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Confusion reigns over Delhi one-dayer Bowlers put Railways back on track
Haryana in driver’s seat
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Win helps Inzamam reunite
with Rashid Latif
Indian eves lose to New Zealand
Indian colts thrash England
Anand clinches title
Bhupathi loses in doubles
Prakash Amritraj in semis
80 hockey veterans to watch tie
Gaurav Ghei leads the field
Samiullah quits as Pak hockey team manager
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Confusion
reigns over Delhi one-dayer Chandigarh, March 31 While the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) said it was not in a position to host the match in the incomplete stadium, at one time the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said the match must be held in New Delhi as planned since Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had been invited to witness the encounter. But late at night there were reports that the PMO was not insisting that the match be held in New Delhi. With the DDCA deciding that it is unable to host the one-day tie, the PCA Stadium at Mohali is emerging as the front-runner for hosting the match for various reasons — its proximity to the national capital, its cricketing infrastructure and more important, the convenience of the VVIP visitors from across the border. The Executive Committee of the DDCA, which met in Delhi this afternoon, asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to decide on an alternative venue for the match since the under-construction Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium would not be ready in time for the match in spite of the efforts being put in not only by the DDCA but also all other agencies responsible for the conduct of the match. At the last Working Committee meeting of the BCCI, it was left to the BCCI President, Mr Ranbir Singh Mahendra, to decide on an alternative venue in case Delhi was unable to host the match. With Mr Ranbir Singh in mourning following the death of his younger brother, Haryana minister Surinder Singh, in a helicopter crash today, he will probably take a day or two before finally deciding where to shift the match if the need arises. With a question mark over the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium as the venue of the match, the BCCI had also examined whether the match could be shifted to the Nahar Singh Stadium at Faridabad. But the Haryana Cricket Association expressed its inability to host the match as the ground was not fit for organising an international fixture. According to the BCCI’s rotation policy the turn to host the one-day match after Delhi is Nagpur’s. But Pakistan might not want to play at Nagpur for two reasons. The first reason would be logistic since on April 15 India and Pakistan are scheduled to play their fifth match of the series at the Green Park in Kanpur and travelling from Kanpur to Nagpur would obviously cause quite a few problems. Secondly, the 5000 Pakistani visitors who are scheduled to be given visas to watch the match at Delhi might not find it convenient to travel all the way to Nagpur. But the most important reason why the match cannot be hosted at Nagpur is the fact that the city does not have adequate facilities to host a VVIP visitor like the Pakistan President. General Musharraf’s visit would entail a high-security apparatus to be put in place which might be difficult to organise at Nagpur in such a short time. Also, the Indian Prime Minister will also be present there and it is doubtful whether the city has the infrastructure to host such a large number of VVIPs which a visit of two heads of government would entail. The PCA Stadium at Mohali is at present hosting the final of the Ranji Trophy Cricket Championship between Punjab and Railways. This match is scheduled to end on April 3. This will give Daljit Singh, chief curator of the Punjab Cricket Association, and his team enough time to get the pitch ready for the one-day tie. In any case, the PCA Stadium has nine strips and at any given time any one of them can be put to use. The Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Mr Shaharyar Khan, and his team is likely to visit the PCA Stadium within a day or two if indeed the match is to shifted here, although the Punjab Cricket Association authorities have still no word about his arrival. But the facilities at the PCA stadium actually need no clearance from the PCB since the stadium has already played host to the visiting Pakistan team which played the first Test of the series against India at this venue from March 8 to 12. NEW DELHI
