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Chepauk brings out the best in Tendulkar
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Mahi Racing aims pole finish in season's first race
Cricket has massively benefited from powerbroker BCCI: Jones
Man arrested for betting on India-Australia match
Finn-led England thrash New Zealand to win series
Fans still want me: Afridi to selectors
Indian boxers can play in int’l meets but under the AIBA flag
Somdev, Yuki, Sanam back in Davis Cup team
Pistorius spends time with family on 1st day of bail
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Confident-again Sachin steadies ship
Chennai, February 23 Within minutes of the start of the Indian innings, the home team was under siege. The Australian total of 380 began to look very distant, and distinctly victorious. Murali Vijay, in the Indian XI after an indifferent season, was clueless against a superfast, 150kmph delivery from James Pattinson. Exactly two overs later, Pattinson dismissed Virender Sehwag — trying out his spectacles for the first in a Test match, no less! The ball was again very quick, at 147kmph, and Sehwag seemed late on the stroke — so late that the ball, off his defensive shot, bounced well within crease. Then it looped up out of the vision of the batsman and came down, slowly and unerringly, right on the top of the leg stump. This, incidentally, reduced Sehwag’s batting average to below 50 for the first time since Nov 2009. Twelve for two, 368 behind Australia. Not the best time for Sachin Tendulkar, a diffident, nervous starter in recent times, to walk in. It was then that Pattinson erred, and erred twofold. His original plan was to attack Tendulkar’s body with short deliveries. He changed the plan at the last moment — he decided to attack Tendulkar’s stumps instead. He was mindful of Tendulkar getting out bowled or dismissed nine times last year; he also realised that the ball was reverse-swinging quite early. Pattinson’s second mistake was in execution of the altered plan — he gave Tendulkar just the right length and line to hit three fours of the first four balls he faced, through the covers and to the fine leg boundary. Tendulkar, thus, didn’t face the sort of inquisition that was his fate in every innings against England late last year, or indeed against Australia a year ago. The flying start calmed Tendulkar’s nerves, braced Cheteshwar Pujara, fortified the Indian team. This was the decisive moment of the day, and the inexperience of the Australian opening bowlers —who both were not yet born when Tendulkar played his first Test — allowed the master to get away. “I wanted to challenge the stumps but went little a bit wide and again changed the plan halfway through,” Pattinson rued his moves later. “Being young, you seem to make mistakes and perhaps learn to better your plans.” Pattinson took one more wicket, Pujara bowled for 44 by one that shot through low. But, quite inexplicably, Australia’s best, most threatening bowler sent down just six overs today, of the 52 the team bowled. He was tasked with bowling short, very quick spells — but he has a history of serious injuries, and was thus rested for long and frustrating periods today. His opening spell lasted just 18 balls, yielding two wickets — and he came back to bowl after 20 long overs! He took out Pujara this time, but again bowled just three overs. That seems incredible, but that’s the price Australia have decided to pay for the serious pace he brings in. Tendulkar, Pujara and then Virat Kohli slowly dragged India out of the woods, though the job is unfinished yet. Tendulkar was assured for most of his innings, though he had a close shave in the over before tea when he padded away a ball from Nathan Lyon — mostly ineffectual today — but umpire Marais Erasmus negated the appeal. Pujara was compact in defence but didn’t spurn opportunities to score. His partnership with Tendulkar yielded 93 runs and ended when he was removed by
