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Friday,
October
17, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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Richardson, Vincent frustrate India
Satisfying knock, says Vincent |
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Bowlers messed up proceedings Ninth son to follow father Changes likely in one-day squad More stories on Chandigarh
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Williams to make
debut for Aussies Mahesh, Prakash for Afro-Asian Games Himachal girls lose to Madhya Pradesh Rs 3.71 crore given to sportspersons
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Richardson, Vincent frustrate India
Chandigarh, October 16 By the time he was dismissed, Vincent had compiled a career-best 106 as New Zealand finished the day at 247 for one today. Resolute batting by both the openers saw a slew of records being rewritten as the visitors were in the driver’s seat at the end of play. In fact, Rahul Dravid, acting skipper after Saurav Ganguly had to pull out of the Test due to minor operation in his left thigh, captaining the side for the first time found himself in an unenviable position. At times, he looked a forlorn figure as things did not go his way. The much talked about “canopy cover” seemed to have some effect on the wicket as the seam movement lasted longer than expected. Zaheer Khan, except in the third over of the day when he induced an edge off the blade of Richardson which Dravid failed to latch on to at the second slip, largely had an uneventful outing. L Balaji, though bowled with accuracy, lacked the variety to test the batsmen. A couple of close calls was all that he could manage. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh did not inspire much confidence. Anil Kumble was the lone successful bowler, scalping centurion Vincent. The veteran leg-spinner, perhaps the best bowler on view during the day, used all his guile to unsettle the Black Caps but without much success. Shoddy work behind the wickets by Parthiv Patel compounded the problems for the Indians. Patel, who missed a chance to run out Vincent as he failed to gather a ball from Rahul Dravid, had a forgettable outing, finding keeping to the unpredictable bouncing Kumble deliveries difficult to anticipate and conceded unavoidable byes. The Kiwis batsmen, in fact, showed great character and resolve while batting. They never tried anything extravagant, but were content to play the waiting game initially to thwart the innocuous Indian attack. Vincent was particularly strong on the onside and hit a couple of sweetly timed fours to the mid-wicket fence. Richardson battled cramps and even fell on the ground attempting sweep shots, but displayed immense determination and guts to keep the Indian attack at bay. In fact, it was the first over from seamer Zaheer Khan in which 11 runs were conceded, four of these being extras, which gave some indication of the shape of the things to come. After cautious pre-lunch session, Vincent and Richardson opened up later in the innings. Vincent looked compact working the ball repeatedly to the mid-wicket fence, while Richardson employed the sweep shot to good effect to accumulate runs. Vincent lifted Harbhajan over the mid-wicket fence for a six to get past his fifty. Earlier, Richardson had reverse-swept the same bowler as the ball raced to the fence. Richardson, growing in confidence, clobbered Zaheer to the point boundary, worked the next delivery to deep mid-wicket boundary and was quick enough to run four runs and hit another scorching boundary in the same over to complete his half century. Vincent again hoisted Harbhajan over the long-on fence for a huge six and later hit Kumble to mid-wicket fence to complete his century. When Vincent finally fell to Kumble, the batsman had already notched up his highest score in his fledgling international career. Their 231-run stand was the highest for New Zealand against India for any wicket. The earlier record stood in the name of Bert Sutcliffe and John Reid, who were involved in a 222-run stand in 1955-56. Scoreboard New Zealand (1st innings): Vincent lbw Kumble 106 Richardson batting 102 Styris batting 7 Extras: 32 Total (1 wkt, 90 overs): 247 Fall of wicket: 1-231 Bowling: Zaheer Khan 18-7-62-0, Balaji 17-7-39-0, Tendulkar 9-3-12-0, Kumble 28-10-57-1, Harbhajan 17-3-48-0, Sehwag 1-1-0-0.  |
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Satisfying knock, says Vincent
Chandigarh, October 16 Talking to newspersons after the day’s play when New Zealand posted a healthy 247 for one, he said he was under pressure when he went out to open the innings. “There definitely was pressure. The first session of the first day always has pressure. It was hard work all through the day,” he revealed. “The first century was scored in my first Test. It came against the top Australian attack. The knock was memorable,” he replied when asked which century he thought was better. “Kumble bowled very tightly, while Harbhajan also bowled quite well,” the opener said about the Indian spinning duo. “Even Tendulkar was getting the ball to bounce a bit,” he said. About the seam movement the Indian pacers extracted from the track, Vincent said: “New Zealand players were quite used to playing the deviating ball. Let us see how the wicket behaves on the third and fourth day.” “One million!” he replied in jest when asked what target the Black Caps would like to set for the Indians. “We would like to put good total on the board and put the Indian batsmen under pressure,” he said. “It is going to be an exciting game as four days are still there in the Test,” he stated. Vincent said he had worked hard to tackle the Indian spinners before the beginning of the tour as he knew he would have to tackle spinning deliveries in India. |
