 |
|
Tuesday,
October
14, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
|
Kiwis gear up for second Test
PCA Stadium down memory lane Andy Bichel seals victory for Australia
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hayden world’s No I batsman, says Steve Waugh Editorial: Hail Hayden SA’s ‘chokers’ image negated: coach German eves lift
soccer World Cup
Punjab teams for basketball meet Youth basketball from today U-19 football results
|
|
Kiwis gear up for second Test Chandigarh, October 13 New Zealand and depleted Indian team comprising mostly juniors, in the meantime, arrived by the afternoon flight. The five Indian players to arrive are Parthiv Patel, Yuvraj Singh, V V S Laxman, L Balaji and Sairaj Bahutule. The rest of the players have stayed back for a meeting with the BCCI president, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya and the board secretary, Mr S K Nair to hold discussions over the graded payment issue. They are scheduled to reach here by the same flight tomorrow afternoon. The Black Caps, eager to have a look at the strip being used for the second and the final Test, rushed to the stadium soon. They were there around the wicket for a while to have a close look at the top, which holds key to deciding the fate of the series. The wicket, which has a fair tinge of green on it, must be tempting for the likes of Oram, Tuffy and Zaheer Khan to have a go at the batsmen at the earliest. Indian team coach John Wright was first to arrive and see for himself the track on which both the teams would be engaged in a fierce tussle from October 16. Wright was there in the stadium without the Indian players, who, unlike their counterparts, opted to skip the nets, partly because the first Test ended only yesterday. The pitch inspection over, New Zealand immediately rushed to the nets and got down to the business in right earnest. Prominent among those, who were at the nets, were skipper Stephen Fleming, off-spinner Paul Wiseman and wicketkeeper Robbie Hart, while batsmen Nathan Astle and Craig MacMillan, left-arm bowler and their trump card Daniel Vettori and seamers Jacob Oram and Daryl Tuffy chose to stay back. The visitors got a minor scare when skipper Stephen Fleming was hit on the head while batting. The skipper retired for a while before he walked in again and started middling the ball. Keen to get into his groove, Fleming batted with all seriousness and hit a couple of strokes from the meat of the bat. The Black Caps, particularly Fleming, had an extended session warming up and doing all drills to prepare themselves for the challenge ahead. Full-strength New Zealand squad would be at the nets tomorrow morning, while the Indian team after it is joined by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and others would warm up for the match in the afternoon.
|
|
‘Big Brother’ will be watching Chandigarh, October 13 The BCCI has decided to ensure that there is no interaction between the players of both teams and anybody else on the days of the matches except for the official briefings by the manager and captain of both teams, both prior and after the match. To do this the entry of outsiders into the players’ dressing rooms will be severely restricted. Only players, the team officials, the local manager and the catering staff will be permitted to enter the dressing rooms while the match is on. The photographs of all persons authorised to enter the dressing rooms will be displayed outside the dressing rooms and will also be made available to the ICC security officer, Mr N.S. Virk, a former CBI officer, who will be personally present at Mohali to see that the orders of the BCCI are carried out in letter and spirit. During the course of the match, Mr Virk will also monitor the activities in the two dressing rooms through the close-circuit TV being installed in both dressing rooms of the PCA Stadium. It is learnt that Mr Virk had a meeting with functionaries of the Punjab Cricket Association, the hosts of the second Test, some time ago and explained to them steps needed to be taken in this regard. He also interacted with junior players of the association. However, the board has not taken any decision on the use of cell phones inside the dressing rooms. The BCCI reportedly is still discussing whether the use of cell phones should be banned in the dressing rooms and the opinion of the team manager is being reportedly sought. |
