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Sachin connects, scores with Lahli crowd
Joginder swings hosts back into the game
Mandeep, Taruwar make Odisha toil
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Ashwin feels the heat
‘Dawood offered every player a car in 1986’
Serena puts the cherry on the cake
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Sachin connects, scores with Lahli crowd
Lahli (Rohtak), October 28 Alternating between mid on and mid off or manning the gully, wherever Sachin stationed himself, the half-filled stadium behind the fence gleefully aligned with him. The stadium resembled an oversized box of nails and Sachin was the magnet in it. They greeted him with the chants of Sa-chin…Sa-chin… and he too kept waving at them, on and off between the overs, even tipping his hat once. Passing a smile, a half-wave here and a wave there, once in a while an appreciative clap or two overhead, the darling of the crowd went about his job as he usually does. When it started to get mundane the naughty ones in the stands resorted to sloganeering: cricket ke bhagwan ki… Jai, cricket ke bhagwan ki… Jai. Sachin could only blush, trying to ignore the adulation. He is not the one for showmanship, he rarely opens up to spectators, at least not while the match is on. But for how long? So, turning towards his fans he gestured them to enjoy the match calmly. The crowds took the cue but choose to go wild instead. One hearty hand wave more from Sachin and Ajay Jadeja, the batsman at the striker’s end, had to stop Zaheer midway through his run up, sending laughters all around. The frenzy seemed to be peaking and handful of overzealous youngsters tried climbing their way up an iron scaffolding. Sachin saw it from mid off and gently signalled them to come down. This time they listened to the Master. Sandwiched in this mutual attraction were a handful of ball boys, standing alert like disciplined NCC cadets. They were coerced, cajoled and taunted to leave the ball alone and let Sachin pick it up from the boundary. The boys ignored all of it, for they had the privilege of umpteen up-and-close opportunities. Knowing that it was improbable to see him bat on Day 2, Sachin fans, who had still come to have their fill, got more than what they had wished for. From Day 1 Lahli showed no pretence that this match was not about Haryana or Mumbai, this was about him and him alone. Sachin too showed his appreciation for it and Lahli was pleased. So was he.
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Joginder swings hosts back into the game
As of now, Haryana are 224/9 in 68 overs, in reply to Mumbai's 136 in the first innings. Haryana clawed their way back into the game on the shoulders of medium pacer Joginder Singh. The first spell on Day 1 had got him Wasim Jaffer; the brief second one early on Monday morning was feckless; the third with four wickets brought Haryana back into the game. Bowling with five men behind the wicket, he finally returned with the figures of 5/16 in 11 overs. Joginder’s medium pace does not evoke trepidation in batsmen, it is his experience, his understanding of the situation and his execution that put batsmen invariably in trouble. The Rohtak born picked up his first five-for in nearly three years. The bowler is coming back from a near fatal head injury sustained in car accident in Gurgaon in 2011. He has played just one List A match after battling death for three days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). On Monday, as he bowled a dream spell, the doctor's scalpel work could be seen on his skull. After managing just two-run lead, Mumbai looked to run through Haryana, just like they did in the first innings. This was, however, not to be as Sunny Singh smashed 78-ball 63 and opener Rahul Dewan hung on, working his way to 44. Haryana did not collapse even after the two departed. Zaheer Khan bowled his heart out and reverse swung the ball to return with the figures of 4/59. But the real damage was done by left-arm spinner Vishal Vishwas Dabholkar (4/54) who got rid of well set batsmen. Brief scores: Haryana 134 and 224 for 9 (Sunny 63, Dabholkar 4-54, Zaheer 4-59); Mumbai 136 (Rahane 51, Joginder 5-16) |
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Mandeep, Taruwar make Odisha toil
Mohali, October 28 It’s easy even for a veteran, let alone a youngster, to lose sight of conditions and opposition and talk up his feat. That Mandeep took all that into consideration shows his maturity and the high standards he set for himself. That’s a good sign, for the youngster is seen by many as a potential India player. “I am aware of it, and it feels good to know that people feel I’ve the potential to represent the country. For me, it’s both motivating and a bit unnerving. So, even as it’s in the back of my mind all the time, I just try to do my best all the time,” said Mandeep. Taruwar Kohli, who too struck an unbeaten hundred and took Punjab to a 306 for 2 at the draw of stumps, was equally forthright. The Jalandhar lad had made his debut in 2008 but has played just 12 first class matches so far. “I was just not playing well enough, that’s the only reason why I haven’t played as many games as I should have,” he said, without looking for any excuse. “But I thought about it last year and decided to set high benchmark for myself. And probably that has changed things for me,” he said. And given that his scores in the last three Ranji games have been a triple hundred (in quarterfinals last year), a (half-century in the semis) and an unbeaten hundred in the season opener this year, it can be safely assumed that he has turned the corner. Brief scores: Odisha: 205 all out; Punjab 306 for 2 (Mandeep 116no, Taruwar 109no) Dogra puts HP in command