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Bowlers messed up proceedings
When Rahul Dravid became the 28th Test captain for India, he certainly didn’t expect to run into such serious problems such early on in his brief stint. There was a lot of hype generated about the wicket pre-match but it turned out to be a good cricketing track and openers Mark Richardson and Lou Vincent justified their skipper’s decision to bat first. The wicket looked pretty flat to assist strokeplay, the ball coming nicely on to the bat to make things easy for the visiting side. But still our frontline fast bowlers did enjoy the privilege of bounce and movement in the first two sessions but had to blame themselves for messing up the entire proceedings at the start of the day. Dravid missed what was a regulation catch in the slips and Mark Richardson made sure it proved out to be rather decisive in shifting the balance hugely in favour of New Zealand. Although Zaheer and Balaji bowled with a lot of fire in their belly, they were guilty of spraying the ball around in the first hour when situation demands that the batsmen play at every single ball. The duo got carried away with the bounce and movement and forgot to put the ball right up there and allowed it to seam from around the off stick line. To begin with, the Indian team management got it all wrong when they decided to go with just two seamers. Alright, Sachin managed to give Vincent some pain and agony but he was by no way equal to Ajit Agarkar, who must be wondering why he is deputised with the job of carrying drinks. Not only Agarkar’s absence put a lot of load on Zaheer and Balaji but also rendered ineffective Dravid’s hopes of putting early pressure on the Kiwi openers. Balaji gave every impression of a lion-hearted bowler but Test cricket is all about getting wickets and not just beating the willow a zillion times. Unfortunately, he didn’t register any figures in the last bracket of the bowling analysis and that is precisely why both Richardson and Vincent will go laughing all the way to the hotel rooms. To their credit, the left-hand right-hand combination concentrated hard and never looked perturbed even after repeatedly playing and missing. New Zealand find themselves on a driver’s position and Dravid needs to come up with something drastic overnight to get prevent themselves from getting bulldozed. There was hardly anything to mention about the two spinners, except that Kumble gave India the first and only breakthrough in the day. Harbhajan Singh bowled with a lovely loop and got some turn off the wicket but continuously reeled under the ‘sweeping success’ of New Zealand top order. Still all is not lost for the home team. There are still four days to go in this Test and India need to take some early wickets and trigger a middle order collapse. Tall order, alright, but not impossible. — Dronacharya Sports
Promoters Association |
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Ninth son to follow father into Tests Chandigarh, October 16 Yuvraj's father, Yograj Singh, was a medium pacer who played only one Test match for India
against the same opponents in Wellington during the 1980-81 series. The 21-year-old who has played 73 one-day internationals, was included in the team as a replacement for Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly. The first father-son combination to represent the country was Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Pataudi senior made his debut in 1932-33 while his son got the India Test cap in 1961-62. Also in the list are India's first Test captain Lala Amarnath and his sons Mohinder and Surinder Amarnath. Five other father-son pairings have featured in Indian Test teams. They are Dattajirao Gaekwad-Anshuman Gaekwad, Vinod Mankad-Ashok Mankad, Pankaj Roy-Pranav Roy, Vijay Manjrekar-Sanjay Manjrekar and Hemant Kanitkar-Hrishikesh
Kantikar. |
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Changes likely in one-day squad Chandigarh, October 16 Not only will there be a change in the 14, who will be selected by the national selection committee at the PCA Stadium at Mohali tomorrow morning, there is every likelihood of a change in the playing eleven itself with Rahul Dravid saying in no uncertain terms that he is no more keen to keep wickets in one-day matches. His plea has the support of the chairman of the national selection committee Syed Kirmani, who was himself a wicketkeeper and knows the hard work a stumper has to put in. The national selectors were at the PCA Stadium this morning to watch the first day's play of the second Test between India and New Zealand and the poor performance of the Indian bowlers must have worried them. With skipper Saurav Ganguly scheduled to return to Kolkata later in the day tomorrow the selection committee meeting has been advanced by a day so that the captain can join in the deliberations. Of the 15 players who went to South Africa for the World Cup, Javagal Srinath has opted out of the game in the current series so it is certain that one fast bowler will come into the squad in his place. (Of course there is every possibility of Srinath finding a place in the Australia bound team later this year). Also two more players who were in the World Cup squad, Sanjay Bangar and Dinesh Mongia, might find