|
|
PCA Stadium down memory lane Chandigarh, October 13 It was on December 10, 1994, that the first Test at the PCA Stadium, then yet to be fully completed, got under way — against the West Indies. The wicket for that Test was something that the Indians had never encountered in any home match, a lush green outfield surrounding a pitch which tended to merge with the surroundings. Soon after the Indian team’s arrival at Mohali for that match, the then captain Mohammad Azharuddin rushed to Daljit Singh who had very painstakingly prepared the pitch for the Test (he continues to be in charge of the stadium ground) and literally begged him to ask the ground staff to remove all the grass on the strip. The grass was indeed shaved off, but the pitch still had enough bounce in it to help the quicker bowlers of both teams. That the West Indians made better use of the conditions is obvious as the visitors went to grab a huge win. In fact, the match was a fairly big scoring one with the visitors posting a first innings total of 443 all out with the Indian replying with 387 all out thanks to a brilliant century by Manoj Prabhakar. In the second innings the visitors posted a total of 301 for three declared, setting India a target of 357 for a possible win. But the West indies bowlers, spearheaded by Benjamin and Countney Walsh, had other ideas. The Indian hero of the first innings Manoj Prabhakar was hit by a rising delivery towards the close of the fourth day’s play and then on the fifth day the Indian innings folded up in just over 30 minutes of play as latecomers to the stadium could only see the victorious West Indies captain Countney Walsh leading his team back into the dressing room. The next two Tests played here, first against Sri Lanka and the other New Zealand, were both drawn but the spectators had their money’s worth with some wonderful cricket on display. The match against Sri Lanka, played from November 19 to 23, 1997, was a high scoring one, with batsmen from both teams having a good time with the bat. Batting first, Sri Lanka made 369 all out with Atapattu scoring 108 and Jayasuriya 53. In reply, India made 515 for nine declared with local hero Navjot Sidhu scoring 131 and the present India captain Saurav Ganguly 109. The skipper Azharuddin chipped in with a well-made 53. In their second innings De Silva’s unbeaten 110 helped Sri Lanka reach 251 for six as they accelerated the innings in an effort to force a verdict, but in vain. Nash (six for 27), Cairns (two for 23) and O’Connor (two for 20) had India on the mat in the third Test played at the PCA Stadium from October 10 to 14, 1999. The hosts were skittled out for just 83, their lowest on this ground, and when the visitors posted a total of 215 all out the hosts had to do something dramatic to pull the match around. And they did this in style with a total of 505 for three declared with Rahul Dravid (144), Sachin Tendulkar (126) and Saurav Ganguly’s unbeaten 64 which gave the visitors no hope of forcing a win. They ended on 251 for seven, still far away from victory when the stumps were drawn finally. India’s first victory at this venue, said to be one of the best cricketing centres worldwide, came on December 6, 2001, when they beat England by a huge margin of 10 wickets. The match, in which wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta scored an exact 100, saw the visitors being all out for 238 in their first innings with yet another local hero — Harbhajan Singh — grabbing five for 51. In reply, the hosts put up an imposing total of 469 in which besides Deep good knocks also came off the blades of Rahul Dravid (86) and Sachin Tendulkar (88). In their second essay at the crease the visitors fell to the guiles of Anil Kumble, who with a haul of 6 for 81 made the task of the Indians all that easier to romped to a win with more than a day to spare. |
|
