Agarkar pulls out of tour

MUMBAI, Dec 2 (PTI) — India suffered a big blow even before the team’s departure for New Zealand when pace bowler Ajit Agarkar was ruled out of the tour because of a stress fracture of his left leg.

The Executive Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sharad Divadkar, announced here today that the injured Mumbai paceman has been replaced in the 15-member team by Delhi medium pacer Robin Singh (jr).

Divadkar said that Robin Singh would join the team here later in the day.

The team is scheduled to leave for New Zealand tomorrow on their 45-day tour during which they will play three Test matches and five one-day internationals besides two other side matches.

Divadkar was not sure when Agarkar suffered the injury but sport medicine expert and orthopaedist Dr Anant Joshi has advised him complete rest for four to six weeks. Agarkar may join the team later, he added.

Interestingly, team coach Anshuman Gaekwad was maintaining from the first day of the short conditioning camp, which concluded here yesterday that all the members were fit. He had said that there were no injury problems in the team.

Agarkar has the world record of taking the fastest 50 wickets in one-day internationals.

Gaekwad described Agarkar’s non-availability as "a very big blow to the team’s hopes". He also explained that he got the medical report on Agarkar’s injury from Dr Joshi only late last night after he had returned from the Castrol award function at the CCI.

"Agarkar bowled to three batsmen at the nets on Monday and was resting when I asked him how he felt. He said he had severe pain in the leg. I thought it was not very serious as his shoe was also hurting. Yesterday, he had a stomach upset and could not take part in the net", Gaekwad said.

Team doctor Ravinder Chadha advised Agarkar to have his legs examined by an expert. "the X-rays did not reveal anything and they had to do a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which revealed the fracture", he added.

Gaekwad regretted that just when things were clicking and the team was winning, the injury problems were cropping up.

"We lost Javagal Srinath midway through last season because of his injury. When he was fit we lost the services of Harbhajan Singh (due to bowling action controversy). When Harbhajan is available now, we have lost Ajit. It is very frustrating", the Indian coach said.

"Our players have gone a bit off target", he added.

Gaekwad said "we have to go back and replan our strategy". But he made it clear that it was unlikely Agarkar joining the team later. "I would definitely likened to have him in New Zealand but it is more important that he gets sufficient rest and regains full fitness", he added.

Footballers face uphill task

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (PTI) — Once a respected lot even against European opponents, twice champions India enter the football competition as virtual pushovers as they take on continental superpowers Japan in the opening group ‘C’ encounter at the main stadium in Trang Province tomorrow.

Re-entering the Asian Games arena after a gap of 12 years, twice winners India find themselves totally without depth reflected in the fact that a place in the next round by itself would be regarded as an achievement at home.

Gold medallists in the first Games at New Delhi in 1951, Indian football fans still have to be satisfied with memories of the bygone era when stalwarts like Sailen Manna, captain in 1951, Ahmed Khan, Mewa Lal and the like lend great character.

India, led by the present manager Chuni Goswami, retained the title at the 1962 Jakarta Games with a fine 2-0 win over South Korea. The consistency of Indian sides could be gauged from the fact that they were fourth at Tokyo in 1958 and took bronze at Bangkok in 1970.

In 1970, when India won the last of their three medals, current coach Syed Nayeemuddin was the skipper but this time around his task has been rendered unenviable despite a sprinkling of talent in the side with the likes of captain I.M. Vijayan and his fellow striker Baichung Bhutia.

But ranked a lowly 120-odd in the world, India have struggled to even keep margins of defeats low abroad. The team could travel this time only at "no cost to government basis" and on the Indian Olympic Association’s argument that it was to build the side for the 2001 Afro-Asian Games in India where football will be a compulsory discipline.

India will have a tough task on hand when they take on Japan, who warmed up with a facile 5-0 win over Nepal in their opening group ‘C’ encounter. Indian hopes are pinned on a win over the Himalayan kingdom for a berth in the next round as the second placed, where they could run into a strong Qatar.

Indian preparations have been haphazard with chopping and changing going on till the last minute. The IOA list contained the originally chosen players, but All-India Football Federation gave out a list with a few changes.