Pattinson. He was bowled when, he said later, he “midway” lost sight of a ball from Pattinson in the 29th over of the innings. Pujara later insisted that the ball wasn’t too fast, or that the pitch had played a role in it; he admitted the ball did keep low on that occasion. That left Indians dangerously perched at the edge of a creaky branch. At 105 for three, another wicket would have brought in the rookie Ravindra Jadeja in — the frequent triple-centurion in domestic cricket is not quite a master batsman at the international level. In that context, the innings Kohli played was critical. Kohli and Tendulkar have added 77 in 23.2 overs. Tendulkar’s share is 26 and Kohli is already on 50; clearly, Kohli was the aggressor in the partnership, driving the ball with great poise to the off side boundaries. Tendulkar hasn’t looked this confident for a long time; he was aided by the Australians to an extent. Scoreboard Australia 1st Inngs (overnight 316/7) Cowan st Dhoni b Ashwin 29 Warner lbw b Ashwin 59 Hughes b Ashwin 6 Watson lbw b Ashwin 28 Clarke c Kumar b Jadeja 130 Wade lbw b Ashwin 12 Henriques lbw b Ashwin 68 Starc b Jadeja 3 Siddle c Sehwag b H Singh 19 Pattinson not out 15 Lyon c Kohli b Ashwin 3 Extras: 8 Total: (all out in 133 ov) 380 Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-72, 3-126, 4-131, 5-153, 6-304, 7-307, 8-361, 9-364 Bowling Bhuvneshwar 13-1-52-0 Ishant 17-3-59-0 Harbhajan 25-2-87-1 Ashwin 42-12-103-7 Jadeja 36-10-71-2 India 1st innings Vijay b Pattinson 10 Sehwag b Pattinson 2 Pujara b Pattinson 44 Tendulkar batting 71 Kohli batting 50 Extras: 5 Total: (3 wkts in 52 ov) 182 Fall of wickets: 1/11, 2/12, 3/105 Bowling Starc 14-2-37-0 Pattinson 6-1-25-3 Siddle 8-1-31-0 Lyon 14-0-55-0 Henriques 8-2-17-0 Clarke 2-0-14-0
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Chepauk brings out the best in Tendulkar
Chennai, February 23 The master had played his first Test at Chepauk 20 years ago, when he made 165. He’s not far from a farewell century at the ground, 70 at close of play. This is Tendulkar's seventh fifty-plus score at the venue, where he has played 15 innings for 947 runs with five centuries and two fifties. The average is an impressive 94.7. Tendulkar also went past the 7,000-run mark in home Tests today, and only Ricky Ponting is ahead of him on this table. At the end of the day’s play, the superfast James Pattinson paid his tribute to the master, and rued the mistake he made of providing him with four loose balls to begin with. It’s a pity the battle didn’t last long, because Pattinson was withdrawn from the attack. In all, Tendulkar faced only 10 balls from Pattinson -- almost incredible that the team’s best bowler bowled so little, and sad because it was turning into quite a contest. Tendulkar had taken 15 runs off him, with three fours off the first four balls. “My plan early on to Sachin was to try and bounce a little more,” Pattinson said later. “I changed that plan in the last minute, and it was a mistake there. I think I should have gone with the first plan.” “Sachin is a fantastic player and it looked like he had a lot of time out there compared to the other batters,” he added. “It is quite a daunting task bowling to him and looking at him he was at his class today and batted fantastically.” Cheteshwar Pujara agreed. He also emphasised the importance of those early fours by Tendulkar. “When Sachin Paaji came in to bat, from first ball onwards he was on the mark,” Pujara said. “He got three boundaries in the first over. He was looking positive, I thought that I haven’t seen him in such kind of positive mindset.” “I’ve seen him bat in the nets, the way he was timing the ball was different,” Pujara added when asked if Tendulkar was batting radically differently from the way he did against England. “I’ve seen him in the England series in the nets. Unfortunately he didn’t get runs in the matches, but the way he was batting in the nets, there was nothing wrong. He was timing the ball well,” he said.
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Young Pattinson wanted to bounce out Sachin but...