(UNI): The government on Thursday asserted that the sixth one-day international will be held here as scheduled on April 17. “There is no reason why the match should be called off due to security considerations,” a Home Ministry spokesman said. The spokesman clarified that all requisite security arrangements would be in place for holding the ODI. Meanwhile, National Security Adviser MK Narayanan, who is in Port Louis along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a four-day visit to Mauritius, said the Prime Minister was keen to meet President Musharraf in Delhi. Official sources said Mr Narayanan spoke to Home Minister Shivraj Patil on the phone and conveyed to him the Prime Minister’s feelings. |
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Bowlers put Railways back on track
Mohali, March 31 In a match which has seen fortunes swing rapidly, Railways were sitting pretty at 287 for the loss of five wickets at close yesterday. Their batsmen, except for Raja Ali, could not prosper as they lost their last five wickets after the addition of just 68 runs to be bowled out for 355 today. Chasing this total, Punjab, at one stage, were cruising along nicely. They went into the tea break at 94 without loss. They crossed the 100-run mark without any damage. But once Punjab lost their first wicket, three more wicket fell in a jiffy as the hosts suddenly found themselves in a difficult situation at 136 for 4. But skipper Pankaj Dharmani, the saviour of Punjab in the semifinal against Mumbai, applied himself well to deny the visitors any further success during the day. In reply to the visitors’ total, Punjab started on a confident note. Openers Ravneet Ricky and Reetinder Sodhi did not face any difficulty while facing the rival bowling attack. Showing more flamboyance, Sodhi was the first to complete his half century. After the tea break, Sodhi, in a sudden rush of blood, attempted a cut off left-arm bowler Madan Yadav, but ended up disturbing his wickets and was out hit wicket. Sodhi’s contribution was 51. Ricky, more compact of the two, did not stay for long after the fall of Sodhi and was out in a somewhat similar fashion when he was clean bowled off the same bowler. Ricky scored 47. Seamer Harvinder Singh struck at the same score when Ankur Kakkar ungainly snicked a short delivery climbing awkwardly on to him to be caught by JP Yadav at third slip. There was jubilation in the Railways camp when off-spinner Kulamani Parida sent back Gaurav Gupta lbw as the Punjab innings was in tatters at 136 for 4. The situation required Dharmani to be at his best to save Punjab from further embarrassment. The seasoned batsman did exactly that. Remaining unflustered during his one-and-a-half-hour stay at the wicket, Dharmani, in the company of Munish Sharma, saw off the remaining overs without further damage. Earlier in the morning, seamer Vineet Sharma added two more wickets to his kitty to finish with a five-wicket haul. Off-spinner Rajesh Sharma chipped in with two wickets as the Railways innings ended at 355. Raja Ali, the overnight not out batsman, scored 80, while wicketkeeper S. Wankhede contributed 35. Punjab coach Intikhab Alam was unfazed after the day’s play. “Still there is three days of cricket left in the match and anything is possible. Inshah Allah we will achieve our goal,” he observed. Not reading too much into the fact that the last recognised batting pair was at the crease for Punjab, Alam said Sandeep Sawal, Gagandeep Singh and others down the order were capable of chipping in with some contributions. He praised seamer Vineet Sharma saying that he deserved the five-wicket haul. Lanky seamer VRV Singh, he stated, was unlucky not to get more wickets as a couple of chances he was able to induce off batsmen’s blade went abegging. Looking confident, Punjab skipper Dharmani said the wicket was good for batting. “It is a question of just one good partnership. If we have that, there will be no cause for worry,” he stated. Vinod Sharma, the Railways coach, pinned hopes on getting an early breakthrough tomorrow. “With the ball getting old, our spinner can do the job for us,” he said. Scoreboard Railways (1st innings) Bangar c Sawal b Vineet 79 Pagnis lbw Vineet 40 TP Singh c Dharmani b Sodhi 11 JP Yadav b Vineet 63 Raja Ali c Dharmani Goud lbw VRV Singh 15 Khanolkar lbw Gagandeep 9 Wankhede c Sanwal b Rajesh 35 Harvinder b Rajesh 1 Parida b Vineet 0 Yadav not out 0 Extras:
