JCT subdue Mohun Bagan
LUDHIANA, Dec 13 —Winners of the inaugural edition JCT Phagwara shrugged off their initial lethargy to down IFA Shield champions Mohun Bagan by two goals to one in their second home tie of the National Football League at Guru Nanak Stadium here today.

Manisha ousted; Archana wins
NEW DELHI, Dec 13 — India number two Manisha Malhotra and junior national champion Radhika Tulpule showed sparks of brilliance, but their defiance lasted only little while before being beaten in three-set duels on the opening day of the $25,000 ITF Women’s Circuit Tennis Tournament here today.

LONDON : Undisputed heavy weight champion of the world Lennox Lewis (left) with Mohammad Ali at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards in the BBC Television Centre in London on Sunday. Mohammad Ali won the award for Sports Personality of the Century and Lewis received the award for Sports Personality of the Year. — AP/PTI

Mohammad Ali is best LONDON, Dec 13 — Muhammad Ali has been voted the sports personality of the century in a BBC poll. Ali’s award marked a night of success for boxing with undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis claiming the British sports personality of the year prize.

CISF shooters reign supreme
PHILLAUR, Dec 13 — On the penultimate day of the 43rd National Shooting Championship here today, CISF shooters had a field day clinching 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. Army shooters followed them with two gold, three silver and two bronze.

Gopichand storms into final
LUCKNOW, Dec 13 — National champion P. Gopichand rallied from a game down to beat a spirited Sidharth Jain 14-17, 15-3, 15-5 to storm into the final of the Rs 8 lakh Syed Modi Grand Prix Badminton Tournament her today.

Indian Airlines lift hockey title
NABHA (Patiala), Dec 13 — In a match having all the ingredients befitting a final, the star-studded Indian Airlines stopped Western Railway impressive run (6-4) in the tournament to annex the title in the 24th Liberals Hockey tournament which concluded at the Ripudaman College Grounds here today.

Unbeaten 121 by Pankaj Dharmani
GUWAHATI, Dec 13 — North Zone stormed into the final of the Duleep Trophy for the 19th time by virtue of their first innings lead of 177 runs against Central Zone as the semifinal tie ended in a draw at the Maligaon Railway Stadium here today.

600 skaters for national meet
Chandigarh, Dec 13 — Over 600 skaters, both boys and girls, drawn from 18 affiliated units will take part in the 37th National Roller Skating Championships being held here from December 14 to 18, according to Mr Pradeep Ganeriwal, president of the Roller Skating Federation of India.

Basketball titles for AP, MP
CHANDIGARH, Dec 13 — Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh won the boys and girls titles, respectively, in the National Youth Basketball Championship which concluded at Chittorgarh in Rajasthan today, according to a fax message received from Dr S. Subramanian, chief basketball coach.

• Haryana to set up sports trust
• Good show by Ram Kishore
• West Indies ‘A’ win series

India on verge of defeat in 1st Test

ADELAIDE, Dec 13 (PTI) — India were at the doorstep of a comprehensive defeat having lost five second innings wickets for a mere 76 runs on the penultimate day of the first Test against Australia here today after a splendid bowling performance had given it a faint chance of shocking the host.

With skipper Sachin Tendulkar having been done in by Australian umpire Daryl Harper and other top order batsmen caving in meekly, Saurav Ganguly was waging a lone battle, unbeaten with 31 at the close, but the visitors were in a virtually hopeless position still 320 runs short of the victory target of 396.

Tendulkar, who had been given marching orders by umpire Harper in the first innings after being caught off his pads, was ruled leg before by him after being hit on his left shoulder while trying to avoid a McGrath bouncer. The ball didn’t rise and would probably have gone over the stumps, but he was declared out for a duck by Harper whose decision was described by former Australian captain Bill Lawry as “courageous”.

But, even before Tendulkar walked upto the crease, the Indian innings was tottering at 24 for three, after opener Devang Gandhi and V.V.S. Laxman were both gone for zero. Dravid made six.

Earlier, Indian bowlers bowled their hearts out to restrict the Australians to a score of 239 for eight when skipper Steve Waugh declared the second innings shortly after tea.

Gandhi, shaken by his first innings dismissal, got a snorter of a first ball from McGrath and was mentally unprepared to go on to the front foot when the big Australian zeroed in a full length delivery.

The hesitant front foot push by Gandhi only ended in a big snick to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. India had just finished its first over without a run on the board.

Damien Fleming, from the other end, took only three balls to claim a trophy for his own rack. Laxman came lazily forward to a straight delivery from the Victorian and the ball sneaked past his defence to rattle the stumps. India was two down for three runs.

The other opener Sadagopan Ramesh conveyed a sense of serenity with his wristy elegance and twice hit offside fours against Fleming. But when on 15, Ramesh nearly ejected himself from the middle when he uppishly drove at McGrath and was put down at fine gully by Michael Slater.

After just eight overs, Waugh turned to his vice-captain Shane Warne to upset the fast-settling third wicket pair.

The burly Warne obliged immediately when a big leg-spinner took the top of Dravid’s handle and went to wicketkeeper. The Karnataka batsman had put his bat behind pads but the ball still found the wood much to the Australians’ delight. India was three down for 24.

And then came the shocking dismissal of Tendulkar. The Indian captain ducked to a short ball from McGrath and was ruled out leg before by umpire Harper.

