 |
Sunday,
July 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Spineless show by India Chetan Sharma writes Indian shuttlers record 2nd win Ramanand advances;
others disappoint |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indian paddlers keep
medal hopes alive Australia crush Kiwis 6-1 Agassi, Roddick move into semifinals
Footballers fleeing Argentina
Mahesh, Satinder advance in chess U-19 club move
into final Junior badminton at Kaithal
|
|
Spineless
show by India
London, July 27 On a day when England batsmen flourished for the second time in the match, the Indians put up a spineless show, being bowled out for 221 in their first innings to concede a massive 266-run lead to the home team. The visitors then haplessly watched their miseries spiral up as England, who chose not to impose the follow-on, finished the day at 184 for three in their second innings, taking the lead to 450 runs, already a total which has never been successfully chased in the history of Test cricket. With England going full steam and unlikely to declare their innings before lunch tomorrow, a target of not less than 550 was staring in the face of the Indians who would now need nothing short of a miracle — or rains — to bail them out. The Indians, who resumed at their overnight 130 for three, survived for less than four hours today with only Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman, both of whom reached the forties, putting up decent scores to add to a fine 84 compiled by Virender Sehwag yesterday. But in the absence of any big score from the other batsmen, the 46 by Dravid and unbeaten 43 by Laxman were hardly adequate to keep India in the fight. The Indians were probably victims of their over-cautious approach and some shrewd tactics of English captain Nasser Hussain. Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar came in the morning with the dogged intention of not giving their wickets away and Hussain capitalised on this defensive mindset to put them under pressure by not allowing them any easy runs. The English pacemen came round the wicket in a bid to cramp the batsmen for room and peppered them with a flurry of short-pitched deliveries. Tendulkar was very circumspect and looked a poor imitation of himself as he scratched around for over one and half hour to make an unconvincing 16. He lived dangerously throughout, surviving a close leg before wicket appeal against Matthew Hoggard and being dropped by Graham Thorpe off debutant Simon Jones. Dravid was excruciatingly slow with the scoring but he looked far more comfortable. However, it was he who got out first, surprised by the sudden bounce of a Hoggard delivery that lifted up from the good length, took the outside edge of the bat and flew to Michael Vaughan at gully for a simple catch. Dravid could add just 12 runs to his overnight score of 33, batting for more than four hours for his 45 runs. Tendulkar’s luck ran out soon after and the master batsman, who has never enjoyed batting at the Lord’s cricket ground, followed his partner in the pavilion after being dismissed in a forgettable fashion. The dismissals of Dravid and Tendulkar just before the lunch break triggered a collapse and the Indians were skittled out 20 minutes before tea.
PTI SCOREBOARD England (1st innings): 487 India (1st innings): Jaffer b Hoggard 1 Sehwag b Giles 84 Dravid c Vaughan b Hoggard 46 Nehra lbw b Flintoff 0 Tendulkar c Stewart b White 16 Ganguly c Vaughan b Flintoff 5 Laxman not out 43 Ratra c Stewart b Jones 1 Agarkar c Flintoff b Jones 2 Kumble b White 0 Zaheer c Thorpe b Hoggard 3 Extras
(b-4, lb-8, nb-8) 20 Total (all out, 81.5 overs) 221 FoW: 1-2, 2-128, 3-130, 4-162, 5-168, 6-177, 7-191, 8-196, 9-209. Bowling: Hoggard 16.5-4-33-3, Flintoff 19-9-22-2, Giles 9-1-47-1, Jones 21-1-61-2, White 16-3-46-2. England: Butcher lbw b Kumble 18 Vaughan batting 81 Hussain c Ratra b Agarkar 12 Thorpe c Ganguly b Kumble 1 Crawley batting 56 Extras
(b-5, lb-8, nb-3) 16 Total (for 3 wkts, 45 overs) 184 FoW: 1-32, 2-65, 3-76. Bowling: Nehra 9-1-50-0, Zaheer Khan 9-1-32-0, Kumble 17-1-54-2, Agarkar 7-1-20-1, Tendulkar 2-0-14-0, Sehwag 1-0-1-0.
