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Thursday,
January 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Murali’s magic not good enough
Sehwag, Srinath take individual honours Pitches were
‘unsatisfactory’ North emerge champions Punjab 67
for no loss Agassi advances; Kournikova ousted |
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Paes sails through; Bhupathi out
Sipaeya, Bopanna in last 8 Anand joint leader Churchill sail into semis Raman, Indu clinch TT crowns Team has talent to win Cup: Kapil AP telecom circle win team title
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Murali’s magic not good enough
Brisbane, January 15 Australia made 214 for six wickets to win with seven balls to spare after Sri Lanka scored 211 for nine wickets. Muralitharan captured 3 for 19 in his opening eight overs as Australia made heavy weather chasing down a modest target. He injured a leg chasing the ball in the outfield and was helped off the field for treatment, with Australia at 165 for four wickets. He was off the ground for 15 minutes before returning — with a pronounced limp — to bowl his remaining two overs. Despite being handicapped by the injured leg, Muralitharan struck again with his fifth ball, trapping Shane Watson for four to leave Australia at an uncertain 182 for 6. One-day specialist batsman Michael Bevan, ever-steady under pressure, calmly guided his side home, finishing with an unbeaten 45. Muralitharan earned a wonderful haul of 4 for 27 from his full 10-over quota. It was not immediately clear whether the injury will keep him out of Sri Lanks’s next game, against England in Adelaide on Friday. Australia’s win guaranteed they will play in the best-of-three finals, which start late next week. With all teams having completed six games, Australia lead with 27 points, followed by England (14) and Sri Lanka (13). Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore blamed the four run outs of the team’s batsmen for the narrow defeat. He said Sri Lanka fell between 30 and 40 runs short of an ideal score. The team’s management would anxiously wait for a medical report on Muralitharan, he said. Australian captain Ricky Ponting praised the fielding and bowling performances which enabled the home team to set up the hard-fought win. Australia looked to have the game firmly in their grasp as opening batsmen Matthew Hayden and Jimmy Maher nonchalantly gathered 76 runs from 84 balls at the start of the innings. But the situation changed dramatically when Muralitharan went on the attack, grabbing 3-15 in his opening six overs and fellow spinner Aravinda de Silva snapped up Ricky Ponting. Scoreboard
Sri Lanka: Atapattu c Ponting Jayasuriya run out 6 Tillakaratne run out 7 De Silva c Martyn b Lee 0 Jayawardene b Hogg 56 Sangakkara not out 42 Arnold c Maher b Hogg 3 Vaas b Williams 0 B. Fernando run out 3 Muralitharan run out 0 D. Fernando not out 0 Extras
(b-4 lb-6 Total (for nine wickets, Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-30, 3-35, 4-147, 5-165, 6-173, 7-181, 8-199, 9-201. Bowling:
McGrath 10-2-33-1 (w-1), Williams 10-0-33-1 (w-2), Lee 10-1-44-1 (w-2 nb-2), Hogg 10-1-38-2, Watson 8-0-36-0 (w-2 nb-1), Lehmann 2-0-17-0 (w-4). Australia: Maher st Sangakkara Hayden c D.Fernando Ponting st Sangakkara Martyn b Murali 1 Lehmann run out 38 Bevan not out 45 Watson c Tillakaratne Hogg not out 14 Extras
(b-5 lb-4 w-11 nb-5) 25 Total (for six Fall of wickets:
1-76 2-94 3-98 4-100 5-172 6-182. Bowling: Vaas 10-1-38-0, B. Fernando 7-0-32-0, D. Fernando 10-0-48-0, De Silva 6.5-0-31-1, Muralitharan 10-1-27-4, Jayasuriya 3-0-17-0, Arnold 2-0-12-0.
AFP/Reuters |
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Sehwag, Srinath take individual honours
New Delhi, January 15 Sehwag was not only the highest run-scorer from either side but also had the maximum average. His two hundreds gave him a total of 299 runs, almost double that of the next highest scorer Stephen Fleming of New Zealand. Sehwag, who had an average of 42.71, was the only batsman from either team to have scored a hundred on the entire tour. Srinath was much more consistent than Sehwag and was the highest wicket-taker on either side. His 18 wickets from seven matches came at an impressive average of 11.16 and was only a shade inferior to New Zealand’s Andre Adams who took 14 wickets at 9.35 runs apiece. Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid were the only other Indian batsmen whose aggregates reached three-figures. Yuvraj Singh scored 114 runs at an average of 19.14 while Dravid’s 116 runs gave him an average of 16.57. Captain Saurav Ganguly scored 58 runs from seven innings at a woeful average of 8.28 while the case of Sachin Tendulkar was even worse. Tendulkar managed to score just two runs from the three matches he played after missing the first four one-dayers due to an ankle injury. Among the bowlers, Zaheer Khan also had a good series claiming 10 wickets at an average of 25.80. For New Zealand, Fleming had the highest run aggregate of 157 while Matthew Sinclair scored 146 runs. PTI
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Pitches
were ‘unsatisfactory’ Hamilton, January 15 “We have a responsibility to get it right and the buck stops with us to do whatever we possibly can. We must learn from this,” Snedden said. “At the start of the season we sent out the same message we have in recent years, wanting wickets with bounce and pace. We don’t want to revert to the low-scoring
dung heaps of yesteryears.” The board, which intends to intently analyse the pitches and surfaces and work closely with groundsmen, is also likely to mount an investigation into the quality of the pitches.