It was a strange dismissal. The ball was still rising when it hit Tendulkar’s shoulder and still Harper decided it was out. Tendulkar could genuinely be aggrieved at having got the wrong end of the stick of umpiring decisions in both innings.

India’s evening of horrors was, however, not over yet. After playing solidly for his 28 runs, opener Ramesh padded up to Warne and was ruled out leg before by umpire Steve Dunne.

Ramesh may have been guilty of offering no stroke but it was a big spinning delivery and one is not sure if it would have hit the stumps. The left-hander batted for 80 minutes and faced 50 deliveries and hit three fours.

Against some spirited Indian bowling, Australia had earlier laboured to 239 for eight after starting the day at 71 for two. It took the hosts 57 overs and more than four hours to add another 169 runs and that too thanks to opener Greg Blewett who struck a patient 88 in a six hour-plus knock.

All the four Indian bowlers who shared the burden bowled to their field and kept a very tight line, backed by some agile fielding. Only 51 runs came from the first two hours of play for the loss of two more wickets.

Mark Waugh, now looking a shadow of his former self, edged Ajit Agarkar to second slip for 8, having struggled for 62 minutes and 42 balls and hit one four.

Agarkar had another success, inducing an edge of skipper Steve Waugh behind the wickets.

Blewett’s half century came in 207 minutes off 182 balls. Australia’s hundred could only be up in the 43rd over.

The snail’s pace of the morning altered slightly in the afternoon as left-hander Adam Gilchrist brought some urgency to the scoring by striking 43 from 46 balls.

SCOREBOARD

Australia Ist (innings) : 441

India Ist (innings) : 285

Australia IInd (innings) :

Slater c Ganguly b Srinath 0

Blewett b Agarkar 88

Langer c Gandhi b Kumble 38

M. Waugh c Laxman b Agarkar 8

S. Waugh c M.S.K. Prasad b Agarkar 5

Ponting c M.S.K. Prasad b V. Prasad 21

A.Gilchrist c Laxman b Srinath 43

Warne c Dravid b Srinath 0

Kasprowicz not out 21

Extras (b-3, lb-8, nb-2, w-2) 15

Total (for 8 wkts decl.) 239

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-65, 3-95, 4-113, 5-153, 6-204, 7-205, 8-239.

Bowling: Srinath 21.5-4-64-3, Agarkar 18-6-43-3, V. Prasad 18-6-48-1, Kumble 32-9-73-1.

India 2nd innings:

Gandhi c Gilchrist b McGrath 0

Ramesh lbw b Warne 28

Laxman b Fleming 0

Dravid c Gilchrist b Warne 6

Tendulkar lbw b McGrath 0

Ganguly batting 31

M.S.K. Prasad batting 6

Extras (nb5) 5

Total (for 5 wkts, 26 overs) 76

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-3, 3-24, 4-27, 5-48.

Bowling: McGrath 6-1-19-2 (nb4), Fleming 3-1-13-1, Warne 10-6-21-2, Kasprowicz 6-0-23-0 (nb1), Mark Waugh 1-1-0-0.

Sachin’s dismissal bizarre

ADELAIDE, Dec 13 (PTI) — The dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar, lbw to Glenn McGrath today was truly bizarre — it might more appropriately have been declared shoulder-before-wicket!

Rarely would a batsman have seen the umpire raise the dreaded finger after ducking to avoid a bouncer from a leading fast bowler.

The ball with which McGrath got Tendulkar did not rise as high as expected and hit the Indian maestro on his left shoulder. He heard the bowler’s appeal and looked at umpire Daryl Harper in disbelief as he declared him out for a nought on the penultimate day of the first cricket Test here today.

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar, now here as a TV commentator, pointed out later that Tendulkar was 65 inches tall and the height of the stumps was 28 inches. He would have understood the decision if the ball had hit Tendulkar somewhere in the middle of his body.

The stumps, Gavaskar said, would have to be at least three inches higher for the ball to have hit them. In other words, it would have sailed over the stumps.

Gavaskar said McGrath was a tall fast bowler who banged the ball in. In any case, in the event of the slightest doubt, the benefit should go to the batsman, he said.

Former Australia skipper Bill Lawry, on TV, described the verdict as “courageous” but another ex-captain Mark Taylor and some Aussie players said the umpire took the right decision.

“I was standing in the covers and from that position, it looked a fair decision,” said Greg Blewett, whose knock of 88 helped Australia set the 396 target for India.

Was it a coincidence that it was the very same Harper who had done in the world’s best batsman when in fine flow yesterday?

After uncharacteristically quiet batting on the second day on Saturday, Tendulkar was back in full form yesterday and, with partner Saurav Ganguly, was leading what promised to be a grand Indian batting revival.

With his individual score on 61, Tendulkar tried to flick leg spinner Shane Warne down the leg side. But, the ball, which had pitched in a rough, beat his bat, struck his pad and went to Justin Langer at short leg.

Amazingly, Harper gave Tendulkar out and the Indian skipper, not given to showing his emotions on the field, walked away shaking his head in disbelief.

The highly-respected former Australian captain and current TV commentator, Richie Benaud said he heard the sound of the ball hitting Tendulkar’s pad and his bat hitting the ground but not the ball hitting the bat.

Yet another former Aussie skipper Ian Chappell wrote in his column today that “Warne got a bad-pad decision when it appeared that the prime ingredient in obtaining such a dismissal was missing”.