it difficult to find a place in the team. Both players did not do well in the Challengers Trophy just prior to the arrival of the New Zealand squad while certain other players have made their presence felt with some very good performances which the selectors might find difficult to ignore. Three batsmen — V.V.S. Laxman, Sadgoppan Ramesh and Hemang Badani — have done well with the bat in various matches and the selectors might want to see them perform in the shorter version of the game, specially with the tour of Australia coming up later this year. Of these three the first named has the best change of finding a place in the squad. But other than these players the other batsmen, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, select themselves. Of the fast and medium fast bowlers, there is every likelihood of Aviskar Salvi finding a place in the squad. Also, with Asish Nehra now fully fit, his induction in the team should be a foregone conclusion. There is every likelihood of these two bowlers sharing the new ball with Zaheer Khan, who will obviously spearhead the Indian attack. L. Balaji, who has just earned his Test cap in the Ahmedabad Test, might also find a place in the list of 14. If a specialist wicketkeeper has to be included in the playing squad then it is difficult to visualise Parthiv Patel finding a place in the team in view of his weakness in batting. Two very strong contenders for this job could well be Deep Dasgupta and Ajay Ratra. Both are better batsmen than Patel. In any case India might have to sacrifice a specialist batsman to make way for a specialist keeper so a better wicketkeeper-batsman might well get the nod. With the triangular being played at home the spinners will definitely have a more pronounced role than they had in the World Cup. The first choice would obviously be Harbhajan Singh. Kumble, who did not get many games in the World Cup, might still get the nod for the home series with the third spinner's spot going to Murli Kartik. The selectors also might want to pick a couple of standbyes in the outside chance that Saurav Ganguly, who has missed the second Test because of a painful abscess in his upper left thigh, is not fully fit by the time the series gets under way. |
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Williams to make
debut for Aussies Sydney, October 16 Williams, 28, who had been called up five times before but never made past as 12th man, will form a three-pronged pace attack for Steve Waugh as the home side looks to claim the series 2-0. Australia hammered Zimbabwe by an innings and 175 runs in the opening Test that was dominated by opener Matthew Hayden’s record 380 runs - the highest individual Test innings in history. Fast bowler Brett Lee, with 129 wickets, will spearhead the attack that includes medium paceman Andy Bichel, who has 48 wickets in 16 Tests. It is the weakest Australian bowling line-up in more than two years — the experienced duo of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie are sidelined for this Test with leg injuries. Also ruled out of the Test are batsman Darren Lehmann, who has a ruptured Achilles tendon, and legspinner Stuart MacGill with a torn calf muscle. Australia recalled batsman Simon Katich since his only Test appearance against England at Headingley two years ago.
— AP |
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Mahesh, Prakash for Afro-Asian Games New Delhi, October 16 However, he confirmed that the participation of woman weightlifter Karnam Malleswari, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, but is married into a Haryana family, was doubtful as she was preparing to compete in the World Chamionship, which would be held on November 19. The World Championship would be a qualifying event for the 2004 Athens Olympics, and it was in the interest of the country that she concentrated on the World Championship. But Mr Chandrababu Naidu, however, added that the Weightlifting Federation of India was still weighing the option whether she could participate in the Afro-Asian Games without affecting her preparation for the World Championship. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi and secretary-general Randhir Singh said all medal winners of the All-African Games, to be held in Ajuba, and some of the sportspersons who had qualified for the Olympic Games would be coming for the Afro-Asiad. Mr Kalmadi said most of the foreign participants would be better than the best of India. Mr Naidu said a new hockey stadium had been constructed in a record 70 days with two synthetic turfs, one of which is flood-lit to conform to international standards. The new stadium is adjacent to the main sports complex at Gachibowli, about 40 km outside the city of Hyderabad. He said Rs 200 crore has already been spent on the creation and upgradation of infrastructure and other facilities to ensure that world class facilities are provided for the games. He said the 32nd National Games were a sort of trial games, and that experience has equipped the organising committee to deal with any problem and make the Afro-Asiad a grand success. Mr Randhir Singh said over 2200 sportspersons and 900 technical officials from all over Africa and Asia will participate in the games. He said the organising committee members of the 2006 Doha Asian Games and members of the Commonwealth Games Federation would also be attending the games to learn about the conduct of the games. Mr Kalmadi said China would be fielding around 31 sportspersons who were medal winners in the Asian Games at Busan in 2002.
