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Monday,
August 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Indian scrape past Germany
Midfield
performed miserably Case for third umpire in hockey
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England fight back against SA
Micheel ties for lead; Woods’ hopes fade
Lack of grassroot coaching malady of Indian tennis, says Mukherjea
Steffi wins U-10 Punjab badminton Navpreet Sidhu wins
100m freestyle
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Indian scrape past Germany Amstelveen, August 17 Required to put their best foot forward after the agonising 3-4 defeat against Holland in the lung opener, the Indians were a pale shadow of themselves today and were lucky to record their first victory in a match which seldom rose to great heights. Live wire Gagan Ajit Singh struck the match-winner barely a minute before the hooter to save the day for the Indians who appeared to be totally clueless against a second string German side who were undaunted by India’s reputation as a hockey powerhouse. The shocking loss against the hosts Holland yesterday seemed to haunt the Indians as they failed to find any momentum in the opening session with most of their goal-bound moves lacking sting. The Germans dominated for most part of the contest as the Indians played with little purpose or imagination. Trailing by a solitary goal scored by Benedikt Sperling at the half-time, the Indians restored parity early in the second session through Gagan Ajit but the unfancied Germans took the lead again when Alexander Sahmel converted a penalty stroke in the 46th minute. The Indians, desperate to deny any space near the goalmouth to rampaging German defenders, erred in pulling down an opposition player prompting the referee to award a penalty stroke against them. Prabhjot Singh equalised a few minutes later when he slammed the ball into a vacant goal much to the relief of the Indians who were beginning to look desperate as the clock ticked away. India scored the winner when Gagan Ajit, getting a pass from Baljit Singh Dhillon from outside the circle, dribbled past a couple of players before slamming home.
Pak
overcome Argentina Winger Rehan Butt slammed a back-handed goal 84 seconds from the close to fetch Pakistan a thrilling 6-5 win against Argentina. The late goal spared the blushes for Pakistan who recorded their first win in two matches following their 4-4 draw with Australia yesterday. Argentina, playing in only their second Champions Trophy, clawed back from a 0-4 deficit to level at 5-5 nine minutes from the close before Butt struck the match-winner for Pakistan. Argentina received a penalty corner in the last minute, but goalkeeper Ahmed Alam gambled with a charge on Jorge Lombi who delayed his attempt to waste a chance. At one stage, Pakistan, having scored four goals without reply by the 25th minute, looked set to record a runaway victory. However, they had to reckon with a great Argentine fightback that nearly took the game away from them. Two penalty corner conversions by Sohail Abbas (7th and 11th minutes), put Pakistan on top and then Shabbir Hussain pumped in two field goals in the 14th and 25th to put the former champions firmly in front. The Pakistanis turned complacent at this juncture and paid the penalty as Argentina scored twice in the 33rd and 36th through Matias Vila (penalty stroke) and Mario Almada. Pakistan hit back almost immediately as Jawad Kashif found theboard in the 39th to make it 5-2. Argentina
then began their amazing fightback with about 15 minutes left on the
clock. Lucas Cammareri found his way in to beat Ahmed Alam and Lombi
converted a penalty corner to narrow the margin to 4-5. The Pakistanis
appeared panicky and Lombi made good a penalty stroke to tie the
scores in the 61st minute.