It is indeed ironic that Tendulkar, a darling of the Australian cricket fans who have been thronging the Adelaide Oval to enjoy his batting, is a victim of rank bad decisions by an Australian umpire.

13-run victory for Lanka

BULAWAYO (Zimbabwe), Dec 13 (Reuters) — Captain Sanath Jayasuria took four for 41 as Sri Lanka rallied to beat Zimbabwe by 13 runs with five balls to spare in the second one-day international in Bulawayo yesterday.

Zimbabwe restricted the touring side to 213 with Russel Arnold holding the batting side together his maiden one-day century.

But Zimbabwe were bowled out for 200 after needing just 64 runs off the last 10 overs with six wickets in hand. The first match between the two was abandoned on Saturday due to rain. Zimbabwe seemed to be on a course for victory when Alistair Campbell and Grant Floweer put on 91 for the first wicket. The partnership ended in the 23rd over when Flower was caught at long-on by Pramodya Wickramasinghe off left-arm spinner Upul Chandana for 48.

Cambell went on to make 56 before becoming left-armer Jayasuria’s first victim when he was caught at mid-wicket by Chandana in the 38th over.

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA

Jayasuriya lbw Rennie 9

Kaluwitharana hit wkt b Olonga 0

Atapattu c a Whittall b Brent 15

Jayawardene b Olonga 16

Arnold lbw Rennie 103

Dilshan b G Whittall 6

Chandana c A Flower b G Whittal 10

Vaas lbw Brent 2

Wickramasinghe c Goodwin b G Whittal 19

Muralitharan c A Flower b G Whittall 2

De Silva not out 2

Extras (lb-9 w-20 29

Total (all out, 50 overs) 213

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-14, 3-49, 4-52, 5-66, 6-100, 7-103, 8-160, 9-168.

Bowling: Olonga 10-0-51-2, (W-8, Rennie 10-0-40-2 (W-9), Brent 10-0-37-2, G.Whittall 10-0-35-4, A. Whittal 5-0-18-0 (W-1), G.Flower 5-0-23-0.

ZIMBABWE

Campbell c Chandana b Jayasuriya 56

G. Flower c Wickramasinghe b Chandana 48

A. Flower c Chandana b Jayasuriya 24

Madondo st Kaluwitharana b Chandana 4

Goodwin c Chandana Muralitharan 14

G.Whittall c Vaas b Muralitharan 30

Rennie lbw Jayasuriya 8

Rennie run out (Dilshan) 0

Brent c Jayasuriya b De Silva 3

A Whittall b Jayasuriya 1

Olonga not out 0

Extras (lb-7 w-3 nb-2) 12

Total (all out) 200

Fall of wickets: 1/91, 2/127, 3/142, 4/144, 5/184, 6/196, 7/196, 8/197, 9/200.

Bowling: Vaas 6-0-20-0, De Silva 7.1-0-24-1, (W-2 NB-1), Wickramashinghe 8-0-27-0, Muralitharan 10-0-48-2 (NB-1), Chandana 7-1-28-2, Arnold 1-0-5-0, Jayasuriya 10-0-41-4 (W-1).

JCT subdue Mohun Bagan
From Amardeep Bhattal
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Dec 13 —Winners of the inaugural edition JCT Phagwara shrugged off their initial lethargy to down IFA Shield champions Mohun Bagan by two goals to one in their second home tie of the National Football League at Guru Nanak Stadium here today.

A defensive lapse by wing back Sukhdev Singh late in the first half saw the millmen going in arrears but the Hardip duo — Sangha and Saini — stunned the Bagan camp into silence with a late resurgence after a series of close misses early on. With this victory, JCT now have three points after having lost the opener against Salgaocar, Goa.

At New Delhi on December 9, Mohun Bagan, too, are level with three points after the victory against the BSF in their opening tie here three days back.

The gruelling tie saw Bagan enjoying territorial superiority in the first half although JCT too had their chances. Striker Sukhjit of JCT attempted a longranger in the opening minutes but Mohun Bagan hit back with a series of attacks mainly through Abdul Khalique and Kasif Jamal. However, on a number of occasions, Khalique found himself completely bottled up by the JCT defence, strengthened by the return of stopper back Deepak Mondal and wing back Daljit Singh from the Asia Cup qualifiers at Abu Dhabi.

The JCT attacks became more purposeful after the inclusion of Surjit Singh who replaced Sukhjit in the second half.

The promising Surjit, who has a knack of breaking loose in tight situations, had a hand in the match winner which spelt doom for the green and maroon brigade.

The JCT defence remained under pressure in the first half as Mohun Bagan carried out raids with alacrity. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts by Khalique, midfielder Basudeb Mondal nearly put Bagan ahead in the 19th minute. When after trooping an R.P. Singh lob, he unleashed a powerful shot from 30 yards but the ball struck the horizontal before going over the goal-line.

Mohun Bagan’s repeated attempts bore fruit in the 34th minute. Following a throw-in, JCT wing back Sukhdev Singh attempted a clearance with a reverse kick near the goal-line but the ball landed right in front of the JCT goalmouth. Kasif Jamal pounced on the ball to shoot home giving the JCT custodian Baljit Singh absolutely no chance (1-0).