 |
|
Chetan Sharma writes After the kind of batting we saw from batsmen today, India are on the verge of a defeat in the Lord’s Test. The performance of the Indian team in the NatWest series had raised expectations but today, it was all back to square one. For those who must have seen on TV the kind of strokes Indian batsmen played, it seemed like a hangover of the one-dayers only. But this is international level cricket and if they could not adjust their game in the last 10 days, the collapse was bound to happen. All the batsmen were guilty of playing and perishing with rash strokes. Coming from players of the calibre of Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, it was totally unexpected. The pitch was a beauty to bat on and even the England tailenders flourished on it. But today was a shocking display of batsmanship from the Indians. VVS Laxman tried his best to keep India in the game but he ran out of partners. Even when the main batsmen had got out, the tail could have hung around and given Laxman company but as usual they also flattered to deceive. The strokes Ajay Ratra, Ajit Agarkar and Anil Kumble played did not do any good to the team’s interests. England bowlers came back well today after the mauling they received at the hands of Virender Sehwag yesterday. They bowled straight and did not try much variety. They made the batsmen play outside the off stump most of the times. In English conditions that is the best line to bowl to and that bore rewards. Tendulkar was the biggest disappointment because the crowd had come mainly to watch him in action. He was never comfortable and even after getting a life, he played a strange stroke to be caught behind. Rahul Dravid also failed to consolidate his start as he got bogged down rather unnecessarily. If he does not play strokes he will not be able to score at a good rate. When that happens it is difficult for teams to post winning scores in quick time. Ganguly was severly tested by the movement the England bowlers had been getting. He will have to work on his foot work if he is to recover from this bad start. He is the captain of the team and if he continues to fail in Test matches, the team members will not be very happy with it. I was not surprised to see England not asking India to follow on. Maybe they still remembered the knock of 281 Laxman played against Australia last year. But I would say it was a good move by the English skipper Nasser Hussain when he decided to bat in their second innings. Though England lost three wickets early, they were rescued by the pair of Michael Vaughan and John Crawley. They batted well and punished the loose Indian bowling and the day ended just like it had begun for India, on a bad note. England already lead by 450 runs and I guess Hussain would like to add another 40-50 tomorrow morning before giving India a chance to bat in the last innings. All in all it is an uphill task for the Indians to save the Test.
|
|
Indian shuttlers record 2nd win
Manchester, July 27 The Indians, who had swamped Northern Ireland with an emphatic 5-0 margin in their first match yesterday, continued their winning run by thrashing lowly Seychelles with an identical margin today to brighten their medal prospects. Marcos Bristow and Sachin Ratti gave the Indian team the perfect start by carving out a comfortable 3-0 victory over Georgie Cupidon and Nicholas Jumaye in men’s doubles. They recorded a straight set 7-0, 7-0, 7-2 victory. The talented Abhinn Shyam Gupta, who had played a stellar role in India’s silver-medal winning effort in the team event of the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, consolidated the team’s position by winning his singles match against Georgie Cupidon 7-0, 7-0, 7-0. The women’s doubles team comprising Deepti and Neelima Choudhury had no difficulty brushing aside the challenge of the Seychelles duo of Juliette-Ah Wan and Katherina Paulin with a 7-1, 7-3, 7-1 verdict to give India an invincible 3-0 lead. In the women’s singles, B.R. Meenakshi continued the Indian
dominance drubbing Juliette-Ah Wan 7-1, 7-4, 7-4 while mixed doubles team of Nikhil Kanetkar and Trupti Murgunde provided the finishing touches to the rout with a 7-0, 7-0, 7-2 victory over Nicholas Jumaye and Katherina Paulin in the mixed doubles event. Former All-England champion Pullela Gopi Chand gave an early warning to his challengers by putting up an impressive show in India’s 5-0 win over Northern Ireland in the first match of the mixed event. Playing the singles match after the Indians had raced to a 1-0 lead, the ace shuttler was at his graceful best with a facile 7-2, 7-1, 7-0 victory over Bruce Topping. Gopi Chand, who had secured a bronze in the individual events in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, has arrived in this northern English city with hopes of establishing his supremacy among the Commonwealth nations which include badminton powerhouses like Malaysia, England and Wales. Another Indian medal contender Aparna Popat, who has not yet played a single match in the mixed event, will be eager to clinch a gold in the women’s section having missed out on the yellow metal in Kuala Lumpur. Popat had returned home with a silver medal after losing to fancied Kelly Morgan of Wales in a closely contested final.
PTI |
|
Ramanand advances; others disappoint Manchester, July 27 Ramanand was the only success story as he outpunched Jules de Gannes of Trinidad to proceed to the next round in the upto 60kg category on an otherwise disappointing day for the Indian pugilists. The Indians, who had clinched a silver medal in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, have not really made much of an impact in the first two days of the competitions barring Ramanand’s effort. While two of the glovesmen Dingko Singh and Harpal Singh lost against their first round opponents by slender point margins, Dalvir Singh failed to live upto expectation as he went down by a huge margin to bow out of the championship. Harpal Singh began with a flourish with a barrage of punches to unsettle his opponent but could not sustain the tempo to eventually go down to Michael Macaque of Mauritius 18-20 in the over 91 kg category. Dalvir Singh, who looked totally off colour, could not counter his much superior opponent Emanuel Nketu of Lesotho to lose 14-23 in what turned out to be a dampner for the Indians in the upto 51 kg category. Lightweight hero of the Bangkok Asian Games, Dingko Singh also began on a impressive note but seemed to lose his rhythm towards the later stages allowing his taller rival Ezekiel Letuka of Lesotho to carve out a narrow 14-12 win to proceed to the second round in the upto 54 kg category.
