LUXEMBURG, Wis. — Mike Stroik captured his first career feature victory in the 25-lap Zimbrick Chevrolet of Sun Prairie Badger Midget Racing Series feature Friday night at Luxemburg Speedway.

Stroik took the lead on the opening lap. With an intense four-car battle for second place behind Stroik, he increased his lead each lap. Stroik’s straightaway lead over Chase Jones, Kevin Olson, and Chase McDermand was erased for a caution on lap seven.

Stroik running the bottom groove held off the challenge of Series points leader Jones when two caution flags appeared on laps 11 and 13, for spun cars.

Olson challenged Stroik on the final restart. Stroik held a one-second lead, with five laps remaining. Olson changed grooves with two laps remaining and closed to the rear bumper of Stroik. The pair were almost even at the start/finish line taking the white flag for the final lap.

Olson pulled alongside Stroik down the backstretch, but Stroik “held down the power” exiting turn four, finishing 0.112 seconds ahead of Olson driving his Stealth/Chevrolet No. 9.

Zach Boden with a late-race charge took third place, Jones, and Brian Peterson competed the top five.

“I had no power steering after the second lap, my three restarts as race leader went perfect and helped with the victory” commented Stroik after winning the first Badger Midget race at the track since Stan Fox’s victory on July 11, 1980.

The finish:

Feature: 1. Mike Stroik; 2. Kevin Olson; 3. Zach Boden; 4. Chase Jones; 5. Brian Peterson; 6. Matt ReChek; 7. Scott Hatton; 8. Jeff Zelinski; 9. Ryan Probst; 10. Jack Routson; 11. Jordan Mattson; 12. Jim Fuerst; 13. Kyle Koch; 14. Tristan Koenings; 15. Jeremy Douglas; 16. Chase McDermand; 17. Shay Sassano; 18. Kurt Mayhew; 19. Harrison Kleven; 20. Dave Collins Jr; 21. Denny Smith.

JEREZ, Spain – Alvaro Bautista sped to his 12th World Superbike victory of the season on Saturday at Circuito de Jerez.

It was a frantic start as Jonathan Rea took the holeshot and kept his advantage, despite Bautista trying to get around the outside. However, on the short burst between turns four and five, the Spaniard was able to get ahead of Rea.

At the end of the first lap, Alex Lowes was a solid third, whilst teammate Michael van der Mark had fought his way ahead of Marco Melandri for fourth.

Soon, the battle over third began to take place, with Michael van der Mark right on the tail of Lowes as the third lap started. Halfway round the lap, however, it was an unconventional pass at turn eight that saw the Dutchman get ahead of his teammate and lead the pursuit to Rea, who was losing time to Bautista ahead and the Yamahas behind.

It wasn’t long before the Yamahas began to rapidly close on Rea. The Northern Irishman had no answer for a rampant van der Mark, who passed him with ease at turn six with 12 laps to go. Soon, it was Lowes’ turn to get ahead of Rea, this time at turn two as Rea made a rare mistake. However, Lowes made a similar mistake at turn five, allowing Rea to go back ahead at turn six.

With van der Mark clear in second and Bautista on the horizon, Rea and Lowes were left to battle it out for third. With multiple clean passes as the two swapped positions, the last lap saw Rea make a desperate move to best Lowes. With Bautista winning and van der Mark second, there were shenanigans behind as Rea’s desperate pass knocked Lowes off his bike. Rea ended up third, while Lowes crashed out.

Editor’s Note: Holley Hollan, 17, is a rookie in the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series. From June 5 through June 10, Hollan will be sharing her experiences with SPEED SPORT subscribers while competing during Indiana Midget Week. 

Hollan drives the No. 67k Toyota-powered midget for Keith Kunz Motorsports. Below is her fourth diary entry, recapping Thursday night’s events at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Ind.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Friday night, our Indiana Midget Week run at Bloomington Speedway wasn’t our best night, but it definitely wasn’t our worst night, either!

I kept learning a lot all throughout the night; Bloomington is high-banked, but it’s really narrow as far as the groove goes and it was really narrow all night long.

I think we made some good laps around the bottom, though, with throttle control and just using everything we’ve learned through the first half of the week. We started out in hot laps, and that was when I really felt the banking the most; it was just steering the car with how much moisture was in the track early on.

