Streak scored an unbeaten 79 to take his team to a one-wicket victory and a 2-1 series win with just eight balls remaining.

Streak hit the winning runs with a massive six over extra cover to take Zimbabwe to 274 for nine after earlier struggling at 64 for five.

The captain’s 79 came off 67 balls and included four fours and five sixes as he peppered the New Zealand bowlers around the ground.

As Zimbabwe were nearing the target, Streak lost Travis Friend for 19 after a partnership of 69 and then Bryan Strang for a three-ball duck.

Last man Brian Murphy kept out two balls of Franklin’s final over, which left Streak facing McMillan for the penultimate over. Zimbabwe needed 12 runs off 12 balls with just one wicket left.

The first ball went to four at long-on, the third was a two to mid-wicket and the fourth was the six into the stand at extra cover.

Zimbabwe had a disastrous start when Trevor Madondo was run out after the first ball. Alistair Campbell had pushed the first ball from James Franklin to Mathew Sinclair at mid-wicket and Madondo advanced down the pitch for a run before being sent back by Campbell. Sinclair’s throw and Franklin’s removing the bails beat him easily.

From then wickets fell regularly, with Scott Styris removing three of the top order. Campbell went for two, bowled by Styris, Rennie went first ball caught by Fleming in the slips and Guy Whittall got an inside edge to be bowled.

Through all this Andy Flower was resolute at the other end and when Whittall left at 64 for five he was joined by Dirk Viljoen, playing his first game of the series, and the two took the score through to 146 before Viljoen was smartly stumped by Adam Parore off Chris Harris.

When Flower was caught by Franklin on Astle’s bowling for 81 with the score at 180 things looked bleak for Zimbabwe.

But Streak and Friend had other ideas and quickly got a 50 partnership off just 42 balls and then Streak reached his 50 in 51 balls with one four and four sixes.

New Zealand had suffered a mid-innings wobble which was righted by Craig McMillan, who scored 75 not out from 53 balls.

The innings was aided by Nathan Astle’s 48 and Stephen Fleming’s 44, but McMillan’s partnership with Styris of 58 gave the home side a respectable score of 273.

Success in India is the missing link for the Australians, who have overcome cricket’s toughest barriers in the last decade by winning Test series in the West Indies, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

But India has been a barren hunting ground since Bill Lawry’s team won 3-1 in 1969-70, leaving Waugh’s team with another chance to prove themselves after building the longest winning streak in Test cricket history.

The Australians stretched that to 15 matches here yesterday when they completed a 5-0 series whitewash of the West Indies, winning the final Test by six wickets.

In the wake of victory Waugh declared his focus had already shifted to the three-Test series against the Indians beginning in Mumbai on February 27.

“I’ve been thinking about India for a couple of months. We haven’t won there for a long time and this is a great challenge,” Waugh said.

“I think it’s fair enough for people to judge us on the tour. I’m quite willing to put that on the line. If we don’t perform over there then possibly we’re not as good as these other sides that have won over there in other eras.

“If we’re not good enough, we’re not good enough.”

But Waugh was confident his team could win despite a warning from Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly, who said Australia should prepare for spinning wickets.

Waugh has always shown enormous faith in his players, whose characters will be scrutinised after excelling in the less testing conditions of Australia, New Zealand and Zimbabwe over the past 15 months.

“I’m not too worried about whether the wickets are going to turn. We’ve got to go out there and play positive cricket and believe we can win on any surface in any conditions,” Waugh said.

“I know we’ve got the side to win there. It’s just a matter of attitude and enjoying the culture and the people and the surroundings and that’s going to be crucial to the way we perform.

“We’re going to go over there and give it our best shot. If we get beaten India will have to play real good cricket.”

Waugh said it was too early to talk about potential tour selection, with Australia facing a one-day triangular tournament at home against the West Indies and Zimbabwe starting Thursday before they head to the sub-continent.

But the debate about the potential spin attack will simmer throughout the one-day series, with Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Colin Miller contesting the spin berths.

North had scored 326 for three in their second innings when the match was declared drawn.

Earlier, South resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 372 for six, were shot out for 477 with Ashish Kapoor failing to bat due to illness.

South lost Tilak Naidu after he added 22 runs with Robin Singh for the seventh wicket. Naidu was caught by Chopra off Sudhakar Ghag for 11 runs.

Sunil Joshi joined Singh and the two added 71 runs before Singh was caught by Dinesh Mongia off Harbajan Singh for a well made 67 off just 51 balls in 96 minutes with eight fours and three sixes.