PTI |
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North emerge champions
Chennai, January 15 After restricting North Zone, who batted first after winning the toss, to 224 for nine in 50 overs, South Zone batsmen crumbled after a bright start to 199 all out in 47.3 overs. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra (3 for 39 off nine overs) and off-spinner Mithun Manhas (3 for 36 in 10 overs) scythed through the South Zone middle-order to fashion the victory. North Zone finished on top of the league with 13 points from four matches winning three and losing one. SCOREBOARD North Zone:
Extras
(B 4, LB 7, W 3, NB 2) 16 Total (for 9 wkts in 50 overs) 224 Fall of Wkts:
1-14, 2-68, 3-79, 4-98, 5-136, 6-168, 7-206, 8-214, 9-222. Bowling: B.K. Venkatesh Prasad 10-0-38-4, L Balaji 10-1-43-1, Tinu Yohannan 9-1-43-0, S Sriram 10-0-47-3, Venugopala Rao 8-0-27-0, Hemang K Badani 3-0-15-0. South Zone:
S. Sriram c Pankaj Dharmani b Sarandeep Singh 87, A.T. Rayudu c Sangram Singh b Mithun Manhas 21, N. Arjun Yadav c Mithun Manhas b R.S. Sodhi 8, Hemang K. Badani c R.S. Sodhi b Mithun Manhas 23, S. Sharath not out 27, Tilak Naidu c Ajay Ratra b Amit Mishra 16, Fayaz Ahmed c Ajay Ratra b Amit Mishra 5, Venugopala Rao c & b Amit Mishra 0, B.K. Venkatesh Prasad b Mithun Manhas 1, L. Balaji run out 0, Tinu Yohanan b Amit Mishra 0. Extras
11. Total (in 47.3 overs) 199. Fall of Wkts: 1-57, 2-89, 3-140, 4-140, 5-175,6-195, 7-195, 8-198, 9-199, 10-199. Bowling:
Amit Bhandari 8.3-0-41-1, Amit Unyal 6-0-18-0, Mithun Manhas 10-1-36-3, Sarandeep Singh 10-0-39-1, R.S. Sodhi 4-0-20-1, Amit Mishra 9-0-39-3.
West runners-up KOCHI: West Zone defeated Central Zone by two wickets in the 50-over one day cricket match for the Deodhar Trophy here today. West Zone with this win have 12 points but ended up runner up with the North Zone claiming the trophy by defeating South Zone at Chennai.
UNI |
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Punjab 67
for no loss Kanpur, January 15 Openers Karan Goel (47) and Mandeep Singh (14) were at the crease when day’s play was called off due to bad light soon after tea. Punjab faced 26 overs after being sent in to bat by Delhi. In the second semifinal match played at the Kamla Club grounds here, Karnataka were bundled out for 72 runs in their first innings against Uttar Pradesh. For Uttar Pradesh Mohammed Adil took four wickets while Piyush Chawla claimed three as barring Pavan Gargi (12) and Robin Puthata (13) no other Karnataka batsman could reach the double figure. Bad light forced the umpires to call off the day’s play about 24 minutes before schedule.