Lack of all players from the outset and without foreign exposure, training had a bumpy ride and the morale has not exactly been left sky high after defending champions Uzbekistan, with a depleted side, thrashed the probable main eleven of India 4-0.

Indian hopes of at least making it to the next round stem from the victory over Nepal to claim the SAARC title last year and a good run in the Kochi Nehru Cup tournament before going down narrowly to eventual winners Iraq in the semifinal.

But Japan, determined to claim the title to maintain the status of one of the four Asian countries who made it to the World Cup in France, will be too formidable.

India could take some cheer that they actually hold a 3-2 win-loss record against Japan in the games with a 1-0 win when they met last at the 1970 Bangkok edition. But against a formidable side which has gained from all the virtues of professionalism back home, India stand little chance of even putting up a decent fight.

At Bangkok in 1978, India reached the quarterfinal round robin, and at New Delhi in 1982 they went down to Saudi Arabia in the last eight after conceding an 88th minute goal.

Interestingly, Rustom Akhramov, the man who coached Uzbekistan to the gold at Hiroshima in 1994 and then took over the reins of India, is reported to be overseeing the training of Nepal.

India has had quite a few stalwarts who have etched their names in the Asian Games football list. Former India skipper and P.K. Banerjee has six goals against his name followed by Chuni Goswami (5), S. Mewalal, Damodaran, T. Balaram and Jarnail Singh (all four goals).

The team did not travel to Beijing or Hiroshima, but the determination to make a start somewhere has brought them to the 13th games.

"We need more exposure games. We have to make a start somewhere," says the respected Chuni Goswami.

But critics argue that Asian Games should not be for exposure and then the standard could be improved through playing "Test" matches with other Asian countries.

India take on Nepal in their second group ‘C’ match on December 5.

Rehearsal promises grand opening

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (AP) — For a few hours on Sunday, Thais will be able to cast aside worries about the lingering Asian economic crisis and revel in a spectacular cultural celebration marking the opening of the 13th Asian Games.

Several thousand people got a sneak preview of the festivities yesterday when the final rehearsal for the ceremony was thrown open to the public at the last minute.

The rehearsal was originally supposed to be open, then last week was turned into a closed activity for what organisers said were security reasons.

"Besides, we don’t want to give away the climax of the event," Somjainuk Engtrakul, chairman of the ticketing committee, told reporters about an hour before yesterday’s rehearsal began.

But stadium guards somehow slipped up and about 1,500 ordinary citizens were admitted to the crowd that was originally supposed to be limited to members of the press, foreign dignitaries, government officials and the games’ organisers.

With the gates breached, the decision was made to admit all comers, and many of the stadium’s 60,000 seats quickly filled up.

The lucky spectators watched 7,614 performers take part in a nearly four-hour show of lavishly-produced acts with the theme "friendship beyond frontiers."

The combined budget for the opening and closing ceremonies is 70 million baht ($ 1.94 million) and that includes a large share of donated and at-cost labour.

For an overture, songs written by the country’s multi-talented King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, were played by the Western-style Bangkok symphony orchestra along with the Fong Nam band, a kind of new wave traditional Thai ensemble.

The emphasis shifted to the visual for the next act, as hundreds of performers in ancient Thai garb marched down the centre of the field to a majestic tune, followed by people-drawn chariots.

Hundreds of primary school students were dressed in colourful outfits for the next two performances, celebrating both the unity of Asia and Chai-Yo, the cartoon elephant mascot of the games. Elephants have long been a symbol of Thailand.

The athletes’ march then followed with performers as stand-ins with representatives of the 41 countries taking place in what organisers bill as the last major sporting event of the 20th century.

At the actual event on Sunday, King Bhumibol will officially proclaim the games open.

Issaraporn Suktha, a gold medal weightlifter for Thailand at the last Southeast Asian Games, will then carry the torch into the stadium, and Somluck Khamsing, a boxer who won Thailand’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in 1996 in Atlanta, will take it the last lap to light the flame.