Dutch
defeat Aussies Veteran Teun de Nooijer masterminded a brilliant 5-3 win for holders Holland against Australia The midfielder, hero of many a Dutch triumph, set up the first two goals, as the hosts saw off a late comeback by the Aussies to record their second straight win and top the league table with six points. The Dutch were obviously keen on wiping off their bitter 1-6 defeat to the Australians during a Test series Down Under earlier this year, and they were far more positive today as compared to yesterday when they came back from 0-3 to beat India 4-3. Matthijs Brouwer and Karel Klaver capped brilliant runs by de Nooijer to put the Dutch ahead 2-0 by the 22nd minute. The Aussies pulled one back past the 30th when Nathan Eglington came up with a brilliant turn of speed after receiving a Paul Gaudoin pass and slammed home from the top of the circle. On
resumption, the Dutch picked up the pace and scored thrice through Rob
Reckers who flicked home from close, Taeke Taekemaersion and Bram
Lomans who made good a penalty stroke following an obstruction on
Floris Evers. — PTI
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Midfield
performed miserably
Vasudevan Baskaran So often I have seen this happening to the Indian team — against Poland at Sydney, at Busan Asian Games and then here at the Champions Trophy. Whatever the system or strategy you plan, finally it is the result which matters most. And I think it is high time the players realised the importance of different stages in a 70- minute game. The sooner they realise the better it would be for Indian hockey for this cannot go on and on. I will squarely blame the players for this mishap. The scoreboard was showing the time left for the game and is it not the duty of the players to be alert in the last five minutes? Perhaps players took victory for granted when they were leading 3-1 with just 5 minutes left for final whistle. I, as a player and coach, cannot tolerate or sympathise on this issue. Coming back to the strategy and plan of the game, I was disappointed with the way our midfield performed. The usually confident Viren Raquinha dispossessed the ball without any rhyme or reason. Ignace Tirkey was not at his best, Jugraj Singh left too big a space in the middle. And the two attacking Netherland linkmen played havoc with our defense. Kanwalpreet Singh was slow in recovering. Only Dilip Tirkey and Baljit Saini were consistent. Devesh Chauhan was at his best and if not for him India would have been trailing by 0-2 in the first half. The major mistake was half the midfield never tried to carry the ball and no attempt was made to play ball possession. Only when Bimal Lakra was introduced to the midfield, it started functioning and the forwards started moving freely. Though Pillay was heavily marked, I thought he was too withdrawn and Baljit Singh Dhillon was out of place many a time. As a skipper Pillay should have used his cool on the decision of the controversial third goal given to Netherlands by the umpire. It was unwarranted and he was rightly shown the yellow card. This also affected the result of the match. I can understand that the third goal could have upset the entire team. But the team should have concentrated on the remaining 34 seconds. Even if they would have drawn the game, it would have been a fair result. I also think Rajinder Singh should have played Jugraj Singh in deep defense in place of Kanwalpreet as this would have helped him have an additional midfielder like Vikram Pillay. May be he should think on this line in future games. Even in the
forward line, in my opinion, Deepak Thakur should be playing in starting XI. But I will not take the credit away from the boys for playing well for the larger part of the match. All the three goals India scored were impressive. The first goal by Jugraj via penalty corner saw him drag the ball two meters inside and put the ball on top of the net. While the second goal by Deepak Thakur was commendable, it was the third which was a gem of a goal. Gagan Ajit Singh stole the ball from a Netherland defender and rolled the ball to Deepak to do the rest. It was imperative for India to start off a win but now it is useless to rue over it. I think the boys should take the positives from this defeat, regroup and carry on for the next matches ahead if they are to break the Champions Trophy jinx.
— PTI
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Case for third umpire in hockey Amstelveen, August 17 On Saturday, Holland, trailing 0-3 with seven minutes remaining, snatched a thrilling 4-3 win. But the Indians hotly disputed the third Dutch goal saying that the ball had not crossed the goal-line when Baljit Singh Saini stopped and cleared a try by Floris Evers. Speaking to PTI here today, Bob Davidzon, Chairman, marketing committee of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and former head of the rules board, said the third umpire was experimented with in the women’s World Cup and the Sultan Azlan Shah tournaments earlier this year. "In the World Cup, the third umpire was referred to seven times in 42 matches. The pitch umpire was correct in five instances," Davidzon said. "In the Azlan Shah tournament, the third umpire was called for on four occasions. The pitch umpire was right thrice," he added. He felt that the incident like last night’s in the India-Holland game, was a rare occurrence. "We simply cannot start referring each and every decision to the third umpire as that would mean a match would last two hours instead of 70 minutes," he said. Davidzon said the umpires at the women’s World Cup and the Azlan Shah tournaments were ‘wired’ so that they could communicate directly with the third umpire, as in rugby and American baseball. "In hockey, disputes over umpiring decisions mainly concern the penalty corner or, in the rare instance, as was the case last night, whether a goal was legitimate," he said. During the match, had umpire Stephen Brooks of England consulted the third umpire as to whether the ball had crossed the line or not, he would have stood vindicated. The television replays clearly showed that the ball had indeed crossed the goal-line before Saini cleared it. Davidzon said the FIH was in touch with the International Cricket Council on the subject of third umpire. "We are seeking some inputs from the ICC who have successfully introduced the third umpire concept," he said. It is still early days in hockey, but there is an increasing feeling that technology should be put to use so as to avoid unsavoury scenes like the one witnessed here last night.
