London, July 21
England battled to 127 for two at tea on the opening day of the first test against India at Lord's on Thursday, in the face of some excellent swing bowling from left-arm pace bowler Zaheer Khan. Jonathan Trott, the most assured of the England batsman, completed his seventh test half-century to reach 58 not out when the players left the field 20 minutes early because of bad light.

He was accompanied by Kevin Pietersen, who batted with resolute self-denial to compile 22 off 73 deliveries. Zaheer left the field with a hamstring injury during an extended afternoon session after dismissing England openers Andrew Strauss (22) and Alastair Cook (12) at the cost of only 18 runs from 13.3 overs.

He should have had a third victim when Trott on 32 edged the ball between captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps and Rahul Dravid at first slip. The 2000th test and the 100th between the two countries started half an hour late after morning rain, which freshened the pitch further after a week of dismal weather and persuaded Dhoni to ask England to bat after winning the toss.

The ball moved consistently and sometimes extravagantly through the air and off the pitch and England did not get off the mark until the 19th ball, when Cook edged Praveen Kumar to the third-man boundary. Cook, who scored 96 and 106 in his last test at Lord's against Sri Lanka in June, was lbw pushing forward to Zaheer after 45 minutes at the crease.

The decision review system (DRS) for lbws is not being used in this series after India refused to agree to ball-tracking technology, but television replays showed Cook would not have been successful if he had had the right to appeal. — Reuters

Scoreboard
England 1st innings
Strauss c Ishant b Zaheer 22
Cook lbw b Zaheer 12
Trott batting 58
Pietersen batting 22
Extras (b 8, lb 4, w 1) 13
Total (2 wkts at tea) 127
Bowling: Zaheer 13.3-8-18-2, Praveen 17.3-5-46-0, Ishant 11.2-3-33-0, Harbhajan 7-1-18-0.

London, July 21
Duncan Fletcher today etched his name into the record books by becoming the first cricket coach to complete a century of matches at the helm of affairs of a national team during the first Test between India and England at Lord's here.

The Zimbabwean, who took the reins of Indian cricket team after Gary Kirsten, rose to fame following English side's 2005 Ashes victory at home after a gap of 18 years. In his eight year association with England, Fletcher saw the team beat Sri Lanka in their own den and also helped them clinch victories against the West Indies and New Zealand, apart from their Ashes heroics.

In 2004, England won record eight consecutive Tests, beating New Zealand 3-0 and West Indies 4-0 at home, before winning the first Test in South Africa. The 62-year-old, who became England's first foreign coach in 1999, led English team in 96 matches before guiding Team India to a successful Caribbean tour.

Believed to be hard task master, Fletcher comes as a rare breed. "We are still getting used to his well disguised humour," quips Rahul Dravid. "He is a good, calm presence in the dressing room. He is technically very knowledgeable and you can make out that he's worked with many batsmen in many situations," Dravid revealed.

"We are very lucky to have someone like Duncan with us because he is a very experienced and a mature person. I feel I can learn from him. There is always a scope for improving and having discussions with someone like Duncan, who can only make you a better cricketer," said Laxman. "The Lord's Test is going to be his 100th as a coach, which is a great achievement in itself, and he will be the first coach to achieve it," he added. — PTI

Mumbai, July 21
Speeding up its probe into the finances of Indian Premier League, the Enforcement Directorate has summoned former Indian cricket captain Ravi Shastri for questioning in connection with the alleged financial irregularities in the IPL.

Shastri, who is out of the country currently, has been asked to help the ED in answering certain questions related to the Twenty20 league as he was on the IPL Governing Council, sources involved in the investigation said.

Shastri has been called to be present at the ED's office here next week to speed up the probe into the case.

The ED is also probing the role of ex-IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, who is currently in London, for alleged contraventions of foreign exchange rules.

The ED is investigating into the alleged violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) against various IPL franchises and foreign exchange and remittance related offences and connected issues concerning both the IPL and the BCCI. — PTI

Mendoza, July 21
Paraguay advanced to the Copa America final against Uruguay by beating Venezuela in a penalty shootout following a goalless draw. Paraguay won the shootout 5-3 last night, the only miss coming when Justo Villar stopped Franklin Lucena's shot.

Dario Veron netted the final spot kick to set up Sunday's final against Uruguay, which beat Peru 2-0 in the other semifinal on Tuesday. Venezuela, known more for its baseball, came up just short of reaching the final of the South American competition for the first time.

