New Delhi, January 8
Shikhar Dhawan served a timely reminder to the national selectors with a brilliant century as Delhi defeated England by six wickets to hand the visitors their second successive defeat in warm-up games here today.

Chasing a difficult 294 for five set by England, Delhi rode on skipper Dhawan's 110 and Milind Kumar's unbeaten 78 to overhaul the target with nine balls to spare.

Left-hander Dhawan, who last played for India in the West Indies, cracked his 110 off only 109 balls to set up a chase which initially looked difficult. He hit 13 boundaries and three huge sixes—one each off Jade Dernbach, James Tredwell and Stuart Meaker.

If Dhawan and Unmukt Chand (37) started the chase well, adding 98 for the opening stand, unheralded youngster Milind and veteran Rajat Bhatia (45 not out) finished off the run chase with a flourish as they smashed 103 runs off 72 balls.The day, however, belonged to Dhawan who hogged the limelight with brilliant authorative display. Time and again, he drove the pace quartet of Steven Finn, Dernbach, Meaker and Chris Woakes through the covers. The moment, the pacers dug it in short, he was quickly in a position to play the pull shot.

Dhawan completed his century off 98 balls with a big six off Tredwell over deep mid-wicket. Credit should also be given to young Milind, who showed a lot of maturity and paced his innings to perfection. Whether it was playing the slash over deep third man or driving on the up, Milind had an answer to everything that was thrown at him. Milind hit seven fours and three sixes in his 85-ball knock. The shot that stood out was a six over extra cover off Meaker.

Earlier, Ian Bell scored a fine century as England posted a challenging score of 294 for five after being put into bat. Having scored 91 in the first match against India A, Bell was again in fine form as he batted with lot of responsibility scoring 108 runs with the help of 10 fours and two huge sixes. — PTI 

Scoreboard

England XI
Cook b Narwal 44
Bell lbw b Sood 108
Root c Bisht b Sood 10
Patel b Sood 13
Morgan c Chand b Anand 52
Kieswetter not out 41
Woakes not out 3
Extras: (b 1, lb 6, w 13, nb 3) 23
Total (5 wkts; 50 overs) 294
Fall of wickets: 1-70, 2-94, 3-130, 4-243, 5-269
Bowling: Nehra 9-0-48-0, Awana 8-1-53-0, Narwal 10-0-66-1, Anand 7-0-35-1, Sood 10-0-45-3, Bhatia 6-0-40-0

Delhi

Dhawan lbw b Root 110
Chand c Cook b Tredwell 37
Anand b Tredwell 4
Milind not out 78
Rawal b Dernbach 2
Bhatia not out 45
Extras: (lb 10, w 7, nb 2) 19
Total (4 wkts; 48.3 overs) 295
Fall of wickets: 1-98, 2-122, 3-188, 4-192
Bowling: Finn 8-0-47-0, Dernbach 9-1-46-1, Woakes 6-0-40-0, Patel 7-0-41-0, Tredwell 9-1-49-2, Meaker 7.3-0-55-0, Root 2-0-7-1

New Delhi, January 8
His dreams took flight amid gunfire and bloodshed but, Parvez Rasool, the first cricketer from the valley to be picked for the India 'A' team, was so enamoured by the 22-yard strip that he can't remember the violence that scarred the beauty of Kashmir.

The 23-year-old all-rounder appeared for India 'A' in a practice match against England XI on Sunday. The feat redeemed the youngster, who was detained by Bangalore police for questioning in 2009 in connection with suspected presence of explosives at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

He was, however, given a clean chit a few days later.

"It was a not a great thing to happen, whether by any mistake or an error in the machine or whatever... I didn't spend too much time thinking over it," Rasool said.

"At the end of the day I thought that I am a cricketer and my job is to play. This thing could have happened with anyone for that matter and unfortunately it was me on that fateful day," added Rasool, who hails from Bijbehara in South Kashmir's Anantnag district, once considered to be a hot-bed of militancy.

The modest cricketer is grappling to come to terms with the new-found fame and is more than happy to narrate his journey with enthusiasm to everyone that rings him up with a congratulatory hello.

"Last few days have been out of this world. It is an amazing feeling. My phone has been bombarded with congratulatory messages and people want to know about me. All this seems so surreal," said Rasool.

Rasool conceded 16 runs from his three overs in a winning cause against England in a practice game.

Asked if the sound of bullets ever distracted him from cricket, the all-rounder came up with a curt "no".

