and, to make matters worse, an injured left foot.

So Williams moved a step closer to tennis’ first calendar-year Grand Slam since 1988 without much of a workout, reaching the second round when 86th-ranked Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia stopped playing while behind 6-0, 2-0. Williams was out there for only 27 minutes and took 32 of the 37 points that were played.

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“It was definitely different and bizarre,” Williams said. “But at the same time, I was still focused. I kept thinking: Just stay focused; don’t lose it. You never know what can happen.”

The 33-year-old American told the crowd she appreciates the support she is receiving “on this journey and this milestone that I’m trying to take one match at a time.”

Diatchenko, who wore a walking boot to her news conference, said she hurt herself running sprints before the match and that she felt “sharp pain” chasing a backhand during a point. When she was drawn to face Williams, Diatchenko was happy to finally get a chance to meet a player she grew up admiring, but the experience turned out to be “terrible.”

“So painful, every step,” Diatchenko said.

Next up for Williams is Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, who is ranked 110th, only once made it as far as the fourth round at a major, and picked up just the second U.S. Open match victory of her career by eliminating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 Monday. Bertens and Williams have never played each other.

Williams is 22-0 in Grand Slam matches in 2015, with championships at the Australian Open in January, the French Open in June, and Wimbledon in July. If she adds the title at Flushing Meadows, she would be the first player since Steffi Graf 27 years ago to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a season.

Williams also can equal Graf’s professional-era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles – Margaret Court is the all-time leader with 24 – and can become the first woman since Chris Evert in the 1970s to win four consecutive U.S. Opens.

As good as Williams has been, it doesn’t hurt to face less-challenging opposition, and several who might have offered a test are gone. On her half of the draw, four top-10 seeds were gone by the end of Day 1: No. 3 Maria Sharapova pulled out Sunday with an injured right leg, and No. 7 Ana Ivanovic, No. 8 Karolina Pliskova and No. 10 Carla Suarez Navarro lost Monday.

Three other seeded women in Williams’ side of the bracket departed. No. 29 Sloane Stephens, who beat Williams at the 2013 Australian Open and was a potential third-round opponent in New York, lost to CoCo Vandeweghe 6-4, 6-3. No. 30 Svetlana Kuznetsova, a two-time major champion, and No. 21 Jelena Jankovic, who lost to Williams in the 2008 U.S. Open final, were beaten, too.

“I’m not a person that usually looks at the draws,” Williams said. “I just take it as it comes and as it goes.”

If Williams defeats Bertens, she would face the winner of an all-U.S. matchup between Wimbledon quarterfinalist Vandeweghe – whose uncle Kiki is a former NBA player and now a league executive – and wild-card entry Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

“I don’t look ahead. I just look at the next opponent,” Vandeweghe said when asked about a possible showdown against Williams. “If you don’t get by your next opponent, you have no chance of making a third round.”

The only real surprise in men’s action was 2014 runner-up Kei Nishikori’s 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 loss to Benoit Paire, who never before had beaten someone ranked in the top five.

It’s the first time since 1999 that a man who played in the previous year’s U.S. Open final exited in the first round.

The fourth-seeded Nishikori withdrew from a hard-court tournament at Cincinnati in August, citing a hip injury, but said Monday he felt OK physically. Still, he wilted in the 3-hour, 14-minute match on muggy day when the temperature topped 90 degrees.

The man who beat Nishikori for last year’s U.S. Open title, Marin Cilic, won in straight sets, as did No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Two-time U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal met teenager Borna Coric in Monday’s last match.

Anthony Martial can play as a winger or as a central striker, and has played at all youth levels for France. (Source: Reuters)

Manchester United was set to make French forward Anthony Martial the most expensive teenager in world football after a chaotic day of transfer dealings at Old Trafford that also saw Javier Hernandez and Adnan Januzaj offloaded.

The French Football Federation said Monday that Martial, the 19-year-old Monaco player who has been compared to France great Thierry Henry, was granted permission to leave France’s national squad to sign a contract at United.

Reports in the French and English media said Martial could cost United 36 million pounds ($55.5 million), a hefty fee for a player who has started only 29 games and was just called up by France for the first time ahead of upcoming friendlies against Serbia and Portugal. Martial, who signed a new contract at Monaco this summer until 2019, would surpass Paris Saint-Germain’s Lucas Moura as the costliest teenager in the history of the game.

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United’s overhaul under manager Louis van Gaal gathered pace with the sale of Mexico striker Javier Hernandez to Bayer Leverkusen on a three-year deal, while attacking midfielder Adnan Januzaj was sent on loan to Borussia Dortmund for the season and back-up goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard left for West Bromwich Albion.

United was also negotiating with Real Madrid for the sale of goalkeeper David de Gea, who is yet to play this season because he hasn’t been in the right frame of mind amid speculation about his future. However, by the time the transfer window closed in Spain, a deal had yet to be announced.

The 20-time English champions are taking a gamble on Martial after scoring just three goals in their opening four matches of the Premier League season, raising doubts about the strength of their attacking options. Wayne Rooney has been used by Van Gaal as a lone striker but hasn’t scored in the league since April 4. The only other striker in Van Gaal’s squad now is youngster James Wilson.

For the second straight year, United is turning to Monaco to solve its striker shortage in the final hours of Europe’s summer transfer window.

Twelve months ago, it was Radamel Falcao. This time, it’s Martial.

Martial can play as a winger or as a central striker, and has played at all youth levels for France. He scored nine goals in 35 league matches last season and is widely regarded as one of the brightest young players in French football alongside Lyon’s Nabil Fekir.