JCT hit back soon after and in the 42nd minute earned a flag kick. Mohun Bagan defender Dulal Biswas attempted to clear the ball with a header but JCT medio Hardeep Sangha, just back from the Asia Cup qualifiers, struck from the top of the box and his powerful volley landed in the net much to the relief of the JCT camp (1-1).

The equaliser, which as JCT coach Sukhwinder Singh said, proved to be the turning point of the contest. And the millmen went all out to subdue their rivals in the second half. The Hardip trio of Sangha, Saini and Gill carved out some good moves and on one occasion, Saini’s fine cross from the right corner saw Sangha attempting a powerful volley but the ball struck a rival defender before going out of play.

In the 82nd minute Hardip Gill missed a sitter. After throwing off a couple of defenders with fine body swerves, he advanced alone into the box but the Mohun Bagan goalkeeper, Sandip Nandy, playing in place of regular custodian Hemanta Dora, displayed fine anticipation and rushed out of charge to thwart the move.

Later Mohun Bagan also attacked through James Singh but his attempt saw JCT Defender Deepak Mondal effecting a timely deflection.

With hardly four minutes to go for the long whistle, JCT found the match-winner through the untiring efforts of substitute Surjit and promising medio Hardip Saini, who incidentally was among the five outstanding players in the Durand Cup. Moving on the left flank, Surjit beat Mohun Bagan’s Subrata Bhowmick, who was a trifle slow in reacting and from the goal-line despatched a lob into the box. Hardip Saini, standing unmarked, blasted home from close range after Hardip Gill had missed the flight of the ball, sending a wave of joy in the JCT camp comprising senior company executives and former internationals.

Manisha ousted; Archana wins

NEW DELHI, Dec 13 (PTI) — India number two Manisha Malhotra and junior national champion Radhika Tulpule showed sparks of brilliance, but their defiance lasted only little while before being beaten in three-set duels on the opening day of the $25,000 ITF Women’s Circuit Tennis Tournament here today.

Wildcard Archana Venkataraman, however, raised India’s hopes when she put up a great fight against lucky-loser Svetlana Mossiakova of Russia for over two hours and triumphed 2-6 6-4 6-4. She has, however, run into a possible encounter against second seed Katalin Marosi of Hungary.

Manisha Malhotra, ranked 316th on the WTA rankings, was surprised by HA Eun-Young’s resilience and despite winning the first set, the Indian succumbed 6-4 4-6 6-7 (3/7) in a marathon 3 hour 15 min battle.

Promising Radhika Tulpule made Russia’s Anna Nefedova work hard early on but with the match going into the third set, her stamina ran out and she lost 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 1-6 in 2 hr 30min on a bad day for India.

Nefedova and Tulpule have met thrice on the ITF women’s satellite circuit with the Russian 2-1 up in their meetings.

Wildcard Tulpule, who was impressive in her defeat of Nefedova last year, however, failed to take advantage of the experience and gave up meekly.

The season ending tournament has been dogged by late arrivals of some players, including top seed Tithiana Garbin.

The players, who participated in last week’s Manila ITF women’s circuit event, have been unable to fly out of the Philippines after an earthquake there sent the air traffic schedules haywire.

Only six first round matches could be completed today and the tournament referee has chalked out a busy 10-match card for tomorrow.

The big serving Malhotra started with a bang breaking HA in the opening game itself and held on to her service games to take the first set 6-4.

Both HA and Malhotra struggled with their services double — faulting twice each, but the Indian who fired an ace, managed to cling on to the slender lead before closing out the set.

The Korean rallied from one set and 0-2 down by breaking Malhotra in the fourth game of the second set. The two traded brakes in sixth and seventh and the Indian levelled 4-4 but three double faults cost her the set as HA broke her in the tenth for 6-4.

In the decider, Malhotra against started by breaking HA and though she dropped her game in the second, a break in the seventh put her 5-4 up. Serving for the match, Malhotra faltered after taking 30-0 lead as HA reeled out four points in a row to level back.

With the set forced into the tie-breaker, HA came up trumps and took it 7-6 (7/3). HA will play the winner of the tie between third seed Lucie Ahl (England) and Russian Olga Kaliojnaja in the second round.

In a late match, Japan’s sixth seed Rika Hiraki, famous for her exploits at the Roland Garros stadium winning mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi in 1997, was given a scare by Belgian Daphne Van De Zande before bad light saved the day for her.

Van De Zande won the first set 6-4, but Hiraki rallied to level the match winning the next 6-4 before the match was abandoned due to poor light. The two will complete their duel tomorrow morning.

The encounter between Radhika Tulpule and Anna Nefedova was fought tantalisingly in the first set, but while the Indian dominated the second, the Russian struck at the right time in the decider to run away with second round berth.

Good tennis was on display as after being 0-4 down with two breaks of serves, Tulpule levelled back 4-4 with her baseline play and occasional charging at the net.

The two traded breaks in the 11th and 12th games forcing the tie-breaker which Nefedova won 7-5.

Making amends to her first set flaws, Tulpule downed Nefedova in three service games, served an ace to walk away with the second set 6-2.

This gave a hope that Tulpule might pull off the win but the Russian shattered all hopes and clinched the decider 6-1.

Archana, a compulsive baseliner, tried Mossiakova with long rallies after the Russian had dominated early on to win the first set 6-2. The Indian stuck to the task and won the next two sets 6-4 6-4 to be a worthy winner.