Paraguay advances to its first Copa America final since 1979, despite not having won any of its five matches so far. It eliminated Brazil in another penalty shootout in the quarterfinals.

After the shootout, a brawl between the teams started as Paraguay celebrated, prompting police to intervene. That came after a game in which Paraguay had its coach and assistant coach expelled from the sideline for arguing decisions. — AP

Mumbai, July 21
Around 176 hockey players from India and across the world are all set to take part in the World Series Hockey to be held from December 15, 2011 to January 22, 2012. A joint venture between the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Nimbus Sport - World Hockey series - will feature 61 matches.

The captains of eight city-based franchisee teams were announced at a media conference and the list includes top Indian internationals - Sardara Singh, Adrian D'Souza, Arjun Halappa and Prabhjot Singh - all of whom were present at the occasion here, along with drag-flicker Sandeep Singh.

Four other teams would be captained by Australia's Brent Livermore, Pakistan's Rehan Butt, former Spain captain Rodrigo Garza and Argentina's Lucas Vila. Six venues for the five-week long tournament have already been identified and those include Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab (Amritsar, Jalandhar and Chandigarh) Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Two more cities would be chosen subsequently, it was announced.

Nimbus Communications' Executive Chairman Harish Thawani, in the presence of IHF's President R K Shetty and Chief Advisor K P S Gill, said the decks for participation of several top players have been cleared, following his meeting in Europe with International Hockey Federation's (FIH) Chief Leander Negre. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Randhawa two shots off lead
Malaysia: Indian golfer Jyoti Randhawa was unable to hold onto his fine start of three-under on the front nine and finished with a battling one-under 72 in the second round of the USD 400,000 Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters on the Asian Tour. The former Asian Tour No. 1 was still tied sixth, but he was joined by compatriot, Sujjan Singh (66) who had the day's second best card to move to six-under 138. — PTI

TT: Indian Cadet Boys lose
New Delhi: Indian Cadet Boys today bowed out of the Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships with a 0-3 thrashing at the hands of Korea in the quarterfinals here today. In the first game, Utkarsh Gupta lost to Kim Min Hyeok 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 10-12 and India trailed 0-2 after Abhishek Yadav was beaten 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 7-11 by Lim Jonghoon. In the third game, the Indian doubles pair of Utkarsh Gupta and Abhishek Yadav lost to Yin Jing Yuan and Chau Jia Liang Oscar 9-11, 8-11, 8-11. — PTI

Chandhok replaces Trulli
Nurburgring: Team Lotus today made a surprise announcement replacing veteran driver Jarno Trulli with reserve driver Karun Chandhok of India, for this weekend's German Grand Prix. Lotus said the decision was taken in order to give the Indian a chance to prove himself. Tony Fernandes, the Team Principal, said, “As a young Asian driver, Karun faces even more obstacles to achieving his goals than his counterparts from the established motorsport homelands in the West, both from inside and outside F1, and I am very proud to be able to give him this chance on merit," he added. — PTI

Woods' caddie 'shocked'
Washington: Tiger Woods' caddie, Steve Williams, has said he is 'shocked and disappointed' over his sacking, and indicated that 'his loyalty' had been betrayed. "After 13 years of loyal service, needless to say this came as a shock. Given the circumstances of the past 18 months working through Tiger's coach, a new coach and with it a major swing change, I am very disappointed to end our very successful partnership at this time," Williams was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. "I want to express my deepest gratitude to Stevie for all his help, but I think it is time for a change," Woods said on his website. — ANI

Inter-DPS sports meet
Rohtak: The second day of the National Inter DPS Multi Sports Meet (Boys U-14) 2011 which is being organised by Delhi Public School, Rohtak under the aegis of Delhi Public School Society, New Delhi started on a winning note with full enthusiasm. Todays event started with Shotput followed by Discus Throw and 800 mts. Finals. The other events of the second day were Finals of 50m Backstroke, 50m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle. Badminton, Table Tennis and Chess also took place simultaneously. — TNS

The pack rides in the 200.5 km 18th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday. — AFP

Boxers for Asian C’ship
New Delhi: Commonwealth Games gold medallist Paramjeet Samota will lead a 10-member Indian team in the Asian Confederation Boxing Championships to be held at Incheon, South Korea from August 3 to 13. A bronze medallist in 2010 Asian Games, Somota will be accompanied by CWG bronze medallists Jai Bhagwan (60kg) and Amandeep Singh (49kg), while in Bantam Weight it would be Shiva Thapa who will lead the charge. — PTI