High in confidence and morale after stopping the awesome Australians’ 16-Test winning streak, the Sourav Ganguly-led Indians are set to cash in on the new-found resurgence fuelled by youngsters V.V.S. laxman and Harbhajan Singh.

But the tourists, with their intention to steamroll the Indians having been shattered, are no pushovers and have the tremendous ability to absorb pressure and are expected to go all out to seize the initiative in the shorter-version of the game.

Enthralling cricket appears to be in store in tomorrow’s day-night game at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where Laxman and Harbhajan, who topped India’s batting and bowling averages in the just-concluded Test series, would obviously be cynosures.

Bangalore has been a happy hunting ground for India as they have beaten the Aussies twice when the sides have met here before. In fact, India have won seven of the 10 one-day internationals played here.

Exuding confidence of performing well in the limited overs matches, Laxman, who emerged as India’s highest run-getter in the series with an aggregate of 503 runs, said he was now looking forward to doing well in the one-dayers where he has not been very successful.

“Overall, everything has come together and things are in place for me to prove my worth in the one-day series also,” the Hyderabad batsman said, pleased as he was for being promoted to number three in the batting order.

Noting that he has not been able to perform well against the Aussies in one-dayers last year, Laxman said in Chennai yesterday: “I have got another opportunity to prove myself now. I am confident that I will do better”.

The Australian’s, who arrived here this morning from Chennai, also need to cope with their nemesis and chief tormentor, 20-year-old offspinner Harbhajan Singh, who bowled with guile and craft and the Aussie batsmen were clueless as to which way the ball was going to turn.

Having demolished the Australian batting, the Punjab cricketer, who took a record 32 wickets, says he is now raring to have a go at them in the one-dayers.

“I am excited, and I think the selectors and the team management thought I will be able to carry on my good work in the one-day series,” he said.

Meanwhile, the national selectors have already announced the Indian team for the first three one-dayers, recalling veteran all-rounder Robin Singh. Also included are Karnataka speedster Javagal Srinath, left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi, Ajit Agarkar and wicket-keeper Vijay Dahiya.

According to curator Kasturirangan, it’s a good batting track and it promises a lot of runs.

As the golden aura which had enveloped the Australian cricket throughout last summer has now started taking a darker hue, stakes are high for Steve Waugh’s men to come good in the five one-day matches crammed into a fortnight, ahead of the Ashes series.

But to say that they were disappointed with their series defeat would be an understatement.

“Australia really wanted this win (in third Test at Chennai) very badly. We wanted to show the world that we can win everywhere. We have won everywhere except India, and came here to set that record straight. Unfortunately, it was not to be and we have to accept that result,” fast bowler Glenn McGrath said in a newspaper column today.

Apparently taken aback by the reverse in their fortunes, the tourists have included left-handed opener Mathew Hayden, in prolific form during the Test series, in the one-day team.

Heyden who aggregated 549 runs for the series — the maximum by any visiting batsman in India in a three-or-less Test match series — was originally not in Australia’s scheme of things for the one-day internationals and was scheduled to fly back home after the Test series.

“Hayden is in fine form and has acclimatised to the Indian conditions. So, he has been added to the one-day squad,” Australian media manager Brian Murgatroyd, said earlier this week.

The Australians are sending home Jason Gillespie, to “save him for the Ashes series” and in his place retained Michael Kasprowicz.

The teams (from):

India: Saurav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, Vijay Dahiya, Sunil Joshi, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar, Robin Singh and Virender Sehwag.

Australia (from): Steve Waugh (capt), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Michael Kasprowicz, Ian Harey, Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Mathew Hayden.

Umpires: S.K. Sharma and Devendra Sharma.

Third umpire: K.G. Lakshminarayanan

Reserve umpire: Ravi Subramanyam.

Match referee: Cammie Smith.

According to an Australian Cricket Board media release issued here today Gillespie’s physical condition was reviewed after the series and given the fact he came into the tour following a lengthy lay-off with injury, the tour management felt it was both in his and Australian cricket’s best interests for him to return home and rest.

“I’ve pulled up a bit sore after the Test series and the team medical staff are taking a very cautious approach with me given that I came into the tour with very little cricket in January, before we arrived in India,” Gillespie said.

“I don’t believe I’ve got any serious problems and I could have played, but Errol (current team physio Errol Alcott) and (incoming physio) Patrick Farhart have decided on a safety first approach to make sure I’m alright for the Ashes tour,” Gillespie said.

“I’m missing more cricket and that’s upsetting, particularly as I’m feeling good about my form. But there is a positive side about this and it’s that the powers that be are looking out for my best interests and I’m really grateful for that,” Gillespie added.