Results on the opening day here today (prefix denotes seedings):

First round:

Tong Ka-Po (Hong Kong) beat Victoria Davies (England) 6-3 7-6 (7/1);

Ha Eun-Young (Korea) beat Manisha Malhotra (India) 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7/3);

Choi Ju-Yeon (Korea) beat 8-Katarina Daskovic (Yugoslavia) 6-2 6-0;

Anna Nefedova (Russia) beat Radhika Tulpule (India) 7-6 (7/5) 2-6 6-1;

Archana Venkataraman (India) beat Svetlana Mossiakova (Russia) 2-6 6-4 6-4.

CISF shooters reign supreme
From Anil Datt

PHILLAUR, Dec 13 — On the penultimate day of the 43rd National Shooting Championship here today, CISF shooters had a field day clinching 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. Army shooters followed them with two gold, three silver and two bronze.

Sushma Rana of the CISF, sister of international Jaspal Rana, clinched a doubled gold. In the 25 m sports pistol (ISSF) national championship, junior women event, Sushma aggregated 564 points to improve her own record of 560 set in the last national championship at Bangalore. Shilpi Singh and Sonia Rana both of the CISF picked the silver and bronze, with 556 and 551 scores, respectively.

In the same event of women section, Sushma Rana shot 662.8 for the gold, missing the national mark of 664.80 set in 1994 at Kanpur by Kunti Malik. Saroja Kumari of Army (659.1) and Sonika Manon of the CISF (657.7) finished second and third, respectively.

International Jaspal Rana seemed to have got into his form as he held the centrestage claiming the gold in the 25 m centre fire pistol (ISSF) for men. He maintained good consistency to finish with a six point difference (581) to second placed Bhanwar Lal Dhaka of Army (575). Army’s Vedparkash with a score of 574 picked the bronze.

In the 25 m sports pistol (women) Sushma Rana, Shilpi Singh and Sonika Manon shot their way to the team gold with a combined hoist of 1680 which was 51 points clear of silver winning Army trio’s tally of 1629, Maharashtra team lugged 1614 for the bronze.

Anjali Vedpathak of the CISF with a score of 668.3 points finished ahead of silver medal winner Deepali of Maharashtra (662.2) and bronze medalist Kuheli Gangulee of the CISF (661.7) in the 50 m prone 3 position women national championship event.

Army marksmen won two gold medals in the 25 m centre fire pistol (ISSF) team event and 25 m sports pistol national championship event (junior men). Army’s Pemba Tamang shot 569 to win a gold while Maharashtra’s Ronak Pandit (560) and Amol Chauhan (550) lifted silver and bronze, respectively. Army team of Ved Parkash (574), Gangadhar Sharma (555) and Mahaveer Singh (572) for a total of 1701 points won a gold in the centre fire pistol BSF with 1698 points won silver while the bronze went to Navy team which aggregated 1688 points.

Gopichand storms into final

LUCKNOW, Dec 13 (PTI) — National champion P. Gopichand rallied from a game down to beat a spirited Sidharth Jain 14-17, 15-3, 15-5 to storm into the final of the Rs 8 lakh Syed Modi Grand Prix Badminton Tournament her today.

Scintillating badminton was on display in the first game with both shuttlers winning serves frequently.

Air India’s Jain displayed an aggressive game and did not allow world No 27 Gopichand to dominate the proceedings.

Long rallies were witnessed and Jain attacked every weak return from Gopichand to stay one game up before winning it 17-14 after Gopichand forced the deuce.

The top shuttler staged his comeback in the second by tiring his opponent through long rallies.

Gopichand, coming here after a remarkable European tour where he won two Grand Prix titles, showed no laxity of the first game and rolled past Jain 15-3, 15-5 to book a berth in the final.

The top seed will meet the winner of other semifinal between second seed Nikhil Kanetkar and eighth seed Anuj Gupta.

Aparna Popat of Petroleum Sports Control Board set up summit clash in the women’s section against B.R. Meenakshi of Karnataka winning her semifinal game with an ease.

Popat disposed of former national champion Neelima Chaudhary 11-5, 11-3, while Meenakshi overcame stiff resistance from PVV Lakshmi before winning 9-11, 11-8, 11-6.

Indian Airlines lift hockey title
From Ravi Dhaliwal

NABHA (Patiala), Dec 13 — In a match having all the ingredients befitting a final, the star-studded Indian Airlines stopped Western Railway impressive run (6-4) in the tournament to annex the title in the 24th Liberals Hockey tournament which concluded at the Ripudaman College Grounds here today.

The hundreds of hockey lovers who assembled at the venue savoured some sparkling hockey dished out by the Airlines outfit.

The Indian Airlines players should salute their goal tender A.B. Subhaiah, who saved his team from the blushes as it was he who showed remarkable reflexes and amazing anticipation and kept his nerves during the crucial tie-breaker. Both Mohd Riaz and A.B. Subhaiah were architects of India’s famous win in the Bangkok Asian Games, where India won the gold medal after 32 years.

Today the airlines players were far more assured. They exhibited the importance of ball possession and were unhurried both in the mid-field and in the deep defence even as they kept their attack sharp enough through their forwards Virender Singh and Bimal Lakra. This strategy of airlines team paid off in the first session as it minimised errors. The airlines team surged ahead when left-in Virender Singh neatly trapped a Brojen Singh pass to gently tap the ball home.