PTI
|
|
Indian eves beat Canada Manchester, July 27 The only goal of the match came through a penalty corner when Suman Bala deflected the ball into Canada’s post in the 44th minute. The victory earned India three points and put them atop pool-B after the first match of the group between England and New Zealand had ended in a 2-2 draw. The final score did not reflect the total dominance that India enjoyed over their rivals. But for some poor finishing and bad luck, the margin of victory could have been much higher. Several attacks on Canada’s post by Jyoti Sunita Kullu and Pritam Rani Siwach, who shone for India, came to a nought due to last minute goof-ups. India also squandered four penalty corners.
PTI |
|
Indian paddlers keep medal hopes alive
Manchester, July 27 While the men’s team had no difficulty in brushing aside the challenge of Jamaica with a comfortable 3-0 margin, their women counterparts had to overcome some anxious moments before quelling a spirited challenge from New Zealand with a hard-fought 3-2 verdict. The women paddlers, taking part in the Commonwealth Games for the first time, were now leading the points table with six points and had a good chance of making it to the last four stage. Babboor launched the assualt in commanding fashion as he spanked Christopher Marsh 11-3, 11-7, 11-3 to give India the lead while Soumyadeep consolidated the position with a 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 demolition of Peter Moo Young. The seasoned S Raman then clinched the issue for the Indians with a 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 victory over Gavin Hylton in another one-sided contest. The Indian eves, who had recorded an identicle 3-2 victory in their opening match against Wales yesterday, had to struggle a little bit before putting it across the Kiwis in a closely contested affair. The Indians suffered a jolt when former national champion Mouma Das lost the first match against Li Chunli with the New Zealander carving out a 8-11, 11-3, 11-6 victory. Another former national champion Poulomi Ghatak restored parity by prevailing over Karen Li with a 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 11-6 verdict in a pulsating encounter while N R Indu put India in the lead by defeating Tracy McLauchlan 13-11, 11-9, 11-5 though she found her rhythm only towards the later stages of the contest. But Poulomi Ghatak could not maintain the same form in her second match as she went down to Li Chunli 3-11, 4-11, 2-11 to throw the game wide open. In the decider, Mouma Das kept her cool in the crucial stages to prevail over Karen Li with a 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 8-11, 11-6 scoreline much to the relief of her
teammates. PTI |
|
|
Australia
crush Kiwis 6-1 Manchester, July 27 Veteran strikers Craig Victory and Troy Elder scored two goals each for the Kookaburras, who finished second behind Germany at the World Cup in Malaysia in March. New Zealand dominated the start and took the lead in the 20th minute when Hayden Shaw scooped in a penalty corner past rookie Aussie goalkeeper Mark Hickman. Stung by the early reverse, Australia hit back through Matt Smith a minute later and scored again through Victory to take a 2-1 lead at half-time. Australia showed why they are clear favourites to retain the title when they crushed the Kiwis in the second half despite losing the services of captain Paul Gaudoin through a hip injury.
AFP |
|
Agassi, Roddick move into semifinals
Los Angeles, July 27 A year ago, Agassi was a three-set winner over the Brazilian in the semifinals, and went on to beat Pete Sampras for the title. Meeting in the quarterfinals this time, yesterday’s match was just as close. Agassi, seeded second, rallied from 3-1 down to win the first-set tiebreaker, hitting a forehand winner off Kuerten’s short service return. Kuerten broke Agassi twice to win the second set, and served two games at love. Kuerten held a 17-11 advantage in aces for the match. The intensity level increased in the third. Agassi and Kuerten exchanged service games at love and were on serve until the seventh game. Kuerten slid and nearly fell chasing a forehand to set up break point. Agassi smashed a winner off Kuerten’s second serve, then let out a satisfied yell and pumped his fist as he took a 4-3 lead. Kuerten fought back, surviving two match points and seven deuces to hold serve and trail 5-4. But Agassi served two consecutive aces to set up his third match point, and won with a forehand volley off a short return.
