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| Thursday, March 9, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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India face daunting task |
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| Dingko’s qualifying chances
dim PATIALA, March 8 — The chances of ace pugilist Dingko Singh, who won a gold in the Bangkok Asian Games, have now considerably dimmed as there is only one pre-Olympic qualifying tournament left for him to make it to the Sydney Olympics. The Kings Cup, slated to be held at Bangkok from April 1 to 7, is the last qualifying tourney for the services pugilist to make the grade for the Olympic.
Nehru Stadium lucky for India
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KOCHI, March 8 (PTI) - A beleaguered Indian team will have to produce something extra as they face a daunting task to emerge from the ruins and stop the South African juggernaut in its tracks in the opening tie of the five-match one-day international Pepsi Cup series starting here tomorrow. India, who lost seven of their eight matches in the tri-series in Australia and were routed 0-2 in the Test series against the Proteas, and the new skipper Sourav Ganguly will have his task cut out to lift the team’s morale with a win at the Nehru Stadium here. Saddled with a side that has been performing much below its potential in the last two months after edging out New Zealand by a narrow 3-2 margin in their last home one-day series, India will also be wary of South Africa’s tremendous 20-9 win-loss record from 30 games between the two teams. The Indian team has been reeling from one humiliating defeat after another in the past three months with all key players lacking consistency and playing below par. The first home Test series defeat in 13 years will weigh heavily on the minds of the Indian players with the absence of rested pace spearhead Javagal Srinath leaving young seamers Ajit Agarkar and T.Kumaran with a big responsibility. The first tie between the two after South Africa’s defeat of India in the four-nation Nairobi tournament last year will also mark the return of Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja after a long gap. Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who quit as captain at the end of the Test series against South Africa, will be aiming to regain total focus on his batting and with Ganguly will aim to take on the pace attack led by Shaun Pollock and Mornantau Hayward. Top order success will be key to Indian batting if they are to counter the South African attack backed by outstanding fielding. Their bowling runs deep and skipper Hansie Cronje and Jacques Kallis besides left-arm spinner Nicky Boje can prove a handful. The Indian attack, in contrast, will need to bring in more discipline if they are to restrict the formidable batting of South Africa in check. The 37-year-old Azharuddin, who made a brilliant comeback into the team after seven months by cracking an aggressive 102 in the Bangalore Test, could bolster the middle order that was found wanting in the lively pitches of Australia. But Rahul Dravid, going through an exceptionally long bad phase, will find it hard to regain confidence against the persistent opponents. But Ajay Jadeja, who is back in the team after recovering from a shoulder injury, the hardworking Robin Singh and Agarkar are all expected to chip in with useful runs to put the pressure on the South Africans. But India will have to come good in many areas where South Africa are a class apart. Running between the wickets, throwing from the boundary and fielding let them down badly in Australia and will be under scrutiny once again. India are likely to play
left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi and leave out off-spinner
Nikhil Chopra, Mohd Kaif and Amit Bhandari tomorrow. |
Sri Lanka on verge of series victory PESHAWAR, March 8 (Reuters) —Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitha-ran took five for 71 in the second Test today to take Sri Lanka to the brink of a series victory over Pakistan. Pakistan, chasing 294 runs for victory after dismissing Sri Lanka for 224, were tottering at 222 for eight at stumps on the fourth day and face their fifth successive Test defeat. Russel Arnold missed a well-deserved century by one run as Sri Lanka, resuming at 129 for five, lost their last five wickets for 36 runs. Muralitharan, who took four for 77 in the first innings, is on a hat-trick when play resumes tomorrow after he took the all-important wicket of Yousuf Youhana for a superb 88. Youhana was trapped lbw and Waqar Younis was caught off the next ball. Muralitharan, who has yet to claim a hat-trick in his career, was denied by the umpires who decided to call off play 5.2 overs early because of fading light. Umpire Nazir Junior was earlier involved in a shuddering collision with Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar who was forced to leave the field with a neck injury when on 30. He returned to the crease late on and was 32 not out at stumps. Team officials said Anwar had been advised by doctors to take a week’s rest. Sri Lanka, who took the 1995-96 series in Pakistan 2-1, won the first Test in Rawalpindi by two wickets. Youhana blasted eight fours and three sixes in his 131-ball innings, featuring in a 63-run sixth-wicket stand with debutant wicketkeeper Atiq-uz-Zaman (25) after Pakistan slumped to 145 for five. Youhana, dropped on 45 and 73, completed 1,000 Test runs in his 17th Test. In the Sri Lanka second innings, Arnold was caught sharply at silly point by Youhana off Arshad Khan for 99 to become the third batsman after Inzamam-ul-Haq and Australia’s Mark Taylor to succumb in the nervous 90’s in six Tests played at Peshawar. Arnold struck 13 elegant boundaries and a six off Aamir Sohail in his 192-ball innings that took one minute under five hours. He featured in a 79-run sixth-wicket stand — the highest of the match — with Aravinda De Silva, who scored 31 before falling to Aamir Sohail. Paceman Waqar Younis, suffering from back trouble, finished as the pick of Pakistan bowlers with three for 38. Khan finished with three for 81. SCOREBOARD Sri Lanka (Ist innings): 268 Pakistan (Ist innings): 199 Sri Lanka (2nd innings) (overnight 129 for 5): Atapattu c Sohail b Khan 29 Jayasuriya lbw Younis 6 Arnold c Youhana b Khan 99 Jayawardena lbw Younis 10 Dilshan c Zaman b Sohai l7 Kaluwitharana lbw Akhtar 0 A. De Silva c Younis b Sohail 31 Vaas c Youhana b Khan 5 Pushpakumara c Zaman b Younis 14 Wickremasinghe c Y. Khan b Akhtar 5 Muralitharan not out 2 Extras: (B-4 LB-7 NB-5) 16 Total: (all out) 224 Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-69, 3-90, 4-108, 5-109, 6-188, 7-201, 8-206, 9-222. Bowling: Younis 16-3-38-3, Akhtar 12.2-1-47-2, Arshad Khan 20-3-81-3, Razzaq 17-9-27-0, Sohail 8-3-20-2. Pakistan (2nd innings): Anwar not out 32 Afridi st. Kaluwitharana b Muralitharan 31 Haq c Jayawardena b Muralitharan 9 Sohail c Jayawardena b Jayasuriya 0 Youhana lbw b Muralitharan 88 Younis Khan c Arnold b Vaas 6 Razzaq lbw b Muralitharan 5 Zaman b Vaas 25 Younis c Jayawardena b Muralitharan 0 Arshad Khan not out 0 Extras: (B-9 LB-6 NB-11) 26 Total: (for eight wickets) 222 Fall of wickets: 1-59, 2-77, 3-82, 4-103, 5-145, 6-208, 7-222, 8-222. Bowling: Vaas 15-3-55-2,
Pushpakumara 10-1-31-0 (nb3), Wickremasinghe 12-5-22-0,
Muralitharan 26.4-4-71-5, Jayasuriya 5-1-28-1. |
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CALCUTTA, March 8 (PTI) — Top seeds Syed Fazaluddin and Sai Jayalakshmi prevailed over their opponents in contrasting styles to romp into the quarterfinals of the men’s and women’s singles, respectively, in the Senior National Grasscourt Tennis Championships here today. While Davis Cupper Fazaluddin rebounded after dropping the opening set to edge past the seasoned Asif Ismail of Maharashtra 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-3, Tamil Nadu’s Jayalakshmi survived a late charge from statemate Sandhya Kanury before carving out a 6-2, 7-6 triumph in second round encounters. Fazaluddin, who committed a number of unforced errors in the first set, served and volleyed well in the subsequent sets to put it across Ismail in 142 minutes. Jayalakshmi, in contrast, faced stiff resistance from her opponent in the second set after coasting to a runway win in the first, and had to draw on all her experience to clinch the issue in the tie-break. Men’s second seed Nitin Kirtane of Maharashtra also reached the last eight, breezing past qualifier A Jagnani of West Bengal 6-1, 6-3, and will take on eighth seed Sourav Panja of the host state who kept his cool at crucial junctures to overcome a strong challenge from the hard-hitting Rohan Bopanna of Maharashtra 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Sixth seed Vijay Kannan of Delhi also made it to the quarterfinals, getting the better of qualifier P. Ravishankar 6-1, 6-1. In the ladies singles, Maharashtra’s Rushmi Chakravorthi and Radhika Tulpule moved to a quarterfinal clash with comfortable victories over their opponents. Second seed Chakravorthi spanked Sai Sapna of Tamil Nadu 6-2, 6-1, while sixth seed Tulpule breezed past Punjab’s Jasleen Randhawa 6-1, 6-2. Eighth seed Liza Pereira of Maharashtra also stormed into the quarterfinal brushing aside a feeble challenge from Oindrilla Mazumdar 6-2, 6-2. Fazaluddin initially had problems with his shots, which either landed long or hit the net. Ismail committed two double faults in the third game to drop his serve but came back strongly in the next game to restore parity 2-2. Both players dropped their serve in the next two games, but while Ismail held is in the seventh, Fazaluddin’s serve seemed to desert him in the eighth and Asif won a break to lead 5-3. But Fazaluddin broke Ismail in the very next game and fired a couple of aces in the 10th to restore parity at 5-5. As both players held their serve in the next two games, the set rolled into a tie-breaker. Ismail opened up a 3-0 lead, but the Davis Cupper levelled at 4-4. Fazaluddin had a set point at 6-5, but Ismail won three consecutive points to clinch the set 7-6 (8-6). In the second set, Ismail broke Fazaluddin in the fifth game, only to be broken in the next game. Trailing 4-5, Ismail was a bundle of nerves and despite saving threes, break-points, finally dropped his serve to concede the set 4-6. Fazaluddin upped the ante in the deciding set, hitting good backhand volleys, and broke his rival in the fourth game and then retained his serve to go up 4-1. Thereafter games went with serve and Fazaluddin finally won the set 6-3 after missing a match point to wrap up the tie. Jayalakshmi, who won the first set in only 33 minutes, came up against stiff resistance from Kanury in the second. The second game stretched to 21 points and Kanury survived a close call on her serve before managing to retain it. Jayalaxmi demolished her rival’s serve in the fifth game, but the spirited Kanury broke back in the sixth. Jayalaxmi then broke Kanury in the ninth but was again broken in the next. In the ensuing
tie-break, Jayalakshmi came back from a 0-2 deficit to
lead 4-2 and finally fashion a 7-4 win. |
Shazuli, Joshi post fluent wins VIJAYAWADA, March 8 (UNI) — Under-10 Asian runner-up G. Rohit upset FIDE-rated S. K. Kasim (2050) while second seed Syed Anwar Shazuli and FIDE-rated Manish Joshi (2220) emerged joint leaders with four points each at the end of the fourth round in the ninth Andhra Gymkhana National Youth Chess Championship here today. In another upset game, unrated Ajay Pande of Uttar Pradesh defeated FIDE-rated G. Dinesh Kumar of Tamil Nadu in 37 moves. The joint-leaders were closely followed by international master elect and top seed S. Dinesh Kumar (2337) of LIC with 3.5 points. In an interesting encounter, under-nine boys national champion Sai Srinivas of AP, defeated under-nine girls national champion Harika of AP. Sai Srinivas with white pieces started with king pawn opening. Harika replied with French defence. Sai Srinivas played a variation. After a long drawn fight of 61 moves Sai Srinivas prevailed over Karika. Andhra Pradesh’s S. Rohit played king pawn opening against state-mate Kasim, who replied with G6, after four moves the game converted into Pirc defence. However, Rohit handled opening and middle game carefully and took initiative to force black to resign at the 44th move. On the top table, Syed Anwar Shajuli (TN) with white pieces played D4 against J. Rama Krishna (AP), who replied with NF 6 in Trampovisky opening. Shazuli crushed J. Rama Krishna with D 6. Rama Krishna resigned on the 40th move as he was down by five pawns. On the second table, Manish Joshi of Madhya Pradesh outplayed Gunasekharan (TN) in Reti opening closed variation. At 18th move C 5, Manish Joshi gained initiative Gunasekharan’s 30th move was dubious and Manish replied strongly and forced Gunasekharan to surrender on the 44th move. On the third table,
Dinesh Kumar with black pieces outplayed Pranjal Das of
West Bengal in Ruy Lopez exchange variation. |
Tollygunge, BSF play lacklustre draw CALCUTTA, March 8 (UNI) — Manaksia Tollygunge Agragami and BSF played out a flat draw in a second-leg match of the fourth National Football League at the Rabindra Sarobor stadium here today. It was more of a prestige issue for the teams as they are already out of reckoning in the title hunt. But the scorecard of 0-0 was proof enough of the dampness that prevailed in the hot summer afternoon. The match never rose to any great heights as the ball remained confined to the midfield. The foreign quartret of Isiaka, Felix, Oira and Abdul Lateef failed to combine, leaving the Tollygunge attack toothless. Though Tollygunge had greater ball possession they failed to convert it into goals. For BSF it was a continuation of their miserable run in the National Football League. They lacked any game plan and looked a disjointed lot co-existing for reasons best known to them. It was only the trio of Tapan Bhattacharya, Ragbir Singh and Pradip Garai in defence that looked rock solid. Tollygunge now have 26 points from 20 games with six wins, eight draws and six defeats. BSF have garnered 13 points from as many games having won only three, drawn four and lost 13 and were sure to face relegation along with Dempo, last on the league table. Salgaocar favourites MARGAO (PTI): Salgaocar are all set to garner full points to consolidate their position and remain in the fray for the top three spots when they lock horns with bottom-placed Dempo here on Thursday in the National Football League. With Bagan taking a firm grip for the top spot, collecting 41 points from 19 matches, the chase for the second and third place is hotting up as Churchill, Salgaocar, JCT, Mahindras and F C Kochin are all trying to finish in the top three positions. Defending champions Salgaocar, whose chances to retain the title are remote, are looking to finish behind Bagan as they have 33 points from 18 matches and are third at present. Dempo, on the other hand, are at the bottom of the table with nine points from 18 matches. They will have to win all their remaining four matches to keep their hopes alive to avoid relegation. Both teams met each other four times this season. Salgaocar, who have been beaten in the first leg of Goa’s professional league, lost to them in the police cup and later drew goal-less in the second leg of the Goa league and first phase of the NFL. Dempo, who lacked finishing abilities and have been placed last, will have to repeat their an allround performance which they displayed in their lone victory against East Bengal. Dempo will be strengthened with the return of Iranian recruit Ahmed Seeid, who missed the last match due to suspension. Medio Johnny D’Souza, who is still nursing a knee injury, is a doubtful starter. Medios Eusebio D’Souza, Mathew D’Costa, Edwin Fernandes and Mohammad Reza, who have not displaced good coordination among themselves, will have to work hard to keep in check the rival strong enterprising attack led by S. Venkatesh, Habib Adankule, Gbenga Lawal and Jules Alberto. With Bruno Coutinho and Joao Santos, combining well in the front, the rival defence led by Stanley Colaco, Soltanabadi, Sameer Naik and Behzad Amri will have their hands full to keep them at bay. Salgaocar coach Shabir Ali said tomorrow’s match was important as a win will place them in the second place. “Dempo are a good
team with fighting spirit. We cannot remain complacent
although they are down below as they have beaten us in
the Police Cup and also drew with us earlier in this
league. Hope our boys maintain the same performance they
displayed against SBT and win tomorrow to give us the
boost to play the remaining matches with more
confidence,” Shabir said. |
Dingko’s
qualifying chances dim PATIALA, March 8 — The chances of ace pugilist Dingko Singh, who won a gold in the Bangkok Asian Games, have now considerably dimmed as there is only one pre-Olympic qualifying tournament left for him to make it to the Sydney Olympics. The Kings Cup, slated to be held at Bangkok from April 1 to 7, is the last qualifying tourney for the services pugilist to make the grade for the Olympic. According to reports emanating from the NIS here, the loss of Dingko Singh in the quarterfinal of the Grand Prix Boxing Championship held in the Czech Republic, which concluded on March 6, has set the alarm bells ringing as it comes as a major psychological blow to the boxer in the run-up to the Kings Cup. Although there were a total of 12 berths open to Indian boxers for the Sydney Olympics, via various qualification tournaments, they are trying in just seven weight categories even as Gurcharan Singh (81 kgs), Jitender Singh (75 kgs) and Suresh Singh (48 kgs) have already qualified for the Sydney games in the Kings Cup, the Indians will be trying for atleast two more berths. Meanwhile, at the Grand Prix Boxing Championships the Indians, barring Gurcharan Singh, Dingko Singh and K. Sanjit Singh, performed upto expectations as they won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals. The gold was won by flyweight pugilist H. Srinivas Rao and the silver by featherweight boxer B. Ramanad, who suffered an eye injury and was not fielded in the final. The two bronze medals came from S. Suresh Singh in the light flyweight category and Jitender Kumar in the middleweight category. Suresh Singh and Jitendra Kumar, both lost their semifinal bouts but managed to win a bronze apiece. Chief coach G.S. Sandhu meanwhile said although the defeat of Dingko Singh at Prague had come as a heavy blow, he was confident the boxer would qualify during the Kings qualifying tourney. Incidentally, Dingko was declared the best boxer in the last edition of the Kings Cup held in Bangkok, Dingko Singh, after picking up a gold in the Bangkok Asian Games, was considered to be almost a certainty to win a place for the Sydney Olympics, but since then the boxer has been plagued by a thumb injury. Even during the
training-cum-preparatory tour of Cuba last year, it was
an injured Dingko Singh who accompanied the squad, just
for gaining more exposure in international meets in the
run-up to the various pre-Olympic qualifying meets. |
Sachin lone Indian in All-Stars XI NEW DELHI, March 8 (UNI) — Sachin Tendulkar is the lone Indian to find a place in the All Stars XI, the bestever World XI since 1975, selected by former cricketing greats after long deliberations to sift the names from a host of past and present players. Greg Chappel has been named captain of the 11-member side which has four Australians, three West Indians, two Pakistanis and one New Zealander in Sir Richard Hadlee. The panel found Australian wicketkeeper-opener Adam Gilchrist as the best bet to partner Tendulkar in opening the innings. “The All Stars XI is just to give recognition to the players who have become living icons through their exploits on the cricket field,’’ International Cricket Council President Jagmohan Dalmiya said today after releasing the team. He said television recording of the selection process would be telecast during the ICC cricket week to be observed from April 2 to 9. The selection panel consisted of Garry Sobers, Neil Harvey, John Reid, Bishen Singh Bedi, Barry Richards, Mushtaq Mohammad, Duleep Mendis and Andy Pyroff besides former umpire Dicky Bird. Former India all-rounder-turned commentator Ravi Shastri was the moderator who kept the selectors updated with the latest rules of the game. Indian greats like Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev could not make it to the ‘best 11’ which has two Pakistanis in Imran Khan and Wasim Akram. Mr Dalmiya said 1975 was chosen as the cutoff year since it was important for the selectors to have seen all the players in action. The team: Greg Chappel
(captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Vivian
Richards, Dean Jones, Clive Llyod, Imran Khan, Richard
Hadlee, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne and Joel Garner. |
Mohun
Bagan in sight of title CHANDIGARH, March 8 — Winners of the second edition Mohun Bagan are on the verge of picking up the title in the National Football League which is scheduled to end later this month. At the end of the 19th round yesterday, Subrata Bhattacharya’s green and maroon brigade are sitting pretty on top with 41 points from 12 victories and five draws and the defeat of Goa’s Churchill Brothers has further widened the gap between the front-runners. Mohun Bagan, who have been table toppers over the past few weeks, picked up three more valuable points with 3-1 victory against JCT Phagwara at Calcutta on March 4 to consolidate their position. But what really brought them closer to the title was the defeat of Churchill Brothers who lost to Mahindra and Mahindra by a solitary goal yesterday. Another victory and a draw will assure Bagan of the title, which will be the second one for them in the high profile league which commenced in 1996-97. The 19th round also witnessed Salgaocar inflicting a crushing 4-0 defeat on State Bank of Travancore with Jules Alberto, S. Venkatesh, Ravichandran and Alvito D’Cunha sharing the spoils. F C Kochin were also back to their winning ways with a 3-1 win over Amal Dutta’s Tollygunge Agragami, initially seen as dark horses. The heroes of FC Kochin’s victory were the veteran IM Vijayan (I) and Liberian recruit Isaac Tondo (two). JCT’s defeat at the hands of Mohun Bagan, the fifth in the league, dashed the hopes of the mill men who will now be aspiring for a position lower down the ladder. A major upset in this round was recorded at Margao yesterday where Mahindras shocked Churchill Brothers through substitute Manjit Singh’s opportunistic strike at the fag end. With the NFL nearing its end, the struggle to ward off relegation appears to be confined to three teams — ITI, BSF and Dempo. BSF’s 1-0 win over Dempo on March 4 has brought them closer to ITI and it remains to be seen whether the debutants can pip the Bangalore outfit and stay afloat for the next edition. The following are the standings of the teams in the National Football League at the end of the 19th round on March 7 (read under teams, matches played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, and points) The result of the 20th round JCT-East Bengal match also played yesterday has not been taken into account.
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KOCHI, March 8 (PTI) — India will be hoping the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here once again proves lucky for them when they meet South Africa in the opening match of the five-game one-day cricket series here tomorrow. India had defeated Australia by 41 runs in the first one-day cricket match played at this multi-purpose stadium in the 1998 triangular series also involving Zimbabwe which the hosts later lost. The ground is also a memorable venue for former captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who became the most capped player in limited overs internationals when he played for India for the 274th time in that match, surpassing Australia’s Allan Border’s mark of 273. Azharuddin notched up another record at this ground, for the most catches taken by a player other than the wicketkeeper when he held Ricky Ponting to take his tally to 128, again bettering Border’s record, of 127 catches. The ground has also proved lucky for master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who performed magic with the ball rather than the bat, notching up career-best figures of five for 32 to shape India’s victory in the 1998 match. Tendulkar’s previous best was four for 34 against the West Indies in Sharjah in 1991. The Nehru Stadium also
hosted the three-day match between South Africa and then
Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka in 1996 which the latter
lost, and a match between Pakistan and a Board
President’s XI which ended in a draw. |
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LUCKNOW, March 8 (UNI) — Holders Border Security Force, Jalandhar, runners-up Indian Airlines, Delhi, along with Punjab Police and Punjab and Sind Bank have been seeded in the quarterfinals of the 20th All-India K.D. Singh Babu invitation prize money hockey tournament commencing here from March 10. Kunwar Fateh Bahadur Singh, sports secretary and R.P. Singh, Regional Sports Officer and organising secretary of the tournament briefing newspersons here today said 36 teams had confirmed their participation. Twenty top teams of the country will participate in the nine-day tournament played on knock-out basis. Many international and national players of the country will be seen in action. The teams are BSF, Jalandhar, Indian Airlines, Delhi, Tamil Nadu XI, Punjab and Sind Bank, Jalandhar, Punjab Police, PSEB Patiala, NE Railway, Gorakhpur, EME Jalandhar, ASC Jalandhar, SC Railway Secunderabad, ITBP Jalandhar, CISF Delhi, DLW Varanasi, CRPF, Delhi, SRC Bihar, Customs Calcutta, OEF Kanpur, UP Police, SBI Bhopal and Corps of Signals, Jalandhar. The winners would get a cash prize of Rs 25,000 while the runners-up would be richer by Rs 20,000. The sports hostel team will not take part in the event due to board examination starting here from March 24. A.B. Palangappa (Bangalore), V.B. Singh and D.S. Bhandari (UP) B.S. Monteiro (Mumbai) and Balwinder Singh (Punjab) and Birendra Singh will be the umpires of the tournament. Two matches will be
played daily. On the opening day UP Police will meet SBI
Bhopal while Calcutta, Customs will play against OEF
Kanpur. |
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WINDSOR (Ontario), March 8 (AP) — Laila Ali, daughter of former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, remained unbeaten in her budding boxing career with a first-round knockout of Crystal Arcand in a scheduled four-round bout. Ali, 21, a 5-foot-10
166-pound (75-kilogram) middleweight, is 4-0, all by
knockout. “I aim to knock (people) out,” Ali
said before the fight. “I don’t think
you’ve seen half of what I’m going to be.”
Her latest fight lasted only 70 seconds. Ali came out
aggressively from the opening bell and floored Arcand,
making her pro debut, with a right jab about 15 seconds
into the bout. |
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LINARES (Spain), March 8 (PTI) — Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand of India tried a theoritical novelty against Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik but failed to cash on and agreed to split the point to remain at the bottom on another day marred by draws in the seventh round of Linares Super GM Chess Tournament. World No1 Gary Kasparov of Russia could make no progress in a superior endgame and had to settle for a draw against compatriot FIDE world champion Alexander Khalifmann here last night. The chess wizard leads the six-player field along with Kramnik on 4.5 points each. Hungarian Peter Leko, with 3.5 points, is on the third position. Anand opened with king pawn with white pieces and was up against the Petroff defence of Kramnik. A theoritical novelty
uncorked by Anand on move 13 ensured him a slightly
better middle game but after the exchange of queens
Kramnik sacrificed a rook for knight to arrive at an
evenly balanced endgame. |
Jasbir
umpire for March 12 one-dayer CHANDIGARH, March 8 — Punjab cricket umpire Jasbir Singh has been chosen to officiate in the second one-day international between India and South Africa at Jamshedpur on March 12. Prior to this match,
Jasbir has officiated as umpire in four one-day
internationals. |
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