Andy Bichel seals victory for Australia Melbourne, October 13 Zimbabwe, aided by a 74-minute rain delay yesterday, had reached 272 for nine at the close of the fourth day. Captain Heath Streak and tailender Ray Price further frustrated Australia with a 74-run partnership for the last wicket today. Spinner Price, playing in his 13th Test, made a career-best 36 before he was caught by a diving Steve Waugh at mid-off from the bowling of Bichel as Zimbabwe were finally bowled out for 321 in the second innings. Streak, who batted for four and a half hours and hit his ninth half-century, was unbeaten on 71, including 10 fours. Zimbabwe were skittled out for 239 in their first innings in reply to Australia’s huge 735 for six, led by Matthew Hayden’s world record 380. The second match in the two-test series is in Sydney starting on Friday. Seamer Bichel (four for 63) and part-time spinner Darren Lehmann (three for 61) captured seven wickets between them while express paceman Brett Lee took one for 96 from 35 overs. The fiery Lee will need to lift his performance in Sydney in the absence of Glenn McGrath, who had ankle surgery last week, and Jason Gillespie, who injured a side muscle during the first Test. Australia named a squad of 14 today for the second Test, resting Gillespie and including leg spinner Stuart MacGill despite doubts over the calf strain which restricted him to 3.4 overs in the second innings in Perth. Lehmann is also doubtful for Sydney because of heel soreness. Australia captain Waugh enforced the follow-on but had to use eight bowlers after half of his frontline attack broke down with injuries. Price survived a caught and bowled appeal by Lehmann in the 10th over today and Streak was bowled by Lee in the next over, but the fast bowler held his head in his hands in despair as he was called for a no-ball. Zimbabwe clung to faint hopes of a draw by batting through the first 15 overs before an 18-minute rain delay. But the hard-working Bichel was mobbed by team mates after making the breakthrough in the 23rd over of the day. Scoreboard Australia
(Ist innings): 735-6 declared Zimbabwe (Ist innings): 239 Zimbabwe
(IInd innings): Ebrahim b Gillespie 4 Gripper c Gilchrist b Gillespie
0 Vermeulen c Gilchrist b Lee 63 Carlisle c Hayden b
Wishart lbw b Bichel 8 Evans b Lehmann
5 Taibu c Gilchrist b Bichel 3 Ervine b Bichel 53 Streak not out
71 Blignaut st Gilchrist
Price c Waugh b Bichel 36 Extras: (b-4 lb-6 w-5 nb-6) 21 Total:
(all out)
321 FoW: 1-2, 2-11, 3-110, 4-112, 5-118, 6-126, 7-126, 8-209, 9-247. Bowling:
Lee 35-8-96-1 (nb-3 w-2), Gillespie 3-0-6-2, MacGill 3.4-1-10-0, Bichel 28.2-15-63-4 (nb-3), Lehmann 31.2-15-61-3, Martyn 13-5-34-0, Waugh 8-2-26-0 (w-3), Ponting 5-1-5-0.
— Reuters |
|
|
Hayden world’s No I batsman, says Steve Waugh
Melbourne, October 13 “Right now he’s the best batsman (in the world) and I think most players would agree with that,” Waugh said after his side won the Test by an innings and 175 runs at the WACA Ground. “When he gets hundreds, he scores them quickly and dominates the opposition and sets the tone for the rest of the innings. “He sets up matches, which not a lot of players do,” Waugh told reporters. “Sometimes you just watch him bat and you think ‘I can’t believe anyone could bat any better than this’,” said Waugh, who made 78 in a fourth-wicket stand of 207 with Hayden. Waugh said Hayden’s innings had put him among the game’s all-time greats. “He’s a great player. He will go down as one of the all-time greats, there’s no doubt about that,” said Waugh, test cricket’s most capped player and second leading run scorer. Left-hander Hayden, 31, batted for 10 hours and 22 minutes, passing West Indies batsman Brian Lara’s previous world mark of 375, hitting 38 fours and 11 sixes. The tall Queenslander has scored seven centuries in his last 15 Tests. Australia reached 735 for six declared then bowled Zimbabwe out for 239 and 321 to lead the two-match series 1-0. The second Test starts in Sydney on Friday. Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak told reporters it was an astonishing innings by Hayden, who has scored 15 hundreds in his 45 Tests. “There’s times in cricket and in any sport that someone plays well, and as opposition, you’ve got to respect that,” said Streak, who took 0 for 131 in 26 overs but made a gritty 71 not out in his side’s second innings. “It was obviously not easy to be on the receiving end of it, but we’ve got to admire what he’s done and ... in a way it was special to be part of that.”