chennai, February 23 Tendulkar, who showed glimpses of his vintage form in his knock of 71 on the second day, hit two glorious fours off the first two balls he faced from Pattinson and clobbered another majestic boundary off the fourth ball. Asked about the treatment meted out to him by Tendulkar, the 22-year-old Australian said the initial onslaught from the senior Indian player forced him to change his plan. "My early plan to Sachin was to try and bounce a little more. Changed that plan in last minute. It was a mistake there. I think I should have gone with the first plan. Sachin is a fantastic player and it looked like he had a lot of time out there compared to other batters," Pattinson said after at the press conference after second day's play. "It's quite a daunting task bowling to him and looking at him he was at his class today and batted fantastically. When I bowl to him and other players, he picks the ball quite early and places it quite easily. Hopefully we will be successful tomorrow. His wicket is always prize scalp," he said. Pattinson said the ball was reversing quite early, not swinging conventionally and that played a part in his decision to drop the plan of attacking the Indian top order with bouncers. “The ball was reversing quite early and never swinging conventionally. I tried some stuff like that it worked well. I wanted to challenge Sehwag but went little bit wide and again changed the plan half way through. Being young you seem to make mistakes and perhaps you learn to better your plans," he said. — PTI |
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Mahi Racing aims pole finish in season's first race
Philip Island (Australia), February 23 Both the riders of Mahi Racing, which made its debut in the World Supersport Championship last year, are strong contenders to take the chequered flag on Sunday. Three-time champion Sofuoglu cut about half a second from his yesterday's best lap timing to take second position clocking 1:33.157s, while Foret bettered his timing by almost a second to clock 1:33.721s. Foret had suffered some technical problems and was down to the 12th spot after the first qualifying. But the Frenchman made a strong comeback today and faced no problem in climbing up the grid. After the race a much-relieved Foret said, "The competitive approach that we show as a team helps us to better our timing every time we are out there. Hopefully, both me and Kenan can better our performance and aim for a pole finish tomorrow." In today's qualifying session, the pole went to Sam Lowes of Yakhnich Motorsports Yamaha, who had clocked 1:32.545s in yesterday's qualifying session, and the new track record was enough for him to take the pole position on the starting grid. "We were solid throughout the qualifying session and the bike (Kawasaki ZX-6R) performed fantastically over the two days," said Sofuoglu. Chairman and Managing Director of the Mahi Racing, Arun Pandey expressed happiness over the performance of his team and said they were looking forward to their first race day. "We have done extremely well in the first official testing and also in the qualifying. Now we are looking forward to the race and I am sure we would be in contention for the podium finish tomorrow," he said.
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Cricket has massively benefited from powerbroker BCCI: Jones
Sydney, February 23 Cricket is played by 10 nations with Test status and 35 associate countries. But it is India that provides nearly 80 per cent of the world``s cricket revenues," Jones wrote in his column for the Sydney Morning Herald. "And cricket-playing countries and players around the world are a lot wealthier because of that revenue generated by India," he added. |
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Man arrested for betting on India-Australia match
Chandigarh, February 23 The police, who arrested Vinod from Rohtak, recovered 140 mobile phones from his possession, a spokesman of Police Department said. He said that the arrest was made from a house in Old Anaj Mandi in Rohtak following a tip off. The police conducted raid at the house and arrested the accused Vinod alias Tony. He said that the police also recovered a diary, mobile charger, a television set and a laptop. A case has been registered against the accused and further investigation was being carried out, he added.
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Finn-led England thrash New Zealand to win series
Auckland, February 23 After New Zealand were dismissed for an unchallenging 185 in an innings
that ended 37 balls short of their 50 overs, England overhauled the target in a rapid 37.3 overs. The victory gives England a psychological boost going into the first Test on March 6 after earlier winning the Twenty20 series 2-1. Following the early dismissal of Ian Bell for 24, Alastair Cook (46) and Jonathan Trott (38) made the most of the flat track and short boundaries at Eden Park to effortlessly carve out a 67-run second-wicket partnership. After they fell in quick succession, Joe Root (28*) and Eoin Morgan (39) put on 56 for the fourth wicket before Morgan was caught by Kyle Mills on the boundary. Brief Scores: 185 all out in 43.5 ov (McCullum 79, R Taylor 28, Elliot 24,Finn 3/27, Broad 2/ 38); England: 186/5 in 37.3 ov (Cook 46,Morgan 39, Trott 38, Southee 3/48, Ellis 2/35). Abbott's 7 wickets on debut send Pakistan crashing
Centurion: Debutant paceman Kyle Abbott left Pakistan in tatters with seven first innings wickets as South Africa bowled out the tourists for 156 on the second day of the third Test at Centurion. Abbott took 7/29, the best-ever Test bowling figures at Centurion, to force Pakistan to follow-on after South Africa had amassed 409 in their first innings. Pakistan's fortunes failed to improve in the second innings as they limped to 14/1 at the close of play. The real damage was done in Pakistan's first turn at bat. Imran Farhat (30) had already survived an lbw dismissal from Rory Kleinveldt that was overturned on review when he was trapped in front by Vernon Philander. Brief Scores: South Africa: 409 all out in 103.2 ov; Pakistan: (Ist innings): 156 all out in 46.3 overs (Younis Khan 33, Imran Farhat 30, K. Abbot 7/29); (Pakistan): (following on) 14/1 in 9 ovs (Azhar 5*,Younis 8*). — Reuters
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Fans still want me: Afridi to selectors
Karachi, February 23 After recalling Afridi in the One-day squad for the series against South Africa, chief selector Iqbal Qasim had said the all rounder will have to justify his selection by putting up a good show. “I don't know in what context or scenario Iqbal Qasim said these things for me. But no one should put pressure on me,” Afridi said. “My fans still want me to continue playing and I will decide myself till when to continue playing or when to leave,” Afridi added. Afridi said he was determined to do well for the country and no one needs to remind him that. “I have always said that I will never give anyone a chance to tell me that it is time for me to go.
