Margao, October 23
Unseasonal rains have cast a doubt over tomorrow's third and final one-day international between India and Australia, who desperately need a win to square the series and avoid their first series defeat against the hosts in over two decades.

Rains started lashing this Goan town last evening and continued till past midnight before letting off. However, it started raining again in the morning and also denied the two teams practice session. The met office has predicted more rains and the sky was heavily overcast in the morning. India have taken a 1-0 lead by chasing down a stiff target of 290 in the second ODI at Vishakapatnam.

The first clash at Kochi was washed out without a ball being bowled last Sunday. If tomorrow's match is also washed out, Australia will leave the Indian shores without a single win, having lost the Test series before the One-day series.

The last time the Aussies had lost a ODI series in India was in 1986-87 when the hosts had won by a 3-2 margin. Though without several key players, including marauding opener Virender Sehwag and champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar, the home team were undeterred in living up to the stiff task set by the Australians. India have won their last two encounters - against England and Sri Lanka - at this venue and a hat-trick of wins in front of a capacity crowd of 27,000 would be the perfect ending to the rubber for them.

With the batting line-up clicking in unison after the early fall of debutant opener Shikhar Dhawan and his comrade-in-arms Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma looks set to warm the bench for another match. The Indians would be pleased not only with the superb display dished out by young Virat Kohli, who piloted the home team across the finish line with his classy 118, but also of Yuvraj Singh who had been struggling to get into some sort of form of late.

Yuvraj, who made 58, may not have batted with the gay abandon with which he has been associated with in the past, but his getting into the groove with the World Cup fast approaching is a welcome sign for the team. Suresh Raina has been in cracking form, especially in the shorter formats of the game, and showed what he's capable of in his 47-ball cameo that was worth an unbeaten 71. Even with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni falling for a duck, there was enough in the batting tank to see them to the target.

Meanwhile, persistent rains today forced cancellation of the practice sessions of both the Indian and Australian cricket teams on the eve of the third and final One-day here. It rained consistently last night before stopping early in the morning. However, it started raining again around 9:00am, forcing the groundsmen to cover the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. — PTI

Margao, October 23
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today gave a new spin on the issue of some top players skipping the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand in order to prepare for the tougher outing in South Africa, by saying no communication has been sent from the players' side to the Cricket Board.

"Not done (written to the Board) anything like that as of now. No confirmation has been sent from the players' side to the BCCI yet and nothing has been received from the BCCI either. This is what I have to say," said Dhoni at the mandatory press conference ahead of tomorrow's third and the final ODI against Australia which is threatened by rains.

He was replying to a query on reports quoting BCCI sources that some top players, including Dhoni, will not play the five-match ODI series against New Zealand after the three-Test rubber against the same opponents and, instead, jet off to South Africa to get more acclimatisation time for the Test rubber against the Proteas. India have not won a Test rubber in South Africa and are currently the world's number one Test side.

Dhoni said that all these things could be kept on the back burner as the team was looking at tomorrow's clash against Australia which, if the hosts won, would close out the three-match series 2-0 in their favour and provide India with their first ODI series win at home against the formidable opponents in more than two decades.

"Tomorrow's game is more important to us right now rather than thinking about what to do after the New Zealand series.

As I always say, I don't think too much about the future. After that (ODI series v Australia) what is important is the utilisation of the 4-5 days' break that we have got, then concentrate on the Test series (v NZ). And if we get some time we will see what can be done and what needs to be done," Dhoni said.

The India captain conceded that the home team's bowling in the end overs of the 50-over games is not a matter of recent concern but has been bothering them for over the last 18 months. "The last ten overs have always been a big concern for us. It's not a worry we have had (only) over the last 2 or 3 months. We have been bothered by the last ten overs for a long time now. We had done well in between but have not been really consistent. It's still an area where we can definitely improve," Dhoni said. — PTI

Margao, October 23
Desperate to sign off a disastrous tour on a high in the rain-threatened third ODI against India tomorrow, Australia captain Michael Clarke today said his team remained a confident unit despite failing to register a single win so far on a “tough" trip.

Trailing the hosts 0-1, the Aussies could lose their first ODI series in India in over two decades if they lose tomorrow's match or if it is washed out. The Aussies have already been handed a 0-2 drubbing in the Test series. Clarke said he was hopeful that the weather would hold up.