— Reuters |
|
|
SA’s ‘chokers’ image negated: coach
Rawalpindi, October 13 “I am very proud over this win as my side adapted to the conditions well and confronted the issue of not doing well in big matches so well,” said Simons in his post-match comments after his team won the last day-night match of the one-day series yesterday. South Africa overwhelmed Pakistan by seven wickets to win the five-match series 3-2, after losing the first two games. Tagged as “chokers” for not winning crunch games, the Proteas were under pressure and without their banned captain Graeme Smith and all-rounder Andrew Hall were somewhat depleted. “We lost the first two matches and coming back from that deficit was something praiseworthy and every boy played well,” said Simons. Pakistan won the first two matches — by eight and 42 runs — but the tourists comeback strongly by winning the next three games — third at Faisalabad by 13 runs and the fourth here by six wickets. “Coming to the sub-continent we needed to do some little basics like rotating the strike and bowling at the death end and I am pleased we did all that well,” said the coach. “We fielded well in all the five games and bowling the death overs was a concern in the first two games but we did well in the last three,” said Simons. — AFP
|
|
German eves lift
soccer World Cup Los Angeles, October 13 Kuenzer scored off a header, nodding the ball over Swedish goalkeeper Caroline Joensson. The Germans celebrated by mobbing Kuenzer, who moments earlier had just missed another golden opportunity from point-blank range. Kuenzer only played 11 minutes of the match after coming in as a substitute in the 88th minute. "It was a great game," said German captain Bettina Wiegmann, yesterday after the match. "It was a tough game and a close game and we got a lucky goal." Both teams had excellent chances in the second half with the game level, but superb saves kept the European rivals deadlocked after regulation time. "This was one of the best games ever played," said Swedish coach Marika Domanski Lyfors. "I just hope we never lose on a golden goal again." Sweden's Hanna Ljungberg opened the scoring in the 41st minute but Germany's Maren Meinert equalized in the 46th minute.
—AFP |
|
Joginder
Singh dead Patiala, October 13 The Baba had been complaining of uneasiness since last night but nobody cared to take him to a physician. After writhing in pain for the entire day today, he passed away in the evening. Joginder Singh’s exploits on the track and field have been detailed in his biography written by a serving IPS officer, Mr Rajinder Singh. The veteran athlete managed to wriggle out of the financial mess that he was in after a leading weekly of the country highlighted his pathetic state last year. Moved by his plight ,donations from
sports lovers started flowing from cities as far as Mumbai, Bangalore, Patna, Jamshedpur and New Delhi. However, a majority of these donations came for just a couple of months and then the cheques and drafts simply stopped flowing leaving Joginder Singh financially broken. It was at the youthful age of 19 that Joginder Singh took part in the World Athletics Championships held in Berlin in 1910. He seemed to have a bright future but his son’s death in 1925 upset Joginder Singh. For a few months he seemed to be in a daze and had even announced retirement from active athletics. In 1982, his friends persuaded him to take part in veterans’ meets and he went to take part in one such meet in Sydney. Later, he competed in Moscow, Oslo, London and Turku in Finland. He used to recall with fondness the Turku meet where he entered the 95 plus age category but his entry was challenged by a Hungarian participant. The organisers subjected him to various age tests to determine his real age. Hours later, the medical report confirmed that Joginder Singh was indeed above 95 years and an elated Singh threw the discus to a gold medal winning distance. Since he was employed with the Punjab Police briefly in 1946, the cops had been always been lending a helping hand. Prominent among them were ADGP and president of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) Mr Rajdeep Singh Gill and Jalandhar Senior Superintendent of Police Harpreet Singh Sidhu. In fact, Mr Sidhu, as SSP at Patiala, used to personally visit him and made sure that his daily needs were met. In his room, Joginder Singh had proudly hung pictures of himself clicked with former Presidents and Chief Ministers. Former Punjab CM Beant Singh had even decided to give him a monthly income of Rs 6000 from the CM’s
discretionary quota. However, this amount stopped in 2001 and these days Joginder Singh was running from pillar to post to get information as to why the government had stopped his monthly stipend. Once, when Union Human Resource Development Minister Mr Murli Manohar Joshi visited the NIS, IPS officer Rajinder Singh pleaded that the athlete should get some financial help from the Central Government. However, all his pleas fell on deaf ears even as the old man faded into oblivion-and this time for good.
