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Nothing going right for India
Marsh, Hussey slam tons
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SA cricket team in Sirsa
Humbled Hockey
Shoe problem for India
Vettel on Pole in Italy
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Nothing going right for India
Another game, another loss. It really is incredible that the world champions are snatching defeats from the jaws of victory in the limited-overs series so far. Perhaps their fortunes will change if they are chasing rather than defending a score but to do that they have to win the toss and give themselves that option but that also is not happening and luck just seems to have turned its face away from the Indians. In all the games so far they have managed good scores only to find the bowlers have not been able to keep the lid on the scoring. In conditions where seam and swing bowlers should prosper India’s bowlers have been wide off the mark and have offered scoring opportunities so that England’s batsmen don’t have to look to create them. The conditions at the Oval were perfect for swing and seam and young Rahane found that out when a ‘pearler’ from Anderson consumed him for his first failure in international cricket. It is a learning curve for him and if he spends a lot of time with Rahul Dravid he will learn a great deal about batting, not just the strokes aspect but how to build an innings, when to go for the big shots, when to wait a bowler out. There has been no better builder of high rise cricket innings than the man from Karnataka and luckily for Rahane he can also speak his language. It is for the young man to learn that and create prose or poetry of his own. It is the same for the other young batsmen in the team like Manoj Tiwary, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina who by spending time with Dravid and Tendulkar will learn more about batting than from anywhere else. Unfortunately the same expertise and experience is not available to the bowlers with Zaheer injured and out of the team but he is another whose inputs have been invaluable in the development of Ishant Sharma and others. What would Praveen Kumar give to open that attack with Zaheer but even he is looking a bit jaded and tired now. Fielding though is another matter and here the person must want every ball to come to him like Suresh Raina does. He is worth his place in any team for the enthusiasm and energy he brings to the task. The one thing that the fielding coach must tell his excitable youngsters is not to throw unnecessarily. The T20 effect means that fielders throw the ball even when there is no realistic chance of a runout and that could result in overthrows and upsets the captain and the bowler and makes the bowler lose his focus for the next few deliveries. Ravindra Jadeja picked up the man of the match in his comeback game. He has always been more of a batsman who could bowl and his batting performance was not a surprise but the way he exploited the turn was great to see and he will have more confidence in his bowling now and that will give Dhoni some flexibility to shuffle his attack. What the beleaguered Indian captain needs though is some fresh ammunition and not the spent bullets he has with him now. — PMG
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Dejected Dhoni still hoping for turnaround
"The first 10 overs were crucial. We gave away too many runs. Otherwise spinners would have had a few more runs to play with," said Dhoni after yesterday's three-wicket loss in the rain-hit match during which the first 10 overs of England innings cost 60 runs to the Indian team. —PTI
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Pallekele, September 10 The two left-handers put on 258 for the fourth wicket as the tourists moved to 411-7 in their first innings by stumps on the third day, a lead of 237 runs with three wickets in hand. Marsh made 141 and Hussey scored 142, his second big knock in the series after a match-winning 95 in the first Test in Galle last week. Just 40.3 overs were bowled in the day as heavy rain washed out play soon after tea at the Pallekele International Stadium. With more rain forecast over the remaining two days, Australian captain Michael Clarke may be forced to make an early declaration to bid for a series-clinching victory. the partnership of Hussey and Marsh was the highest ever against Sri Lanka for the fourth wicket, surpassing the 256 by Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly for India in Mumbai in 1997. — AFP
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SA cricket team in Sirsa
Sirsa, September 10 Sirsa Sizzlers is the home team of the host Jannayak Chaudhary Devi Lal National Cricket Academy (JCDNCA), which is organising these matches. The South Africans arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi in the early hours today, from where they reached Sirsa by bus. The team led by Jacobus Egbert O’Kelly, includes E.W. Swanepoel, W.A. Nell, A.J. Lange, Shaun Meijer, Frans J.L. Botha, S.W. Smit, Deon Peter van Eeden, R.A. Venter, Craig Schlebusch, A.W. Tollemache and Hennie Strauss. Talking to media persons, O’Kelly said that his team would play positive cricket and will entertain the local crowd.
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Hockey India’s roller-coaster ride
Hockey India’s birth and life has been a tale of struggle within and battles outside. It has had a very tenuous existence with several forces trying to tear it asunder right from Day One. MS Unnikrishnan
Hockey India was formed with an ad-hoc administration, headed by then IOA treasurer Ashok Kumar Mattoo, as the head. But it was tough going for him from Day One, as the FIH started threatening that it would pull the World Cup out of Delhi if the HI did not conduct proper elections to put an elected body in place before the tournament, though a private organising committee had been formed to hold the World Cup. Then followed a series of startling developments, cornering HI from all sides. With IOA president Suresh Kalmadi being busy as chairman of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games, it was left to the ad-hoc committee to run HI affairs, which Mattoo and Co. found too difficult to handle. The players attending the World Cup preparatory camp in Pune, under Spanish coach Jose Brasa, struck work in January 2010, demanding that their past dues and incentives be cleared, otherwise they would not attend the camp. The players’ revolt came barely six weeks before the World Cup (February 28-March 13). FIH vice-president Antonio von Ondarza, who was deputed as the observer for the HI elections, tried to mediate and had expressed shock over the development. He felt that “the players should concentrate on training, instead of indulging in pressure tactics”. But the players were unmoved. Though HI initially took a tough stand, saying that it had an additional list of 22 players and bluntly told the players to give in writing whether they would be attending the camp or not, the players were not willing to backtrack. HI sent a mediator to pacify the players but the stand-off continued and the issue was resolved only when Kalmadi intervened and Sahara Group chairman Subroto Roy came forward to clear the players’ dues amounting to rupees one crore to ensure that the World Cup camp went on smoothly. Mattoo was upset that he was kept out of the loop in the discussions with the players regarding the final settlement when Kalmadi stepped in and resigned as the head of the ad-hoc committee, giving the HI reins to former president of the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation, Vidya Stokes. Then began the cumbersome task of bringing the State hockey associations under the HI banner so that proper elections could be held before the World Cup, as demanded by the FIH. But many States had to contend with two hockey bodies -- and Punjab was one of them. When the HI showed no inclination to induct the body headed by former Indian captain Pargat Singh, Punjab raised a banner of revolt, which got backing from the then Sports Minister M.S. Gill. Eventually, Punjab was given affiliation though it was another matter that Pargat lost the battle of the ballot for the HI president’s post to Stokes, who herself quit soon, adhering to the Government guidelines on age and tenure limit. The elections had to be postponed initially due to a stay order passed by the Rajasthan High Court. The sexual harassment allegation against women’s team chief coach M.K. Kaushik, rifts among players in the men’s team and chief coach Brasa’s regular battle with the authorities to get the players proper training facilities, all kept the HI on tenterhooks, which reached saturation point when the Sports Ministry de-recognised it when the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) won a decisive court battle, to script another turbulent chapter in Indian hockey.