As the night kept going, though, and the track slicked off … you just had to slow the car down so much that you really couldn’t use the banking to your advantage to get that launch, for myself at least. Luckily, we were still able to go directly from our heat race into the feature, which is important in USAC.

Sometimes, not qualifying further up works to your advantage, because you start further forward in your heat race, and we had that happen to us after qualifying 17th. That put us starting up front in the first heat, and we eventually ran third to lock into the main, a confidence-builder for me. It worked out for us tonight, but it sucks in some regards too, because a bad qualifying time buries you for the feature.

We eventually found something in the middle of the track as the night wore on. It went away pretty quick, but we knew it was there briefly, which was good. I had already messed with shocks quite a bit at that point, where I was good on the bottom, but the top took rubber completely with about five to go.

At that point, we were stuck where we were. I couldn’t jump up there in the fast lane; I was just way too tight to be able to do what some of the fast guys were doing up high. The top seemed a bit sketchy, and I wanted to make sure I got all 30 laps in, so I played it safe and ran the bottom to the end.

I feel like we made up a little bit of ground, though. We passed some cars, even though we fell back toward the end when the top took rubber. We were just having to enter pretty low just to make sure we were staying in the moisture.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how things ended up. I wish there had been some more moisture in the track for the heat races and the feature, because I think it would have been a little bit better of a show, but it was OK.

Our goal for Lawrenceburg is to be better in qualifying, and hopefully to draw a little bit better as well. That’s pretty much what messed us up tonight, but we have two more nights to get even stronger.

Hollan’s prior entries can be accessed via the links below:

Entry No. 1: Rough Start For Hollan

Entry No. 2: Heat Win Gives Hollan A Boost

Entry No. 3: Hollan Fights Through Adversity

"I might be the captain of the Titanic that goes down, but I'll still be a hero."

Although it might seem like hyperbole, it's a succinct way to describe Scott Berry's mindset as his hometown St. Louis Blues head into Sunday's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

After all, Berry has been the talk of the gambling world the past few weeks, after news surfaced of his $400 wager on the Blues to win the Cup at 250-1 odds, a bet he placed in January in Las Vegas. That ticket could win $100,000.

But instead of the potential payout for his ticket, the discussion has centered around whether he should hedge his bet and guarantee himself some profit. Should he fly to Vegas and put down money on the Boston Bruins? Should he sell the ticket through PropSwap, a third-party marketplace not associated with any casinos that allows bettors to buy and sell futures bets?

His answer has been a resolute "no."

"The fate of the Blues will be the fate of me," Berry told ESPN via phone. "You never say never [for hedging], but I woke up Friday morning with the feeling the Blues are going to win this in six. That's how I feel."

Berry said he has received several offers to buy his ticket on PropSwap during the Stanley Cup Final, ranging from $26,420 to the current high of $75,000, but he has turned them all down. He admitted during an interview on Daily Wager that he considering hedging after the Blues lost Game 1 but hasn't since then.

"I feel like I'm in this with the team, and I don't want to lay any of it off," Berry told ESPN. "I put the bet down in January for $400 to win $100,000. That was the bet. ... I'm very superstitious and don't want to ruin any juju."

Berry has heard all of the Twitter comments and has seen friends -- and bettors -- suggest that he hedge his bet, particularly with the Blues up 3-2 in the series and the Bruins large underdogs (+250 series price at Caesars Sportsbook) for the first time in the series.

"I've gotten calls from friends who live in San Diego, and they're saying I'm the talk of the water cooler," Berry said. "Friends I haven't talked to in years giving me advice on hedging. In my opinion, I've already won. It's kind of crazy how it's all panned out. It's been a wild ride."

Berry has been to every home game throughout the playoffs and even attended Game 2 of the Final in Boston, but he watched Game 5 at a restaurant in St. Louis with 15 friends and family members.

"Everyone was pretty loud during the game, but until those final seconds ticked off, I was trying to keep my emotions in check," he said. "I didn't say a word the entire game, but once the final seconds ticked off, I celebrated."

The CEO of his company even sent an email encouraging employees to wear blue when the Blues play, and Berry has done a multitude of interviews with national and local broadcasts, including a local station that filmed him watching Game 5. He is a die-hard Blues fan, like so many sports fans are about their teams, so the extra attention and stress have worn on him, but he knows the journey is almost over.