“Jason began the tour with little bowling under his belt because of an injury to his left hamstring tendon, something that has not flared up again while we have been in India. Once on the trip, he had an injection in his left ankle ahead of the first Test in Mumbai after he experienced some discomfort and it responded well, with the ankle giving him little trouble after that,” said Alcott.

“On the fourth day of the third Test in Chennai his left foot landed awkwardly in a foothole and he felt some slight discomfort in that foot afterwards,” he said.

This time round, we are not really planning any specific strategy to face Harbhajan after his remarkable run against us in the Tests. We will hope to stop his tendency of getting a flurry of wickets, and this should not be too tough since there will not be as many people up close. There are other good bowlers in the Indian team like Javagal Srinath and Ajit Agarkar, so it would be unwise to think only of Harbhajan.

Since our team comprises plenty of one-day specialists, they will definitely bring some freshness and a new attitude into the side. However, it would be unfair to say that they would have to do the bulk of the work just because those who have played the Tests are coming out of two tense weeks of cricket. Tiredness is not an excuse and in any case once you are playing for your country, you must be fighting fit and ready to go.

We did have a bit of a break after the Chennai Test. We spent Friday swimming, sleeping and basically keeping away from the heat. Temperatures are a lot more pleasant in Bangalore. It is a pity we are only spending two days here because it is a very beautiful city. While the weather is cool I’m sure it will be quite warm when we are in the middle. I have pleasant memories of Bangalore since I got my highest Test score of 153 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. We did lose a one-dayer and we’re eager to do better this time.

I think a century here would be a nice way to start the series. We come into this one-day series with a string of 10 consecutive victories. We are just a couple of matches away from a record in this form of the game too. However, we are not focussing on that right now. It would be silly of us to think of a 5-0 result even before the games begin. Right now we are concentrating on winning on first game.

After settling for a draw in the rapid game, Anand outclassed Piket last night in the blindfold game for a 1.5-0.5 victory - his fourth successive in the tournament.

Braingames match winner Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria slipped to joint second position on eight points after drawing their games against Anatoly Karpov of Russia and Boris Gelfand of Israel, respectively.

All the other sixth round matches ended in draws.

Anand (31) faced the queen pawn opening by Piket in the rapid game and opted for the semi-Slav in which he got a perfectly balanced position after the opening.

A couple of minor pieces and queens were traded early in the middlegame, giving Anand a balanced endgame. Piket tried the king’s invasion after a few more regulation exchanges but Anand’s bishop guarded the key squares to steer the game to a draw after 42 moves.

The blindfold was a positional battle in the Petroff defence where Anand had the advantage of white pieces. Piket got almost a level position into the middlegame but could not effectively neutralise white’s advantage of the bishop pair.

The symmetrical nature of the pawn structure prompted Anand to seize the open queen file and he doubled his rooks to exert pressure. With his clock ticking away Piket parted with a queenside pawn and Anand was soon in a dominant position in the endgame. He completed the formalities in 51 moves.

Kramnik drew with former world champion Karpov after missing a few chances in the rapid game. The opening was a queen’s Indian defence and Kramnik, playing white, turned out to be better prepared with the intricacies of the middlegame than his opponent.

After forcing an isolated queen pawn structure Kramnik sacrificed an exchange and his pieces dominated the board. Karpov was forced to part with his extra material and had to defend a difficult endgame with a pawn deficit. A perfect defence coupled with a technical lapse by Kramnik enabled Karpov to hold his front and the peace treaty was signed after 80 grueling moves.

An unorthodox setup of the Catalan opening appeared in the blindfold game and Kramnik had no difficulty in getting a level position on board. Karpov was first to seize the only open queen bishop file with his rooks but as the dust settled, it was Kramnik’s rook that dominated.

This manoeuvre impelled Karpov to make forays in the centre and Kramnik settled for a draw by repetition of moves.

Topalov too missed his chances and drew both his games against Gelfand. In the rapid game Topalov opted for the English opening with white pieces and enthused life in an equal position with excellent manoeuvres in the middlegame. PTI

Resuming at their overnight score of 85 for one, the hosts were skittled out 26 minutes after lunch with Sharandeep taking six for 38 from 12.1 overs. Punjab will now take on the winners of the Railways and Karnataka match in semi-finals.

Sarandeep bowled a teasing length drawing the batsmen out of their crease and forcing them to hit against the spin in some cases.

After the Mumbai overnight batsmen, Vinayak Mane and Wasim Jaffer added 110 runs in 21.2 overs, one expected the hosts to rise from the ashes but that was not to be.

Jaffer reached his fifty with a square cut four off Sandeep Sanwal but the very next over he was caught by Punjab skipper and wicketkeeper Vikram Rathore trying to cut Vaneet Sharma after making 51 off 63 balls in 98 minutes hitting seven boundaries.