With his speed, technical skills and penchant for cutting in from the left, Martial has many of the same attributes as Henry – France’s record goalscorer and a Premier League great from his time at Arsenal.

Martial joined Monaco from Lyon in 2013 for 5 million euros and blossomed last season, relegating veteran Dimitar Berbatov to the bench toward the end of the campaign.

“He approached (France coach) Didier Deschamps for authorization to go to England to sign a contract with Manchester United there,” a FFR statement said about Martial. “In these exceptional circumstances, the coach accepted the request of the player.”

Martial is due to link up again with the France squad at its Clairfontaine base near Paris on Tuesday.

A loan move for Falcao didn’t turn out well for United, with the Colombia striker scoring four goals in 29 appearances. United rejected the opportunity to sign Falcao on a permanent basis and also sold Robin van Persie this offseason.

The transfer window closes in England on Tuesday.

Ishant Sharma gestures to Dhammika Prasad, ostensibly telling the bowler to aim for his head on Day Four of the third Test at the SSC on Monday. (Source: AP)

Before Monday, Test cricket had witnessed its fair share of ridiculous and outrageous wicket-celebrations, and more so from its fast bowlers. If one would morph into a mock aeroplane, there was another who used to start an invisible lawn-mower. There were some who would put their finger to the lips after having mouthed off a plethora of expletives in the build-up to the dismissal, some of these brutes have even dared to blow kisses of death at their victim. Never before, had we quite seen a pacer turn masochistic while celebrating his victim’s downfall.

But then at the SSC, Ishant Sharma dismissed Dinesh Chandimal and then started hitting himself, smacking his own head to be precise. And strangely, it wasn’t the first time either that Ishant had indulged in self-flagellation on the fourth day of the third Test, that proved to be a stormy and ill-tempered one.

The gestures or the person they were intended for, though, were not merely incidental for Ishant. Nor were they impromptu. Their seeds had been laid around 45 minutes earlier during an ugly fracas that originally involved Ishant and Dhammika Prasad — two usually affable and fun-loving fast bowlers — but then began involving many other players.

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It all started with Ishant’s arrival at the crease. In the 76th over of the Indian second innings, a weary Prasad — who had toiled away with intermittent success over the last three days — decided to test his back by banging in a bunch of short deliveries at his lanky counterpart. Ishant ducked under the first two bouncers rather comfortably. The third one was higher, and Prasad over-stepped the line in his quest to do so. This time Ishant stood smiling, and an angered Prasad walked towards him but his lips remained sealed. The two fast bowlers were having a stare-down at the centre of the pitch at the SSC. Just then, Chandimal who was being moved from slip to mid-wicket ran across the pitch and seemingly deliberately brushed his shoulder with Ishant’s. That was in many ways the trigger for the scuffle to turn no-holds-barred. Non-striker R Ashwin was soon in the midst and so were a number of Sri Lankan cricketers even as the umpires tried to pull the two warring parties apart. Eventually it took skipper Angelo Mathews to play negotiator and pull his players away.

But Chandimal wasn’t done as he kept chattering away from his new position, even being asked by umpire Nigel Llong to stop it. Next ball, Prasad bowled short of length allowing Ishant to tuck it away, and as he completed his single, the Indian pacer started hitting his helmet as if to say, “Why don’t you hit me here if you can.” This lead to another stare-down, but not a prolonged one.

Two balls later Ishant was back on strike, and Prasad decided to throw all logic out of the window, and bowl yet another bouncer, this time over-stepping the line by a massive margin. Ishant just stood smiling, adding to Prasad’s chagrin. The quaint venue had turned into a war zone, and sans the war-paint, Ishant looked every bit the warrior.

The fifth ball was flicked for a single before Prasad had Ashwin caught-behind, following which the most bizarre event of the day transpired. First, Ishant scampered off to change into bowling gear, and get ready to take the new-ball. But close on his heels was Prasad even while his teammates stood around the square. Initially it wasn’t clear whether Prasad was actually in pursuit of his adversary. But they did chance upon each other once they had climbed the stairs leading up to the dressing-rooms before being reportedly separated by the Sri Lankan team manager, who pulled his ward into their pavilion. No altercation is believed to have happened behind the scenes.

And it was a fired-up Ishant upon his return to the middle, and it was expected that he would give Tharanga a send-off — screaming in front of the batsman’s face — more owing to his mood rather than his relationship with the opener. Then, a few overs later, he started smacking his head once Chandimal was sent packing. As soon as he walked in to bat, Mathews went straight to Ishant and the two were seen having a rather more sedate conversation with the Indian trying to explain his side of the story. The umpires also met captain Virat Kohli on a couple of occasions, asking him to control the situation.

For a majority of his career, Ishant has been known to be a fast bowler with a slightly milder disposition, prone to the odd scrap of course, but mainly more of a gentle giant rather than a raging bull. But it was Ishant in a never-before-seen avatar that had taken the field at the SSC.

He had been involved in a run-in with Kamran Akmal during a T20 international at Ahmedabad. But that was hardly even comparable to this one. It seemed even stranger that Ishant would blow his top off repeatedly here, considering that he is already under the scanner after having copped 65 per cent of his match fees from the previous Test for provoking batsmen he had dismissed twice. And if found guilty again, he could well face a suspension for one Test or three ODIs. For now though, Kohli & Co. will be hoping he can channel his angst into getting rid of the Sri Lankans as quickly as possible on Tuesday, regardless how he wants to celebrate his feat.