"I got really emotional after witnessing the Blues win Game 2, their first Stanley Cup win ever," Berry said. "It kind of hit me. I'm looking forward to it being over, hopefully with a happy ending, and talking to people after this is all done, hopefully with the Cup on Market Street."

Berry will attempt to get a ticket to Game 6 on Sunday, but he doesn't want to pay the exorbitant prices currently offered on the secondary market. If he isn't at the game, he'll be watching with friends and family again.

"If I end up being the Texas Tech bettor 2.0, then so be it. I'll live with it," Berry said. "This has been an incredible ride, to say the least. In my opinion, the $400 I spent was well worth this experience. I feel like I've already hedged in a sense. The money is a great bonus if the Blues win the Cup ... but in my opinion, I've already won."

ST. LOUIS -- From exploring the football practice facility formerly known as Rams Park on a humid June afternoon, an outsider would never know that it is the place an NFL team once called home.

Now used for youth soccer, the home of the St. Louis Rams for more than two decades has been wiped clean. The weight room is now home to AstroTurf carpet with nary a dumbbell. The locker room has been remade, and there are no lockers to be found.

To find any reminder that the Rams were ever here, you have to find the one sign that can't easily be replaced. In the lobby of the building, a glass wall is still embossed with the words "St. Louis Rams" and the team logo's horns surrounding it.

But even that is hard to make out because, fittingly, the word Rams has been covered up by a small sign.

That poster reads, in clear, bold letters, "Let's Go Blues."

It's as much a sign of the times as it is a show of support for the local hockey team that just so happens to be one win away from its first Stanley Cup championship.

It's a small reminder of what a stirring postseason run can do for a team and also for a city that has had its share of challenges in recent years.

"Just watching people, watching the news, just the buzz around the city is just amazing, and people are excited," Patrick Maroon, Blues winger and St. Louis native, said. "It's just a city that needs this, a city that's been, I feel like, down, and that this is what we needed just to amp the city back up again."

Moving on

The Rams filed for relocation on Jan. 4, 2016. Less than two weeks later, the NFL granted their request. In their relocation application, the Rams didn't just sell their vision for Los Angeles. They painted St. Louis as a place where professional football had little chance of survival.

That application called St. Louis a "declining market with a weak economy," citing a lack of corporate support and suggesting that the city could not support three professional sports teams.

The 29-page document left St. Louisans furious. For as much as they were angry about losing professional football, they were more upset about how the Rams left and the idea that someone who was supposedly one of their own -- Rams owner Stan Kroenke is from Missouri and was named after Cardinals baseball legend Stan Musial -- could so brazenly turn his back on them.

"Unfortunately, there was an owner who lied to the people here," Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright said. "That was what happened. Unfortunately, he wasn't truthful to the great people of this community and this city, and there's a lot of people walking around here with Rams tattoos all over their body who were pretty disappointed ... but I think to say this town is not a sports town is absolutely asinine, crazy. These people wake up in the morning, and they think about baseball and hockey."

Moving on from losing the Rams, the second NFL team that departed the city in 29 years, wasn't so simple. It didn't help matters that the Rams became kings of the NFC West in their second season in Los Angeles and made it to this year's Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals haven't been to the playoffs since the Rams left, and though the Blues made it to the NHL Western Conference finals in the months after the Rams' departure, they continued to come up short.

Signs of a St. Louis sports renaissance first cropped up with the PGA Championship at Bellerive last year, an event that saw golfers unfamiliar with St. Louis sports fans raving about the support they got.

That only set the stage for what the Blues have done.

"The city has been waiting for something special for so many years, and they finally get it," Maroon said. "After losing the Rams and we're trying to get a soccer team, we're just trying to get more people into the city ... but I think people don't realize what a great sports town this really is, and this is something special. I think this just shows people and proves [outsiders] wrong that this is a big-time sports town."

The soul of the city

If the Cardinals are the heart of the city, the Blues are its soul.

With 11 world titles and a rich tradition surpassed by only the New York Yankees, the Cardinals have the type of championship equity that brings an expectation of success.

The Blues, meanwhile, have offered many good seasons -- with plenty of heartbreaking defeats in never claiming hockey's top prize.