Mane played all over a Sarandeep delivery, which turned viciously to uproot his stumps for 56 which came off 69 balls with six fours.

Soon after Vinod Kambli was trapped leg before by Sarandeep for no score, the home team was in real trouble at 146 for four off 32 overs.

From the other end Reetinder Sodhi made his presence felt with a double blow when he had Mumbai skipper Amol Muzumdar caught at point by Ravneet Ricky for no score and then had Ramesh Powar caught by Munish Sharma at mid-on for eight runs.

Sarandeep then polished off the Mumbai tail having the dangerous Paras Mhambrey caught at shortleg for one, Rajesh Pawar by Rathore for seven and Santosh Saxena by Munish Sharma for eight. Sriram Kannan remained unbeaten on eight and the hosts were all out in 51.1 overs.

Sarandeep, who was in the Indian squad at Chennai and joined the team mid-way through the third and final Test against Australia which the Indians won by two wickets, was the pick of the Punjab bowlers.

Sodhi, was a bit expensive but picked up two wickets conceeding 52 runs from eight overs while new ball bowlers Gagandeep Singh and Vineet Sharma took a wicket each.

Yuveraj Singh bowled just one over of his left-arm spin while Sandeep Sanwal bowled four overs for 15 runs without taking a wicket.

Scoreboard

Punjab (1st innings): 383

Mumbai (1st innings): 285

Punjab (2nd innings): 322

Mumbai (2nd innings): Rane c Sanwal b Gagandeep 2, Mane b Sarandeep Singh 56, Jaffer c Rathore b Vineet 51, Paranjape c Yuveraj b Sarandeep 59, Kambli lbw b Sarandeep 0, Muzumdar c Ricky b Sodhi 0, Powar c Munish b Sodhi 8, Mhambrey c Sanwal b Sarandeep 1, Pawar c Rathore b Sarandeep 7, Kannan not out 8, Saxena c Munish b Sarandeep 8.

Extras: (2-b, 1-lb, 5-nb, 5-w) 13.

Total (51.1 overs) 213.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-102, 3-135, 4-146, 5-147, 6-169, 7-170, 8-187, 9-199.

By close of play, the match had gone further away from Karnataka’s reach as the hosts, who opted not to enforce the follow-on, reached 106 for no loss in their second innings for a total lead of 320 with two days of play remaining.

If Karnataka batsmen felt the pitch at the Karnail Singh Stadium assisted home spinners Kulamani Parida and Tejender Pal Singh, the RailwayS openers proved them totally wrong raising 100 runs in quick time.

Schoreboard

Railways (1st inning): 451

(Karnataka 1st innings):

J. Arun Kumar c Zakir Hussain b Parida 55, M.R beerala lbw b Bangar 18, B.M Rowland lbw b Parida 35, R Vijay Bharadwaj c Goud b T.P.Singh 1, V.S.T. Naidu c Khanolkar b T.P.Singh 46, G.K Anil Kumar c and b T.P. Singh 0, b Akhil st Abhay Sharma b Parida 18 , d Ganesh c Bangar b Khanolkar 9, A.R yalvigi c Bangar b T.P.Singh 18, B. K.V. Prasad c Abhay Sharma b Parida 3, S.K Vadeyaraj not out 0.

Extras: (b 9, lb 8, nb 17) 34.

Total: ( in 79.5 overs) 237 all out.

Fall of wickets:1-51, 2-125, 3-130, 4-130, 5-130, 6-172, 7-196, 8-230, 9-235

Bowling: Harvinder Singh:10-2-30-0, Zakir Hussain:4-2-9-0 (1nb), T.P.Singh:26-6-64-4 (10nb),K.Parida:26.5-6-62-4, S.Bangar:8-0-35-1(6nb), S.N.Khanolkar:5-0-20-1.

Railways (second innings): A.A.Pagnis batting 47, S.B.Bangar batting 53.

Extras: (b 5, lb 1) 6

Total: (in 27 overs) 106 for no loss.

Russian Marat Safin, the man who beat Sampras in the US Open final last year, struggled again with his aching back in his opening match, falling in the second-round encounter to unheralded Spaniard Juan Balcells.

Safin, the second seed, was followed out of the tournament by ninth-seeded Briton Tim Henman, a three-set loser to French veteran Fabrice Santoro.

Balcells, 68th in the world, upended Safin 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

It was another disappointment for Safin, who has been plagued by back problems since the semifinals in Dubai last month. He also lost his first-round match at the Indian Wells Masters Series last week.

“To be honest, I played because of the rules the ATP makes,” Safin said. “You have to play all the Masters Series otherwise you have no points. So that’s why I am playing. That’s why I tried in Indian Wells and here.

Safin added: “Now I will go back to Europe and try to get some treatment because it can’t go on like this. You cannot play against these guys without serve. It’s ridiculous what I made today.”