The artistic high point came next, as the warlike beat of drums announced the gathering of heavenly spirits, a show based on the Indian Ramayana epic, the basis for much of traditional Thai mythology, literature, and performing and fine arts.

The field became a swirl of giant snakes, swans, birds, angels, and other mystical creatures, all cheered by the crowd.

Another performance celebrating the unity of Asia capped the show, with four large swan floats pulled to the middle of the field, to each tethered a giant balloon symbolising the sun, moon, earth and a giant lotus.

"The lighting was 80 per cent ok, while the sound was 90 per cent," said Thisana Duandao, a producer with the JSL, the private company putting on the show. "Overall, we are satisfied with the performance. We have minor adjustments to make."

Bhichai Rattakul, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Bangkok Asian Games Organizing Committee, who has been losing sleep over whether organisational problems can be overcome at the last minute, pronounced himself "very happy."

More world-level hockey tournaments planned
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH: Increase in World Cup teams from 12 to 16, introduction of Champions Challenge as a feeder to Champions Trophy, establishment of a bi-annual under-18 boys and girls festival and making the Champions Trophy for women an annual feature are among the major changes in the revamped programme of the FIH world-level events.

These changes were adopted at the last meeting of the FIH Council held in Brussels on November 28 on the basis of recommendations of the Global Competition Task Force.

According to Mary Coyle, Communications Manager of the FIH, the new world format will come into effect from 2001 through the Champions Trophy for women will be held in 2000. The new format aims at increasing opportunities for lesser developed hockey playing countries to compete on the world-level besides establishing a sensible,balanced and marketable cycle of world-level major tournaments and encouraging a wider variety of host countries for FIH events by reducing costs and improving the bidding system.

Under the revised format, the World Cup Hockey Tournaments , for men, women and youth, will continue to be held every four years but the number of participating teams has been raised from 12 to 16. The qualification and competition format will also accordingly change.

The qualification for the World Cup will be based on the new format i.e. the hosts, defending champions, all five continental cup winners (Five), teams finishing between second and fourth positions in the immediate past Olympic Games and seven teams from the World Cup qualifier tournament.

Previously, the World Cup used to be played in two pools of six teams each in a round-robin format. It will now be changed to four pools of four teams each in the first round in a round-robin format. The second round will be again of four pools of four teams each with two pools comprising of the top teams in each pool from the first round and two pools comprising of the bottom-placed teams from the first round.

The third and final round will witness cross-pool classification matches, followed by final placing matches. The duration of the World Cup will be 13 days and it should be conducted on two identical fields of play.

The World Cup Qualifying Tournament will also be played on the same format with 16 teams instead of 12 at present. Participants for the qualifier would come from continental cups with the number of teams from each continent determined by a quota system based on the total number of participants in each of the continental cups. A maximum of the 50 per cent teams may be from the same continent. The world cup preliminaries will be discontinued.

The Champions Trophy, both for men and women, will be an annual feature. Though the qualification criteria for the Champions Trophy will remain unchanged, a new Champions Challenger is being introduced to allow for greater participation. Now onwards, the bottom placed team in Champions Trophy would be placed by winners of the Champions Challenger at the next edition.

The teams qualifying for the Champions Challenge will be the host and the five best ranked World Cup or Olympic teams not already qualified for the Champions Trophy.To start with, the Champions Challenger will be held every two years.

It has also been decided that in a World Cup or Olympic year, the Champions Trophy will be held approximately three months before these events to ensure that highest quality teams participate in the Champions Trophy.

The under-18 youth festival, both for boys and girls, will be held every two years. The Indian Hockey Federation has reconfirmed its proposal to hold the inaugural festival and the FIH is now awaiting details on dates, location and other organisational matters.

Under the revised format, the hosts are no longer responsible for paying the cost of full board and accommodation for team contingents of 20 people, as was the case in the past.

The FIH is also seeking bids from member countries for the following tournaments : Champions Trophy for Women (2000, 2001,2002 and 2003), Champions Trophy for Men (2001, 2002 and 2003); World Cup qualifiers for men and women (2001), Champions Challenge for men and women (2001 and 2003) and Junior World Cup for men and women (2001).