Speak to a passionate Blues fan about the team's tribulations, and you're sure to be reminded of Steve Yzerman's double-overtime goal in Game 7 of the 1996 playoffs, the injury to goalie Grant Fuhr that year, losing Wayne Gretzky to free agency, the curse of Scotty Bowman, being swept in three consecutive Finals appearances in the franchise's first three years, the Ralston Purina ownership debacle that nearly meant moving to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1983 and so many more. Growing up in St. Louis, actor Jon Hamm remembers going to Game 7 of the 1982 World Series and seeing the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, a championship that was the first a then-11-year-old Hamm witnessed.

Hamm, who has been a fixture at Blues games during this postseason run and long before it, said the joy of that championship will pale in comparison to what would happen if the Blues get another victory.

"I didn't think we'd ever get to the World Series, much less win one," Hamm said. "No one knew what to do. Everyone was just kind of randomly screaming. I think if this happens, it's going to be that times infinity."

'They drink their sports'

When the Rams moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995, a young receiver named Isaac Bruce was still making his way in the NFL. Entering his second season, Bruce was a relative unknown, but it didn't take long for him to fall in love with his new city or for him to see the kind of love he'd get in return.

Bruce, who still returns to St. Louis regularly for charitable events, remembers going to the team's first practice at Parkway Central High and seeing 4,000 people there to watch it. He went on to post what, at the time, was one of the most productive seasons by a receiver in league history. He instantly became the most recognizable Ram in town, a reputation that only grew as the Rams got better and the "Greatest Show on Turf" took the league by storm in 1999.

"They drink their sports," Bruce said. "They really get drunk on their sports and their sports teams and the players that play for their teams ... it lets you know that we were intertwined within the fabric of the community."

Nobody understands that concept better than Steve Albers. The owner of Center Ice Brewery in midtown, Albers is a lifelong Blues and hockey fan who has turned his two favorite hobbies into a passion.

Now Albers is invested in the team and the game in a way that few fans can claim.

Albers' dream of a hockey-themed brewery began in 2010, and he opened the doors to Center Ice in 2017. The bar is made of wood from the old St. Louis Arena, and the brewing equipment is surrounded by boards that traditionally surround a hockey rink.

"I was either going to build this place or die trying," Albers said. "And I will say there are reassurances that helped give me confidence for it."

Chief among those reassurances is the presence of Tom Stillman and the rest of the Blues' ownership group. Stillman has been the anti-Kroenke, regularly shaking hands and greeting fans at games and continuing to pour money into ways to grow the game locally.

Those things matter as St. Louis cultivates the next generation of Blues fans and, presumably, some future beer drinkers. And they helped provide a better long-term picture after the Blues missed the playoffs last season and Center Ice struggled without the additional business.

"It's my livelihood," Albers said. "It 100 percent is. You know, last year when the Blues missed the playoffs, I mean, I was ready to put a fist through a wall over a hockey game."

Ties that bind

While it was always common to see local athlete interaction, the bond between the Blues and Cardinals grew after the Rams' departure.

Wainwright, who is originally from southern Georgia, arrived in St. Louis in 2005 with hockey knowledge that was limited to NHL Hockey on Sega Genesis (and, of course, the unstoppable wraparound move). He has no recollection of the NHL playoffs, save for perhaps the Stanley Cup Final, even being on TV growing up in Brunswick, Georgia.

Within a few years in St. Louis, Wainwright got more and more into hockey, and his daughters have fallen in love with it, too. That means seeing Wainwright and his family along with catcher Yadier Molina and his family at Blues games is about as normal as seeing Charles Glenn performing the national anthem.

Got to meet a very special person tonight! Laila we were so blessed to meet you! We are all here cheering on our ⁦⁦@StLouisBlues⁩ and wanted to meet the secret weapon!!!Prayers up for you tonight! You are an inspiration!!!! pic.twitter.com/YNY3E8KCJ3

— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) May 22, 2019

Soon after the Washington Capitals were eliminated from this year's playoffs, Wainwright took note when former Blue T.J. Oshie was asked whom he wanted to win the Cup and immediately chose his former team.

"That speaks loudly," Wainwright said. "He knows how great those fans are and how much they love hockey in this town."

The strong ties among sports teams and fans in St. Louis appears to be growing. Adding a third professional sports team would be seen by some owners as a threat, but St. Louis is in prime position to land one of two Major League Soccer expansion franchises. The Cardinals and Blues are supportive at every step.