|
|
Punjab teams for basketball meet Ludhiana, October 13 Sukhpal Singh and Namrita, both from Faridkot have been selected to lead the boys and girls teams respectively in this championship. Teams are: (Girls) Kiranjit Kaur and Harjeet Kaur of Baba Lodhiana Academy, Ludhiana; Mehak Dhillon, Namrita and Jyoti of Faridkot; Bakhshinder Kaur, Sakshi Sharma and Surbhi of Gurdaspur; Sarabjit Kaur of Jalandhar; Prithi of Kapurthala; Princy of Bathinda and Aarti Sharma of Muktsar. Mr Satish Sharma and Mr Kanwaljit Singh will accompany the team as coach and assistant coach, respectively, while Mr Ashok Sharma will be the manager. Boys:
Sukhpal Singh of Faridkot; Sukhbir Dhillon, Yadwinder Singh, Gurbaj Singh of Baba Lodhiana Academy; Paramveer Singh and Tejinder Singh Cheema of Ludhiana; Gurbhej Singh, Supreet Singh and Pradeep Singh of Amritsar; Amandeep Singh of Mansa; Rajwinder Singh of Moga; and Bhupinder Singh of Gurdaspur. Dr S Subramanian and Mr Harjinder Singh will accompany the team as coach and assistant coach while Mr B S Brar will be the manager of the team. |
|
Youth basketball from today Kangra, October 13 According to Mr Ajay Sud, secretary-general, H.P. Basketball Association, 45 teams of boys and girls from 25 states will participate. Himachal Pradesh would be represented by Rohit Jagmohan, Sanjeev, Sachin, Hithpal, Ramandeep, Angad, Des Raj, Bhavneet, Vishal, Ankit and Aditya in the boys category. Karon Jungla, Sanna, Neha, Iwani, Khushboo, Vandana, Arti, Balwinder Kaur Samiriti, Vibha and Divya will constitute the girls team. The championship would be declared open tomorrow by the Forests Minister, Prof Chander Kumar and Sports, Information and Industries Minister Ram Lal Thakur. |
|
U-19 football results Nawanshahr, October 13 The tournament was inaugurated yesterday by Mr Harjit Inder Singh Grewal, Deputy Commissioner. Teams from 15 districts are participating in the tournament. Results of
preliminary matches played on Sunday ‘Pool A’: Gurdaspur beat Fatehgarh Sahib 3-1, Muktsar beat Ludhiana 2-1, Jalandhar beat Bathinda 8-0 and Kapurthala beat Amritsar 6-0. ‘Pool B’:
Ropar beat Patiala 2-1, Sangrur beat Ferozepore 4-0 and Nawanshahr beat Mansa 3-0 |
|
Haryana cricket trials Chandigarh, October 13 |
|
Tennis team back Amritsar: An eight-member Indian tennis team, including a coach, returned from Pakistan here on Monday after winning the four-nation under-20 tournament. The tennis tournament concluded on October 10 at Islamabad. In the 10-day tourney Sri Lanka and Thailand also participated. The team comprised Rupesh Rai, Vivek Shekhar, Kaushik Dass, Sandeep Kumar, Lalit Mann and Sumit (men) and Saksha Molly, Savita Kak, Nandani and Pooja (women). The team was headed by coach Birbal Wadera.— OSR
|
||||||||
Players’ contract Aussie squad PSB in semis
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