The railmen’s forward Mukhtiar Singh sent in a powerpacked reverse flick which stunned not only custodian A.B. Subhaiah but also the defensive phalanx the airlines team had put up. The airlines team surged ahead minutes later when Ravinder Singh scored a peach of a goal as after drawing out the rival custodian, he unleased a powerful backhander which richo-cheted off the woodwork to slowly roll into the goal. Even as the railmen had to wake up from this upset, the young Brojen Singh drove the ball into the goal with a withering shot that sounded the board.

Up by three goals to one, complacency slowly set in the airlines camp and they had to pay for it dearly as Mukhtiar reduced the margin through a goal mouth melee. And precisely as one second remained for the hooter, Chanderpal stunned the crowd as he scooped the ball in the goal, much to the bewilderment of goal-tender Subhaiah.

The script of the final would have been totally different, but for the defensive tactics of Indian Airlines defenders Rajneesh Mishra and Lazrus Barla in particular for in the second session the railmen were palpably aggressive in their approach and precise in their movements as they were all over the rival territory. But for the heroics of Mishra, Lazrus Barla and custodian A.B. Subhaiah, the railmen would definitely have scored.

With the scoreboard reading 3-3 at the end of the regulation time, the tie-breaker rule was resorted to in which the dream of Western Railway laying their hands on the coveted trophy turned to a nightmare as they found goalkeeper A.B. Subhaiah a tough nut to crack.

In the tie-breaker, Subhaiah stood tall and palmed away one stroke while padding away two. For Indian Airlines Virender, Bimal Lakra and Brojen Singh converted their strokes and Mohd. Riaz muffed his chance, while for the railmen only Mukhtiar Singh was the one who beat A.B. Subhaiah.

The prizes were distributed by Finance Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh.

Unbeaten 121 by Pankaj Dharmani

GUWAHATI, Dec 13 (PTI) — North Zone stormed into the final of the Duleep Trophy for the 19th time by virtue of their first innings lead of 177 runs against Central Zone as the semifinal tie ended in a draw at the Maligaon Railway Stadium here today.

North, who last won the trophy in 1994-95 defeating South Zone, will take on West in this year’s final at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta from December 17 to 21.

Resuming at the overnight score of 328 for seven, Central could add merely 38 runs before they were bundled out for 366 in their first innings.

North achieved an early breakthrough when they sent back centurion Raja Ali back to the pavilion after he had added only a run to his overnight effort of 122. He gave an easy catch to Mongia off a Navdeep Singh delivery with the Central score reading 333.

Central’s wickets continued to fall in quick succession with Zaidi caught by Dharmani off a Robin Singh delivery after he scored 21 runs with the help of two boundaries.

Preetam Gandhi, who had retired hurt yesterday at three, was bowled for 18 by Robin Singh while Narendra Hirwani remained not out on 13 with the Central innings ending 48 minutes before lunch.

North, almost assured of a berth in the final, began their second innings disastrously losing three quick wickets with the scoreboard reading only five before Pankaj Dharmani with a brilliant unbeaten 121 and Rajiv Nair with 88 took the reins in their hands.

West Zone in final

CALCUTTA: West Zone romped into the Duleep Trophy final by virtue of their first innings lead as their semi-final match against East Zone ended in a tame draw at the Eden Gardens here today.

Resuming at the overnight second innings score of 174 for one on the concluding day, the strong West rode on a sedate 105 by Abhijit Kale before declaring their innings at 260 for three.

Faced with an impossible target of scoring 606 runs in 65 overs, East scored at a brisk pace thanks to a rollicking 185-run first wicket partnership between Shib Sundar Das (110) and Nikhil Haldipur (79) to reach 249 for three in 59 overs before play was called off after the ninth mandatory over.

West will now clash with the winner of the other semi-final tie between North and Central in the final to be held here from December 17 to 21.

West batsmen, who played much too slowly yesterday after deciding not to enforce the follow on despite a huge lead, were in a more attacking frame of mind as Wasim Jaffer (94) and Kale scored the runs briskly on the benign track.

Kale struck 13 fours during his 265-minute vigil at the crease while Jaffer’s 94 contained nine fours and lasted 361 minutes.

East skipper Utpal Chatterjee provided the breakthrough evicting Jaffer just six runs short of his century. Jaffer went for a drive but missed the line completely to see his stumps dislodged.

West skipper Amol Muzumdar joined the action after Jaffer’s dismissal and declared the innings immediately after Kale was trapped lbw off part-time bowler Shib Sundar Das.

With very little competitive interest left in the match, East openers went for the runs from the very first over as Shib Sundar Das and Nikhil haldipur displayed a wide range of strokes on both sides of the wicket.

Scoreboard

West Zone (Ist innings): 600 for eight declared.

East Zone (Ist innings): 255 all out

West Zone (IInd innings): W. Jaffer b Chatterjee 94, C.Williams b Satpathy 41, A.Kale lbw b Das: 105, A.Muzumdar (not out) 13, Extras (lb-2, nb-3, w-2) 7, Total (for 3 wkts in 98.1 overs) 260.

Fall of wickets: 1/71, 2/224, 3/260.

Bowling: Javed Zaman 9-3-13-0, Ajay Barik 6-1-22-0, Utpal Chatterjee 26-7-56-1, Sanjay Satpathy 20-3-65-1, Sukhwinder Singh 12-3-45-0, Rohan Gavaskar 13-3-30-0, Nikhil Haldipur 6-1-14-0, Tariqur Rehman 6-0-13-0, S S Das 0.1-0-0-1.