Similarly, out of the 44 boxers expected from Africa, 26 are those who have qualified for the Athens Olympic Games. He said China, Japan and Korea would also field some of their top swimmers and shooters in the games. In fact, the shooting event will have a star cast, spearheaded by India’s Anjali Ved Bhagwat and Jaspal Rana. Mr Randhir Singh, who is also the secretary-general of the Afro-Asian Games Organising Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said the OCA medical commission will supervise the dope testing at the games. He said over 540 sportspersons would be subjected to dope testing during the games. The tests would be conducted at the IOC-rated lab of the Sports Authority of India in New Delhi. The games will witness competitions in eight events — athletics, football, boxing, weightlifting, hockey, tennis, swimming and shooting. |
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Himachal girls lose to Madhya Pradesh Kangra, October 16 In another match Chhatisgarh defeated Uttar Pradesh 52-23 with Pushpa being the highest scorer to winners with 12 baskets. Akanksha of Chhattisgarh and Cheena Bansal of Uttar Pradesh scored 9 and 6 baskets, respectively. Kerala outplayed Manipur 28-5. Shijina and Renju scored seven and five points respectively, while Ramjita scored four points for Manipur. Karnataka defeated Rajasthan 49-29. Sonam and Ashitha of Karnataka coordinated well to take their team to victory. Maharashtra thrashed Jammu and Kashmir 42-8. The winners controlled the ball from the very beginning of the game and scored 20 points against two by Jammu and Kashmir till half time. Poorvi Kulkarni was the highest scorer from the winners. She scored 14 baskets while Sai Naik scored 8 points. Natasha scored six points for the losers. Madhya Pradesh girls defeated hosts Himachal Pradesh in a one-sided game 50-14. Till half time Madhya Pradesh had scored 23 points while Himachal had managed four points. Panisha was the highest scorer of the game with nine baskets while Ritu scored five points for the winners. In the boys section Andhra Pradesh crushed West Bengal 76-24. The score was 52-16 till half time. From winning side M. Raghuveer and K. Manikyoa played a coordinated game and kept the ball under control till the final basket and scored 25 and 11 points, respectively. M. Raghuveer was the highest scorer of the match. Raju of West Bengal scored 10 points out of the total 16 points. Uttar Pradesh defeated hosts Himachal Pradesh 74-39. Amitesh Uttar Pradesh was the highest scorer of the match with 24 points to his credit while Vibhor scored 18 points. Both played a versatile game to give a comfortable win to their team. Rohit of Himachal scored 21 points but could not save his team from defeat. In another match, Madhya Pradesh beat Chhattisgarh 68-53 in a well contested match. The half time score was 34-16. Shishir Singh of the winning team was the highest scorer with 25 baskets and Abhilek of the same team scored 15 points. Murali Krishen scored 22 baskets but his team lost the game. Kerala beat Andhra Pradesh girls 49-24 with the half time score being 26-17 Sandhya was the highest scorer for the losing side. She socred 13 out of the 24 points . Lija and Victoria of Kerala score 9 and 8 points, respectively. Punjab girls beat Haryana by 47-13 in a one-sided match. Mehak of Punjab was the highest scorer with 13 points and Kiranjeet of the same team scored six baskets. From the losing side Ritu scored 4 baskets. Punjab boys also won, thrashing Goa 94-44. Gurvhit Singh was the highest scorer from the winner side, scoring 22 baskets while Yadwinder of Punjab and Juliun DG from Goa scored 14 points each. Delhi beat Uttaranchal boys 49-31. Vikas of Delhi scored 12 points and Nitin of the same team scored 11 points. Rohit of Uttaranchal was the highest scorer with 13 points but failed to take his team to victory. |
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Rs 3.71 crore given
to sportspersons Yamunanagar, October 16 This was revealed by the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala after inaugurating the 19th Haryana State Games at Tejli Sports Complex near here today. An impressive march past by about 5000 sportspersons and technical officers who had come to participate in 25 various sports events was presented. A pledge to play with the spirit of sportsmanship and dedication was administered to all the players. |
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Chandigarh, October 16