Serena Williams, the world’s top-ranked women’s player, actor Matthew Perry and figure skater Katarina Witt were among the crowd of more than 7,000 jammed into stadium court for the nearly two-hour match. Agassi is 7-4 against Kuerten, with all but one of their 11 career meetings coming on hardcourts. In today’s semifinals, Agassi will meet No 8 Max Mirnyi of Belarus, who beat Michael Llodra of France 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). Two racket tosses and one anguished yell later, fourth-seeded Andy Roddick defeated No 7 Xavier Malisse of Belgium 6-4, 6-4. Roddick’s victory set up an All-American semifinal against Jan-Michael Gambill, a 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) winner over Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer. Gambill won his third tiebreaker of the week. “If you win those tough tiebreakers, you’ll start winning matches,” said Gambill, a 25-year-old player who has been surpassed by countrymen like Roddick, James Blake and Jeff Morrison, the lone American man to reach the third round at Wimbledon. Roddick, (19), improved to 4-0 in his career against Malisse, a semifinalist at Wimbledon. Roddick broke Malisse’s serve to open the hour-long match at the Los Angeles Tennis Centre on the UCLA campus, and broke again for a 4-1 lead. “I started out pretty fast and played just as well on the break points as I did the rest of the match,” Roddick said. Malisse broke back in the sixth game, when Roddick bounced his racket off the hard court for the first time. But Roddick served a love-game to wrap up the first set. “My confidence doesn’t waver too much,” said Roddick, who had six aces to Malisse’s nine. “I believe in myself and the weapons I have.” Both players were on serve until Roddick broke Malisse in the seventh game of the second set. Roddick let loose with a loud yell after netting a service return to give Malisse a 40-30 lead. But the 22-year-old Belgian committed three consecutive errors to lose the game, and Roddick took a 4-3 lead. AP
|
|
Footballers
fleeing Argentina
Buenos Aires, July 27 Ninety-five per cent of the players on the national team, which was considered one of the big favourites before failing miserably at the recent World Cup, earn their money as so-called legionnaires with clubs in Europe. Until recently, only the richest clubs — mainly in Spain and Italy — were able to pay the horrendous salaries and transfer necessary to obtain the top Argentine stars. But now that the peso has been devalued by up to 80 per cent, the situation has changed dramatically and the exodus of even second-rate players to many parts of the globe is in full swing. In Guatemala, for example, there are 16 Argentine footballers plying their trade, while two are even playing in the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation of Haiti. Instead of earning soft pesos or even the almost worthless substitute money which circulates throughout Argentina, the footballers have moved to such countries as Malaysia, China, Japan, Israel, Armenia, Poland, Lithuania or Cyprus, to name just a few, where they are paid in dollars. Mexico leads the list with 95 Argentinians. Last year, the professional footballers went on strike twice in the South American country after the clubs had failed to pay their salaries. Not all are as lucky as national champions River Plate, who last month received some four million euros from SV Hamburg for the transfer of 23-year-old Cristian Raul Ledesma, who signed a five-year contract with the northern German club, where he joins fellow countrymen Rodolfo Cardoso and Bernardo Romeo. Argentine entrepreneur and player agent Alejandro Bouza points out that a player returning home after a year abroad with $ 20,000 in his pocket would have had to earn three times as much money just seven months ago to have the same purchasing power he now enjoys in Argentina. “The clubs in Central America and Eastern Europe are well aware of this and that’s why they look for the Argentinians,” Bouza adds.
