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We need solid starts: SA coach
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Baroda coach slams BCCI
Vadodara, December 25 Baroda coach Ashok Mankad today slammed the cricket board for calling back Irfan Pathan midway through the Test series in South Africa, saying the “unprecedented” action would demoralise youngsters in the team.
Indian-origin boys make it to NSW team
Haryana bundled out for 171
Maharashtra, TN enter final
Kateryna drubs Negi to claim title
Flashback:
Tennis
Sunil upsets Divij; Sanam loses
Liberal Hockey
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We need solid starts: SA coach
Kingsmead (Durban), December 25 "One thing which has consistently troubled us since the Champions Trophy is the bad start we are getting from number 1, 2 and 3. We need solid starts and once that clicks we would be where we need to be as a unit," said Arthur on the eve of the second cricket Test against India here. That straightaway puts the onus on the likes of Herschelle Gibbs and captain Graeme Smith who are struggling for form at the moment. "It's really tough on Graeme. He is fighting a lot of batting demons but he is a strong character and a quality player, someone who is going to be around a long time. For the good of South African cricket, I pray he scores and the pressure is off his shoulder." As for Gibbs, Arthur did some plain-talking on the position on which the attacking right-hander would be batting. "In this Test, AB de Villiers would open and Gibbs would drop down the order. Gibbs is fine, he knows he is under serious pressure and he needs to deliver. He would be happy wherever we can get him in the batting order so he is happy to take it at the moment. "All things being equal, our top six will have a chance to redeem themselves and get rid of the criticism they are getting." As for his bowling unit, Arthur did not seem to have any worries despite the slow recovery of paceman Dale Steyn who now looks doubtful for the second Test. "As a bowling unit, we are where we wanted it. Our four or five guys are at the top of their game. We have had an in depth debriefing and they know what is expected of them. We have worked on line and lengths." Arthur himself is under flak for the poor Test record under his coaching stint - 3 wins out of 12 Tests - but he said the "pressure goes with the territory". "There is little doubt there is huge pressure on the side. For the first time in a while we face ourselves on the backfoot. But this is the situation when the character of the side would come out. I know we have great character in our dressing room." As Arthur hinted, guys like pacemen Morne Morkel, spinner Paul Harris and allrounder Andrew Hall could all be up for selection for the crucial tie.
— PTI
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Baroda coach slams BCCI
Vadodara, December 25 “This will demoralise the young players in the team and affect the morale of the side,” the former Test cricketer told PTI here. Describing the move as unprecedented in Indian cricket history, Mankad said taking a disciplinary action was another thing but sending back a player from a tour because of poor form had been unheard of. Mankad, who played 22 Tests for India, also sought to remind that it was Pathan’s unbeaten 100 in a warm-up game before the first Test which had rescued the team and lifted its morale after the drubbing in the preceding one-day series. Pathan, who was ignored for the first Test after a disappointing show in the one-dayers in which he picked just one wicket from three matches at an economy rate of 6.47, has been asked by the team management to find form in domestic cricket. Mankad welcomed the return of Pathan for Baroda’s remaining two Ranji Trophy ties although he was at a loss when asked who would the seamer replace in the team.
— PTI
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Aussies eye fourth win in a row
Melbourne, December 25 More than 95,000 spectators are expected each of the first two days, and likely the third and fourth, at the MCG. Hometown boy Warne, who announced his retirement from international cricket last Thursday, will be the major focus of attention as England tries to win its first Test in the five-match series after three straight losses which returned the Ashes to Australia. McGrath said his last Test will also be the one beginning January 2 in Sydney, although McGrath will play in the limited-overs World Cup tournament ending in April before calling it quits. Australia is also aiming to become only the second team to win a five-match Ashes series 5-0 _ Warwick Armstrong's Australian team was the only other team to do it, in 1920-21. "That might be something that might be spoken about, if there's an opportunity there for that to happen, it would be nice if this team could be the one to do it," captain Ricky Ponting said today. "Even with Warney and Glenn finishing, I think it's something they'd like to say they'd achieved in their careers as well, and the rest of the players, if we could be the first team in a long time to achieve that, that would be great." England captain Andrew Flintoff expects to be fit for the match after getting treatment for his troublesome ankle. On the weekend, Flintoff had injections and did not bowl in the nets. "There's no secret, I've had some discomfort in it over the past week," Flintoff said. "Having an injection is just a precaution, I'm not envisaging any long-term problems or worried about these next two Test matches," he added. Flintoff also plans to play as much as possible in the limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand. That series will feature the return of Michael Vaughan from knee injury. Flintoff took over the captaincy because of Vaughan's absence and no skipper has been named yet for the one-dayers. "He has worked hard to get back to fitness, it's been an awful 12 months for him," Flintoff said. When asked about the captaincy, Flintoff replied: "The announcement is going to be made after the Test series. "Michael Vaughan has been the England captain, I have been doing this in his absence. We will see what happens." Flintoff is confident England will play well in Melbourne. "We want to show we can win here, we want to show we can win two test matches, it's a big occasion for us," he said. "There has been a few things happening in the world of cricket over the past week, but it can't affect our preparations." Both teams held workouts today, although the Australians' was optional ahead of a Christmas lunch with their families at a Melbourne hotel. Warne is determined to end his international career with a clean sweep against the old enemy. "As far as I'm concerned we've got two Test matches to play and I just want to finish the series on a high," Warne said. "I think if we can win 5-0 that would be a fantastic achievement for a great team." Teams: (from) Australia : Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne. England: Andrew Flintoff (captain), Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Ed Joyce, Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen, Geraint Jones, Chris Read, Sajid Mahmood, Jamie Dalrymple, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett, Monty Panesar, James Anderson.