East Zone IInd innings: S. S. Das c Muzumdar b Kulkarni 110, N. Haldipur c Kulkarni b Kambli 79, R. Gavaskar c Siddique b Kulkarni 17, R. R. Parida (not out) 27, S. Karim (not out) 13, Extras (w-1, nb-2) 3.

Total (for 3 wkts in 59 overs) 249

Fall of wickets: 1/185, 2/201, 3/214.

Bowling: Paras Mhambrey 8-0-27-0, Zaheer Khan 8-0-46-0, Nilesh Kulkarni 17-1-75-2, Iqbal Siddique 4-0-23-0, Bhavin Mehta 12-1-37-0, Vinod Kambli 5-0-30-1, Amol Muzumdar 3-0-7-0, Wasim Jaffer 1-1-0-0, Abhijit Kale 1-0-4-0.

600 skaters for national meet
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, Dec 13 — Over 600 skaters, both boys and girls, drawn from 18 affiliated units will take part in the 37th National Roller Skating Championships being held here from December 14 to 18, according to Mr Pradeep Ganeriwal, president of the Roller Skating Federation of India.

Competitions in the up to six years, six to eight years, eight to 10 years, 10 to 12 years, 12 to 14 years and above 14 years sections will be conducted during the meet, being organised by the Roller Skating Federation of India. Competitions will be held in artistic skating, roller hockey and speed (including road races) skating.

Competitions in artistic skating will be conducted at the Sector 10 Skating Rink, roller hockey matches will be held at Kailash Behl D.A.V. School, Sector 7, while the speed skating events will be held at D.A.V. Senior Secondary School, Sector 8. While the Sector 7 school has a regular skating rink, at the Sector 8 school a handball court is being converted into a skating rink with help of the technical experts of the federation. The road races event will be conducted in Sector 34, Mr Ganeriwal disclosed.

The last time the event held in Chandigarh was in 1988. At that time the number of competitors was about 200. With the number of participants rising three-fold, the organisers were forced to divide the events over three venues.

The federation has earmarked a budget of Rs 7 lakh out of which Rs 3 lakh is still to come from the Union Ministry of Sports. In the absence of adequate funds the participants have been provided only lodging and they will have to pay for their food. The participants would also be provided free transportation from their place of stay to the competition venues. Arrangements for food have been with a private contractor from Delhi for which the participants will have to pay Rs 60 per day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Mr Ganeriwal, however, said that in case the federation was able to get the promised Rs 3 lakh from the Government of India the money spent by the participants on food would be refunded.

Mr Ganeriwal disclosed that the federation had decided to rotate the national championship from unit to unit on alphabetical order. In case any unit was not in a position to conduct the national meet (as in the case of Chandigarh) then the federation would pay for the conduct of the meet.

The Union Minister for Sports, Mr Anant Kumar, will formally inaugurate the meet at 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Sector 10 Skating Rink. However, the competitions will begin earlier, with the road races commencing at 7 a.m. The competitions in artistic and roller hockey will also get under way on Tuesday morning.

Basketball titles for AP, MP
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 13 — Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh won the boys and girls titles, respectively, in the National Youth Basketball Championship which concluded at Chittorgarh in Rajasthan today, according to a fax message received from Dr S. Subramanian, chief basketball coach.

Andhra Pradesh defeated Uttar Pradesh in the boys final while holders Madhya Pradesh set aside the challenge of Tamil Nadu in the girls final.

After taking an initial 11-points lead, the Madhya Pradesh girls never looked back and continued to mount the lead. By the time the teams separated for the breather, the score was 47-11 in favour of the defending champions. After the breather, the game continued on the same lines as Andhra Pradesh ended with a comfortable margin of 82-51.

Andhra Pradesh boys, however, faced tough resistance from Uttar Pradesh to win at 74-58 after trailing 31-32 at the breather. It was Pankaj who masterminded the title triumph for Andhra Pradesh by scoring 34 points alone . Trideep Roy (26) and Sunil (17) did the bulk of the scoring for Uttar Pradesh.

Punjab boys won the bronze medal, defeating Tamil Nadu in the losing semi-finalists game. For Punjab it was a sweet revenge as they had lost the hardline cup match to same opponents in the last national Youth Championship at Surat. Punjab won comfortably at 68-33 after taking a 34-23 lead at half time.Pawandeep (17), Prabhjot and Parminder (14 each), Lakhwinder (10) and Manpreet (nine) were the main scorers for Punjab. Last evening, Punjab went down fighting to Andhra Pradesh in the semi-finals.

In the girls section, the bronze medal went to Andhra Pradesh as they defeated Maharashtra 48-42.

Haryana to set up sports trust
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 13 — “To benefit the sportspersons of Haryana, a sports trust having an initial capital of Rs 5 crores woule be set up,” said Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, president of the Haryana Olympic Association. He was speaking at Sri Mata Mansa Devi shrine in Panchkula today where the function to flag off the ‘Olympic torch” was organised.

The function attracted a large gathering which also included the players from ITBP. The ‘Olympic torch’ was handed over to the four Arjuna awardees — Bhim Singh, Mehtab Singh, Maharaj Kaushik and Ms Anju Dua — by Mr Chautala. It would finally reach Bhiwani on the evening of December 15, on the eve of the Haryana Sports Festival being organised by Haryana Olympic Association from December 16. Anju Dua is a deaf and dumb gymnast of Haryana who was conferred Arjuna award this year.