(b-2, nb-19, w-1) 22 Total (all out, 120.1 overs) 355 Fall of wickets:
1-60, 2-77, 3-200, 4-213, 5-269, 6-292, 7-345, 8-355, 9-355, 10-355. Bowling:
Gagandeep Singh 30-9-54-1, Vineet Sharma 28.1-6-91-5, VRV Singh 23-0-79-1 Reetinder Sodhi 7-0-53-1, S. Sawal 10-1-31-0, Rajesh Sharma 20-4-42-2, Ankur Kakkar 2-1-3-0. Punjab (1st innings) Ricky b Madan 47 Sodhi hw b Madan 51 Kakkar c JP Yadav Dharmani batting 24 Gupta lbw Parida 13 Munish batting 13 Extras
(nb-2, b-2, lb-5) 9 Total (4 wickets, 59 overs) 159 Fall of wickets:
1-102, 2-109, 3-109, 4-136. Bowling: Harvinder 15-4-37-1, JP Yadav 15-4-45-0, Bangar 8-0-20-0, Madan Yadav 15-8-25-2, Parida 6-0-25-1. |
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Haryana in driver’s seat
Gurgaon, March 31 After Haryana piled 342 in their first innings, Services now trail by 240 runs with five wickets remaining. S. Upadhaya (14) and skipper-wicketkeeper Sarabjit Singh (9) were at the crease when stumps were drawn. Earlier, after Haryana resumed on their overnight score of 264 for four, Sudhakar Ghag struck twice to leave them 296 for six. He first had Joginder Sharma (29) caught by AK Mohanty and then scalped rival skipper Ajay Ratra (5) whom Ghag caught off his own bowling. Services’ indefatigable left-arm spinner Arun Sharma then claimed two wickets in successive deliveries. Shafiq Khan (43 off 89 balls, 6x4) holed out to Ghag and on the next ball, Sachin Rana (2) was caught by MP Reddy as Haryana were reduced to 302 for eight. Amit Mishra (28) offered some resistance but A K Mohanty’s twin strikes — first he trapped Mishra leg before and then castled Gaurav Vashisht (6) — dropped the curtain on Haryana’s first innings at 342. Scoreboard Haryana (1st innings) Bagheswar Bist c Reddy Chetan Sharma c Reddy Sunny Singh lbw Ishan Ganda b Yashpal 9 Shaffiq Khan c Ghag Joginder Sharma c Mohanty Ajay Ratra c & b Ghag 5 Rana c Reddy b A. Sharma 2 Amit Mishra lbw b Mohanty 28 Gaurav Vashisht b Mohanty 6 Jitendra Malik not out 3 Extras
(b-5, lb-4, w-3, nb-8) 20 Total (all out, 129.4 overs) 342 Fall of wickets:
1-129, 2-177, 3-195, 4-222, 5-290, 6-296, 7-302, 8-302, 9-337. Bowling:
Fazil Mohammed 2-0-11-0, Sudhakar Ghag 36-7-88-2, Arun Sharma 51-12-118-4, Yashpal Singh 25-6-70-2, AK Mohanty 15.4-3-46-2. Services (1st innings) Narender Singh lbw b Rana 4 MP Reddy lbw b Joginder 25 Jasvir Singh b Joginder 1 Yashpal Singh run out 22 KG Chawda c Ratra b Joginder 18 Upadhaya batting 14 Sarabjit Singh batting 9 Extras
(b-2, lb-1, nb-6) 9 Total (5 wickets, 48 overs) 102 Fall of wickets:
1-29, 2-31, 3-31, 4-73, 5-75. Bowling: Joginder Sharma 15-4-25-3, Jitendra Malik 4-1-12-0, Sachin Rana 8-2-12-1, Amit Mishra 13-2-28-0, Gaurav Vashisht 8-4-17-0.
— UNI |
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Pak players arrive in Kochi
Kochi, March 31 BCCI Secretary SK Nair, organising committee general convener TC Mathew and other members of the committee received the team. Earlier, the Indian players, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, arrived by a scheduled flight. Later, in the evening, the Indian team, except captain Sourav Ganguly and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni, practised at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.
— PTI |
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Win helps Inzamam reunite
with Rashid Latif
Karachi, March 31 “I tried calling him several times after that to tell him I was sorry about what had happened and that I had made a big mistake. I spoke to him once last year when he was in Holland, but it was just a brief hello and he was very cold,” Latif was quoted as saying in a local newspaper. “(But after Bangalore victory), I got his number from the team’s assistant manager Asad Mustafa and called him. This time he received the call properly and the first thing I told him was congratulations, you have proved us all wrong and made us proud.” The relationship between the two had touched rocked bottom 12 months ago when Latif’s allegations of match-fixing had annoyed Inzamam to an extent that he and three other senior cricketers had threatened to skip the Test series if the cricket board did not initiate legal action against Latif. The matter was, however, hushed up, but Inzamam never spoke to Latif. “Inzamam then spoke in his normal manner and for the first time in a year we discussed and cleared up a lot of things. I told him he is in fine form but his foot still keeps falling across,” Latif said.
— PTI |
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Indian eves lose to New Zealand
Durban, March 31 Chasing a modest target of 184 runs, India failed to capitalise on a 91-run partnership between Raj and Chopra for the third wicket and ended up making 168 runs for nine wickets in their allotted 50 overs. The crafty Indian skipper made 52 runs from 102 balls, while Chopra was out for 48 from 100 balls. The defeat was the first in four matches and left India in fourth place after Australia, New Zealand and England. Earlier Neetu David continued her dream run, taking five wickets for 32 runs. David received good support from Nooshin-al-Khadeer, who returned with figures of three for 44. India would now have to beat the West Indies on Friday to book a berth in the semifinals. In other matches, Australia trounced Sri Lanka with an emphatic eight-wicket victory. Batting first, Sri Lanka were all out for a meagre 57 runs in 38.2 overs and Australia overhauled the total in just 16.4 overs. England continued their winning streak too as they registered an eight-wicket victory against South Africa. Chasing a target of 174 runs set by South Africa, a magnificent 132-run partnership for the second wicket between Charlott Edwards (99) and Clare Taylor (50) took them to victory with 11.1 overs to spare.
— PTI |
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Indian colts thrash England
Kuala Lumpur, March 31 India led 4-0 at half time. Today’s convincing win came after the unfortunate incident of the umpire handing out two yellow cards to India yesterday in their clash against Pakistan, which led to the champions playing with only nine players in the crucial last few minutes and eventual loss 2-3. “Today’s win was most important for us. The boys were all charged up, they had realised the mistakes they had made in their matches so far and played as a unified team,” coach Harendra Singh said. Ajitesh displayed both skill and agility when he dived to corner the ball from Adam Sinclair and netted it straight in. His second goal was also a swift dive to the right to get the pass from Hari Prasad and convert it into a winner straight into the goal mouth. “Ajitesh’s goals were fascinating to watch, he expedited beautiful connections and got two excellent goals,” the coach said, complimenting the young player. Harendra Singh picked penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh, who hadconsistently produced goals in all the matches so far, for special mention. “Sandeep Singh is our main weapon. When he scores the morale of the entire team shoots up,” the coach added. He said during today’s match, he had tried to use all the players. “All of them got a chance to play, (except the reserve goalkeeper),” the coach said. “The youngsters’ body language was exceptionally good today, especially after yesterday’s bad luck at the India-Pakistan match,” he added. Harendra Singh was of the view that the umpires somehow did not consider an India-Pakistan encounter as a “normal game”. They perceived it as a “high tension” game, putting additional pressure on the players, he said. The coach said when the European players nudged rival team players, the umpires took it as a part of a normal game, but with India and Pakistan, they saw it as an incident warranting yellow card. After a rest day tomorrow, India would take on hosts Malaysia. The winner of that match would enter the final to be played on Sunday. Pakistan had already found their place in the final. In today’s other matches, Pakistan flattened Germany 5-0 and Malaysia beat South Korea 2-1.
— PTI |
Anand clinches title
Monaco, March 31 Taking his tally to an unassailable 14.5 points, Anand maintained his huge 3-point lead against Russian Alexander Morozevich and Hungarian Peter Leko with just one round to spare. Anand has ensured an unshared blindfold title after the draw as he enjoyed 2-point lead over his nearest rivals Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Svidler and Leko with just one game to go. In the rapid section, the Indian ace stretched his lead to a full point over Russian Alexander Morozevich and Leko and now needed just half point to win on the final day for solo title in this section, too. Interestingly, according to Amber history, winning all the three events by one player had happened only once in 1997. Then also the remarkable feat was achieved by Anand. The Indian ace just needed 20 moves in the blindfold to sign peace with Svidler, who played the black side of a Sicilian Paulsen. In a bid to win this section first and the event with at least a round to spare, Anand made sure everything went right with his white pieces and the draw was a just result. In the rapid game too, surprisingly, Svidler did not try much playing white after Anand came up with the Rubenstein French. The draw was agreed to in just 22 moves. Peter Leko defeated Francisco Pons Vallejo to move to the joint second spot. Playing the black side of a Four Knights opening by Vallejo in the blindfold, Leko was unimpressed with his opponent’s new idea in the opening and after a long thought on his 14th turn, came up with an interesting manoeuvre that turned the tide. A fine attack against Vallejo followed soon after and peace was signed in 41 moves. It was a double-edged contest in the rapid format, with Leko playing the English attack with white. Vallejo tried his best to level scores but the Hungarian was quite up to the task in steering the game to a drawn result in 67 moves. Morozevich first suffered a loss against Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the blindfold after a lop-sided game, but was quick to bounce back in the rapid to level scores.
