Sri Lanka, Nov 18 (AP/UNB) — England won the second test against Sri Lanka by 57 runs on the final day at the Pallekele International Stadium to clinch the three match series with a game to spare.

Sri Lanka, resuming on Sunday from its overnight score of 226-7, required 75 runs to win the game but was bowled out for 243 runs with Moeen Ali (4- 72) taking two wickets in his third over of the day, before Jack Leach (5-83) had Malinda Pushpakumara caught and bowled to seal the victory.

Chattogram, Nov 18 (UNB) – West Indies collected 200/3* runs in 58 overs before the tea break in the first innings on day one against Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) XI in the two-day warm-up at MA Aziz Stadium in Chattogram on Sunday.

Roston Chase [12*] and Shimron Hetmyer [0*] were at the crease in the fourth stand when the bails were drawn for the tea break.

Shai Hope was retired hurt after scoring 88 off 112 balls, including 10 boundaries and three sixes, while another notable scorer Kieran Powell [72 off 142b; 6x4; 1x6] was caught by Zakir Hasan off Fazle Mahmud at 174/2 in 49.1 overs.

Before retiring hurt, Hope shared a partnership of 133 off 33.2 overs with Powell in the second stand, starting their composures from 11/1 in 6.4 overs.   

The visitors started the second session with 92/1 in 27 overs and played 31 overs more for their collection where Sunil Ambris [17] was another double-digit scorer before being bowled out by Nayeem Hasan at 200/3 in 57 overs. 

Left-handed spinner Fazle Mahmud, pacer Shafiul Islam, and off-break bowler Nayeem Hasan equally share three wickets for BCB XI.

Earlier, the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first against the local selection ahead of their two-match Test series against Bangladesh national team.

The first Test will begin at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on November 22 while the second match at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on November 30.

BCB XI: Rubel Hossain (captain), Soumya Sarkar, Zakir Hasan, Mizanur Rahman,  Fazle Mahmud, Ebadat Hossain , Shadman Islam, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Nayeem Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Robiul Haque, Mohammad Mithun and Rishad Hossain.  

West Indies Test squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (captain), Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Jahmar Hamilton, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Shermon Lewis, Keemo Paul, Kieran Powell, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach, and Jomel Warrican.

London, Nov 18 (AP/UNB) — After pulling off one of the biggest wins of his career, Alexander Zverev was left apologizing for an unforced error he didn't make.

Zverev denied Roger Federer a shot at a 100th career title by beating the Swiss great 7-5, 7-6 (5) at the ATP Finals on Saturday to advance to the championship match against Novak Djokovic.

Federer was leading the second-set tiebreaker 4-3 and in the ascendancy of a rally on a Zverev service point when a ball boy at the back of the court dropped a ball. Zverev immediately signaled for the point to be stopped and the umpire ordered the point to be replayed.

Zverev served an ace before going on to close out the match moments later.

"I want to apologize for the situation in the tiebreak," said Zverev, who was booed by some of the crowd during his on-court interview. "The ball boy dropped the ball so it's in the rules that we have to replay the point.

"I'm a little bit upset about the whole situation because this is not how I wanted it to end."

Zverev is the youngest player at 21 to reach the final since 2009 and the first from Germany since 1996. He will face five-time champion Djokovic, who defeated Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-2 to extend his semifinal win-loss record at the tournament to 7-1.

Federer, 37, was seeking a record-extending seventh title, but was unable to cope with the pressure created by Zverev's power and precision at the O2 Arena.

"He (Zverev) apologized to me at the net," Federer said. "I was like, 'Buddy, shut up. You don't need to apologize to me here. Congratulations on a great match and a great tournament so far. All the best for the finals.' And you move on."

An inspired series of shots earned Zverev the first break points of the match in the 12th game and Federer sent a forehand wide to fall behind.

Federer willed himself to a break for 2-1 in the second set, but Zverev quickly composed himself to hit straight back in the following game.

Zverev overcame the freak interruption to establish a 5-4 lead in the tiebreaker, and Federer netted the simplest of forehand volleys to bring up match point.

He saved the first, but Zverev confidently put away a backhand drive volley to set up a shot at the biggest title of his career and leave Federer waiting until next season for his 100th title.

"Overall, I'm happy how the season went," said Federer, who picked up his 20th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. "There's many positives. So I'm excited for next season."

Despite having reached only one Grand Slam quarterfinal this year, Zverev is the only active player outside the Big Four of Djokovic, Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray to have won three Masters titles. But victory at the tour's flagship event would exceed those achievements.

"Novak right now is the best player in the world," said Zverev, who lost to Djokovic in the round robin. "You have to play your best game to even have a chance. I hope I'll be able to do that tomorrow."

The Serb maintained his record of having not lost a set — or service game — at the tournament as he thrashed debutant Anderson to give himself the chance to join Federer on six titles.

"I played very well in the group stage against Sascha (Zverev)," Djokovic said. "But I don't think he was close to his best."

Djokovic won 20 out of 27 points on Anderson's second serve as he broke the South African twice in each set.

"It was the best match I've played so far this week," Djokovic said.