Carolyn Kindle Betz -- the leader of the St. Louis ownership group for the MLS expansion project, the current president of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation and the granddaughter of Enterprise Rental Car founder Jack Taylor -- is a relative neophyte in the world of soccer, though she and her family have long been at the center of many St. Louis improvement projects and charitable endeavors.

The St. Louis expansion bid is strong but not yet a done deal. In the meantime, Kindle Betz has received plenty of support, from fans stopping her on the street a couple times every week to repeated offers of help from Stillman and Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr.

"The statement they're making is, 'We all support one another,'" Kindle Betz said. "And so, to be able to kind of sit here and say, that would be really awesome. If we do get awarded that MLS team, that there's just one more piece of that puzzle."

It's perhaps no coincidence that many of the city's biggest projects are also getting major contributions from the owners of its local sports teams. Kindle Betz has been heavily involved in the dramatic reimagination of the Arch grounds for the better part of the past decade. The Cardinals are continuing expansion on Ballpark Village. Members of the Blues ownership group, some of whom are members of the Taylor family, are in on the MLS expansion bid. World Wide Technology, which is part of the Blues' ownership group, is the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season for the Muny, an outdoor theater in Forest Park, as well as the new title sponsor at Gateway Raceway.

In addition, those teams and companies are working to fill the philanthropic void left behind by the Rams while attempting to reach out to fans left behind who might not otherwise be interested in soccer, hockey or baseball.

"We need to make sure that our team and our coaching staff is diverse and represents the community that we live in," Kindle Betz said.

Putting the pieces together

While the Blues' run to within a game of the Stanley Cup has buoyed the city's morale (and had short-term economic benefits), there's undoubtedly still work to be done.

The murder rate still ranks at or near the top of most studies -- and has every year since 2014. Racial inequities and segregation remain issues. A study from Washington University entitled "Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide" reported that 12% of African American families in St. Louis live in areas of concentrated poverty, with less than 1% of white families in those same areas.

Business-wise, St. Louis currently has 10 companies in the Fortune 500, which is up from 2017 but still short of the 12 it had in 2000 and (when adjusted for how Fortune changed its methodology in 1994) the 23 that existed in 1980.

Efforts to revitalize the city have seen a series of stops and starts, but some believe a lack of cooperation between St. Louis City and St. Louis County is at the center of the issue. Recent census information shows that the city represents just 11 percent of the population of the St. Louis metro area, with 88 independent county municipalities surrounding it.

One local think tank estimates that a merger between city and county would make St. Louis the nation's 10th-largest city by population.

"I'd like to see us address the city and county relationship," said Bob Wallace, former high-ranking executive of the Rams and football Cardinals and current attorney at Thompson Coburn LLP. "You look at the cities that we compete with -- you know, Indy, Baltimore, Nashville -- they've come to some sort of arrangement where the city and county aren't competing for the same things."

A proposal for such an arrangement was recently pulled from ballot consideration by organizers of the "Better Together STL" initiative. That proposal would have needed statewide approval and came with many questions.

For now, there is nothing concrete on the table for official merger, but Lewis Reed, the president of the board of aldermen, says that doesn't mean there can't be unity.

"We can come to cooperative agreements right now that give us all the benefits of being together," Reed said. "We put together a regional commission to look at development issues. That same type of setup can be done for healthcare delivery services. The same thing can be done for our public safety services all the way up and down the line. That would help us streamline operations but not take on the big challenge of upending the political structure that people are comfortable with, mainly in the county."

Despite those issues, there are things St. Louis points to as positives, aside from the Blues' run of success.

New projects popping up around the city came in at more than $1 billion in 2018, and more have broken ground in 2019. The new facility for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is, perhaps, the most important project, at a cost of $1.7 billion, with expected completion in April 2023.

Beyond that, St. Louis has garnered praise for its development and incubation of startups, and SeekCapital.com, a consulting service for small businesses, recently ranked the St. Louis metro area at the top of the list of metro areas with the most female-owned startups.

"That redevelopment will allow us to address some of the issues of the divide that has existed in the city of St. Louis," Reed said. "And to redevelop areas of our cities that have been underdeveloped for so many years."

Setting a Blueprint

Perhaps nobody knows what an unexpected championship run can do for a city better than David Freese. The native St. Louisan was at the center of the city's favorite most recent sports memories.

