Angelo Mathews answers questions at a press conference at Headingley on Thursday ahead of the second Test v England beginning on Friday. Gareth Copley / Getty Images / June 19, 2014
Angelo Mathews answers questions at a press conference at Headingley on Thursday ahead of the second Test v England beginning on Friday. Gareth Copley / Getty Images / June 19, 2014

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews on second Test: ‘Win the game’



Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews is adamant a drawn series with England won't satisfy the tourists.
Mathews's side face England in the second and final Test at Headingley on Friday, having held out for a draw in the series opener with just one wicket standing on Monday' final day at Lord's.
Sri Lanka have won just two Tests in England, losing six and drawing six, but Mathews was in positive mood on Thursday.
"If we can win the game, that's what we're looking for, not really a draw," the all-rounder told reporters at Headingley.
"If needed, we'll try to change our plans and tactics a little bit, but all in all our strength is to keep it line and length and bowl in those good areas.
"Test cricket is all about challenging people. It's about thinking a step further than the batsman. If we have to make those tactical changes we will."
Mathews defied convention by asking England to bat first at Lord's and then saw the hosts post a commanding 575 for nine declared.
But he added he wouldn't be afraid to do the same at Headingley if he believed conditions favoured bowling first again.
"You never know, there is a bit of grass on the wicket," he said.
"But you can't say anything until game day. You can never predict a wicket 100 percent."
Meanwhile relations between the England and Wales Cricket Board and Sri Lanka Cricket were said to be "amicable" after the row regarding Sachithra Senanayake's action.
Sri Lanka spinner Senanayake was reported for an illegal action during the one-day series, much to the tourists' dismay.
Mathews was reported as telling BBC Sinhala, in Sinhalese, that England had instigated the probe into Senanayake because they disliked facing him.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Sunday Times suggested ECB chairman Giles Clarke had referred Mathews's comments to the International Cricket Council in the hope of an apology.
Sri Lanka team manager Michael de Zoysa banned all questions relating to Senanayake at Mathews's press conference on Thursday, but did say: "The matter has been resolved amicably. There is no further comment."
Earlier, an SLC statement published by the Sunday Times made clear the governing body's displeasure at the paper's story.
It read: "SLC wishes to express its surprise and disappointment at your accusation levelled against Mr Giles Clarke.
"Mr Clarke, who has been a great friend of SLC and Sri Lanka, has been a pillar of strength to the Cricket in Sri Lanka and its growth unconditionally."
Alastair Cook had previously insisted no England player had played a part in the reporting of Senanayake, while leaving little doubt as to his view of the bowler's action.
"We as players have no power to report anyone," he said. "It's directly down to the umpires and the match referee. I know that for a fact. So we can't say anything.
"(But) I think everyone saw his action and I think concerns were raised -- you only had to watch TV and see that. Concerns were raised just by watching the TV."
Asked if the ensuing row would stop Moeen Ali bowling the 'doosra' the England spinner claims to have at his disposal, Cook pointedly replied: "No, because you don't have to bowl a 'doosra' by throwing it."
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

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