A final decision on the host countries will be made on March 11 next year by the FIH Executive Board.

Award for Sachin

MUMBAI, Dec 2 (UNI) — Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has won the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year Award for the year 1997-98.

The award comprises a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh and a trophy.

Castrol International Chief Executive Michael Dearden presented the award to the ace batsman at a ceremony held last evening at the Brabourne Stadium.

Jyoti Yadav won the Castrol Young Indian Cricketer of the year 1997-98 award. He was presented the award consisting of a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and a trophy.

Mohammad Azharuddin, Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath were adjudged runners-up and received Rs 50,000 and a trophy.

Amit Pagnis, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Mohammad Kaif and Nikhil Haldipur were chosen as the most promising cricketers of the year and were awarded Rs 25,000 each.

Nirupama lone Indian in last eight

NEW DELHI, Dec 2 (PTI) — India number one Nirupma Vaidyanathan staged a splendid comeback after being one set down against France’s Carolina Jagienak and stormed into the quarterfinals of the WTA women’s challenger at DLTA courts here today.

Nirupma was shade below her best in the first set losing it 0-6, but she kept her cool in the second keeping the ball in play and as the Frenchwoman lost her nerves disputing every close calls, the Indian won the next two sets 6-1 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal tie against fourth seed Miriam Schnitzer.

Nirupma is having her best time before she leaves for the Bangkok Asian Games and was the only Indian to make the last eight stage as Sai Jayalakshmi and Manisha Malhotra were knocked out in the second round today.

India number two Sai Jayalakshmi wasted too many chances and lacked killer punch in finishing off rallies and lost 2-6 6-2 6-7 (2/7) to Britain’s Lorna Woodroffe.

Manisha was error prone throughout her match against Amanda Hopmans of the Netherlands losing it 2-6 2-6.

Manisha, who has the best serve among the Indian women, made several errors netting easy volleys, while seventh seed Hopmans’ passing shots caught the Indian off guard.

India’s challenge in the doubles also ended later in the day, when Nirupma-Manisha pair lost in straight sets 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 to Japanese tandem of Shiho Hisamatsu and Madoka Kuki.

Wild card entrants Nirupma-Manisha are expected to play as team in Bangkok Games with All India Tennis Association (AITA) deciding to send Manisha Malhotra on its own cost after government denied her clearance.

Nirupma took some time to get back into her groove and despite losing the first set 0-6, she did not let France’s Jagienak close out the issue.

Nirupma broke her in the opening game of the second set and after holding her serve broke the Frenchwoman again in the third and raced to 4-0 lead.

It was a nice turnaround for Nirupma, ranked 174 on WTA computer, against 221st ranked Jagienak, who managed to win only fifth service game. Nirupma sent down a splendid double-fisted backhand crosscourt return to win the set 6-1.

In the decider, Nirupma took 5-1 lead after Jagienak dropped second, fourth and sixth service games. The Frenchwoman returned with a break in the seventh but Nirupma had taken comfortable lead to close the issue at 6-3.

"I am really happy for myself and it is a good preparation for the Asian Games," Nirupma said of her victory.

"Having this kind of tournament where players from across the globe are participating is good for Indian women’s tennis scene," she said exuding confidence of doing well in Bangkok.

Her next test will be German Schnitzer, who beat Israel’s Hira Rosen 6-3 6-2 on a centre court match.

Sai Jayalakshmi lost the first set 2-6 when she dropped second, sixth and eighth service games but changed her game in the second to the surprise of Britishwoman Woodroffe. Sai broke her in the opening game and the seventh to take 5-2 lead before she served out the set 6-2.

The decider was a sheer thriller and after being down 2-4, Sai saved three matchpoints to take a lead of 6-5, but in the 12th service game, she made some unforced errors and netted a return to take the issue to the tie-break.

Sai looked tired in the tiebreak missing several easy volleys and lost it 2-7 as the 2hr 2min battle ended in Woodroffe’s favour.

Gurmeet sets national mark

NEW DELHI, Dec 2 (PTI) Woman javelin thrower Gurmeet Kaur set a national record to achieve the qualifying mark while woman shotputter Harbans Kaur returned a poor fare to be omitted from the athletic squad for the Bangkok Asian Games.