— PTI |
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England
fight back against SA
Nottingham, Aug 17 Shaun Pollock captured six wickets as South Africa bowled out England for 118 to leave themselves needing 202 runs to complete an unlikely victory. Pollock, who dismissed Marcus Trescothick with the first ball of the second innings on Saturday, removed Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles and James Anderson to complete figures of six for 39, his best against England. England needed a solid start after Trescothick’s unfortunate demise, but Pollock produced a stunning delivery to Vaughan that the England captain, on five, could only edge to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher. Hussain joined Mark Butcher and the two first-innings centurions battled through testing spells by Pollock and Makhaya Ntini. Scoreboard England (1st innings):
445 South Africa (1st innings): 362 England (2nd innings): Trescothick c Adams b Pollock 0 Vaughan c Boucher b Pollock 5 Butcher b Hall 8 Hussain lbw b Pollock 30 Smith lbw b Hall 0 Stewart c Boucher b Kallis 5 Flintoff c Gibbs b Pollock 30 Giles c Boucher b Pollock 21 Kirtley c Boucher b Ntini 3 Harmison not out 2 Anderson lbw b Pollock 2 Extras:
(b-4, lb-5, nb-3) 12 Total: (all out, 48.4 overs) 118 FoW:
1-0, 2-17, 3-39, 4-39, 5-44, 6-76, 7-91, 8-114, 9-114. Bowling:
Shaun Pollock 17.4-4-39-6, Makhaya Ntini 13-5-28-1, Jacques Kallis 10-2-36-1, Andrew Hall 6-2-6-2. South Africa 2nd innings: Smith lbw b Kirtley 5 Gibbs c Giles b Harmison 28 Rudolph lbw b Kirtley 0 Kallis b Anderson 13 Dippenaar c Smith McKenzie not out 6 Boucher not out 9 Extras:
(lb-1) 1 Total: (5 wickets, 33 overs) 63 FoW: 1-22 2-28 3-40 4-41 5-50. Bowling:
Kirtley 8-5-13-2, Flintoff 8-3-26-0, Harmison 8-1-16-1, Anderson 9-4-7-2.
— Reuters
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Bangladesh
see no threat to Test status Karachi, August 17 The Bangladesh squad, including 15 players and five officials, arrived in Karachi this morning to play three Tests and five one-day internationals. "I don’t think there is any possibility of the ICC taking away our Test status even if we don’t do well in Pakistan. But we are looking for improvement now," Latif said. Bangladesh have lost 20 of their 21 matches since gaining Test status three years ago and have not won any of their one-day internationals since their shock win over Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup. There have been widespread calls from former players and officials for the ICC to review the Test status awarded to the Bangladesh team. Coach Dav Whatmore said he had no doubt that there was lot of talent in Bangladesh and they had the infrastructure to do well. "It is just a question of making the right decisions at the right time for them. The tour to Australia has been a big learning curve for them. It should serve them well in Pakistan," he said. Although he admitted Pakistan were clear favourites for the series, Whatmore expected his players to show further improvement in every department.
— Reuters |
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Anand fights back to draw level
Mainz (Germany), August 17 Hundreds of spectators in the Rheinegoldhalle were feasted to yet another day of fascinating chess as the two stalwarts played out two more decisive games on the penultimate day. Incredible has been the one word response from various quarters. So far all the six games have been decisive and on all days Anand lost the first game and came back strongly in the second. The sixth game too was no exception to the rule except that Anand had to use a lot more defensive skills coupled with meticulous aggression. The opening was another Sicilian, the fifth in the match so far — and Anand embarked on the English attack for the second time on the trot. Judit went for the setup that had given her a full point from an apparently collapsed position and this time around did well to get a dynamically balanced structure after losing a pawn. Anand got his pieces rolling after Judit erred on her 35th move that allowed the Indian to get a near impregnable position. Thereafter, Anand unleashed a series of attacking moves and successfully crashed through the kingside. Judit lost all hopes of survival once Anand had the queens traded on the 55th move. — PTI
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Micheel
ties for lead; Woods’ hopes fade
Rochester, New York, August 17 American journeyman Micheel, two ahead of the field overnight, held his nerve yesterday for most of the day with some pin-point approach play before bogeying his last three holes for a one-under-par 69. That left him in a share of the lead at four-under 206 with compatriot Chad Campbell, who holed a 30-foot birdie putt at the last for a best-of-the-week 65. US Masters champion Mike Weir, chasing his second major of the year, was a further three strokes back in third, after returning a level-par 70, while South African Tim Clark was alone in fourth on 210 after a two-under 68. The 34-year-old Micheel, playing in only his third major championship, might have been expected to slide down the leaderboard on day three after he ran up a bogey-five at the 460-yard first. But, with conditions a little more receptive at a damp and overcast Oak Hill Country Club, he bounced back with three consecutive birdies from the seventh, holing putts from 10, six and 25 feet. Superb iron-play set up further birdies at the 372-yard 12th and the 181-yard 15th and, despite dropped shots on 16, 17 and at the last, he was still at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the day. World number two Ernie
Els, last year’s British Open champion, was among a group of four players at one over, after mixing three birdies with three dropped shots on his way to a level-par 70. For world number one Woods, however, the third round was one of continuing frustration. Woods began an overcast and damp day at Oak Hill nine off the lead, but battled for accuracy off the tee on his way to a three-over-par 73, only partially offsetting five bogeys with two late birdies.