— AP
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Indian-origin boys make it to NSW team
Sydney, December 25 Both the Indians will be playing different roles for the state team in the National Championship to be held in Adelaide. If they perform well in the championship then their chances of making it to the Australian under-19 team will be more or less guaranteed. Jai is expected to spearhead the bowling attack for the state team whereas Manjot will let his bat to do the talking. Jai is currently playing cricket for UTS Balmain club and has been in top form with the ball: 26 wickets at an average of 16.35 and a haul of 6 for 33. Jai who migrated from India with his parents just over two years ago has got the potential to make and break into the elite class of fast bowlers. He has surprised everybody, according to Indianlink, an ethnic Indian newspaper. Manjot is seen as a batting prodigy who has shown his credentials by representing the NSW under-17 team and also captained NSW School boys' cricket team two years in 2004 and 2005. He was also awarded the Young Cricketer Award for the Asian community. During this ongoing cricket season Manjot has already scored over 250 runs and bagged 14 wickets for his club UTS Balmain at an average of 28.50. Manjot usually bats at number three for the club and bowls right arm orthodox off spin.
— IANS
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Haryana bundled out for 171
Vadodara, December 25 At close of the day's play, the hosts were 41 for the loss of two wickets. Connor Williams (20) and Rajesh Pawar (0) were at the crease. Earlier, Haryana skipper Joginder Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. However, his team lost 6 wickets for 97 runs at lunch and another two before tea at the score of 163. Sarkar sizzles
Kolkata: Young Bengal pacer Sourav Sarkar sizzled on debut claiming four wickets to rattle the Maharashtra top order before the visitors fought back to play out the opening day here today. After electing to bat, Maharashtra were reeling at 71/6 half-an-hour into the post-lunch session. However, a gritty 99-run stand for the seventh wicket between Sridharan Sriram (51 batting) and S A Satbhai (48) helped them to 171/7 at draw of stumps .— PTI
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Maharashtra, TN enter final
Chandigarh, December 25 In the first semifinal played today, AP defeated UP by three runs in a nail-biting finish. After winning the toss, UP opted to field and bowled out AP for 101 runs. AP Captain S. Monika scored 23 runs and Lavanya contributed 24 runs. Farhat took 3 wickets and Poonam chipped in with 2 wickets. Starting the run chase, UP lost their opener just for three runs on the board. Poonam scored 40 runs to consolidate the innings. Niresh and Nandini contributed 15 runs. In the last over UP required 10 runs but could only score six runs and lost the match. S. Monika of AP was adjudged player of the match. In the second semifinal, Maharashtra won the toss and elected to field. Punjab scored 55 runs (all out) in 17.3 overs. Moksha of Punjab scored 16 runs whereas Prachi and Apoorva of Maharashtra took two wickets each. Maharashtra achieved the target in just 14.1 overs. Apoorva scored 31 and Snehal 16. Maharashtra won the match by 9 wickets.