In an exciting afternoon of trials to help marginal cases make the grade, three national records fell by the wayside, male javelin hope Satvir Singh finished third and short of the target of 78.00 metres.

Former Asian junior medallist Ramandeep Singh stunned the four-man field by setting a national record of 80.56 metres at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, improving upon the 77.30 metres which stood in the name of Daljeet Singh (Chennai - 1997).

Satvir Singh - whose 79.68 metre effort at the All India Police Meet at Calcutta in October has not been ratified — could touch only 77.16 metres to come third while Jagdish Bishnoi capped a fine series with 77.80 metres to finish second and enter the race for the lone berth.

Amateur Athletic Federation of India Secretary Lalit K Bhanot said a decision would be made after consultation with the coaches and the selection committee. The Aafi was saved embarrassment as Ramandeep opted out of the race.

Gurmeet Kaur improved her own national mark to 60.22 metres from 55.35 metres to surpass the target of 57.00 metres. Triple jumper Lekha Thomas also moved her own national mark of 13.26 metres to 13.39 metres but fell short of qualifying (13.50 metres) and Bhanot said she would not be selected.

Harbans kaur could reach only 17.02 metres which was well short of the target of 17.50 metres.

On a busy afternoon, the AAFI also decided against selecting railwayman Anil Mathew as the ‘pace-setter’ for seasoned Bahadur Prasad in the 1500 metres after he failed to reach the standard set.

The Aafi had fixed 3 min 50.00 sec, as he would have to be capable of making it to the final to be of help to Bahadur Prasad. But Anil Mathew, for a change paced by Prasad himself, could produce only a pedestrian 3:55.1.

"There is no question of taking him as this will not get him even into the finals," Bhanot said.

MK Asha of Karnataka also saw her hopes of making it to the women’s 4 x 400 metre relay squad evaporate after she could clock only 54.9 seconds running the one-lap. She was given a chance to challenge Jincy Philips for the fifth spot in the squad which would comprise pt Usha, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, Rosa Kutty and km Beenamol.

The women’s sprint relay quartet of V Jayalakshmi, Rachita Mistry, EB Shyla and Vinita Tripati ran two 4 x 100 metres relay races without the presence of PT Usha. They clocked 45.3 seconds in the first race and then improved it to 44.5 running two-and-a-half hours later.

"Usha looks to have fully recovered from her hamstring trouble (suffered at the Calcutta Inter-State meet on November 15). But even without her the coaches are confident these four can run under 44 seconds in competition" Bhanot said.

Saraswathi Dey, who is part of the camp like mk Asha as a reserve in case Usha does not recover to compete, will be present till the first batch leaves on December 8. "In case of a change, it will be a toss up between Saraswati and Vinita Tripati," he added.

South Zone reach 192 for 5

MUMBAI, Dec 2 (PTI) — Three dropped chances by North Zone fielders helped South Zone reach 192 for five off 66.5 overs when bad light stopped play on the second day of the five-day Duleep Trophy quarter-final cricket match at the Wankhede Stadium here today.

Earlier in the morning, North Zone were bundled out for 225 off 109.3 overs in 449 minutes, one hour after the start.

North’s fielders have to blame themselves for their poor catching, after their bowlers had restricted South to 148 for five in the 52nd over.

Both the not out batsmen, Indian allrounder Robin Singh (batting 24) and wicketkeeper-batsman Somashekar Shiraguppi (batting 17) were let off with their team struggling at 148 for five.

Shiruguppi was dropped by medium pacer Amit Bhandari off his own bowling when on 11 with the team’s total on 165 for five. He was again dropped by Virendra Shewag at gully off new ball bowler Harvinder Singh when on 17 with the team’s total on 171.

Soon after Robin Singh, who went to hook Harvinder when on 12, was dropped by Pankaj Dharmani at mid-on with the total being 180 for five.

The very next over Robin Singh hoisted left arm seamer Ashish Mehra over the bowlers head for a six and then punched the same bowler through the mid-wicket region for a four in the same over.