— AFP |
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Indian boxers can play in int’l meets but under the AIBA flag
Patiala, February 23 The decision would mean that they could participate in the international events held under the aegis of the AIBA but “officials from India will not be permitted and Indian boxers will compete under the AIBA flag”. Following a telephonic dialogue held between International Olympic Committee (IOC) member of India, Randhir Singh and AIBA chief Ching-Kuo Wu, AIBA paved way for the boxers to return to mainstream. Indian boxers were suspended from the international events last month by the world body. In an official communiqué to Randhir Singh, AIBA wrote, “this letter is to inform you that despite the ongoing suspension of the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation, the AIBA EC Bureau took the decision on February 22, 2013 to exceptionally allow Indian boxers and coaches only (no official whatsoever permitted) to participate in AIBA Competitions (approved events) under the AIBA flag”. A couple of Indian boxers told TNS that though it is a welcome decision but playing under the national flag at the earliest would be real satisfaction. “I think the IOC has done a commendable job in getting the clearances for the Indian boxers otherwise many would have lost focus as the Indian Boxing Federation has done little to help its boxers,” they stated. The letter further says that the national federation may register boxers and coaches only to the ASBC Youth Boxing Championships due to take place from May 10-16, 2013 in Subic Bay, Philippines, and to future AIBA competitions. “Please note that you will be requested to provide a proof that the coaches registered are certified coaches,” reads the letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune. In recent years, amateur boxing has been one of few sports where Indians have held their own against the world's best, winning medals at the Olympics and other international meets. “I am happy for the Indian sportsmen and particularly for all the boxing lovers”, Randhir stated. Indian boxer Akhil Kumar welcomed the decision claiming that it is a much awaited decision as boxing is India's medal prospect. |
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Somdev, Yuki, Sanam back in Davis Cup team
New Delhi, February 23 Veteran Leander Paes will spearhead the campaign, though he would be playing only in the doubles. The AITA selection committee, which met at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association complex today, picked the team, though they did not feel it necessary to recall seasoned Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. In the absence of the top players, India had lost to South Korea 1-4 in the Asia-Oceana Group I tie, played at the R.K.Khanna Stadim here last month. And the defeat rankled the top players who made themselves available for the tie against Indonesia as a one-off concession, till the AITA finds a lasting solution to the demands they had made. The AITA selection committee, headed by Anil Dhupar, however decided to keep out Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna from the team as the selectors put thrust on singles, with Leander Paes, ranked eighth in the world in doubles, as the only specialist doubles player. Dhupar said the idea was to groom the singles players as any of them could partner Leander in doubles, instead of saddling the team with two specialist doubles players, which will create imbalance in the singles lineup. “At the moment, we can do with Leander (in doubles)”, noted Dhupar. Therefore, the selectors also did not consider Purav Raja, who had ably supported Leander, though he was making his debut, to win the doubles rubber against Korea, for the tie against Indonesia. From the rookie team that India fielded against Korea, only Vijayant Malik, along with Shriram Balaji, find a place among the reserves while two promising young talent, Ramkuamr Ramanathan and Arjun Khadhe, will be invited to practice with the Cup squad. S.P. Mishra has been retained as the non-playing captain for one last time while Zeeshan Ali will continue as the manager. |
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Pistorius spends time with family on 1st day of bail
Pretoria, February 23 “I would like Oscar to just compose himself and to have a normal day,” his uncle Arnold Pistorius said. He will return to court later this year when a date will be set for trial. Father Henke Pistorius declined to say how his son had slept at his uncle's house in Pretoria. But a source close to the family said “the family just want time together. They haven't thought about anything except being together.” Pistorius claims he repeatedly shot at and killed his lover by mistake thinking she was a burglar. Steenkamp's grieving parents, however, did not appear convinced. “It doesn't matter how rich he is and how good his legal team is. He needs to live with himself if he lets his legal team lie for him,” her father Barry said.
— AFP |
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India beat China 4-0
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