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Kateryna drubs Negi to claim title
New Delhi, December 25 The Ukrainian beauty, awaiting the official announcement of her GM title, accumulated an impressive 11 points out of the possible 18 in the 18-game event played six each in Classical, Rapid and Blitz format. Of the six blitz games played on the final day, the experienced Kateryna (ELO ratings 2450) quickly won the first and third games, pocketing two points required to claim the purse of Rs 300,000 as well as the golden trophy. The 16-year-old lost one and drew three blitz games en route to the victory against the 13-year-old Indian (ELO 2538). Kateryna defeated Parimarjan in all the three time controls with 3.5-2.5 win in the FIDE time control, 4-2 in Rapid by and 3.5-.2.5 in blitz in the inaugural edition of the event. Kateryna has made quite a name for herself in world chess, defeating the likes of GM Efimenko Zahar (2599), Areshchenko Alexander (2546), Malakhatko Vadim (2503) and Shtyrenkov Veniamen (2449) to name a few. Hailing from “chess city” of Kramatorsk, Kateryna is very ambitious and one of her claims to fame is refusing a draw in a blitz game against Viktor Kortchnoi when she was just 11. Kateryna, who will stand to gain around 10 ELO points after this victory, dictated the terms right from the start today, putting Sunday’s double loss behind her. Continuing their argument in Ruy Lopez theory, the first match went through expected lines, but an overenthusiastic Parimarjan gave up too much material in the middle game and lost the game in 34 moves. Needing a win to clinch the title, Kateryna played it safe in the Sicilian Kalashnikov as white in the next game, survived a few threats in the double rook and pawn ending and was happy to take the required draw to reach an impregnable nine points. Parimarjan had his chances in the third game but he crumbled under pressure, giving Kateryna another victory. The remaining three games were of academic interest and Parimarjan impressed scoring 2-1 in them. “Parimarjan was quite strong, and I had to work hard for the victory,” she said after the match. Kateryna next plans to take part in the Gibraltar Chess. Parimarjan did not appear much perturbed by the loss. “This was my first match of this kind. It was a great learning experience, I hope to come out stronger after this event,” said Parimarjan who is next going to play in the Corus Grandmasters chess tournament in Wijk Ann Zee, the Netherlands.
— PTI
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A year gone sour as ‘Indian Express’ derails
For statistics, Indian tennis contingent won two gold and two silver medals in the 15th Asian Games. In hindsight, they lost something bigger, maybe an Olympic gold, with Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi throwing away remnants of a strained partnership in the Persian Gulf. The Asiad medals, Paes' US Open triumph with Martin Damm or Sania Mirza's flash-in-the-pan win against Martina Hingis - nothing could really compensate for the year-end tragedy that struck Indian tennis like a catastrophe. As different as yin and yang, Paes and Bhupathi were never peas of the same pod. But the contrast was complementary and the ''Indian Express'' pair owes its joint success to the fact that they were just the perfect foil for each other. And even after friends turned foes and decided to part ways, national cause brought them together and they were still a force to reckon with. Realising that their chemistry still produces the sparks on court, the duo put aside personal ego and stood shoulder-to-shoulder under the tri-colour to perform national duty with elan. Much before the Asian Games, Bhupathi struck the discordant note, vowing not to play for the country after he felt snubbed by the All India Tennis Association's decision to pair Sania Mirza with Paes, while Bhupathi had to partner Shikha Uberoi. Hectic rounds of coaxing and cajoling broke the ice and Bhupathi finally landed in Doha but felt being cold-shouldered by Paes and coach Nandan Bal over his fitness, or rather lack of it, as claimed the rival camp. And some communication gap completed the chaos before Bhupathi announced enough of enough and he is not going to pair with Paes ever. At a time when he should have been celebrating, circumstances had Bhupathi spewing venom against his former comrade-in-arms. This was formal snapping of the final strand of the strained relation, which had yielded three Grand Slam titles, apart from innumerable Davis Cup wins. Doha was the last hurrah of the pair as India saw two of its prodigal sons roaming and ruling the court one last time, leaving follower of the game to rue that the pair could have ended with more trophies than their cupboard could hold but for a friendship gone sour. Personally, Paes added the US Open title to his kitty this year, faltered in the final of the Australian Open and stumbled at the semifinal of the Wimbledon. On the contrary, Bhupathi has nothing really to show, barring the ATP titles he and Mario Ancic won in Beijing and Mumbai. And India still struggles to find worthy inheritors of the legacy. Among the youngsters, Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna failed to impress while Karan Rastogi looked good only in patches. Elsewhere in the spectrum, Sania Mirza, predictably, was consistently inconsistent as her form yo-yoed throughout the year. In her second full season in the WTA tour, the Hyderabadi ace found life difficult and sporadic good shows here and there hardly made her a formidable player in the circuit. A surprise package in her rookie year, Sania’s game has been read by her peers, jacket-to-jacket, as if she were a JK Rowling creation. To make it worse, her game fell apart even against unheralded players and it only confirmed the popular notion that Sania runs out of motivation against lower ranked players. It showed in her rankings too as Sania slid from a career-high 31st to 66th at the