SCOREBOARD

North Zone (1st innings): Singh c Bhardwaj b Ram Kishen 35, V. Rathore b R. Singh 26, R. Nayyar c Bhardwaj b N.P. Singh 52, P. Dharmani c Shiraguppi b Ram Kishen 0, V. Shewag c Shiraguppi b Ram Kishen 0, M. Manhas b V. Raju 19, V. Dahiya b N.P. Singh 27, P. Jain lbw R. Singh 11, H. Singh b N.P. Singh15, A. Bhandari b Ramkishen 18, A. Nehra (not out) 10. Extras (B-4, LB-4, NB-4) 12.

Total (all out off 109.3 overs) 225.

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-77, 3-77, 4-77, 5-113, 6-162, 7-181, 8-185, 9-201.

Bowling: Narender Pal Singh 26-12-44-3, H. Ram Kishen 15.3-3-41-4, Robin Singh 24-6-62-2, V. Raju 22-11-25-1, Ananthapadmanabhan 19-7-36-0, S. Sriram 3-1-9-0.

South Zone (1st innings): S. Somasunder c Dahiya b Nehra 18, A. Shetty c Nayyar b H. Singh 59, S. Sriram lbw b V. Shewag 11, V. Bhardwaj c R. Nayyar b A. Bhandari 23, S. Sharath c Dahiya b V. Shewag 14, R. Singh (batting) 24, S. Shiraguppi (batting) 17.

Extras: (B-5, LB-4, NB-17) 26.

Total: (for five wkts off 66.5 overs) 192.

Fall wickets: 1-43, 2-89, 3-133, 4-137, 5-148.

Bowling: Harvinder Singh 17.5-8-29-1, Ashish Nehra 18-2-61-1, Amit Bhandari 17-2-59-1, Virendra Shewag 11-4-20-2, Pradeep Jain 3-1-14-0.

8th place for Sasikiran

KOZHIKODE, Dec 2 (PTI) — India’s Sasikiran finished eighth on tie-break in the 37th World Junior Chess Championships for boys while Vijaylakshmi Subburaman came seventh with eight points in the girls’ section.

Sandeepan Chanda of West Bengal was placed 13th in the boys section while Pallavi Shah, who also scored eight points like Vijaylakshmi, finished ninth among the girls.

Banikas Hristodoulous of Greece won an extended game to take the third place ahead of Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam.

Aarthi Ramaswamy was the next best in the women’s section for India taking 13th place with 7.5 points while world under-12 girls champion Koneru Humpy (15th - 7 points) also excelled.

Darmen Sadvakasov received $ 1000 US, NTPC-Triveni Trophy and a gold medal for winning the boys title. Zhang Zhong of China picked up $ 750 and a silver medal while Banikas and Dao collected $ 425 each.

The girls champion Huang Thanh Trang of Vietnam took home $ 750, NTPC-Triveni trophy and a gold medal. Iweta Radciewicz of Poland bagged $ 600 and silver medal while Irina Krush of the USA won $ 400 and bronze medal.

Asiad athletes insured

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Reuters) — The organisers of next week’s Asian Games yesterday said they had insured the life of every athlete, official and journalist attending for $ 25,000 (around Rs 10.5 lakh).

The Games Organising Committee said a policy it had taken out with Thai Prasit Insurance Co Ltd, Thailand’s largest insurance firm, gave 300 million baht worth of cover.

Santiparb Tejavanija, Marketing Director of the committee, said it was the first time any Asian Games had been so covered, adding insurance was now essential as the games had become a multimillion dollar concern.

The policy covers athletes, officials and media representatives against loss of life and permanent disability and organisers against consequences of event cancellations.

Games organisers said the policy would pay out up to $ 2.5 million in the event the games were cancelled or postponed.

Sub-junior school soccer results

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 (FOSR) — St Solider’s International School, Sector 28, Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36 and St Xavier Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, surged ahead by winning their respective matches on the second day of the Chandigarh Sub-Junior Football League for St Xavier’s Trophy at the Sector 17 ground here today.