PTI |
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Agassi advances; Kournikova ousted
Melbourne, January 15 The seven-time Grand Slam winner will play French Davis Cup star and 29th seed Nicolas Escude in the next round and is brimful of confidence after awarding himself top marks for his display. “How can you not (rate it 10 out of 10) when you play a guy of Lee’s quality, playing as well as he’s been playing, to go out there and have a score line like that doesn’t happen too often,” Agassi said. Agassi is bidding to become only the fourth man to win four Australian Open titles, behind Roy Emerson (6), Jack Crawford (4) and Ken Rosewall (4). Agassi later turned his attention to the issue of drugs in tennis, which was front page news here today after Australian player Andrew Ilie said doping had reached dangerous levels. “The problem is so bad at the moment... you might as well just let them use it and when players see people dying out there (on the court) and exploding, then it’s going to change their minds,” Ilie told the Herald Sun newspaper. Agassi’s counterpart in the women’s tournament, the second seeded Williams, came up with a vastly improved display as she beat lowly-ranked American Ansley Cargill 6-3, 6-0. “I definitely think it was much better, definitely a lot less errors,” a relaxed-looking Venus said afterwards. While Venus and Agassi sailed into the third round there was a high-profile casualty in the men’s tournament, with Spanish fifth seed Carlos Moya unhinged by world number 77 Mardy Fish of the USA. Fish reeled in his opponent 3-6, 7-6, (10-8), 6-4, 4-6 ,6-2. He will play South African Wayne Ferreira in the next round, removing a sizeable obstacle from Agassi’s route to a fourth Australian Open crown. There was a further upset in the men’s tournament with Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov suffering a five-set loss to Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen. Nieminen sent the Russian 22nd seed and former winner packing with a 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1 victory. Two other prominent seeds both made it through safely, with No 4 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and compatriot Albert Costa, seeded eight, advancing. Ferrero downed Jean-Rene Lisnard of France 6-0, 6-4, 6-2 while Costa needed four sets before quelling Aussie hope Scott Draper 6-4, 6-7, (9/11), 6-2, 6-3. There was an upset of sorts in the late match when Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan, seeded 11, was beaten by Mark Philippoussis in a five-set battle, the Australian sealing a 3-6, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 win with an ace. In the women’s event, there was an early exit for Russian glamour girl Anna Kournikova, who was thrashed 6-0, 6-1 by Belgium’s Justin Henin-Hardenne, seeded five. Seventh-seed Daniela Hantuchova’s looks, meanwhile, have seen her get the ‘Kournikova treatment’ from the international media during her time on the tour. But the Slovakian seventh seed showed nerves of steel to come through in three sets against Italy’s Adriana Serra Zanetti, winning 7-6, (8/6), 7-6, (7/3) to earn her place in the third round. Lindsay Davenport breathed a sigh of relief after scrambling past Uzbekistan’s Iroda Tulyaganova. The 26-year-old former world number one, who a year ago was learning how to walk on crutches after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, fought through a poor performance to win 6-7 (7/9) 6-4 7-5. AFP
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Paes sails through; Bhupathi out New Delhi, January 15 While Paes and Czech partner David Rikl defeated Paul Hanley and Andrew Kratzmann of Australia 6-4 6-3, Bhupathi and Joshua Eagle of Australia lost 4-6 6-4 4-6 against Tomas Cibulec and David Skoch of the Czech Republic, according to results provided by the Associated Press here.
PTI |
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Sipaeya, Bopanna in last 8
New Delhi, January 15 The fifth-seeded Rohan Bopanna was a bit scratchy on his first serves but still had little difficulty in coming through with a 6-3 6-4 victory against Indonensian Peter Handoyo. Harsh Mankad on the adjacent courts had to overcome a stiff challenge from Tomislav Peric before winning 7-6 (9/7), 6-2. Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, another promising talent, overcame a sluggish start to prevail 6-4, 6-4 over compatriot Manoj Mahadevan in a tussle which lasted an hour and 21 minutes. Wild card Vinod Sridhar, who had won the national hard courts title on the same courts, went down to Dmitri Vlasov, the second seed and 305th ranked from Russia, 6-1, 6-4 in 50 minutes. Bulgarian Todor Enev, winner of the first leg at Lucknow, moved one step closer to his second title beating Alexander Pavlioutchenkov of Russia 6-2, 6-1. Croatian Peric, who had accounted for the top seed Mikael Elgin of Russia in the first round, troubled Mankad with his huge forehands. But Mankad withstood the onslaught and fought back from being 3-5 down to force the first set into tie-breaker. After averting two set points, Peric hit a forehand long to give away the set. Into the second set, the Croatian’s game nosedived while Mankad began to soak the pressure with his relentless ground strokes. That, however, did not stop Peric, down a break, from being sportive and correct a line-call in his opponent’s favour. “The ball was good, that’s it,” he said after the match. Mahadevan was twice up in the match, 4-1 in the first set and 4-2 in the second, but on both the occasions failed to sustain the pressure with his weak serves. “I like to come to the net more often but then my first serves let me down today. When you have a pop gun serve you can’t do much,” said Mahadevan who was broken six times in the match. PTI
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Anand joint leader
Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands), January 15 In the Grandmaster ‘B’ tournament being held simultaneously, India’s Koneru Humpy slumped to the tenth position after suffering a shock defeat to 15-year old IM Daniel Stellwagen of the Netherlands in a third round game. Anand, who won the second round game besides drawing the opening board, is joined on the top position with two points each by Russian Evgeny Bareev, former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia and world’s best Woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary. Top seed and Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia put up an exemplary performance to crush overnight leader GM Bareev, who remained in joint lead despite the loss. As many as seven players follow the four leaders half a point behind. They are Ukrainian duo of Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov, Spaniard Alexei Shirov, Russian Alexander Grischuk, Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, Kramnik and VanWely. In the Grandmaster ‘B’ tournament, GM Zhang Zhong of China took the sole lead after beating Women GM Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia. Anand failed to make the most of his white pieces for the second time in succession. The opening choice by Van Wely was perfect - a Sicilian Sveshnikov that has been troubling the Indian for quite some time. The middle game was intense as usual and Van Wely was slightly better prepared against Anand’s expected variation. It turned out to be a very well analysed-at-home game as both players blitzed out the moves quickly in the early phase. PTI
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Churchill sail into semis
Kolkata, January 15 The all-important salvo was fired by Akeel Ansari, who neatly nodded in off a flagkick from Farooq Haider in the 37th minute of the second half. Though East Bengal dominated the first half, Churchill Brothers bounced back into the reckoning in the second half. And their effort paid dividends when Akeel sealed the fate of the red and yellow brigade outfit. However, East Bengal’s Brazilian recruit Gilmer squandered a gilt-edged opportunity when he shot over with only the Churchill goalie at his mercy. Sporting shock Vasco Mohammedan Sporting kept alive hopes of a semifinal berth edging past Vasco Sports Club 1-0 in a group-B quarterfinal encounter of the 108th IFA Shield Football Tournament here today. Nigerian Abdulatif Seriki struck the winner in the 59th minute by tapping home from close to take Mohammedan Sporting’s points tally to three from two outings. After an insipid display in the barren first half, Sporting stepped up the pace of the game in the second session launching a number of raids to rattle the opponents. They tasted success when Seriki gave a fine pass to Rahim Nabi who received the ball well and then essayed a centre into the box which Vasco goalkeeper Rogherio Ramos failed to collect. Vasco defender Sanjay Parte also fumbled, and Seriki standing close by put the ball in. The handful of spectators at the giant Salt Lake Stadium were dismayed as the two teams dished out a pedestrian variety of soccer for most part of the ninety minute exchange. Sporting who lost their tournament opener to Tata Football Academy 0-2, could have increased their margin in the 61st minute but a Dipendu Biswas header off an Arjan Ali cross kissed the crosspiece before going over.
PTI, UNI
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Raman,
Indu clinch TT crowns Pune, January 15 The 34-year-old southpaw Raman quelled the
spirited challenge of Railways Sports Promotion Board’s (RSPB)
fourth seeded Sharat Kamal winning by a 4-2 margin. This is the third time Raman is winning the national title out of eight times he had figured in the finals. He had first won the title defeating S. Sriram in 1992 and followed this up by conquering international Chetan Baboor for the crown in 1999. Raman defeated Sharat in the final today 11-3, 12-14, 11-9, 3-11, 11-8, 12-10. The top women seed N.R. Indu, who was not included in the PSPB squad for the team championship in the inter-state meet earlier, had the last laugh. Indu won in style by triumphing over her PSPB team-mate and reigning champion Mouma Das by a 4-1 margin to win the final for the first time in her career. It was a sweet revenge for Indu who had lost to Mouma in the 2000 finals at Lucknow. Today she won 11-9, 7-11, 11-1, 13-11, 11-8. The
Indian Oil stars Raman and Indu, who both play for Youngmen’s Indian
Association, became richer by Rs 1 lakh and Rs 60,000, respectively.
Playing a positive game was the key to success for Raman today. “Playing
with younger players has helped me adapt myself to their style”,
Raman said. Finally, S. Raman broke the jinx after they went level
up to 10-all to capture the last two points, the game and the match. UNI |
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Team has talent to win Cup: Kapil Cuttack, January 15 “In fact, this is perhaps the only team India has ever produced which has the potential to win the World Cup”, the Wisden ‘cricketer of the century’ said. Nobody in his wildest dream had ever though that the 1983 team could win the cup in England, Kapil, who led the victorious team, said. While pointing out that India’s disastrous tour to New Zealand had dented the confidence of the players and it would be difficult to restore their morale, the allrounder held the pitches responsible for the debacle.
PTI
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AP telecom circle win team title Kurukshetra, January 15 The team championship in
Powerlifting was annexed by Karnataka telecom with 69 points followed by the MTNL Delhi telecom circle with 51 points. Turning out the best performance in Best Physique event Tamil Nadu telecom circle were declared first securing 60 points while MTNL Delhi telecom secured second position with 43 points. Satish Chander of Yamunanagar, who represented as a sole participant from Haryana telecom circle, retained the Best Physique title. |
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Bedi to honour
sportspersons Amritsar, January 15 |
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Weightlifting
meet Sangrur, January 15
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Melbourne, January 15