“To get rid of the problem it will take up to one month, even more,” Safin predicted. “They made me play Indian Wells and Key Biscayne and now I don’t know when I am going to be ready. I don’t know if I’ll be ok for Monte Carlo.”

Sampras, seeded fourth, downed Kiefer 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to set up a clash with US up-and-comer Andy Roddick.

Roddick, the top junior in the world last year, blasted former world No. 1 Marcelo Rios of Chile 6-4, 6-1.

But Sampras, the 13-time Grand Slam champion, warned that Roddick shouldn’t be expecting to implement a changing of the guard in US tennis just yet.

“As for Andy Roddick, we trained together, but I haven’t really seen him play,” Sampras said. “He played Rios and it seems he just blew him off the court. I hope I’ll play a little better. He will have his time in the future. He will just have to wait a couple of more days.”

Santoro overcame Henman 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 turning the tables on a player who had dominated him in four previous meetings.

“He certainly played well and deserved to win,” Henman said. “His consistency, the way he passed when I came to the net, he was the better player on the day.

“I wouldn’t sit here and profess I played my best match . But those are the ones you’ve got to try and get through somehow.

“He is difficult to play, no question,” Henman added of the Frenchman. “He’s got so many shots. You never quite know what to expect. He is very solid from the baseline and moves well. But having said that, I obviously had a game plan to beat him and was a tiebreak away from doing that.”

Also advancing to the fourth round were fifth-seeded Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Spanish 12th seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist and France’s Sebastian Grosjean, a finalist here two years ago.

On the women’s side, top seed Martina Hingis and third seed Venus Williams eased into the third round.

Hingis cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Italy’s Rita Grande and Williams made similarly quick work of Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-0.

Williams wore a bandage on her right knee, but appeared unaffected by tendinitis which was the reason given for her forfeit to younger sister Serena in the semifinals at Indian Wells a week ago.

“My knee felt much better,” the elder Williams said. “ Fortunately, I didn’t have to run too hard or run too fast.

Secretary of Bengal Hockey Association and former India captain Gurubux Singh said besides 14 outstation teams like Army XI, Border Security Force (BSF), South Central Railway and Bangladesh XI consisting mostly of national players, 14 local teams would also take part in the meet sponsored by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

Teams which would lead the local challenge include B.N. Railway, CESC, Customs, Port commissioners, SAI Eastern Centre and ERSA.

Mr Singh said that four outstation teams had been given byes till the quarterfinals. They were, holders Punjab and Sind Bank, Bangladesh XI, Border Security Force (BSF) and Army XI who would start their campaign from the quarter-finals. The championship would be conducted on league cum knock-out basis. Till the quarter finals the tournament will be conducted on a knockout basis and from then on the teams would be divided into four clusters. After round robin league matches the cluster champions would move to the semifinals from where the championship would revert to the knockout format.

Mr Singh said a total of 28 teams would be seen in action in this meet, the oldest of its kind in the country. The other outstation teams who have confirmed their participation are Uttar Pradesh XI, ITBP, CISF Delhi, Sikh Regimental Centre, ONGC, Mumbai Customs, Tata Steel, Dhanbad XI and Bhillai Steel Plant.

Boldon was relegated to a distant fourth in 10.30 seconds as Americans Kevin Braunskill and kenny brokenburr took second and third positions respectively in chilly conditions.

“I just didn’t execute well, “Boldon said. “Regardless of the conditions, I just know I have to get down to some serious work for the world championships in August.”

Taking full advantage of Pretoria’s 1,400-metre altitude, Nagel, who turned 23 yesterday, chose the perfect stage to make his breakthrough. He got a brilliant start and never trailed.

“I didn’t expect a time like that. I had a very good start, and I think that gave me the victory,” he said.

It was also a bad night for Merlene Ottey. The Jamaican was beaten in the 100 metres by Marina Kislova of Russia, who finished in 11.29 seconds. Ottey was second in 11.31 seconds.

“I had a problem with my glutes in the last 40 metres,” said Ottey, who expressed doubts about being able to compete in the final meet of the series in Stellenbosch next Friday.

Olympic discus champion Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania took revenge over bronze medaltist Frantz Kruger of South Africa for his defeat last week. Alenka sent his first effort 67.53 metres. Kruger was able to muster just 64.61 metres.

Poland’s hammer-throwing star Szymon Ziolkowski notched his first throw of more than 80 metres this season, hurling the hammer 80.21 metres.

The performance of the meet came from Latvia’s Stanilslav Olijars. The 100-metre hurdler clocked a South African all-comers record of 13.33 seconds, dragging local hurdler Shaun Bownes, the world indoor championship 60-metre hurdles bronze medaltist, to a domestic record of 13.34 seconds.