end of the year and her lower back and wrist injuries didn't help her either. Beaten in the semifinals of the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata by eventual champion Martina Hingis, Sania, however, won the doubles title at the WTA Tier III event. And Sania's first top 10 win in the season came within a week when she stunned Hingis in Seoul. The Asian Hopman Cup triumph and the gold in mixed double and the silver medal in women's singles at Doha, however, ensured that she ends the year on a positive note and look forward to start afresh next year. From organisational point of view, the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata, country’s only WTA Tier III event, proved a huge success with top draw Martina Hingis displaying her charm and winning the title. But despite all, it was a cruel December and for Paes and Bhupathi, they now stand at a point of no return, turning their back on each other. The familiar air-pumping, chest-banging antics that sent adrenalin shooting up even among the followers are now things of the past and despite the riches at Doha, Indian tennis just got poorer and the void would be hard to fill in. — UNI
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Sunil upsets Divij; Sanam loses
New Delhi, December 25 Sunil, who had lost to Rohan Bopanna in the first leg second round here last week, hit back powerfully after losing the first set, to knock out Divij Sharan to create the first major shock of the second leg of the championship. Interestingly, the talented Divij Sharan had fallen to the big-serving Bopanna in the semifinal of the first leg and he once again failed to cash in on his fine game, even after winning the first set, albeit in the tie-breaker shoot out. Sunil and Divij traded breaks in the fourth and seventh games, respectively, to tie the score at six games all but in the tie-breaker the accurate serves and returns of Divij nicely passed Sunil, who, however, came back roaring in the second set to get even and then triumph in the third. Sunil Kumar steadied his game to break Divij in the sixth game of the second set, and seventh and 11th of the third to grab the set and the match, after a testing duel lasting over two hours. Another Chandigarh boy, Sanam K. Singh, who had stunned the second-seeded Alexey Kedriouk of Kazakhastan in the first leg, on way to the quarterfinal, however, could not reproduce the form against Vijay Kannan today and lost in straight sets at 3-6, 3-6 in one hour 12 minutes. Navdeep Singh put up a tough fight against Hyun Woo Nam of Korea, but failed to capitalise on winning the second set, to lose at 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-1. Alexey Kedriouk, who has been given the top billing this time, had to draw out from his reserve to put out Aditya Madkekar 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) to justify his promotion in seeding. The fare will warm-up tomorrow with second-seeded Prakash Amritraj, who will be returning to competition after an injury-induced break, taking on wild card Ashutosh Singh in the first round while third-seeded Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan, winner of the first leg title over Rohan Bopanna last Saturday, will meet the talented Ravi Shankar Patanjali of India. |
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Ropar Hawks, Jagraon cops advance
Ravi Dhaliwal
Nabha, December 25 In other matches of the day, Jagraon Police pounded Liberals XI 4-0 while Thapar Academy, Sansarpur, outplayed Surjit Hockey Academy 5-3. In the day’s last match Air Force, New Delhi, playing with a lot of zeal, nipped into the bud the aspirations of Punjabi University 3-1. For the organisers, the day’s programme started on a sad note when Artillery Centre, Hyderabad, who were scheduled to play the day’s first match against Jagraon Police, failed to take the ground. Their coach Daljit Singh said his team wanted to express sympathy with a young Hyderabad-based footballer, Anil Kumar, who died after a cardiac arrest on December 23. Anil Kumar used to turn out for Artillery Centre football team in the local league in Hyderabad. This forced the organisers to field a local team, Liberals XI, against Jagraon cops in the opening encounter. The cops started of strongly and pumped in two goals within the first 10 minutes forcing the local team to adopt a defensive strategy in an attempt to stem the tide. Navpreet Singh opened scoring by scoring off a solo run while centre-half Vikram Vicky netted the second goal by caressing the ball home after he had sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. Specks of rough play surfaced during the opening minutes of the second half but the umpires did well to control the game. The umpires flashed a couple of green and yellow cards to players of both teams before things calmed down. For Jagraon Police, Harbans Singh and Golu Singh netted a goal each to enable the cops to close out the lop sided match at 4-0. The youngsters of Ropar Hawks controlled their temper and the proceedings in an admirable way throughout their match against fancied Eastern railway, Kolkata. Down by two goals, the Ropar lads came back strongly through junior internationals Gurpreet Sodhi and Major Singh to equalise. Kolkata midfielder S. Jojo hoisted the lead in the second half when he capped his brilliant solo run down the middle with a hard drive. However, Hawks struck with two breathtaking efforts towards the close to set up a 4-3 hard earned victory.
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Patiala, December 25 Scores: Black Elephant C C: 136 for 4 ( Kohinoor Kalia 74, Shivin Goyal 24, Bhupinder Singh 3 for 32) DMW,Patiala: 110 for 8 ( Anmol Preet Singh 22, Gopal 13, Ajay Bharti 4 for 24, Bhupinder Palwat 2 for 28, Kohinoor Kalia 1 for 4, Gursewak Singh 1 for 9) — OC
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Bhupathi pulls out of Chennai Open Basketball meet
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