Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood skittle Sri Lanka for 117

Nathan Lyon (C) celebrates with his teammates after he dismissed Sri Lanka's Dilruwan Perera during the first day of the opening Test cricket match. Photo: AFP

Cricbuzz

The duo of Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood shared three spoils each to snuff out Sri Lanka for a paltry117 in just 34.2 overs on Day 1 of the first Test at the Pallekele International Stadium on Tuesday (July 26) in Kandy.
If Hazlewood dented Sri Lanka's top order, Lyon ran through the lower order with his box of tricks. Only Dhananjaya de Silva offered some resistance and top-scored for the hosts with 24 on debut.
Earlier, on a pleasant day, with the ground surrounded by the blissful facade of clouded mountains and leafy ramble of trees swaying in the gentle breeze, Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to bat. Sri Lanka handed Test debuts for de Silva and Lakshan Sandakan while on expected lines, Australia opted to play two spinners - Nathan Lyon and O' Keefe.
It was the opening pace duo of Starc and Hazlewood, who joined forces to sow seeds of doubt in the opposition ranks. Starc was rewarded for generating copious swing with the scalp of Dimuth Karunaratne (5) in the fifth over of the innings.
The 28-year-old opening batsman played down the wrong line and was struck plumb in front. He wasn't convinced of the decision and opted for a review, but on replays, it was clear that it would clatter into the leg stump. Hazlewood backed up Starc's incisive spell by snaring the wickets of Kusal Mendis (8) in the next over and Kaushal Silva (4) soon after, with three of Sri Lanka's batsmen back in the shed within the opening ten overs.
The New South Welshman explored every nook and cranny of the batsmen's defence in the corridor of uncertainty. He ended Mendis's essay with a delivery that nipped back off the seam appreciably to trap him in front and made further inroads prising out Silva with an outswinger.
For a while, Mathews (15) and Chandimal (15) shared a fluent stand of 25 and tried to resurrect the innings. The duo mainly looked to deal in a diet of singles and twos, sprinkled by the occasional eye-catching shots. The cut stroke that Mathews crunched off Starc gave an inkling that he was approaching the challenge with a positive intent.
The Lankan think-tank would have hoped for the pair to stitch a substantial partnership, given that those were the last two experienced hands in the line-up. However, Mathews's resistance was soon ended by O'Keefe after the Sri Lankan skipper reached out to a delivery that was bowled from wide of the crease by the left-arm spinner and the outside edge was snapped up by Steve Smith at first slip.
To make matters worse, Chandimal fell to a probing outswinger from Hazlewood on the brink of lunch.
De Silva, who looked in fine fettle before lunch, fell right after the break to Lyon. The offspinner then ripped through Sri Lanka's lower order by bowling a slew of sliders. In a space of seven deliveries, he accounted for the wickets of Dilruwan Perera, Kusal Perera and de Silva.
Starc, too, chipped in for the visitors by prising out Rangana Herath for 6. The left-hander was initially given not out, but the visitors took a review and replays showed that it smashed into Herath's boot before the veteran left-arm spinner eked out an edge on it.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 117 (Dhananjaya de Silva 24; Nathan Lyon 3-12, Hazlewood 3-20, Steve O'Keefe 2-32) vs Australia

Dhaka raid: Swift steps saved country from catastrophe, Bangladesh PM says

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressing the four-day annual conference of deputy commissioners fromPrime Minister’s Office on July 26, 2016. Photo: TV grab

Star Online Report

Swift action on the Kalyanpur terrorist den based on top intelligence saved the country from a major catastrophe, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said today.
“Nine terrorists were killed, one was detained and another managed to escape,” the premier said while addressing the inaugural of the four-day annual conference of deputy commissioners at her office.
It was understood that they (the alleged militants) were preparing for sabotage, Hasina said.
“Several terrorists took preparation for carrying out a terrorist act, and according to a report by our detectives, law enforcers took swift measures.”
The police force conducted the operation very successfully as they were well prepared, she said.
The nine alleged militants were killed this morning during a special drive of the joint forces in Kalyanpur, ending an overnight standoff that ensued with a raid to hunt down “militant den”.
SWAT, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Detective Branch of police (DB) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) jointly carried out a one-hour operation “Storm 26” from 5:51am.