"I don't even remember one such incident. My focus has always been on cricket," said Rasool who earlier had a chance to hone his skills alongside India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Rasool, who was in the India 'A' squad for the practice match against England at the Air Force Ground in Palam, was summoned by the Indian team management to bowl to the likes of Dhoni and Virat Kohli ahead of the side's third and final ODI against Pakistan on Sunday. "It was a great feeling. I can't express it in words. I bowled at Dhoni and he offered me some tips also. Sharing Indian team's dressing room and being their part... It was certainly one of those days which I won't forget throughout my life. “Being in that team bus... it really was amazing," said the off-spinner, who bagged 33 wickets this season. Rasool also amassed 594 runs from seven matches at a healthy average of 54 runs per innings.

He certainly has shown a lot of promise but there is still a lot more to prove. "I have seen him before. He has the talent, but the thing is that you need to transform that talent into performance against a quality side," India 'A' coach, Lalchand Rajput, said about the J&K cricketer.

The youngster, though, is confident that it is just the beginning of a journey. "Like any other cricketer, I too want to play for India.

I know I have to be much more consistent and need to work much harder. But I am sure that if I play well, I can make it big," a confident Rasool said. When asked what if he would not have got a chance to showcase his skills against England, Rasool said, "There are 14 players in the squad and I know only 11 can play. I would not have felt let down. Instead it would have motivated me to do even better in future."

Coming from a family of cricketers, motivation was never lacking for the talented cricketer. But what worries him is the lack of infrastructure for the sport in the state. "We don't have enough facilities there. There are only two turf wickets in valley, one is at Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium and the other one is at Kashmir University in Srinagar. — PTI

New Delhi, January 8
Elated with his favourite student making an impressive ODI debut for India, Shami Ahmed's coach Badruddin Siddique said he advised the young speedster to treat his first international outing as just a Ranji game.

Shami made his debut for India against Pakistan in the third and final ODI of the three-match series.

"He called me in morning of the match to inform that he was playing and sounded nervous. I told him to treat it as a Ranji Trophy match where he is bowling for Bengal. What made me proud is that he bowled four successive maidens.

"An Indian record on debut and he could have even emulated the great Andy Roberts' feat of five consecutive maidens. What more can a coach ask for?," Badruddin told PTI from his Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh) residence.

Asked what makes Shami a special bowler, the coach said: "Shami always seeks perfection. Among the 250-odd students who I coached, his sincerity stands out. If I ask him to correct something in his game, he won't rest unless he gets it done.

In fact, there were times when I got irritated when he pestered me to watch every delivery that he bowled. Even if I had told him that he was doing it right, he would insist me to watch every delivery." Badruddin feels that turning point for Shami was shifting to Bengal rather than staying in UP.

"In UP, the state team selection is on the basis of trials and I felt it was better off to send him to Bengal where he could get to play a lot of club matches. "Shami first played club cricket, then Bengal U-22, senior Bengal T20 squad followed by Ranji Trophy. So it has been a gradual rise to the national team. But trust me, this is just the beginning," he insisted.

The coach said that despite coming from an affluent background (his father Tausif Ahmed is a farmer and also one of the leaders of the near by Alinagar village Panchayat), the 22-year-old comes across as a humble person.

"He is the most obedient and humble lad. His is a family of farmers and they are financially well off. But I haven't seen him throw his weight around during practice. Unlike a lot of other boys, I have never seen him speak on cell phone during training sessions. "He used to be very quiet before he shifted base to Kolkata. Once he started playing for Bengal, he has now learnt to open up a bit," said Badruddin. — PTI

New Delhi, January 8
England's off-spinner James Tredwell admitted that the visitors were finding it difficult to adjust to the new ODI rules after they lost back-to-back warm-up matches against India 'A' and Delhi here respectively.

The new ICC rules make it mandatory for the teams to have five fielders inside the circle and use two new balls from each end.

"It was certainly not an ideal start but more than the result, we were looking about executing our plans. The new ODI rules were a bit difficult and we were spinning our heads around it," said Tredwell at the post-match press conference. "The first match in Rajkot will be very important and it will be nice to play in venues which are warmer than Delhi," he added. Tredwell conceded that the bowlers need to lift their game after being hit by batsmen from the second string Indian side.

"We will certainly not trying to blast them off with our pace but we need to bowl straight. The positive thing from this match was that our batsmen got to spend time in the middle which did not happen in the last game," he said.

England play the first of the five-match ODI series against India in Rajkot on January 11.

England have earlier won the Test match series and will go into the ODI series as favourites. Hosts India has a bag of problems to solve before they pose any real threat to the visitors. — PTI 

Mumbai, January 8
Riding on three centuries Mumbai posted a mammoth 645 for nine declared and then reduced Baroda to 167 for five on the third day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final match here today.

