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Acid test for India in do-or-die match
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Batsmen have to come good, says Dravid
Tribunal extends doping inquiry
IOC edge out TN
Prabhjot Singh (right) of Indian Oil Corporation takes the ball past a Tamil Nadu player during a super league match of the 62nd National Hockey Championship at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar on Saturday. — Tribune
photo by Pawan Sharma
Duleep
Trophy
Jeev tied ninth
Randhawa takes sole lead
Kashyap upsets Polish shuttler
Ivana, Harika win world titles
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Acid test for India in do-or-die match
Mohali, October 28 India received a twin jolt ahead of the do-or-die contest as Yuvraj Singh and Ajit Agarkar, both injured, are set to miss the match. Yuvraj hurt his knee while practising at the PCA Stadium and the Chandigarh batsman is likely to be out of action for a couple of weeks. India overcame another injury scare and got timely clearance from the ICC to include S. Sreesanth in place of Agarkar in the 14-member squad. The Mumbai seamer has been ruled out of the tournament due to a broken left thumb. He sustained the injury while fielding during India’s loss to the West Indies at Ahmedabad. Given India’s recent record, current form and the nature of the wicket, India’s chances of doing well in the crucial contest do not look promising. After the purple patch nearly six months back, which saw India steamroll virtually every opposition that came their way, India’s performance has been dismal. Before India take the field tomorrow, they would have to look into certain issues that need to be sorted out. Foremost among these is the role of Irfan Pathan in the team. Though he has shown glimpses of being an all- rounder, the Baroda player’s frequent promotion as a No. 3 batsman and his failures have been too frequent. It has been long since Suresh Raina played a worthwhile innings. He was a failure in the West Indies and his batting has not shown any signs of revival after that. Surprisingly, Dinesh Mongia, who played such a crucial innings against Australia in Kuala Lumpur, was shown the door. Mongia had a successful county stint and looked a batsman in form. His ability to slip in a couple of overs of left-arm spin adds to his utility as a player. The long slump in the form of Virender Sehwag is a matter of grave concern. It is a pity that otherwise a destructive batsman, Sehwag continues to suffer predominantly due to his pronounced weakness against the in-swinging deliveries. Australia have been a champion side not for nothing. Though they suffered a hiccup against Brian Lara-inspired West Indies, the world champions have regrouped after that well. The Australians are known to raise the level of performance by a couple of notches in crunch situations. The fact that the trophy has eluded them should be the motivation enough for them to go all out for a win. Given the state of the Mohali wicket, their pace attack comprising the likes of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken could be more than a handful for any opposition on a responsive track. That the rookie Johnson prized out the cream of the Indian team in Kuala Lumpur could be the reason for Australia to include the promising left-arm seamer in the playing eleven. The presence of hard-hitting
all-rounders like Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson gives Australia the edge. For India to do well, the batsmen will need to shrug off their indifferent form and come good before it is too late. Rahul Dravid conceded today that the batting was an area of concern. Dravid was alive to his own none-too-impressive show in the tournament so far. But the skipper is too good a player to fail for too long. Coming good of Dhoni in the previous match augurs well for the team. An edge-of-the-seat contest looks imminent as a semifinal berth in the “Mini World Cup” is up for grabs. Teams (from): India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammed Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh
Powar, Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel and S. Sreesanth. Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist (wicketkeeper), Simon
Katich, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Damien Martyn, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brett Lee, Brad
Hogg, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Glenn McGrath and Mitchell Johnson.