St Solider’s lads defeated Guru Harkrishan School, Sector 40 by two goals to nil, with former scoring their first goal in 10th minute of the match through right winger Surinder Singh. Second goal came in 40th minute through right striker Jasmeet Singh.

Sanjay Public School, Sector 44, got a walk over from St Stephens School, Sector 45, in the second match.

In the third match, Trinune Model School, Sector 29, boys went down fighting to St Xavier School, Sector 44, by 0-2. The latter scored their first goal in 17th minute through right winger Bhupinder and later in 20th minute Padam Negi, the right half, scored the second goal.

In the last match of the day, Guru Nanak Public School, Sector 36, subdued St Joseph’s High School by two goals to nil. Both the goals were scored by right striker Sandeep Singh in 20th and 27th minutes of the match.

Sandeep, Deepak storm into finals

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 (TNS) — Sandeep Duggal and Deepak Goel stormed into the finals of Panchkula Open Prize-Money Snooker Championship being held at Sector 6, Panchkula, under the auspices of Haryana Billiards and Snooker Association.

In the semi-finals Sandeep displayed fine form to halt the winning streak of Saurav Khatter. The first frame was easily won by Sandeep 52-17 as he hit a break of 22 points but then Saurav fought his way back in the second frame and scraped past Sandeep on the last black ball with a score of 62-58. The next two frames were a formality as Sandeep ran through comfortably 48-10, 63-21 with fine cue-ball control and a break of 27 points in the last frame.

In the earlier round Sandeep outclassed Tarun Kumar 28-61, 62-32, 69-28, 65-46 and hit the highest break of 39 points of the tournament.

Deepak, in the other semi-finals, demolished Parveen Duggal in three straight frames 47-39, 49-42, 62-33 with his consistent touch game. In all three frames Deepak kept pressurising his opponent by fine and cautious potting and made best use of the openings.

Table tennis team

PATIALA, Dec 2 (FOSR) — Neeraj Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Manik Raj Singla and Prince Ghuman will represent Patiala in the men's section in the Punjab Table Tennis Tournament to be played at Patiala from December 5 to 9.

The other teams are:

Women: Megha Sharma, Meenu Sood, Bhawna Tomar.

Boys (under-17 yrs): Bahul Bose, Saurbh Mukherjee, Gurpreet Singh, Robin Verma.

Girls (under-17): Vilcy Ghuman, Harleen Kaur, Tania Jain, Kamlpreet.

Sub junior boys team (under-14): Rahul Bose, Paramjit Singh, Sher Bahadur, Vishal Raj.

Sub junior girls team (under-14): Manisha Sharma, Sarika Sharma, Yashpreet Gulati, Tania Jain.

Cadet boys (under-12): Sher Bahadur, Randeep Singh, Gaurav Rawat, Pawan Saini.

Cadet girls (under-12): Manisha Sharma, Sarika Sharma, Neha Sharma, Yashpreet Gulati.

Pawan rallies to beat Sandonna

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 (TNS) — Pawan Kapoor of CITCO, Chandigarh, came back from the brink of defeat to get the better of Sandonna Jaka of Hungary 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 in the first round of the Los Angeles leg of the US Satellite Tennis Championship at Los Angeles yesterday.

The Indian ace was on the verge of crashing out of the $50,000 championship but came back strongly after saving a match point to oust the highly favoured Hungarian. The two-hour match was bitterly fought, out of which Pawan emerged victorious ultimately.

Patiala cops triumph

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 (BSOR) — Patiala Police, Patiala, and Young Star Football Club, Chandigarh, reached the last four stage on the opening day of the VK Rana Memorial Football Tournament being played at the HMT sports complex, Pinjore, here today. Ten team from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh are taking part in the three-day tournament.

Patiala Police drubbed MMS Football Club Kurali (Ropar) with a tie breaker (4-1) as both the teams failed to score any goal during the stipulated time period. Young Star Club whipped Panchkula Football XI by 5-1.

In other matches of the day, Kharar Football XI trounced Northern Railways, Jagadhari, in tie breaker (4-1), while Lions Club, Ambala, downed Ropar Police by 2-0 in a well-contested match.