Replying to Mumbai's huge first innings' total, Baroda were struggling at stumps with half the team already out, still trailing by 478 runs and needing 279 more to avoid the follow on. At close, Ambati Rayudu was unbeaten on 10 and giving him company at the other end was Pinal Shah at 6. Having declared at 645 for nine, the 39-time champions equalised their previous record total against the same opponent scored in 1945-46.

Resuming the day on 524 for six, Mumbai added 121 runs by losing three more wickets before deciding to declare almost 35 minutes before the end of the first session. Both the overnight batsmen — Abhishek Nayar, who started at 122, and Ankeet Chavan, resuming on 17, got out early scoring 132 and 22, respectively. After dismissing Chavan in the second over of the day, Baroda prevented the in-form batsman, Nayar from accumulating more runs and the all-rounder was caught behind off Murtuja Vahora in the ninth over. The left-hander Nayar's knock came off 243 balls, laced with 12 fours.

Skipper Ajit Agarkar scored an unbeaten 52 off 53 balls.

Brief scores: Mumbai 1st inngs: 645/9 decl (Wasim Jaffer 150, Abhishek 132, Sachin 108, Aditya Tare 64; Murtuja Vahora 4/119); Baroda 1st inngs: 167/5 in 64 overs (Aditya 53, Saurabh 51; Dhawal Kulkarni 2/41, Vishal Dabholkar 2/43). — PTI

Jamshedpur, January 8
Opener Jiwanjyot Singh struck an unbeaten 77 and stitched two valuable partnerships to help Punjab fight back against Jharkhand on the third day of their five-day Ranji Trophy quarter final.

In reply to Jharkhand's first innings total of 401 all out, Punjab were 150 for one at stumps at Keenan Stadium.

Punjab started impressively as Jiwanjyot and his opening partner Ravinder Singh scored 75 before the latter misread a rising delivery off Jharkhand skipper and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and edged a simple catch at first slip for 37.

Jiwanjyot was batting on 77 which he made from 181 balls and with the help of 12 fours and Tanwar Kohli, who was on 26, was giving him company at close.

The 22-year-old Jiwanjyot, in his first year of first class cricket, has scored four centuries and one half century in seven matches including 213 on debut against Hyderabad.

Earlier, resuming at 310 for six, Jharkhand received an early setback when Ishank Jaggi fell prey to spinner Sarabjit Singh after adding only six runs to his overnight score of 126.

Jaggi paired a 58-run seventh wicket partnership with Sunny Gupta, who remained not out on 40. Jharkhand skipper Shahbaz Nadeem, who stepped in following Jaggi's dismissal, chipped in with a quickfire 31 off 48 deliveries before Sarabjit struck again to have him caught at short leg.

New Delhi, January 8
As none of the eight revolting players has made himself available for Davis Cup selection, the AITA said anyone who refuses to play for India will not be entitled for the financial support from the government.

The national tennis body has proposed to get Rs 15 lakh each for players featuring in top-200 in singles and Rs 12 lakh for those who get into the bracket of 201-300 through the Long term Development Plan (LTDP) from the government. The figure is Rs eight lakh for players, who are ranked between 301-500 and aged below 28.

In the doubles, the figure is Rs seven lakh for players in top-50 and Rs four lakh for those featuring in 51-100. "We are not going to beg for the funds for players who are not interested in doing national duty. They have brought the game to disrepute by their act despite that we addressed their concerns honestly," AITA CEO Hironmoy Chatterjee said.

"The government is also watching what's happening. They are aware of it. We have been transparent in this issue. The players who want to play for India will get all the support," he added.

The AITA also felt that the young players would be the biggest losers in the ongoing controversy and advised them not to risk their India cap at this stage of their respective careers. Yuki Bhambri is the highest ranked Indian players in singles at 237, followed by Sanam Singh (293). Vishnu Vardhan is 344 and Saketh Myneni is 385. — PTI

Zurich, January 8
Lionel Messi, still only 25, was named the world’s best player for the fourth time in a row on Monday after a year in which finally produced his best form for Argentina as well as Barcelona.

Messi was handed the FIFA Ballon D’Or award after a typically cheesy ceremony which featured a performance from a giant dancing armadillo named Fuleco, the mascot for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo, winner in 2008, finished runner-up behind Messi for the third time and Messi’s Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta was third. For the third time in a row since FIFA’s Player of the Year of the year merged with France Football’s Ballon d’Or, the podium was shared by three players based in La Liga.