"I hope the sun comes out. We came to the ground yesterday. The pitch looked really good, (but) the ground was a little bit wet. Hoping the rain goes away and there's sunshine and we get a full game tomorrow," Clarke said in the pre-match press conference here.

"All the boys are looking forward to tomorrow's match. It's obvious we have to win the game to square the series," he added. As if to answer the Australians' wish, the rain stopped in the afternoon and both the teams were able to practice at the ground which had been covered.

The sun also came out from behind the clouds as the teams had a stint at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. "Tomorrow is an important game for us. All the boys would like to have a win and draw the series. All are disappointed we did not win the other night. I thought we played pretty well”. — PTI

Yeongam , October 23
Earning points will be a difficult task for Force India drivers in the inaugural South Korean Grand Prix as Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi will start 14th and 17th respectively on the grid tomorrow. Sutil manged to sneak into Q2 but Liuzzi settled for his position in first qualifying. The Italian had finished 18th but moved up a place following a five place penalty on Renault's Vitaly Petrov.

Sutil was 15th in the first qualifying but could not get into the Qualifying 3 and settled for the 14th position. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel grabbed the pole position ahead of teammate Mark Webber. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso will start third.

"Although P14 isn't exactly what we would have hoped for, we were still quite close to the top 12 and with a bit of luck could have been even closer to Q3. In Q2 I had some traffic on my first lap and then my second was good, but it was tough out there with the tyres," Sutil said.

Talking about the track for the first ever F1 race here, Sutil said, "It's a great track they have built here. I really enjoyed driving on it - there's a lot of challenges and kinks and it was really so grippy at the end of the session that it was a real pleasure to drive each lap." Liuzzi also blamed the tyre selection for the result.

"We suffered with a lot of graining on the soft tyres today. We missed out on the last run in the morning because of a puncture and didn't try the option tyres, but we didn't expect them to grain as badly as they did," he said. — PTI

Faridabad, October 23
Eye-catching performance by sportsmen from Haryana in the just-concluded Commonwealth Games-especially wrestling--appears to have evinced public interest in the discipline of wrestling. This was apparent today by the good public response to witness wrestling bouts in the ongoing 24th Haryana State Games here.

After the conclusion of wrestling competition in the womens section the contingent from Rohtak emerged head and shoulders above others bagging in all two gold,one silver and two bronze medals in different weight categories.

Wrestlers from Sonipat stood second. It bagged a gold and two silver.The contingent from Haryana Police was third bagging a medal in each of the gold,silver and bronze category.

The good response of the public towards the discipline of wrestling was perhaps due to good show by the wrestlers from Haryana in the Commonwealth Games in which they bagged seven out of 10 gold in wrestling. In fact, wrestlers on the whole bagged 17 medal,including five silver and four bronze.

Jalandhar, October 23
Indian Oil, Mumbai, clinched the overall trophy in the 27th Indian Oil Surjit Hockey Tournament defeating star-studded Air India, Mumbai, via tiebreaker 6-5 at Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium here today. At the end of the stipulated time both teams were locked at 2-2.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal gave away a cash award of Rs 2.5 lakh to the winners while the runners up got Rs 1.5 lakh. Air India skipper Sameer Dad was declared man of the match, Chiklengsena of Indian Railways was declared man of the tournament and was given Rs 21,000.

Earlier, Air-India mounted pressure on rivals Indian Oil right from the word go. In the 6th minute of the game, Air India earned its first penalty corner, when V. Vinay hit the board after dodging Indian Oil goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan.

In the 28th minute of the game Indian Oil men managed to consolidate their lead when forward Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh mounted pressure and scored a penalty corner, through international star Raghu Nath 1-1. Till half both the teams were locked at 1-1.

In the second half of the match once again Indian Oil men took the lead when skipper Inderjit Chadha posted a field goal in the 39th minute of the game making score 2-1. For Air India, equaliser came through the stick of Sandeep Michael in the 65th minute of the game.

While in the tiebreaker, Air India men - Lalit Upadhayay, M.Amir Khan and Ajmer singh - scored the goals. For Indian Oil - Arjun Antil, Ramandeep Singh, Roshan Minj and V Raghu Nath - scored the goals and steered the team to victory.