DUTEE CRASHES OUT OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Indian athlete Dutee Chand crashed out of the women’s 100 metre event after finishing sixth in her heat at the ongoing IAAF World Championships here on Saturday. Dutee clocked 12.07 seconds in her heats which was won by Rosangela Santos with a personal best time of 11.04. Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland was second with 11.14. Michelle-Lee Ahye of Trinidad and Tobago clocked the same time as Mujinga but was adjudged third on photo finish. The top three athletes of each heat qualify for the next stage. Dutee’s performance on Saturday was a far cry from her showing at the Asain Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar. India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin applauded Kusal Mendis for his spirited century in Sri Lanka’s second innings on the third day of the second Test here on Saturday.

Mendis played a masterful knock to score 110 runs off 135 balls. His innings was laced with 17 boundaries. He also produced a 191run stand with opener Dimuth Karunaratne (92 batting) after Upul Tharanga was dismissed in the early stages of the hosts’ second innings.

“I think it was, it had a venom in the morning first session as the ball got old and we bowled the second time around it’s kind of fizzling out and edges out, carries to the fielder. I thought Mendis batted beautifully he put Jaddu( Jadeja) off his line very quickly kept on sweeping him and he was lucky he got away with it but credit to him he batted beautifully,” Ashwin told repoters.

The 30-year-old confessed India gave away plenty of runs in the second innings which they should have ideally stopped.

“I just think Test teams are allowed to bat well in few sessions but they did bat well as I told you we beat the bat pretty often even the seasons we didn’t get wicket, I thought they batted really well.

“Karunaratne really complemented Mendis he defended beautifully and Men-