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Ordos, September 10 Manjit Kullu, the left half back in the Indian team, has been playing with warm-up shoes in the tournament after his only pair of hockey turf shoes had split into two. Playing with warm-up shoes is akin to running on ice wearing normal shoes and Manjit is lucky that he has not injured himself till now. The other Indian player who is without turf shoes is Harpreet Singh. The turf is slippery here at Ordos and both the players are at constant risk of slipping, which can cause serious injury to them. — PTI
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Nadal pulled off his seventh win in 10 meetings against 2003 champion Roddick and was untroubled as the 29-year-old American was slowed by a left thigh injury which twice needed treatment and the all-court dominance of the Spaniard. Second seed Nadal, who became the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam when he won here last year, will be playing in his fourth successive US Open semifinal. He will be buoyed by having defeated Murray, who made the last four with a four-set win over America's John Isner, in the semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon earlier in the summer. "The beginning of the match was very important. Andy had a tough match on Thursday (against David Ferrer) but he's a great champion," said Nadal, who has reached the semifinals without dropping a set and saw off Roddick in seven minutes short of two hours. "It's always a pleasure to face Andy Murray. He is one of the most talented players on the tour. He beat me here in 2008 when he reached the final. It'll be an exciting match and a big challenge." Roddick admitted he had been outplayed, and that he ran out of steam. "He was in full control of things today, it was the most aggressive I have seen him play this summer," he said. "It's tough to play so many matches. I had a tough four-setter against Ferrer and I felt like it was six. I felt the leg in the match. It was like falling over when I was trying to push off." Bopanna-Qureshi crash out India's campaign at the US Open ended after the fifth seeded Indo-Pak pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi crashed out following a straight-set loss to the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and Maruisz Fyrstenberg in the men's double semifinal. At the end of an 82-minute battle, the sixth-seed duo from Poland got the better of the Indo-Pak Express 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). Matkowski and Fyrstenberg, who defeated Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi in the quarterfinals, completely dominated in the first set, converting two of the three break points they got, besides getting 75 per cent of their second serve right as opposed to the 22 per cent of Bopanna-Qureshi. However, the Indo-Pak pair, which had done well at Flushing Meadows having made it to the final last year, got their act together in the second set and managed to pose some threat, taking it to the tie-breaker. It was indeed a tough fight in the second set as there was little to differentiate between the two sides but the Polish pair's winning percentage of 90 per cent on first serve proved decisive in the end. — PTI
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Monza, September 10 McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, nearly half a second slower than the German in the final session, will line up alongside the championship leader on the front row with team mate Jenson Button in third place. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, last year's winner from pole position at the fastest track on the calendar, qualified in fourth place in his team's home race. It was Vettel's 10th pole of the season, four shy of Briton Nigel Mansell's 1992 record of 14, and the 25th of his 75 race career. Red Bull have now been on pole for the past 14 races, with Vettel also quickest at last year's Abu Dhabi season-ender. "We thought it would be much closer than that," said Vettel, who won from pole at Monza with Red Bull's Italian-based sister team Toro Rosso in 2008, after taking the top slot with a lap of one minute 22.275 seconds. This year I have to say the car is so good here. The balance is perfect." Red Bull Racing have yet to get one of their drivers on the podium at Monza but Vettel, 92 points clear of Australian team mate Mark Webber with seven races remaining, should end that on Sunday. "I remember the last time and hopefully I am back on the podium tomorrow," he smiled. "I didn't have another half a second in the bag," said Hamilton, who lapped in 1:22.725, of the demoralising gap between him and the 24-year-old Vettel. "Clearly we are very competitive here.” — Reuters
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Another game, another loss. It really is incredible that the world champions are snatching defeats from the jaws of victory in the limited-overs series so far. Perhaps their fortunes will change if they are chasing rather than defending a score but to do that they have to win the toss and give themselves that option but that also is not happening and luck just seems to have turned its face away from the Indians.
London, September 10
Though Hockey India (HI) was created by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) at the bidding of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to ensure that the 2010 World Cup stayed put in Delhi, it has been on a roller-coaster ride since then, battling demons within and forces outside to stay afloat.
New York, September 10
SINGAPORE: