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| Thursday, March 2, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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India keen to stave off Test
series defeat
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| Australia cruise to 5-wkt win NAPIER, March 1 — Australia cruised to a five-wicket victory over New Zealand with 25 balls to spare in the fifth one-day cricket international at Mclean Park here today. Australia lead the best-of-six series 4-0 after the opening match was declared a no result because of rain. Munich trounce Real Madrid PARIS, March 1 — Three-time European champions Bayern Munich scored a stunning 4-2 win away to seven-time champions Real Madrid last night to take a stranglehold on group C of the second phase of the Champions League. Tollygunge, E. Bengal split points CALCUTTA, Mar 01 — Superb goal-keeping by Bibhas Ghosh gave Tollygunge Agragami an important point in a goalless match vs East Bengal in the crucial second leg of the fourth Coca Cola National League at Salt Lake stadium here today.
Gopichand, Aparna retain crowns International
athletic meet at Hisar
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India keen to stave off Test series defeat BANGALORE, March 1 (PTI) — A beleaguered India are desperate to stave off their first Test series defeat at home in 13 years despite several problems as they take on a buoyant South Africa in the second and final cricket Test starting here tomorrow. The hosts, whose last home Test series defeat came in 1986-87 against the Imran Khan-led Pakistan, are faced with an arduous task to topple the visitors who are flying high after the first Test triumph at Mumbai by four wickets. After suffering their fourth straight Test defeat, India are hardly geared up to counter South Africa’s might. Hit by batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s move to step down as captain and the debate around Mohammad Azharuddin’s recall, the batting plight and the cricket board’s (BCCI) volte face over preparing “sporting pitches” and tension between the team management and board officials has hardly given an ideal chance for India to bounce back as a unit. The hosts, who recovered to draw the two-Test home series against Pakistan last year, will have to produce something special if they are to overcome the South Africans. Tendulkar, who quits captaincy after this game, will be extremely keen to go out on a winning note. The master batsman playing his 76th Test is just five runs short of crossing the 6,000 runs barrier. On a Chinnaswamy stadium pitch expected to take turn from end of day two, India might have to omit a batsman if they plan to field three slow bowlers though Azharuddin and opener S. Ramesh look certain to play. The 37-year-old Azharuddin, seeking to return and play his 99th Test after seven months in the wilderness since the World Cup last year, has an excellent record against South Africa with three centuries. “I am fully fit and raring to go”, said the wristy batsman, who suffered a chip fracture on the base of his right thumb playing for the Board President’s XI against the visitors to be ruled out for the first Test. Hansie Cronje’s men, who lost the 1996-97 Test series to India 1-2, are oozing confidence and are determined not to allow India to square the series. “This time around, we know we can really achieve that (Test series win)”, Cronje said. “We have got the confidence and maturity. Obviously the pressure is on Indians. “We are keen to keep the pressure on”, said Cronje, 30, who has led South Africa in 52 of the 69 Tests his country has played since it was reinstated to international cricket. South Africa have been boosted by batsman Daryll Cullinan recovering from a groin strain that kept him out of the first Test. He is expected to replace the listless Pieter Strydom. All-rounder Lance Klusener twisted his left ankle playing soccer yesterday, but Cronje expected him to be fit to play. After the first Test ended within three days, a debate has hotted up over pitch conditions for the series, especially after the BCCI reported direction to its pitch and grounds committee under former skipper K. Srikkanth to stay away from match venues. Srikkanth had assured sporting pitches and the BCCI had empowered his panel to oversee pitch preparations. But BCCI’s return to old ways has apparently been done on grounds of providing “home advantage”. Pitch curator, G. Kasturi Rangan said the track will start taking turn towards the end of second day, a view shared by Cronje. India are expected to field three spinners, giving off-spinner Nikhil Chopra his first Test cap. Though Anil Kumble bowled well in Mumbai, left armer Murali Kartik’s inexperience was evident at times and Chopra has never been a genuine tweaker of the ball, leaving their task cut out. After the miserable failure of the opening pair which cost V.V.S. Laxman his place, young Wasim Jaffer will open with Ramesh while Azharuddin will take Ajay Jadeja’s place in the team. Ramesh has not played any cricket since suffering a thumb fracture fending an express delivery from Brett Lee in the second Test against Australia at Melbourne last December. South Africa, for all practical purposes, play their first tie here and their only previous appearance was against Zimbabwe during the 1993 Hero Cup. Only 10 overs were possible on that occasion due to inclement weather. Out of 12 Tests played at this venue, India have won four, lost three with five drawn. India lost their last Test they played here against Australia in the 1997-98 series. India, desperate to mark a turnaround in their fortunes, will be striving to win ahead of the one-day series. “We all pray it stops here, and we start winning”, Saurav Ganguly taking over captaincy from Tendulkar for the one-dayers, said. “If we score 300 to 325 runs on this wicket, I think we should win... It’s a good enough total”. Coach Kapil Dev said the sooner we end this poor run, the better it is. South Africans, enjoying a psychological advantage and boosted by Cullinan’s return have benefited by the steady performance of openers Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs and have also shown the temperament to negotiate spin. The South African pace battery had Indian batsmen in all sorts of trouble and unless the openers alongwith struggling Rahul Dravid produce the goods, another defeat could well be on the cards. Quickie Allan Donald is
all set to join the elite club of fast bowlers who have
taken 300 Test wickets. |
Lanka down Pak by 2 wickets RAWALPINDI, March 1 (AFP) — A valiant ninth wicket stand between Arjuna Ranatunga and Romsesh Kaluwitharana helped Sri Lanka down Pakistan by two wickets in the first cricket Test here today. The seasoned pair put on a fighting 43 to help outlast the home team in a nerve-wracking finish with close shaves and tantalising efforts for each run. Kaluwitharana, who finished with 36 not out, hit two boundaries off Waqar Younis to bring Sri Lanka’s eighth win in the last 18 Tests. Ranatunga, batting with a broken left thumb, finished with a battling 29 not out as Sri Lanka achieved their victory target 220 with 9.1 overs to go in the match. The home team put up a remarkable fight and though reduced to just three bowlers made a match of it but in the end were left to rue a low score in the first innings and missed chances. With 77 needed at tea and six wickets intact Sri Lanka held the advantage but pacer Abdur Razzak snared two wickets off two balls to set a nerve-wracking finish. Twenty-year-old Razzak had Nuwan Zoysa caught in the second slip by Wajahatullah Wasti and yorked Pramodya Wickremasinghe next ball to send the 12,000-strong crowd to their feet sensing a home win. Sri Lanka lost four wickets for 34 runs after tea, leaving all the guesses open. Zoysa helped Kaluwitharana add a valuable 25 runs for the seventh wicket. But Pakistan missed a golden opportunity when Kaluwitharana was let off by Younis at mid-on off Razzak at 172-6 and then failed to run out Ranatunga with 40 to get. At 146-5 Arjuna Ranatunga had to retire after he was hit on the left thumb by Waqar Younis. The diminutive Ranatunga returned back at 177-8, his team still 43 away from victory. “It was a tense finish but I think our boys did well to pull off this win,” Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya, who came from series wins over Australia and Zimbabwe last year, said. Pakistan continued their remarkable fightback in the match, claiming three wickets in the first session of the day to hold the slight advantage for the first time in the match. Resuming at 11-0, Sri Lanka added 66 runs in the first session losing opener Marvan Atapattu (10) Russel Arnold (6) and Aravinda de Silva (21). Younis forced Marvan Atapattu to edge an outgoing delivery in the second over of the day to first slip where Saqlain Mushtaq held an easy catch. Mushtaq, who recovered in time to take the field after having dehydration problems on day four, held his second catch off Younis when Russel Arnold failed to draw his bat away. Sri Lanka lost their second wicket at 34. De Silva survived a confident lbw shout on the first ball off Younis and a run out. He hit four well-timed fours before snicking to wicketkeeper Moin Khan off Razzak. Sri Lanka went into lunch struggling at 77-3 still needing 143 to win. “It could have gone either way but we missed a number of chances and scored just 182 in the first innings which led to our failure,” Pakistan captain Saeed Anwer said. (SCOREBOARD) Pakistan (1st innings): 182 Sri Lanka (1st innings): 353 Pakistan (2nd innings): 390 Sri Lanka (2nd innings): Atapattu c Saqlain b Waqar 10 Jayasuriya c Sohail b Razzak 56 Arnold c Saqlain b Waqar 6 De Silva c Moin b Razzak 21 Jayawardene c Youhanna b Saqlain 35 Ranatunga not out 29 Kaluwitharana not out 36 Vaas run out 0 Zoysa c Wasti b Razzak 13 Wickremasinghe b Razzak 0 Extras: (b-1, lb-11, nb-2) 14 Total: (for 8 wkts, in 83.5 overs) 220 Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-34, 3-73, 4-116, 5-144, 6-152, 7-177, 8-177 Bowling: Younis
24.5-6-78-2, Razzak 26-6-56-4, Saqlain Mushtaq 33-8-74-1. |
Australia cruise to 5-wkt win NAPIER, March 1 (AFP) — Australia cruised to a five-wicket victory over New Zealand with 25 balls to spare in the fifth one-day cricket international at Mclean Park here today. Australia lead the best-of-six series 4-0 after the opening match was declared a no result because of rain. The final match is on Friday. Opener Nathan Astle hammered a century after being dropped on zero as New Zealand scored 243 for nine. Astle cracked 104 off 128 balls to be the backbone of the Kiwi innings after he was dropped at mid-off by Michael Bevan in Glenn McGrath’s opening over. It continued a marvellous scoring summer for the right-handed Astle, who followed up scores of 77, 32, 50, 76 and 85 in the five-match home series against the West Indies with 0, 81, 45 and today’s 104 against Australia. SCOREBOARD NEW ZEALAND: Sinclair lbw b Fleming 0 Astle c Gilchrist b Fleming 104 Fleming c S. Waugh b Fleming 10 Twose b M. Waugh 32 Cairns c Warne b McGrath 31 Harris c Hayden b Harvey 15 Styris b McGrath 0 Nevin c Martyn b Warne 11 Vettori c Hayden b Fleming 17 Doull not out 0 Extras: (lb-7, nb-4, w-12) 23 Total: (9 wkts, 50 overs) 243 Fall of wkts: 1-4, 2-26, 3-115, 4-177, 5-207, 6-208, 7-223, 8-232, 9-243. Bowling: McGrath 10-0-61-2, Fleming 8-0-41-4, Harvey 10-0-35-1, S. Lee 5-0-23-0, Warne 10-2-34-1, M. Waugh 7-0-42-1. AUSTRALIA: Gilchrist c Styris b Cairns 14 M. Waugh c Astle b Cairns 0 Hayden st Nevin b Wiseman 57 Bevan c Styris b Doull 107 Warne st Nevin b Vettori 12 S. Waugh not out 43 Martyn not out 4 Extras: (w-2, b-3, lb-3) 8 Total: (5 wkts, 45.4 overs) 245 Fall of wkts: 1-1, 2-34, 3-130, 4-155, 5-237 Bowling: Cairns
8-0-31-2, Doull 7-0-36-1, Styris 6.4-0-46-0, Wiseman
10-0-52-1, Vettori 10-0-47-1, Harris 2-0-17-0, Astle
2-0-10-0. |
Anand, Kramnik play draw LINARES (Spain), March 1 (UNI) — Viswanathan Anand played out his second draw in as many rounds, the latest coming in just 20 minutes against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia on the second day of the elite grandmaster tournament here. Alexander Khalifman held Garry Kasparov, who started out with a win in the first round against Alexi Shirov to a draw. The match was being seen by many as a clash between Kasparov and the FIDE establishment. For Khalifman, despite being rather lowly ranked and rated, emerged as the champion in the FIDE World Championship at Las Vegas last year. Kasparov and Anand had skipped the championship. In the third match of the day, Alexi Shirov managed to find some equilibrium after the first day’s horrendous mistake and drew with Peter Leko in a marathon 71 moves. After two days in the 10-round tournament in which each player clashes with the others twice, once each with black and white, Kasparov and Kramnik hold the lead with 1.5 points. Anand and Leko have one each, while Khalifman and Shirov have half a point each. Clearly Anand is not taking chances with black and is content with draws. The Kramnik-Anand game was a Slav defence which lasted just 20 moves. Anand equalised easily and when Kramnik realised he would not achieve much, he offered a draw which Anand accepted. Khalifman and Kasparov too were engaged in a short game that went to 29 moves before the draw was agreed to in the Grunfeld Indian. Khalifman did well to counter Kasparov, who began aggressively but did not achieve much. The game ended in a draw with repetition of moves. In the opening round on Monday, Anand had begun with a draw against Hungarian Peter Leko. Anand was playing with black pieces. But the other two games produced results, as world No 3 Russian Vladimir Kramnik defeated fellow countryman and the FIDE World Champion, Alexander Khalifman, with the black pieces. Garry Kasparov made good a huge blunder from Alexei Shirov of Spain to grab the full point. The Leko-Anand game ended just before the first time control. The two have been engaged in a series of draws the last few times they have met. But head-to-head Anand holds the edge, but of late Leko has become much more solid. Anand played the Caro-Kann defence with black. Most of the early game went on theoretical lines with neither player making any mistake of deviation. The first move away from the usual line came on the 19th. Leko was unable to make headway and Anand kept his king safely. Anand clearly did not want to take any chances and played out for a draw, which Leko offered after 39 moves. Khalifman lost to Kramnik in the Nimzo-Indian defence in a game that lasted 35 moves. Kasparov managed to make his way past Shirov’s Petrof defence and then benefited from a blunder to win in 52 moves. In round three Anand will have white for the first time and he meets Shirov, while Kasparov clashes with Kramnik and in the third match Leko meets Khalifman. Round 2 standings: 1-2
Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) — 2758 and Gary Kasparov
(Russia) 2851 1.5, 3-4 Viswanathan Anand (India) 2769 and
Peter Leko (Hungary) 2725 1.0 5-6 Alexander Khalifman
(Russia) 2656 and Alexei Shirov (Spain) 27510.5. |
Munich trounce Real Madrid PARIS, March 1 (AFP) — Three-time European champions Bayern Munich scored a stunning 4-2 win away to seven-time champions Real Madrid last night to take a stranglehold on group C of the second phase of the Champions League. Chasing their first European title since 1976 — after being beaten by Manchester United in last year’s final -Bayern got goals from Mehmet Scholl, Stefan Effenberg, Thorsten Fink and Brazilian Paulo Sergio as they upset Real. Bayern became the first German side to win at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium — and achieved the feat just 48 hours after they celebrated their club centenary. In another huge surprise, Feyenoord of Holland scored twice in the last quarter of an hour to win 2-1 away to Italian big-spenders Lazio in group D — and the Dutch side now top the group. In other matches, French outfit Marseille won 1-0 at home to England’s Chelsea in group D and Dynamo Kyiv of Ukraine downed Rosenborg Trondheim in group C. Bayern now have seven points from three games in group C and lead Real by a point with a home game against the Spaniards still to come. Group D is a lot tighter with Feyenoord on six points, Chelsea and Lazio on four and Marseille on three. Bayern led 2-0 in the Santiago Bernabeu after 24 minutes — and held on to their advantage throughout a tense match. Scholl got a fortunate bounce and beat the Real offside trap to make it 1-0 after 21 minutes, chipping the ball over goalkeeper Iker Casillas. Three minutes later, Effenberg doubled the advantage when his angled free-kick from 30 metres out beat the hapless Casillas at the near post. Just when it seemed Real were down and out they struck back within 60 seconds. Raul crashed a shot against the crossbar and Morientes was well positioned to head the rebound home. Bayern made it 3-1 six minutes before halftime when a clever backheel from Brazilian Giovane Elber set up Fink for a low drive that beat Casillas all ends up. Raul pulled a goal back for Real three minutes after the break, but Bayern made it 4-2 through Paulo Sergio in the 66th minute. “We have played one of the greatest games in our history,” said sweeper Lothar Matthaus. In Rome, Lazio opened the scoring after 37 minutes of flowing football with a spectacular volley from Argentine ace Juan Sebastian Veron. Feyenoord pulled themselves level through Danish international Jon Dahl Tomasson after 78 minutes and then grabbed the winner through Newcastle reject Tomasson six minutes later. Substitute Radoslav
Samardzic chipped over a cross and Tomasson — left
unmarked by all six Lazio players in the penalty area
— had time to trap the ball before hoofing it into
the roof of the net for the equaliser. |
Tollygunge, E. Bengal split points CALCUTTA, Mar 01 (UNI) — Superb goal-keeping by Bibhas Ghosh gave Tollygunge Agragami an important point in a goalless match vs East Bengal in the crucial second leg of the fourth Coca Cola National League at Salt Lake stadium here today. East Bengal would have left the field with an outright win but a superb goal-line saving by Tollygunge medio Isiaka in the first half and valiant goalkeeping by Ghosh in the second session forced Calcutta giants to be contended with one point only from a tame draw. With today’s result, Tolly now have 25 points from 18 outings and East Bengal with 24 points in as many matches. Tolly were now placed in the sixth position followed by East Bengal. East Bengal, which had started the league encounter with a 0-1 loss against Tollygunge Agragami, had four chances today to score and avenge the defeat. But frontliners spearheaded by Brazilian Oseias and Dipankar Ray failed miserably to find the target. Their golden opportunity to score in the 25th minute of the first half was thwarted by Ghanian Isiaka from a gaol-line who had to leave the ground with a head injury after hitting the post. The move was made by East Bengal captain Carlton Chapman who lobbed near the gaol-line and Oseias, who followed the ball, took the shot which beat the goalie. But Isiaka saved the ball from a header and injured himself. In the second half, East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick made some changes in the frontline replacing Opuku, Carlton Chapman and Sheikh Sanjeev bringing in veteran Tushar Rakshit, Amit Das and Bijen Singh. But his tactics failed to yield any result. East Bengal had an edge
but failed to translate their moves into goals. |
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MUMBAI, March 1 (PTI) — Indian Davis Cup star and top seed Leander Paes sailed into the men’s singles quarterfinals with an easy 6-1, 6-4 win over unseeded Jerame Hanquez of France in the prize money ATP Tennis Challenger here today. Paes, ranked 113 in the world, took one hour five minutes to dispose of his opponent. He had an easy outing in the match played on the centre court, served and volleyed magnificently and also passed his opponent on either flanks with ease. Paes totally dominated the first set and his rival could just win one game, when he held his serve in the sixth game. The Frenchman played better in the second. He fought back well to save three break points and held his serve in the third game. However, the plucky Indian played some breathtaking passing shots in the seventh game to break his rival’s serve and then served out the match at 6-4 with a fine drop shot from near the net. Paes served as many as six aces while his opponent could manage just three. The Frenchman was also guilty of double faulting four times while Paes served just one. Results: Men’s singles
(pre-quarterfinals): Glorgia Galimberti (Ita) b Jeff
Coetzee (SA) 6-1, 1-0 (conceded), Florian Allgauer (Ita)
b Satoshi Iwabuchi (Jpn) 7-5, 6-4, Leander Paes (Ind) b
Jerame Hanquez (Fra) 6-1, 6-4, Dennis Van Scheppingen
(Ned) b Filippo Volandri (Ita), Nicolas Coutelot (Fra) b
Justin Bower (SA) 6-3, 6-4, Tom Chicoine (USA) b Noam
Behr (Isr) 6-4, 6-0, Boris Borgula (Svk) b Oleg Ogorodov
(Uzb) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). |
Gopichand, Aparna retain crowns KOCHI, March 1 (PTI) — Defending champions P. Gopichand and Aparna Popat retained their men’s and women’s singles titles respectively, in the Senior National Badminton Championship here today. Top seeded Gopichand (PSCB), after an initial hiccup, scripted an authoritative win over Abhinn Shyam Gupta (BAI) 15-11, 15-6, securing his fourth consecutive title in five appearances in the final so far. “Every victory is special to me. Abhinn is dangerous once he gets going. But today I managed to upset his rhythm,” said the India No 1. Earlier, in the women’s final, reigning champion Aparna Popat (PSCB) defeated Karnataka’s B.R. Meenakshi 11-6 11-1 in under 25 minutes to make it a hat-trick of wins. In the Gopichand-Gupta match, Gupta got off to a good start taking a 6-1 lead before the top seed got into his rhythm and equalised at six-all. After that, Gopichand quelled Gupta’s resistance to win the game 15-11. In the second also, Gopichand dominated with his controlled aggression to take the game and match 15-6. Much was expected from Gupta, who was gunning for his first title, but he could not stop the top seed from retaining the title. Also he was coming into the tournament with victories over higher ranked players in the recent Thomas and Uber Cup Asian Zone qualifiers at New Delhi, but Gopichand’s superior all round play saw him through. In the first game things seemed to be going his way when Gupta took a five point lead at 6/1, but Gopichand, mixing his drops and smashes well, levelled at 6-all. Gupta, the second seed, then tightened his game and took a three point lead (11-8) which was neutralised by Gopichand (11-all). Thereafter, it was Gopichand all the way as his smashes won him points. Besides, he also showed his customary command at the net to wrap up the game with Gupta stranded at the same point. In the second game, Gopichand, who was playing despite slight fever, raced to a commanding 9-3 lead. He then broke free at 12-6 to clinch his second consecutive victory against the 20-year-old from Allahabad in the national championship final. Gopichand had thrashed Gupta 15-1, 15-0 in last year’s final at New Delhi. Later, in the women’s doubles final, seasoned Madhumitha Bisht and P.V.V. Lakshmi (Railway/PSCB) did not face any problem from youngsters Gupta Jwala and Shruti Kurien of Andhra Pradesh, winning 15-3, 15-8 in under 40 minutes. In the men’s doubles finals, second seeded Vijaydeep and Markose Bristow (Rlys/PSCB) shocked defending champion and top seeds Jaseel P. Ismail and Vincent Lobo (both PSCB) 7-15 15-4 15-10. Ismail and Lobo easily took the first game before their rivals fought back. Markose served intelligently and secured vital points through his jump-smashes and Vijaydeep showed remarkable ability to retrieve from difficult angles. They closed out the second game 15/4. In the decider, though
the defending champions were able to equalise at 10-all,
they could not stop Markose Bristow and Vijayadeep Singh
from winning the game and the match. |
International athletic meet at Hisar CHANDIGARH, March 1 — A little over 300 athletes, including 35 from abroad, will participate in the third international athletic meet being held at the Chaudhri Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar on March 3. Disclosing this here today, Haryana Amateur Athletic Association Secretary H.S. Bhadu said the meet would be inaugurated by state Finance Minister Sampat Singh while state Olympic and amateur athletic associations President Abhey Singh Chautala will give away the prizes. He said athletes from Ukraine, Kenya, Russia, Nepal, Belaruss and Tanzania would participate in the meet which will be telecast live by Doordarshan. India’s international athletes Anil Kumar and Virender Punia will participate in 100 metres, P. Ramchandran Singh in 400 metres Biju Miradi and Gulab Singh in 1,500 metres. Shakti Singh and Bahadur Singh will participate in shotput, Anil Kumar and Ajit Bhaduria in discuss throw, Nirbhay Singh and Virender Punia in hammer throw, Satbir Singh and Jagjit Singh in javelin throw and Anil Kumar in long jump. In men’s section competitions will be in 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres shot put, hammer throw, discuss, javelin, 110 metres hurdles and long jump. In the women’s
section competitions will be in 100, 200, 400, 800, and
1,500 metres discuss throw, javelin throw and long jump. |
North
Zone
thrash South Zone AMRITSAR, March 1 — North Zone today thrashed South Zone 7-1 on the opening day of the Food Corporation of India inter-zone national hockey tournament which started here today at the Guru Nanak Dev University hockey stadium. Earlier, East Zone holders beat the headquarter team 4-1. For the North Zone captain Navveer Singh scored all four goals, including a penalty stroke. The first two goals came within 20 minutes of the match. In the second half, South Zone mustered some brilliant moves and managed to score through a field goal but North Zone forged ahead with three more goals to make it 7-1.
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ITI, Mahindras play goalless draw BANGALORE, March 1 (PTI) — Lowly-placed Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), Bangalore, held Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) to a goalless draw in the National Football League here today. The local outfit dominated the proceedings but failed to convert the chances, which included a penalty, that came their way. Mahindras too was guilty of missing chances. ITI’s R.C. Prakash-George I Ekha combine did not get adequate support from the midfield. However, custodian Balaji was at his best under the bar. On the other hand, Mahindras’ ace striker Bassam Khatib and M. Najeeb did make some impressive moves in the first half but they went in vain. With this draw, Mahindras now have 26 points from 18 outings, while ITI have 13 from the same number of matches.
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Churchill humble Dempo 2-0 MARGAO, March 1 (UNI) — Title aspirant Churchill Brothers (Goa) kept their reputation intact as they humbled their state mates bottom place Dempo 2-0 adding three valuable points in the process to their tally and remained on second place with 35 points in the second leg National Football League match played at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, here today. After leading by a solitary goal at the breather, the Churchill outfit stepped up the pace of the game to slam in one more goal through medio Oscar Hunda in the 88th minute to seal the fate of the Dempo side. Churchill fired the first salvo in the 19th minute of the contest with striker Rocky Barreto finding the target but seemed to lose their direction after that with poor ball control. After the breather Churchill played a more organised game attacking from both the flanks to take tight control of the proceeding adding one more goal to send Dempo packing. Churchill could have won
by a bigger margin had their forwards not muffed a few
scoring chances that came their way in both the halves. |
Khalsa Sporting score 2-1 win JALANDHAR, March 1 — Favourites Sporting Club-De-Goa drubbed Union Club, Ambala, by 5-0 in their first league encounter in pool-A on the second day of the second All-India Shri Guru Gobind Singh prize money football tournament currently under way at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium here. For the winners the key performer was substitute Pascial Pereira who scored two goals in a row. In pool-B Khalsa Sporting, Chandigarh, chalked out a 2-1 win over Jamshedpur Sporting Association. The score was 1-0 in favour of Chandigarh team till the half time. The opening match of the day in pool-B displayed a fast and positive game. The Chandigarh boys exhibited brilliant footwork in the opening minutes, but they could not score in the first 20 minutes. It was Baljit Singh in the 25th minute who opened the account of the team. Chandigarh team was ahead by 1-0 till the half time. In the second half,
Jagjit Randhawa of Chandigarh increased the tally scoring
a field goal in the 51st minute. The Jamshedpur team
tried hard to come back in the game and Chander Mohan
Soren proved a lucky man for Jamshedpur in 76th minute,
who scored a field goal to make it 1-2. At the end of the
game the score was 2-1 in favour of Chandigarh. |
Hockey final to be replayed LUDHIANA, March 1 — The final match of the All-India Inter-University (inter zonal) Hockey Tournament for men between holders Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, will be replayed here at the astro turf stadium of PAU on March 4, according to Mr J.S. Toor, joint director, sports and cultural activities, PAU and organising secretary of tournament committee. The final played here at PAU on January 17 was abandoned midway through the second half as the GND varsity team had staged a walkout from the field alleging partisan umpiring by one of the umpires Sanjeev Kumar, employed with PAU. However, the organisers had clarified that since one of the two umpires appointed for the final match did not report for duty, they had no alternative but to appoint Sanjeev Kumar, who is a qualified umpire and the name of the substitute umpire was announced on the public address system 20 minutes prior to the commencement of the match. The final will be
replayed on March 4 at 12.30 p.m. |
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