DPA
|
|
Mahesh, Satinder advance in chess Panchkula, July 27 Fiftyfive-year-old Lakshman Singh, a handicapped player hailing from a remote village of Kurukshetra lost to M.P. Verma of Kurukshetra. The results: Second round — Mahesh Chandar (Bhiwani) b Ajay Kumar (Ambala), Ashok Gagwani (Bhawani) b Ashutosh (Ambala), Satinder Sharma (Pkl) b Ashok Kumar (Pkl), M.P. Verma (Kkr) b K.K. Vaid (Pkl), Sulekh Malik (Kkr) b Naveen Sharma (Ambala), Sanjeev Dugal (Ambala) b Bhupinder Singh (Ambala), Arun Dalal (Rohtak) b Amit Singal (Ambala), Pritpaul Singh (Ambala) b Vikrant Dalal (Rohtak), Ram Nivas Malik (Kkr) b Amit Seth (Pkl), Satpul (Pkl) b Vinod Khokher (Rohtak), Ojasvi Man (Rohtak) b Lokesh (Pkl), Ram Pal (Ambala) b Nikhlesh (Pkl), Deepak Chahar (Rohtak) b Lakashman Malik (Kkr), Deepak Bansal (Pkl) b Shipla (Pkl), Sanjam Vir (Pkl) b Udey Virxheema (Jind), Anshual Kadyan (Pkl) b Shivansu Tandon (Pkl), Neeraj Gautam (Pkl) b Dinesh Ahuga (Pkl), Babita (Pkl) drew Vasisth Sukeja. Third round — Mahesh Chandar (Bhiwani) b Ram Pal (Ambala), Ashok Gajwani (Bhwani) b Ram Niwas Malik (Kkr), Satinder Sharma (Pkl) b Pritpal Singh (Ambala), M.P. Verma (Kkr) b Ojashvi Mann (Rohtak), Satpal (Pkl) b Sulekh Malik (Kkr). Sanjeev Dugal (Ambala) b Deepak Chauan (Rohtak), Ashwani Sahni (Pkl) and Arun Dalal (Rohtak) draw, Vikram Dalal (Rohtak) and Arvind Dalal (Rohtak) draw, Vikram Singh (Pkl) and Sanjam Vir Singh (Ambala) draw, Akhil Garg (Pkl) and Vinod Khoker (Rohtak) draw, Munish Verma (Pkl) b Deepak Bansal (Pkl), Lakshman Malik (Kkr) b Sourab Narang (Pkl), Dinesh Tondon (Pkl) b Ajay Kumar (Pkl), Ashutosh (Kkr) b Amit Seth (Pkl), Neeraj (Pkl) b Akash Kumar (Pkl), K.K. Vaid (Ambala) B Locash (Pkl), Naveen Sharma (Ambala) bt Nikhlesh Tanwar (Bhiwani), Bhupinder Singh (Ambala) b Suresh Sharma (Pkl), Vikram Ranolia (Hissar) b Surya Deep (Knl), Vasisth Sukeja (Pkl) b Shilpa (Pkl), Babita (Pkl) b Ankur (Pkl), Sabodika Malhotra (Pkl) b Udya Vir Singh (Pkl), Saurab Sheker (Pkl) b Dinesh Ahuja (Pkl), Amit Singal (Ambala) b Kapil Raina (Pkl), Varun Bhatia (Pkl) b Satya Deep (Pkl), Anshul Kaushal (Pkl) b Samay (Pkl), Shiwani Tandon (Pkl) b Anmol Virk (Knl), Sukwinder Singh (Pkl) b Mandeep Chaudhary (Pkl) Fourth round: Mahesh Chender (Bhiwani) b M.P. Verma (Kkr), Ashok Gajwani (Bhiwani) b Sanjeev Duggal (Amb), Satinder Sharma (Kkr) b Arun Dalal (Rtk), Satpal Verma (Pkl) b Bhupender (Amb), Ram Niwas Malik (Kkr) b Pritpal (Amb), Ojasvi Maan (Rohtak) b Munish Verma, Raqm Pal (Amb) drew Vikram Ronali (His), Laxman Malik (Kkr) b Dinesh Tonden (Pkl), K.K. Vaid (Pkl) b Neeraj Gautam (Pkl), Sanjam Veen Singh (Amb) drew Deepak Chahar, Vikrant Dalal (Rohtak) b Subodhika Malhotra, Vikram Singh (Pkl) b Vinod Khoten (Pkl), Ashwani Sahani (Amb) b Vashit Sukhi (Pkl), Babita (Pkl) drew Akhil Garg (Pkl), Shmey Sharma b Ankur (Pkl), Anshul Kansal (Pkl) b Shivanshu Tondon, Shilpa (Pkl) b Amol Virk (Karnal), Mandeep Chaudhry (Pkl) b Kapil Raina. |
|
U-19 club move
into final Chamba, July 27 Sarol Cricket Club won the toss and elected to bat. But they were all out for 100 runs in 23 overs. Spin bowler Kapoor Singh got 3 wickets for 20 runs. In reply under-19 team reached the target by losing only two wickets. The highlight of the day was fine batting by Ranji player Mannu who scored 60 runs. Scores: Sarol Club:- 100 all out Ashwani 25, Ajay 10, Mantu 2 for 10, Mannu 2 for 7, Sunny 2 for 14 Kapoor Singh 3 for 14. Under-19: 101 for two (Mannu 60 not out, Amit 15 not out, Arun 1 for 20, Ashwani 1 for 25). |
|
Junior
badminton at Kaithal Kaithal, July 27 Competitions in under — 10, under — 13, under — 16 will be conducted. Both boys and girls will take part in the four-day event. Under — 10 category will have only the singles matches, but for the rest two categories the matches will be played in the both singles and doubles events. Matches will be played in the 5-point format for the boys and 11-point format for girls. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Video