— PTI |
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Bhupathi loses in doubles
New Delhi, March 31 Pitted against the third seeds, the Bhupathi-Woodbridge duo looked sloppy in the first set, which they conceded in 43 minutes. In the second set, they, however, tried to make life difficult for their higher-ranked rivals and stretched it to a tie-breaker. Bjorkman and Mirnyi —both of whom had partnered Bhupathi in the past — however, maintained their cool to clinch the tie-breaker and pocket the match 6-4, 7-6 (10/8), according to information received here today.
— UNI |
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Prakash Amritraj in semis
Bangalore, March 31
Croatia’s Ivan Cerovic also advanced to the last four, defeating Kamil Capkovic (Slovakia) 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour.
Twenty-one-year-old Amritraj broke Smit, ranked 479 in the world, in the eighth game to go 5-3 up and held his serve to win the first set without difficulty. Unable to get into his rhythm in the second set, Smit lost the ninth game to the Indian, son of legendary Vijay Amritraj, to concede a 5-4 lead and then made no serious effort to save the set.
— PTI |
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80 hockey veterans to watch tie
Amritsar, March 31 Forty veteran hockey players from Pakistan and the same number from India are expected to arrive on this occasion. The Indian Olympians will be Baldev Singh, Dharam Singh, Tarsem Singh, Ajit Pal Singh, Mukhbain Singh, Harcharan Singh, Zafar Iqbal, Varinder Singh, R. P. Singh, Balwinder Shammi, Ashok Kumar, Surinder Sodhi, Gurmail Singh, Hardeep Nitta, Pargat Singh and Edward. The international will be Mohan Singh, Ranjit Singh, Nirmal Singh, Rajinder Singh, Ripudaman, Balbir Randhawa, Baljit Randhawa, Sawinder Billa, Surinder Bhapa, Iqbal Sandhu and Amrik Pawar. National players will be Jasbir Jassi, Manjit Singh, Darshan Singh, Khushwant Singh, Gundeep Kumar, Hardeep Dhillon and Charanjit Singh. The famous veteran Pakistani players will be Akhtar Rasool, Salim Ulah, Salim Sherwani, Shahbaj Junior, Kasim Khan, Sajid Khan, Wasim Feroz, Kamar Ebrahim, Raja Mujahid, Asif Bajwa, Shehnaz and Riaz. |
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Gaurav Ghei leads the field
New Delhi, March 31 However, it was the round which another favourite, Jeev Milkha Singh, will like to forget. He returned a dismal card of five over 77 and was way down the leaderboard tied at 57 spot in the field of 114. Among the foreign contenders, Thailand’s Wisut Arjanawat performed best with a card of level-par 72, while A. Prathumanee played to 74. The two were tied for the 18th and 24th positions respectively. Gaurav reeled off a round of six-under 66 on his favourite hunting ground. A 10th tee starter, Gaurav birdied his opening hole and went on to essay three more birdies on the 14th, 15th and 18th to make the turn at four-under. On his return journey the golfer birdied the first and second holes with the latter birdie resulting from a brilliant 20-feet putt. Johl, meanwhile, lived up to his reputation as one of the leading title contenders. The Chandigarh pro, much like Ghei, warded off the challenge posed by the wind to go one up on the course early on in the tournament. Johl, who had a birdie-birdie start to his round, dropped a shot on the third. A birdie on the eighth placed him at two-under on the 10th tee. His back nine saw Johl birdie the 11th, 12th — where he sank a 30-footer — 15th and 18th with a lone birdie on the 13th preventing him from tying for the lead. Gaganjeet Bhullar fired an impressive round of 68 to assume a one-stroke lead over Simarjeet Singh in the amateur category. — UNI
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Samiullah quits as Pak hockey team manager
Karachi, March 31 “The PHF keeps attaching coaches with the national team without consulting me. If they think I am a rubber stamp or someone desperate to cling to the job, they are sadly mistaken. I have sent my resignation,” said Samiullah, popularly known in international hockey as ‘The Flying Horse’.
— PTI |
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