Having ended a two-year Grand Slam title drought by defeating Anderson in the Wimbledon final, Djokovic went on to win his 14th major trophy at the U.S. Open and has already sealed the year-end No. 1 ranking.

The victory extended Djokovic's record to 35-2 since the start of Wimbledon, a tournament he began ranked 21st after a right elbow injury interrupted his first half of the season.

"It's remarkable what he's done since Wimbledon," Anderson said. "It seems like he's definitely right back playing some of the best tennis of his career."

Milan, Nov 18  (AP/UNB) — Portugal drew with Italy 0-0 on Saturday to pick up the point it needed to qualify for the UEFA Nations League finals and confirm it as host of the first Final Four in June.

Ronaldo is taking a break from the national team and wasn't present at San Siro, just as he wasn't in Portugal's first two Nations League matches — both of which they won.

"There's a lot of satisfaction at having reached the final phase," Portugal coach Fernando Santos said.

"It was a difficult match, much more than we thought it would be. When we had the ball it was difficult to build and that was merit to Italy and demerit to us. Italy had a great game."

Poland has already been assured of finishing last in Group A3 and will be relegated to League B, and Italy will finish second.

All three expressed interest in staging the finals so the winners of the group were always assured of being host. Portugal proposed Porto's Estadio do Dragao and the Estadio D. Afonso Henriques in Guimaraes as host venues in their bid dossier and they are expected to be ratified by UEFA at a meeting of its executive committee on Dec. 3, when the draw will also take place.

Despite failing to qualify for the finals, there are positive signs for the Azzurri a year after Italian football's darkest moment.

Italy dominated and had the better of the chances in front of a packed crowd in Milan but ended with a sixth successive home draw. The Azzurri have also scored only twice in four matches in the competition — but only conceded as many.

"I don't think there's so many problems up front, it's a question of five centimeters here, 10 there," Italy coach Roberto Mancini said.

There was a lot of good interplay from the hosts with crisp, efficient passing in the best performance seen by an Italy side in a long time.

It was a far cry from Italy's last match at San Siro, when it drew with Sweden 0-0 last November and failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades.

"Little by little we'll manage to sort out the attack, too," Mancini said. "Having so much possession in their half is something very significant. We're a step further ahead than we thought we'd be. We have to resolve this small problem (of scoring) but we will."

The fans are also starting to fall back in love with the Azzurri, with 73,000 spectators at San Siro.

League B

Sweden kept alive its hopes of promotion with a 1-0 victory at Turkey, which was relegated to League C.

Andreas Granqvist netted the only goal with a second-half penalty after Okay Yokuslu brought down Marcus Berg.

Sweden will be promoted on Tuesday if it beats Russia, which leads Group B2.

League C

Scotland will win Group C1 if it beats Israel on Tuesday following a 4-0 victory over 10-man Albania in Tirana.

Ryan Fraser scored his first international goal shortly before Albania captain Mergim Mavraj was sent off.

Steven Fletcher doubled Scotland's tally from the penalty spot, and James Forrest netted a second-half double.

Serbia beat Montenegro 2-1 despite Aleksandar Mitrovic missing a penalty and will win Group C4 if it beats Lithuania on Tuesday.

Lithuania lost 3-0 at Romania, which will go up if it beats Montenegro and Serbia fails to win.

League D

Kosovo beat Malta 5-0 and Azerbaijan beat the Faroe Islands 2-0. The teams set up a winner-takes-all clash when they meet on Tuesday in Group D3, although a draw would be enough for Kosovo.

The Nations League also offers a second chance to qualify for the European Championship in 2020. The 16 group winners in Leagues A, B, C and D — or the next best-placed teams who have not already qualified via the European qualifiers starting in March — will progress to the playoffs to compete for the last four qualifying places.

Dhaka, Nov 17 (UNB)- President of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Nazmul Hassan Papon MP assumed the post of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President for a two- year term at its Annual General Meeting held in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Saturday.

Nazmul Hassan Papon is the 3rd ACC President from Bangladesh following in the footsteps of two of his predecessors as BCB president, Ali Asgar Lobby and AHM Mustafa Kamal.

The outgoing ACC President Ehsan Mani handed over the presidency to Papon in presence of the delegates from ACC member countries.

Earlier, Nazmul Hassan Papon was set to be the President of ACC as per rotation policy of the ACC presidency. In the BCB’s turn to appoint the next president of the regional cricket body, the BCB unanimously selected Papon as their nominee for the 2018-2020 term.

Commenting on his new role, Papon said, “I am honoured to take over the coveted role of ACC President. My foremost endeavour would be to bring the Asian cricket playing countries together and promote the sport around the region.”

 “I have already been associated with ACC for a number of years and I hope my experience will help me in taking the ACC to greater heights in unison with all member countries,” Nazmul Hasan concluded, as per a BCB release to the media.

During the meeting Afghanistan was unanimously selected as full member ACC.

Members also spoke about the inclusion of cricket in multi sports events like the Asian Games, and efforts should be made to ensure the same for the 2022 Asian Games scheduled in China.