The third baseman for the 2011 Cardinals championship team delivered two unforgettable moments in Game 6 of that year's World Series to help a team that had been left for dead during the season claim the game's ultimate prize.

"It was just chaos, absolute chaos," Freese said. "You know, we were a team that were pretty much out of it. And we just kept pushing and made it all the way to the end and beat Texas, and you know, the city just went on fire. And I think that would happen too if the Blues took the Cup.

"I think when you're in a city that loves its sports as much as St. Louis, and you end up winning a championship, it'll just be chaos. But it was awesome. And the people around there and the interaction with all the fans -- you can't beat the people of St. Louis."

On Jan. 2, the Blues had the fewest points in the NHL standings. Things were so bleak that they sent scouts to look at Jack Hughes, the player widely regarded as the top prospect in the 2019 NHL draft.

Since then, the Blues have proved to be the picture of resilience. When disaster has struck in the playoffs, moments, such as the hand pass that led to the losing goal in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals against San Jose, that have in the past been the death knell for the Blues have turned into motivation.

Even the most jaded of fans has begun to believe that what looked impossible in January is now oh so real.

"We could use a win," Hamm said. "It's been a rough run for the city the last three decades or so, with the odd Cardinals championship here and there and whatnot. ... When you look back at Jan. 2, last in the league, to have the guts and fortitude and strength and character and the skill to come back from that ... yeah, I think these guys believe, and I think the city is starting to."

That belief has been impossible to miss since the Stanley Cup playoffs began. Games that aren't taking place in St. Louis have yielded sold-out watch parties at Enterprise Center. A watch party for Game 5 sold out in less than an hour. Television ratings have been through the roof, with Game 5 drawing a local rating of 30.1 on Thursday, making it the highest-rated Blues game ever in the market and the highest local rating in the country.

Home games have also drawn a steady stream of celebrity and athlete appearances, with the likes of Hamm, Cardinals Wainwright, Molina, Matt Carpenter and Paul Goldschmidt, former Rams Bruce and Chris Long, many former Blues, including Gretzky and Brett Hull, legendary track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee, actor Scott Bakula, actress Jenna Fischer and rapper Nelly among those who attended one or both of St. Louis' first two home games of the Stanley Cup Final.

All are from St. Louis, spent a large part of their careers here or both. All represent the thing St. Louis values the most.

"I think St. Louisans are really proud of their loyalty," 101 ESPN radio host Randy Karraker said.

Now -- win or lose -- more than ever.

India A 243 for 0 (Gaikwad 125*, Gill 109*) beat Sri Lanka A 242 for 7 (Jayasuriya 101, Jayaratne 79, Dube 2-47, Deshpande 2-51) by 10 wickets

India A continued their winning run against Sri Lanka A, romping to a ten-wicket victory in just 33.3 overs in the second one-dayer on Saturday.

Put in to bat at Union Gymkhana Ground in Belgaum, the Sri Lankans could put up only 242 for 7, and centuries from openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shubman Gill meant an easy victory for the home team. Gill retired hurt with cramps when he was on 109 (off 96 balls), with the team score at 226 for no loss in 30 overs, but Gaikwad knocked off the remaining runs with No. 3 Prashant Chopra for company.

Gaikwad followed his 187* in the first match with a second consecutive unbeaten century, ending with 125 not out off 94 balls in this game. All the Sri Lanka A bowlers came in for some heavy punishment, with only Asitha Fernando going at less than a run a ball, conceding 28 runs in five overs.

Gaikwad and Gill were rapid from the start. While Gill got to his half-century in 40 balls, Gaikwad got to the milestone soon after, getting there off 44 balls. While Gill kept his pace even, Gaikwad accelerated sharply, getting to a century in just 78 balls, while Gill took 93.

Like Gaikwad, Shehan Jayasuriya also hit a second consecutive century, but his 101 off 139 balls could only shore up Sri Lanka A's innings after a horror start: Jayasuriya walked in at 7 for 2 in four overs, and quickly saw that become 27 for 4 inside the first ten overs.

Sri Lanka A had a couple of brief partnerships after that but the stand that revived their innings came only once they had been reduced to 81 for 6. Ishan Jayaratne, whose highest score in List A cricket was 42 coming into this game, hit out for 79 not out off 73 balls, sharing in a 142-run stand with Jayasuriya that ended only in the 49th over.