9 militants killed in overnight raid in Dhaka’s Kalyanpur house

Police at the entrance of Road no. 5 in Kalyanpur of the capital where a special operation of the joint forces neutralised nine militants on July 26, 2016. Photo: Shaheen Mollah

Star Online Report

Nine alleged militants were killed this morning during a special drive of the joint forces in Dhaka’s Kalyanpur, ending an overnight standoff that ensued with a raid to hunt down “militant den”.
- Operation ‘Storm 26’ of SWAT, Rab, DB, cops
- All JMB militants, says Bangladesh police chief
- 1 militant held, claims himself ‘IS operative’
SWAT, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Detective Branch of police (DB) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) jointly carried out a one-hour operation “Storm 26” from 5:51am.
“We neutralised nine militants in the operation,” Sheikh Maruf Hassan, DMP’s additional commissioner, told media on completion of the operation.

READ MORE: Terror Strikes Dhaka
One militant was detained from the spot with bullet injuries and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He claimed to be a member of the Islamic State, DMCH police camp sources said.
Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque, who visited the scene, told reporters that these militants had black outfits similar to those Gulshan cafe attackers were wearing.
“The detained person claims to be an IS member, but we think they are of the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB),” he added.
On July 1, gunmen killed 20 hostages, mostly foreign nationals, at an upscale eatery Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital’s diplomatic zone in a 12-hour siege.
Police believe the attacks on the Gulshan restaurant and Sholakia Eidgah were both carried out by JMB militants who were trying to wield the emblem of the Islamic State.

CRACKDOWN IN KALYANPUR, OPERATION 'STORM 26'

Mirpur police and Rab carried out the primary crackdown in the multi-storied “Jahaj Building” on road No. 5 at Kalyanpur around 12:45am, our correspondent reports from the spot.
The militants said to have hurled handmade bombs at the law enforcers, who in retaliation, fired several rounds. The occupants of the building and adjacent ones were evacuated overnight.

The ‘Jahaj Building,’ which is said to be the house where the alleged militants were living, at Road no. 5 in Dhaka’s Kalyanpur. Photo: Shaheen Mollah

“We took time to evacuate the residents,” police’s Additional Commissioner Maruf Hassan said.
The militants were holed up in the fifth floor of the building. Police said they had rented the flat and were living there.
Several hundred bullets were heard to have been fired during hour-long operation “Storm 26”. Nine alleged militants were said to have been killed at the spot.
Last reported, police had cordoned off the area and were going through the building. A team of bomb-neutralising squad was defusing some handmade crude bombs in the building.

HELD ‘MILITANT’ CLAIMS ISLAMIC STATE LINK

The alleged militant who was held with bullet-wounds from the scene was identified as Hassan, hailing from Bogra. He claimed to be a student of Bogra’s Government Shah Sultan College.
Hassan had a bullet injury and a fractured left leg, Sentu Chandra Das, an assistant sub-inspector at DMCH police camp, told The Daily Star.

An ambulance of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence seen at Road no 5 in Kalyanpur of Dhaka where joint forces conducted a special anti-militancy drive on July 26, 2016. Photo: Shaheen Mollah

The detainee told doctors that he along with ten others live on the fourth floor of the building from where he jumped off sensing presence of police.
Conversing with the DMCH doctors, he claimed that he was the cook of the militants living in “Jahaj Building”. There were heavy arms and explosives inside the flat, Hassan added.
He told them that he was an operative of the Islamic State. Bangladesh’s police chief later said he was more likely to be a JMB operative – those who carried out Gulshan and Sholakia attacks.

DETAINEE IDENTIFIES 8 ‘MILITANTS’

Identities of eight of the nine suspected militants, who were killed have been confirmed, UNB reports quoting the detainee Hassan.
They were Robin, Ovi, Sabbir, Atik, Sohan, Imran, Taposh and Iqbal.
Hasan said that he had been living with them in the building for the last one year where he worked as a cook. However, police did not reveal anything about the deceased militants.