— Reuters
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Lack of grassroot coaching malady of Indian tennis, says Mukherjea
Kolkata, August 17 Talking to UNI at the Jaidip Mukherjea Tennis Academy here the ace tennis star of yesteryears said, “In India there is a lack of proper grassroots level training. If the fundamentals are not taught properly, a player can never be successful later on.” “In our times there were fantastic coaches like Dilip Bose. The game is changing everyday and the basics have to be put in order. For example, the rackets have changed and so has the grip. If its not worked upon in the moulding stage how can we expect better players later on,” the man, with the whopping record of playing 97 rubbers for India in 43 ties of Davis Cup, said. Jaidip, who lend his services to Indian tennis both as a player and as Davis Cup captain and now as the life vice-president of All India Tennis Association (AITA), said, “AITA has taken a few positive steps in the right direction with the formation of the academy at Gurgaon. The future does not look so bleak after all.’’ Asked about his reaction to the Award conferred upon him by the ITF’s Davis Cup committee for his services to the game for India, he said, ‘’I am obviously happy. It’s a great honour to get the recognition from the highest body of tennis. At the same time its an awakening for the people at home. I, however, feel that one must play the game, awards come if you are good enough.’’ Indeed Jaidip is good enough for the awards given to him having reached the Wimbledon pre-quarters four times in 1963, 1964, 1966 and 1973, besides reaching the pre-quarters of French Open in 1965-66. It was during this time he played across the globe and won tournaments in Helsenki, Stockholm, England beating legends like Roy Emerson, Fred Stolle, John Newcombe and Arthur Ashe. Jaidip, who won the Asian Championship four times in 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1971, said, “It was with this motivation that he built his academy for the kids. I wish to train them when they are just beginners. After that they can move to bigger and better places with a proper understanding of the fundamentals. Mahesh Bhupathi has agreed to come to my academy once every few months to spent time with the kids and also impart something from his experience.” At 61, he is still seen working for hours with the young boys teaching them the basics of the game. He is also opening another academy at Siliguri, the nerve centre of the North East. “I plan to get the work of the academy started by October 1. It will have four courts, a gymnasium and a small club house. Tennis needs strong legs ad people in the hills are well built. Besides, that part of the country has produced a number of top paddlers and shuttlers. So I dare say people have a good hand eye co-ordination in general.’’ “They have never been exposed to tennis through a proper academy. So who knows we may get a Leander or a Mahesh from the region,’’ he said. His Davis Cup record is most enviable. It was during his tenure as a player that India reached Davis Cup’s Inter-Zonal Final successively for three years from 1961 to 63, while in the last two years they reached the Challenge round of the Davis Cup. Talking about Davis Cup he lamented that the attitude towards it has changed a lot. “In our time it was a great honour to represent the country and perhaps one of the biggest achievements, the other big one was being at the Wimbledon. Its still very much so for the Indians, but in world tennis top players are more eager to play in the ATP circuit than representing their country. This is sad.’’ Asked to recollect his memorable experiences in Davis Cup, Jaidip, added with a twinkle in his eyes, “I guess the most memorable match was the Inter Zonal Davis Cup semi-final in Delhi when I defeated Germany’s William Bongart, who was World Number 2 at that time.” He quickly added that close on the heels of this match was the memorable doubles game against John Newcombe and John Roche of Australia, when partnering Ramanathan Krishnan they defeated the fancied pair, though they were humbled 4-1 by the Aussies in the final. The trio of Premjit Lal, Ramanathan Krishnan and Jaidip Mukherjea came to be called the ‘Three Musketeers’ of Indian tennis. — UNI
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Steffi wins U-10 Punjab badminton Jalandhar, August 17 Sagar and Ashwin (Jalandhar) defeated Vaibhav and Ishan (Gurdaspur) 15-8, 8-15, 15-12 to clinch the boys doubles under-10 title. Steffi Kala Rajvansh thrashed Zeenia Simran (Sangrur) to take on the girls double under-10 title. Earlier, Navita Thakur of Jalandhar ousted Patiala’s Jaspreet Kaur 11-6, 11-7. In another closely contested game, Aarti Verma defeated top seed Heena Kapoor 5-11, 11-9, 11-9. Rajkumar of Ludhiana overcame Navdeep Singh of Jalandhar 15-8, 7-15, 15-11 to enter the semifinal in the boys under-19 section. Results:
quarterfinals (19 boys): Sahil Arora b Akshay 15-3, 15-3; Kunal Mahajan b Aslam 15-2, 15-9; Parminder Singh b Gurbax 15-9, 15-7.
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Navpreet
Sidhu wins
100m freestyle
Patiala, August 17 Results:100m
freestyle(men): Navpreet Sidhu-1, Paramveer Singh-2, Gurjant Singh-3. 200m freestyle (boys
II):Bhasker Reddy-1, Gaganpreet Singh-2, Arushinder-3. 100m breaststroke (women): Era Kaila-1, Amanjit Kaur-2, Ismat Vijay Singh-3. 50m breaststroke (women):
Era Kaila-1, Ismat Vijay Singh-2, Amanjit Kaur-3. 100m freestyle (boys III) : Kamaljit Singh-1, Mayank -2, Navdeep Singh-3. 50m breaststroke (women):
Himani Puri-1, Lajdeep Kaur-2, Manjot Kaur-3. 200m freestyle (boys I): Sagar Sethi-1, Amarinder Singh -2, Rupesh-3. 100 breaststroke (boys I): Kawaljit Singh-1, Rupinderjit Singh-2, Navpreet Singh-3. 100m backstroke (boys I): Abhimanyu Tiwari-1, Sagar Sethi-2, Amarinder Singh-3. 100m freestyle (girls II): Amanjot Kaur-1, Gurpeet Kaur-2, Nilofer Ghuman-3. 200m individual medley (boys I): Sagar Sethi-1, Rahul Kumar-2, Rupesh-3. 100m freestyle (boys IV):
Jashandeep Singh-1, Shubham-2, Jiwanjot Singh-3. 100m freestyle (girls IV): Bhavneet Chawla-1, Noorjit-2, Chahat Gupta -3. 50m butterfly (boys IV):
Jashandeep Singh-1, Karan-2, Tanveer-3. 200m individual medley (boys II):
Harshit Narang -1, Bhasker Reddy-2, Mani Mahajan-3. 50m butterfly (girls IV):
Bhavneet Chawla-1, Chahat Gupta-2, Anmol-3. 50m backstroke (boys I): Abhimanu Tiwari-1, Sagar Sethi-2, Gurbinder Singh-3. Cricket tourney
Fine batting by Ankit Sharma (45) enabled the Panchkula Cricket Coaching Centre to down the MES Cricket Club by one wicket in a league match of the Janta Sports Cup cricket tournament (u-12), played at the Army School grounds, here
today. MES Cricket Club:100 all out(Abhishek Mangla 13, Ujwal Sharma 18, Gaurav Joshi 24, Sunny 10, Ashish 4 for 19, Sidharth 4 for 26, Karan Goel 2 for 18) Panchkula Cricket Coaching Centre: 101 for 9
(Ankit Sharma 45, Sarwan 10 n.o, Ujwal 3 for 21, Gaurav 3 for 33, Abhishek 1 for 17).
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BHUPATHI-MIRNYI
LOSE IN SEMIS RIMC
SOCCER CUP STRIKER
COLLAPSES JCT
WIN
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