Mr Chautala announced a grant of Rs 11,000 each for two ailing ex-sportspersons of Haryana, Om Prakash, a basketball player, and Pawan Kumar, a swimmer. Pawan had received head injuries in 1985 at the National School Games about 20 years ago and has not recovered since then. Mr Chautala assured that Haryana players who perform well would be looked after in matters like job placements by the state.

He also told that a sports complex at Panchkula would be given final shape. He condemned the previous HOA team for not taking interest in promoting sports in the state.

Later Mr Chautala also released the logo of the sports festival. He also honoured all four Arjuna awardees — Bhim Singh (athletics), Mehtab Singh, MK Kaushik (hockey) and Ms Anju Dua (gymnastics). The sportspersons of Panchkula who brought laurels for the state and India were also honoured. Those honoured included Anuradha (judo), Meenakshi Kohli, Heena Ahuja, Priyanka Sharma, Indu Madan, Shreya Sahni and Amita Singh (all skating). Naib Subedar (boxing) and Satgur Talwar (volleyball).

Good show by Ram Kishore
By Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, Dec 13 — Ram Kishore of Health Department , Haryana, cornered glory by winning the gold medal in the 200 metres race (above 50 years category) at the just concluded 13th Malaysian Open Veterans Athletics Championships at Kuala Lumpur . He also bagged the silver medal in the 100 metres section.

In the women section, Shashi Sharma also of the Health Department, Haryana, secured a bronze medal in the above 40 years category in the 1500 metres race.

About 500 men and women veteran athletes from 12 countries took part in this meet.

West Indies ‘A’ win series

NEW DELHI, Dec 13 (PTI) — The third and final one-day cricket match between India ‘A’ and West Indies ‘A’ in Granada was abandoned due to rain midway through the Indian innings, giving the hosts a 1-0 series victory.

India, chasing 150 for victory in a rain-curtailed 30-overs-a-side clash yesterday, were struggling at 61 for seven when the match was called off after rain started pouring in again, according to information received here.

West Indies ‘a’ won the first match in Barbados by four wickets, while the second one-dayer was washed out without a ball being bowled.

Yesterday, the hosts made 149 for seven with Chris Gayle scoring 44 and Azeemul Hanif 30. Mohd Kaif was the best of the Indian bowlers, claiming four wickets for 30 runs from six overs.

Mohammad Ali is best

LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) — Muhammad Ali has been voted the sports personality of the century in a BBC poll. Ali’s award marked a night of success for boxing with undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis claiming the British sports personality of the year prize.

Born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, and nicknamed the “Louisville Lip”, Ali first won the World Heavyweight Championship in 1964, beating Sonny Liston.

Ali was stripped of his title and banned from the ring in 1967 for his refusal to fight in Vietnam, but he came back to win the crown from Joe Frazier in a brutal encounter in January, 1974.

HP basketball

Chandigarh, Dec 13 (BOSR) — The Himachal Pradesh State Basketball Championship for senior men and women will be played at Sarkaghat (Mandi) from December 17 to 19, according to Mr RS Guleria, Secretary of the HP Basketball Association.The three day meet will be organised by the Mandi District Basketball Association in which 13 men and eight women teams would take part. Mr Praveen Sharma Sports Minister, HP, will inaugurate the meet on December 17.

Gymnastic squad selected

Chandigarh, Dec 13 (BOSR) — A 12-member strong contingent comprising six men and an equal number of women, has been selected by the Gymnastics Federation of India to represent India in the first Central South Asia Gymnastics Championship going to be held at Polo Ground Gymnasium Hall, Patiala, from December 23 to 25. The trials were held at NIS, Patiala.

The team — Men: Vikas Pandey (UP), Rajinder Prasad (Pb) , Praveen Sharma (Rlys), Mohit Yadav (UP), Kuldip Kumar (Pb) and Vikrant (Pb).

Women: Tumpa Debnath (WB), Poonam Chhabra (Rlys), Jaswant Kaur (Pb), Sundari Mondal (Rlys), Manisha Sharma (Mah) and Runa Das (Rlys).

Mr Samir Deb of ITBP, Chandigarh, and Mr Kulwinder Singh of Haryana will be the men coaches while Ms Kalpana Debnath of SAI NIS, Patiala and Mr J P Chakarborty of SAI (WB) will be the coaches for the woman gymnasts.

Mr Nagendra Prasad of Karnataka will be the manager of the team.

Jaiprakash shines

ROHTAK, Dec 13 (FOSR) — Government College, Faridabad, defeated Vaish College, Bhiwani, by 129 runs in the M.D. University Inter-Zonal Cricket Championship at Maharaja Aggarsain Stadium here today.

Batting first Government College openers Rohan Rana (36) and Manoj (22) scored 60 runs in only eight overs. Vikram was another useful contributor with 47. Jaiprakash top scored with 65. The entire team could score 240 in 45 overs for 9 wickets. Vikas of Vaish College, took three wicket for 40 runs.

In reply, Vaish College started on a disastrous manner losing two wickets for 11 runs in the first three overs.

Praveen scored 30. The innings folded at 111 runs in 35.3 overs. Narain Choudhry captured three wickets for 17 runs in seven overs. Yogesh Virmani and Virender bagged two wickets each.