Dharamsala: Even as the Himachal government and the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association are busy slugging it out, Himachal did exceedingly well to put up a total of 543 runs in Dharamsala on Monday, thanks to a double hundred by Paras Dogra. In his 208-run knock, he smashed 26 boundaries and six. The other notable contributors were Abhinav Bali (73), Rishi Dhawan (89) and Bipul Sharma (86). |
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Ashwin feels the heat
Nagpur, October 28 Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s premier spinner, is among the worst sufferers. His economy rate (6.11 runs per over) is the sixth best among India’s bowlers in this series; he’s picked up five wickets in four innings, but since he’s leaked runs, his average is a high 44. The main tormentor of Ashwin in this series has been the Australian captain George Bailey. Bailey, leading Australia in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke, has proved an able foe to Indian’s captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Bailey has made 318 runs in four innings at an average of 98; he’s the man who’s handled Ashwin with the greatest ease for Australia, match after match. Other Aussie batsmen have done well against Aswhin in one or two games — Shane Watson (24 off 14 balls in 2nd ODI), Adam Voges (31 off 30 in 3rd ODI), and Glenn Maxwell (25 off 20 in 4th ODI), for instance. But Bailey, Australia’s most consistent batsman, has held sway over Aswhin in every match. Bailey has faced 59 balls from Ashwin in the four matches — he’s taken 74 runs off the Indian off-spinner. That includes four fours (16 runs), three sixers (18), and 32 singles. Bailey failed to score off 16 deliveries from Ashwin in four innings, and was dismissed once by the off-spinner. Ashwin’s average (74) and economy rate (125) against Bailey clearly display the Australian’s mastery of the Indian spinner. Ashwin’s stature as the team’s leading spinner has not prevented Dhoni from using left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja more. Jadeja has completed his 10 overs in each match, Aswhin has bowled four overs less. Jadeja has picked up only two wickets, but at 4.85, his economy rate is better. Aswhin likes to bring variations into his bowling; one trick he’s tried a lot is to bowl the carrom ball (turning in from leg) from around the stumps to right-handers. Jadeja has experimented less and has attempted to keep to the stumps. In defence of Ashwin, or any bowler, it must be said that the wickets in the first three ODIs were nightmarish — flat tracks and bat-friendly rules made every batsman a Viv Richards. Conditions were better for the bowlers in the unfinished fourth ODI in Ranchi. It was there that Shami had figures of 3/42, second best in the series after Mitchell Johnson’s 4/46. Surprisingly, if there has been any help in the wickets, it is for the pacers, not the spinners. “It’s been a battle for all bowlers, I think, not just spinners,” Xavier Doherty, who has bowled 30 overs without picking up a wicket, said here today. “I did expect some spinning wickets in India, like we got in the Test series here.” “But probably the last game, in which it rained, that might have been spinning a little bit,” he added. “Looks like this wicket might spin a bit too, so I think the spinners might play a bit of a role here. But it has been pretty tough going for all spinners, all bowlers. It has been pretty tough.”
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‘Dawood offered every player a car in 1986’
Mumbai, October 28 Vengsarkar claimed that Dawood had walked into the team's dressing room a day before the match and offered each player a Toyota car if they beat Pakistan and won the Austral-Asia Cup in Sharjah. Vengsarkar said the fugitive gangster was introduced by the famous actor Mehmood as a businessman. “Actor Mehmood was in our dressing room. Kapil Dev was not in the dressing room at that time because he had gone out to address the press conference. Dawood was introduced by actor Mehmood,” Vengsarkar said at a function in Jalgaon. “No one recognised him but I had seen his photographs. Mehmood introduced him to us as a big businessman from here. Mehmood said he wants to announce a prize for us. He said 'If you beat Pakistan tomorrow, everyone will get a car'. Jayawant Lele was our manager then,” he added. The match will be best remembered for the last-ball six hit by Javed Miandad off Chetan Sharma. — PTI
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Serena puts the cherry on the cake
Istanbul, October 28 China's Li, who will reach a career-high third in the WTA rankings on Monday, broke Williams's serve twice in the first set. However, the world number one shifted gears in the second set to roar through 6-3. Williams showed little sign of the fatigue she complained about a day earlier, flattening Li in the third set with her brutal power and on court coverage. The 17-times grand slam winner said there was still room for improvement. "I live to win slams. I really don't know if this was my best season ever, but definitely top 3. I still have things to add to my game." Federer suffers another Basel loss to Del Potro
Basel: Roger Federer's difficult season continued on Sunday when he lost to Juan Martin del Potro in the final of the Basel Open for the second year running. The Swiss played some of his best tennis this year but it was not enough to avoid a 7-6 (3) 2-6 6-4 defeat against the powerful Argentine and his 220-kph serve. This was Del Potro’s fourth ATP title this year. Federer would have qualified for the season-ending World Tour Finals if he had won, although he should still book his place there at next week's Paris Masters with a win over Kevin Anderson or Mikhail Youzhny in his second round match on Wednesday.
— Reuters |
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What did Sachin have for breakfast? Bajra rotis or a foot-long glass of frothy lassi? Whatever he had, it kept him in good humour and he, in turn, had the crowd amused all day long.
Nagpur, October 28
Lahli (Rohtak), October 28
New Delhi