Spain’s Vicente del Bosque won the coach of the year award in a poll where FIFA bafflingly failed to look beyond coaches based in Europe. Herve Renard, who led Zambia to a poignant and highly unlikely win at the African Nations Cup one year ago, and Tite, coach of South American and world club champions Corinthians, both failed to make the original shortlist of 10 coaches.

Del Bosque’s two rivals were former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, who is currently on a one-year sabbatical and won only the King’s Cup last season, and Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho, who won La Liga.

Brazil’s participation was restricted to the armadillo, a capoeira dance group that performed early in the ceremony and cameo appearances from former forward Ronaldo and national team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who presented two awards.

The five-times world champions have not had a player in the final three since Kaka won the award in 2007. Their only representative on the 23-man shortlist this time was Santos striker Neymar, who finished 13th with 0.61 percent of the vote.

In terms of major titles, 2012 was relatively poor for Messi as Barcelona won only the King’s Cup. They lost out to Real Madrid in La Liga and their Champions League campaign ended with a semi-final defeat to Chelsea.

Yet, there was no arguing with Messi’s record-breaking total of 91 goals in the calendar year while he also overcame his major perceived weakness, his form when playing for his country.

Messi scored 12 goals for Argentina, including his first two hat-tricks, as he put them well on course for a place at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“We have changed this year, we haven’t lost any games and, very importantly, we have played very well,” said Messi in a news conference before the ceremony. “I’m happy about the way things are going. We have to keep improving as a team and qualify first, but there’s still a long way to go.” — Reuters

Chandigarh, January 8
The Punjab Warriors hockey team is determined to put up a dazzling performance in the upcoming Hockey India League, which begins in New Delhi on January 14.

The team, training under former Australian Coach Barry Dancer, will face Delhi Wave Riders in their opening encounter.

“The team is looking good and we have started undergoing precise training sessions,” Dancer said. “The team is expected to be well serve by the youngsters. I have learnt that the region has produced the finest of hockey players for India and hopefully we will live up to the expectations of the local supporters.”

Jamie Dwyer, one of the world’s best players, is part of the squad. “The team has had a few practice sessions and the combination of Australian-Indian players is turning out to be an advantage for us,” Dwyer said. “These practice sessions and some good matches will help the boys.”

Five teams are participating in the tourney — Mumbai Magicians, Delhi Wave Riders, Ranchi Rhinos, Uttar Pradesh Wizards and Punjab Warriors. Punjabi have their first home encounter against Ranchi Rhinos on January 16.

“The pressure will be there, to sett a perfect tune with the teammates. But this is where a player’s experience comes in,” said the team’s key forward Shivendra Singh.

“Being a striker, it’s a great responsibility to finish the attack,” he added. “Expectations are always there and I’m concentrating on giving my best.”

“The team is looking good and we have tried our best to grab the cream of the hockey talent,” said Askari Zaidi, Senior Vice President of Jaypee Group. “We have a number of young players including Gaganpreet Singh, Jaranpreet Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Ranjit Singh and Gurinder Singh, so the future looks good.”

Team

Bharat Chettri, Dharamveer Singhl, Jaranpreet Singh, Ranjit Singh, Gaganpreet Singh, Shivendra Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Gurinder Singh, Gurmail Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Ignace Tirkey, Keshav Dutt, Malak Singh, S.V.Sunil (India), Jaap Stockmann (Netherlands), Jamie Dwyer, Kieran Govers, Lucas Martin, Robert Hammond, Simon Orchard, Christopher Ciriello, Mark Knowles (Australia), Lucas Martin, Rey (Argentina), Roger Padros (Spain) Syed Kashif Shah (Pakistan)

New Delhi, January 8
Legendary Australian coach Ric Charlesworth feels that the recent success in international events proves that India are improving but to become a force in world hockey, the team needs to be more “organised and disciplined”.

After a disastrous Olympic campaign in London where they finished last, the fourth-place finish at the prestigious Champions Trophy in Melbourne and the second spot in the Asian Champions Trophy in Doha came as a soothing balm for Indian hockey.

But Charlesworth said India need time to return to the top in world hockey.

“India is improving but it will not suddenly happen that India is at the top of the podium,” Charlesworth said. “India can be better organised and disciplined. They have skill but some of it is soft skill rather than being more robust. The rules have changed and India needs to adjust.” — PTI

New Delhi, January 8
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) played yet another giant-killing act when they stunned East Bengal 1-0 in their I-League match here today afternoon.

ONGC achieved this stunning feat with a goal from their Japanese recruit Yusa Katsumi in the 86th minute. This was ONGC’s second major upset win this season after they shifted their home matches from Kolhapur to Delhi. — TNS