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Chappell, deliver or quit
It is high time that Greg Chappell delivers, or quits. Strong words, indeed, but for a country where the game of cricket is a passion, half-measures will simply not do. Time is running out for the Australian, who took over as the Indian coach about 14 months ago, with the World Cup barely months away. The mandarins who run Indian cricket should now decide whether they want Chappell to be at the helm of affairs till the end of the 2007 World Cup (this is when his current contract with the board expires) or whether they should look around for a possible replacement who can pull out Indian cricket from the depths it has fallen into. As it is, the performance of the Indian team has fallen so much that a new person will have to start from scratch if the fate of Indian cricket has to change in the short time left for next year’s World Cup. The principal figures of the Indian cricket team are the same but their performance has fallen so dramatically that it seems that the players are only going through the motions. One doubts whether the coach has any answers for this downfall for a team which was riding the crest of a wave barely a year ago when he took over the reins of the squad. It is he — and he alone— who has to immediately find the answer to why Indian cricket is on a downslide. Chappell has not been able to settle down in his job with the team’s performance resembling a yo-yo in recent months. And the performance of the team in the last match of the ongoing Champions Trophy at Ahmedabad, where the Indians went down rather tamely (never mind the three-wicket margin which the record book is showing), only goes to prove that all is not well with Indian cricket even if the coffers of the BCCI are full to the brim. The team is failing time and again and the experimentation being carried out by Chappell in the batting order is only adding to the problems of the Indian captain. Obviously, the coach had a major say in India playing four seamers on a pitch which was showing signs that it would help spin? A player like Ramesh Powar, so successful in the shorter version of the game in recent times, was asked to sit out on the bench and in his place part-timers spinners Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh were asked to fill the slot by sending down 13 overs between them. In contrast, R.P. Singh (the fourth seamer in the team) was asked to send down just four overs. And pray, who promoted Irfan Pathan up the batting order when the need of the hour was for “The Wall” to come and take his place after the fall of an early wicket? And as the one-down batsman failed again (so what’s new) the Indian innings could not recover in spite of the efforts of the captain and Dhoni. In fact, the constant tinkering with the batting order seems to be playing on the minds of the team. This is the same Indian team which was on a roll after the new coach took charge from John Wright, who was shown the door after he ran out of ideas and expressed the wish to relinquish charge. The team won 17 games in a row, setting up a record of sorts in the number of chases and one-day wins against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England. But then in the West Indies, the edifice came tumbling down and no amount of experimentation could undo the damage. Critics will say that experimentation is part of the learning process. But should not this experimentation show results? It is time somebody told this to the Indian coach. But with this, the team must also be told that there is no place for non-performers even if they are the “big dads” of Indian cricket. Each and every player, and coach, will have to stand up and deliver, or be shown the door. This is the least the BCCI can convey to the squad. — TNS
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Batsmen have to come good, says Dravid
Mohali, October 28 Quizzed about the lacklustre performance of Indian batsmen, particularly opener Virender Sehwag, Dravid. not naming any particular batsman, said: “All batsmen need to do well. This applies to Sehwag also. The team is going through a low phase and needs to do well.” The 33-year-old Karnataka batsman said no matter how good the strategies were, ultimately the players had to play and do the job. “If we bat first, we will have to score at least 250 on the board. The first 15 overs will be crucial.” Regarding the repeated use of Irfan Pathan at No. 3 and his failures, Dravid replied that Pathan had done well for India at this position and he was expected to do it again. “However, people are entitled to have their opinion,” he added. On the rise of wicketkeeper-batsman M.S. Dhoni and how he stood vis-a-vis Adam Gilchrist, Dravid said a comparison was not good as the Australian had done consistently well for so many years, while Dhoni was far less experienced. Australian captain Ricky Ponting denied that there would be added pressure on the team in the match due to the previous record of the team in the Champions Trophy. The three-time World Cup champions have yet to win the Champion Trophy. “We have reached the semifinal stage earlier. Past record was not discussed in the team meeting. Tomorrow’s game will be a new contest and we will try to play good cricket,” Ponting said. “Rather, the Indian team will be under pressure because they will be playing in front of a home crowd. Expectations on them will be more.” Ponting said even if the track on which the match would be played tomorrow would not be as bouncy as the track used yesterday, it would have more bounce and carry than the wickets in Mumbai or Ahmedabad. The key Australian batsman looked unaware of the fact that injured Yuvraj Singh was out of the match but remarked. “Yuvraj is obviously a world-class player and has been outstanding. Besides, he is an excellent fielder.” About the impending contest between Sachin Tendulkar and pace spearhead Glenn McGrath, Ponting replied: “McGrath enjoys bowling to the best players. It brings the best out of him.” “We have four frontline bowlers and any of these can take the new ball. Mitchell Johnson did it in Kuala Lumpur. McGrath has done it for a decade,” he replied when asked if McGrath would open the bowling tomorrow in view of the bouncy wicket in Mohali.
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Ahmedabad, October 28 Andrew Strauss (50) and Ian Bell (50) gave England a flying start, putting on 82 runs for the first wicket by the 12th over. Off-spinners Gayle and Marlon Samuels shared five wickets to apply the brakes but Pietersen and Sajid Mahmood saw England home after coming together with 41 runs needed off 32 balls. Earlier, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle struck fluent centuries as the West Indies piled up an intimidating 272 for four. Having already confirmed their semifinal berth, the Caribbeans showed no let-up in their aggression as Bravo (112 not out) and Gayle (101) set the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium ablaze with some scintillating batting. Twentythree-year-old Bravo got to his maiden ODI hundred off 117 balls, while Gayle completed his second century of the tournament as the duo put on 174 runs for the second wicket to set the perfect launch pad for a late assault. Ramnaresh Sarwan scored a quickfire 29 off 19 balls and added 50 runs for the third wicket with Bravo as the in-form West Indies continued their relentless march. Gayle began in his customary aggressive manner, dispatching Jon Lewis to the mid-on ropes in the bowler’s opening over. Shivnarine Chanderpaul delighted the sparse crowd with majestically executed two fours off James Anderson. The West Indies openers seemed in no difficulty against the English seamers, who delivered some rank bad balls that found their way to the fence. However, the stand was cut short as Chanderpaul, dropped by Ian Bell at short mid-wicket on 11, departed in the sixth over. There was some excitement among the crowd in the 11th over as England captain Andrew Flintoff decided to have a go with the ball — for the first time since June following his ankle injury — but failed to cut much ice in his first spell of three overs. Scoreboard
West Indies Gayle run out 101 Chanderpaul lbw Lewis 13 Bravo not out 112 Sarwan c Collingwood
b Mahmood 29 Lara b Mahmood 3 Samuels not out 3 Extras (lb-1, nb-1, w-9) 11 Total
(4 wickets, 50 overs) 272 Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-209, 3-259, 4-268. Bowling:
Anderson 10-0-72-0, Lewis 10-1-35-1, Flintoff 5-0-27-0, Mahmood 7-0-44-2, Yardy 5-1-32-0, Dalrymple 10-0-42-0, Collingwood 3-0-19-0. England Strauss b Gayle 50 Bell run out 50 Flintoff c Taylor b Gayle 25 Collingwood c Bravo b Gayle 0 Pietersen not out 90 Yardy c Bravo b Samuels 10 Dalrymple b Samuels 8 Read c Gayle b Bravo 4 Mahmood not out 14 Extras
(lb-11, w-10, nb-4) 25 Total (7 wickets, 48.3 overs) 276 Fall of
wickets:1-82, 2-126, 3-127, 4-162, 5-180, 6-214, 7-232. Bowling:
Edwards 7-0-56-0, Taylor 8.3-0-64-0, Collymore 10-1-43-0, Gayle 10-1-31-3, Samuels 10-0-45-2, Bravo 3-0-26-1. — Reuters, PTI
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Tribunal extends doping inquiry
Karachi, October 28 Adding a further four days to the review, the tribunal has called team coach Bob Woolmer, trainer Murray Stevenson and physiotherapist Darren Lifsun to record statements on November 1, after which it would finalise its findings. The panel was formed by the PCB after Shoaib and Asif were recalled from the Champions Trophy in India on October 16 following positive tests for the banned steroid nandrolone.
— Reuters
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IOC edge out TN
Jalandhar, October 28
In the 70th minute of the keenly contested game, Prabhjot Singh, a key striker of IOC, hammered the ball into the Tamil Nadu goal. The pass for the spectacular field goal had come from captain Deepak Thakur. Against expectations, Tamil Nadu displayed brilliant team work, particularly in checking the IOC assault. The defence looked impeccable, except for the two occasions when goals were scored. The first goal had come off a penalty corner which was converted by Didar Singh in the 37th minute. Tamil Nadu converted a penalty corner in the 51st minute to restore parity. The scorer was Siva Balan. Indian Oil got five penalty corners while TN got two. Interestingly, the IOC has not lost any of its last 24 matches. The team has won the Bangalore League, the Gurmit Memorial Hockey Tournament and the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Cup earlier this year. In another super league match, Punjab and Sind Bank defeated Services 3-1. Kulwinder Singh scored for the PSB in the 10th and 24th minutes. The third goal came through the stick of Rajwinder Singh in the 26th minute. A.K. Majhi scored a field goal in the 57th minute for Services. Air India beat Mumbai 1-0 in a close encounter. The only goal came in the first half off the stick of Osaf ur Rehman in the 18th minute.
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North Zone in command
Jamshedpur, October 28 TP Singh was batting on 26, aided with two fours, and Brijesh Tomar was on 13 when the second day’s play was called off 34 minutes before the scheduled close of play due to bad light. The play ended 13 overs short of the mandatory 90 overs. The star-studded North Zone attack led by former Indian left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra maintained a superb line and length right from the start and did not allow the openers Amit Pagnish and Shivkant Shukla any freedom to play their shots. Central Zone, who were 41 for no loss at the tea break, received a setback in the very first over in the post-tea session when medium pacer Joginder Sharma had Pagnis caught behind off Mahesh Rawat for 15. Former Indian seamer VRV Singh, struggling to get a recall to the Indian team for the forthcoming South Africa series, struck one over later having Shukla (24) caught behind the stumps. The opening partnership between Pagnis and Shukla fetched 43 runs. TP Singh, who walked in following Pagnis dismissal, and Tomar played a cautious knock taking to the total to 85 without further loss. Nehra, who was playing the four-day tournament after a gap of 17 months following an injury, returned impressive figures of 9-2-19-0. — PTI
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Jeev tied ninth
Valderrama (Spain), October 28 Lying 19th overnight, Jeev had two birdies on the front nine, but lost the advantage with two bogeys on the back nine. Jeev, the current leader in the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit, had birdies on the first and eighth but dropped shots on the 12th and 13th. He was let down by indifferent putting as he needed 31 putts in comparison to the 25 he had in the first round. Jeev is 44th on the European Tour Money List after winning the Volvo China Open earlier this season. Henrik Stenson of Sweden led the field after a three-under 68 that gave him a two-day total of four-under 138. He leads by one from England’s Lee Westwood (70) going into a weekend in which he cannot himself win the Order of Merit crown, but can certainly influence the way it goes. Padraig Harrington made impressive strides with a 69 that took him to ninth place. He needs to finish at least third to have a chance of overhauling Paul Casey, the current leader on the Money List. Atwal misses the cut
Miami: Arjun Atwal will have to go back to the Qualifying School for his full playing privileges after crashing out at the midway stage of the Chrysler Championship. Atwal, who had a roller coaster of a round with one eagle, three double bogeys, four bogeys and four birdies, carded a four-over 75 and missed the cut by a long margin. Daniel Chopra shot a one-over 72 and dropped to the 11th spot. Korea’s Choi Kyung-ju grabbed the half-way lead after firing a superb five-under-par 66. With a two-day total of eight-under-par 134, he holds a one-stroke lead over South African Ernie Els and American Jonathan Byrd.
— PTI
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Randhawa takes sole lead
Greater Noida, October 28 With a three-day aggregate of 12-under 204, Randhawa is a stroke ahead of Lam Chih Bing of Singapore, who returned the day’s best five-under 67 card here today. Overnight leaders S S P Chowrasia and Rahul Ganapathy carded an identical level-par 72 round to drop to the joint fourth spot. Randhawa carded a birdie on the par-five second hole after he hit his second shot, a five-wood, pin high and made two putts for birdie. Back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th, followed by another birdie on the par-five 15th hole resulted in a 68. Harmeet Kahlon carded a one-under-par, 71 and is at fifth place with a 54-hole total of 209.
— UNI
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Kashyap upsets Polish shuttler
New Delhi, October 28 The 19-year-old from Hyderabad bounced back after losing the first game to put it across Wacha 15-21, 21-18, 21-18 in a marathon encounter that lasted almost an hour last night. Kashyap’s triumph against the winner of the Polish Open gave him his best performance yet in a fledgling career. He meets world number 35 Yen Hui Kendrick Lee of Singapore for a place in the final of the two- star event. The other semifinal will be played between Denmark’s Kaspur Oedum and Susilo Ronald of Singapore, who had shown the door to Chetan Anand in the quarterfinals. Kashyap, who has been in outstanding form, had earlier beaten world number 39 Tsuen Seng Lee of Malaysia.
— PTI
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Ivana, Harika win world titles
New Delhi, October 28 They surpassed the previous best of two titles and three medals achieved in 2000, a release from the All-India Chess Federation today said. The Indian girls followed up the boys’ stupendous performance yesterday with three of them being crowned world champions. Ivana Furtado (girls under-8) of Goa, Ch Sahajasri (Girls under-10) of Karimnagar and Dronavalli Harika (Girls under-18) of Guntur became world champions in their respective categories.
— PTI
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Jalandhar, October 28