For India A, Tushar Deshpande took 2 for 51 and Shivam Dube had 2 for 47 and Shreyas Gopal was parsimonious, taking 1 for 26 in seven overs. Washington Sundar was the only bowler without a wicket, but he bowled ten economical overs for 38.

South Africa coach Ottis Gibson wants the focus to turn from AB de Villiers back to the cricket, as his team prepares to take on West Indies in a game they really cannot afford to lose. Speaking in Southampton on Saturday, Gibson was clearly not happy to entertain too many questions on de Villiers.

"Personally I suspect there are a lot of people wanting AB to be here [more] than AB himself," Gibson said. "If he wanted to be here he would be here."

During the course of the press conference, he went on to say: "Are we going to talk about this all the time? Or are we going to prepare for the West Indies game." He also said: "Feels like its a court case here."

On Thursday, ESPNcricinfo reported that de Villiers had offered to come out of retirement to play the World Cup, just a day before the squad was named. The team management turned de Villiers down since he did fulfil the selection criteria - playing domestic and international cricket in the months leading up to the World Cup - and they felt picking him would be unfair on the players who had been performing in his absence. De Villiers had retired from international cricket in May 2018, saying he was tired.

South Africa have begun World Cup 2019 with three losses in a row, and they would need to win most of their remaining six games to have a realistic chance of progressing to the semi-finals. Gibson said of the situation: "I can't recall in recent history a team picking a guy that's retired."

"Nobody's shaken up, nobody's died or anything... When we played in South Africa we won eight of the last 10 games... You guys [the media] weren't asking those questions then."

He said he hoped the players picked in de Villiers' absence would take this opportunity to show their mettle and that they deserved to be at the World Cup. "I would want them to flip it the other way and show everyone that they deserve to be here.

"It's only us that can change it [perceptions]... We can talk about AB all we want but he's not here and he cannot help us. Only we can help us.

"We have to keep believing in ourselves and in the people who are here to do well in the tournament."

Gibson admitted the team management was wary of the de Villiers story popping up during the tournament, and said they had spoken with the team about keeping focus should such "distractions" occur. "I guess guys are disappointed that it's come out at the time that it's come out," he said. "When we got together in camp, we spoke about managing distractions, that was one of the things that we said could come up.

"I don't imagine it is going to affect the way that we play cricket, [but] we haven't played very well so far and it is disappointing."

More to follow

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

A net bowler working with the Australian team at The Oval has been given the all-clear after a precautionary scan, after he was struck on the head during training.

The medium-pacer, Jai Kishan, was bowling to David Warner and was hit by a shot that came back at him before he could react.

Kishan was treated immediately on the field by the medical staff present at the ground before being strapped onto a medivac and transferred to hospital. He was reportedly conscious and smiling before he left.

A CT scan showed no damage, though he is still being monitored for delayed concussion and other after-effects. He has since spoken to the Australian doctor and said he is feeling much better

The Australian players, clearly shaken by the incident, suspended their training for around 20 minutes and gathered at the side of the nets. Aaron Finch, speaking to the media just after the incident, said Warner had been particularly affected.

"Dave was obviously pretty shaken up," Finch said. "The young guy seems to be in pretty good spirits at the moment. He's obviously been taken off to hospital and will continue to be assessed just to make sure that everything is okay. But yeah, Dave was pretty shaken up, no doubt. It was a decent hit to the head. Hopefully everything keeps going well for the youngster and he's back up and running shortly. It was tough to watch."

While it is not a common occurrence for net bowlers to be hit during training, there have been a number of incidents that have raised concerns in the past. England Test bowler James Anderson has previously suggested that net bowlers could wear protective equipment, such as helmets.

"Yeah, that could be a decent idea, Finch said. "Again, it's a bit like everything; it's such a personal preference for net bowlers, and we're very lucky to have so many of them come in and want to bowl to us and help us prepare as best we can for the game. But I think it's going to be a personal preference. It's lucky that there were so many good medical team on standby.

"It's quite rare that somebody gets hit, and it's obviously very unfortunate. The medical staff that were on hand, obviously our own medical staff, doctor and physio and also the medical staff, paramedics at the ground, did a great job in being there very quickly to assess and make sure that all the right protocols and right processes were put in place. Yeah, maybe -- it is a difficult one because you get some guys that are coming in and who probably aren't as well-equipped with their game to be able to deal with that."