Alinghi should go through untroubled.Timetable for America’s Cup final eliminatorThe Louis Vuitton Cup finals are staged as a best-of-nine series, beginning tomorrow. Each race is over six legs, three upwind and three down, totalling 18.5 miles in distance. Weather permitting, racing will continue every day until one team has scored five wins, although next Tuesday, Saturday 18 and Wednesday 22 January are designated rest days while Thursday 23 and Friday 24 are reserve days if the issue remains unresolved. Both teams have agreed to extend the period until one has won five races if the schedule is interrupted.. Sheffield Sharks extended their lead at the top of the British Basketball League to six points with a 79–66 win over London Towers at Ponds Forge last night. Sri Lanka, in dire need of a captain’s guidance, were given just that as Sanath Jayasuriya produced a masterful all-round performance to help a side written off as World Cup no-hopers to beat Australia with a record-breaking performance.

But Jayasuriya hit a rapid century before taking four wickets as Sri Lanka ran out winners by 79 runs, picking up a bonus point.Jayasuriya and his opening partner, Marvan Atapattu, put on 237, a Sri Lankan one-day record, as the tourists hit 343 for 5 in their 50 overs, the highest score in a one-day international in Australia.Australia’s weakened bowling attack was put to the sword. Without the injured Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Jason Gillespie, it was a second-string attack and Shane Watson, Brad Hogg and Andy Bichel were the main focus of the openers’ savagery – each conceding at least seven runs per over.Jayasuriya then turned his attention to skittling the Australian batsmen with his tidy left-arm orthodox spin, claiming figures of 4 for 39, the best by any bowler in the VB Series so far. Australia were never up with the run rate and Michael Bevan, with 41, was their highest scorer.In the dying stages of their innings they had given up that chase and were instead pursuing a target of 275 to rescue a bonus point. But Watson and Bichel, unusually batting at No 11, fell short and Sri Lanka took the full six points.Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, blamed his team’s disappointing catching. “We didn’t bowl well, we gave a couple of class players a couple of early chances and they made us pay,” he said “They dominated the game after about five or six overs. We knew what was ahead of us, but I don’t think we were really switched on,” he said.VB SERIES (Sydney): Sri Lanka 343 for 5 (S T Jayasuriya 122, M S Atapattu 101); Australia 264 (S T Jayasuriya 4-39) Sri Lanka win by 79 runs.. A year ago, Marcus Trescothick calmly walked out in front of 110,000 clamouring fans at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, and scored a scintillating century.

Tomorrow, in the more sedate confines of the Bellerive Oval, Hobart, he will be fretting about where his next run might come from. As England flew to Tasmania yesterday for their VB Series match against Australia, now fully in one-day mode, Trescothick reflected on the transformation in his fortunes.”There’s nothing better than doing well and scoring runs,” he said. “And when you know you haven’t done it for a while you start to get depressed in yourself, as I am at the moment. I know I’m probably adding to the pressure.”For the first time in his international career, the boy who was plucked from the shires in one of the great selectorial hunches, is struggling.