Singh scored his 50 only off 25 balls with the help of six fours and three sixs in 48 minutes. He hit three towering sixes and two fours in Ghag’s fifth over of the morning.

Thereafter, Joshi failed to get any support from Venkatapathi Raju and they added just 12 runs between them before Raju was caught by Sarandeep Singh off Harbajan Singh. South closed their first innings at 477 with Kapoor not in a position to bat. South’s innings lasted 99 minutes today.

A crowd of 50,000 was on hand at Miami’s Orange Bowl stadium, including Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez, for the playoff for the final CONCACAF berth.

The playoff became necessary after the Central American rivals finished the first round tied with 10 points. Each team beat the other 2-1 at home, and each had a plus-three goal differential, forcing Saturday’s match to be staged at the neutral site.

With the victory, Costa Rica joined the USA, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, and Trinidad in the final round of World Cup qualifying, beginning next month.

Each teams will play the other five twice in the final qualifying round with the top three qualifying for the 2002 World Cup finals in Korea and Japan.

Costa Rica and Guatemala have the oldest rivalry in Central America, having met 56 times. Costa Rica leads the series 26-15-15 with a 7-5-3 edge in World Cup qualifiers.

Guatemala, which was in the hunt for its first World Cup appearance, must now wait another four years for a shot.

Guatemala opened the scoring in the fourth minute, but Costa Rica struck five times before Guatemala put the ball in the goal again.

On the opening goal, Claudio Rojas stole the ball and cleared midfield with a pass to Juan Carlos Plata, who dribbled into the penalty box and crossed from the left side toward the middle. Carlos Ruiz raced Costa Rican goalkeeper Alvaro Mesen, beating him to the ball and kicking it into the net as the two collided.

Guatemala’s celebration and lead was short-lived as Costa Rica quickly answered with an equaliser on a goal by Paulo Wanchope in the seventh minute after Guatemala twice failed to clear the ball from their own zone.

Costa Rica seized the lead for good in the 43rd minute, when Fonseca passed to midfielder Rodrigo Cordero about 40 metres out and ran through to receive a brilliantly-placed centre pass from Cordero. Fonseca got behind defender Luis Swisher and drove the ball into the centre of the net.

Fonseca, who is well-liked in Guatemala where he plays for top Guatemalan club CSD Comunicaciones, made a key play on the back-breaking third goal in the 58th minute when his corner kick was headed into the net by Reynaldo Parks.

Less than 60 seconds later, Fonseca made it 4-1 with a blast from 30 metres out into the left corner of the net.

In their first face-to-face, Tabara was more quick on his feet and had variety in his fast-paced game.

Though Stoliarov had huge serves and played his double handed backhand returns effectively to earn points, he often showed unnecessary urgency to finish long rallies, making a lot of unforced errors.

Tabara broke Stoliarov in the fifth game of the first set and also in the seventh game at love for a 5-2 lead. In the eighth, Tabara sent down two aces to win the set.

A desperate looking Stoliarov threw his racquet whenever he missed easy winners. He also lost concentration in the first set for a disputed line call, which he protested to the chair umpire.

The second set saw a much improved Stoliarov breaking Tabara in the second game. But the Czech gained the initiative with two superb close to the lines winners. An unforced error by Tabara helped Stoliarov break back.

From there, the rivals never gave away anything, though Stoliarov had two openings for breaks in the sixth and eighth games, but the set petered into the tie-breaker.

Tabara kept his cool in the tie-breaker and set up a match-point. Serving for the title, Tabara passed Stoliarov with a superb forehand down the line to emerge the winner.

Black brothers win
UNI: The top seeded brothers from Zimbabwe Byron Black and Wayne Black lifted their first ATP Tour doubles titles outplaying 6-3, 6-4, the wild card pair of Barry Cowan (Britain) and Mose Navarra (Italy).

The black brothers, who had a win loss record of 19-12, had the semifinal berth at Newport in 1996 as their best performance before this appearance in an ATP Tour double final.

Paes-Bhupathi duo makes exit
Indian challenge came to an end in the ATP Gold Flake Open with the ace duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi being tamed by Barry Cowan of England and Mose Navarra (Italy) 2-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 in the doubles semi-final here last night.

In an interesting semi-final, the Indian pair seemed to have improved their performance but Paes had to shoulder more responsibility than his partner Bhupathi, who was suspect with his first serves and committed quite a few double faults too.

In the final analysis the Indian duo made their exit only because of shoddy display by Bhupathi, which cost the match for them.

Expectedly, Paes and Bhupathi, egged on by the capacity crowd, went about their business and found their moorings early on and gave indications of yet another title win, the fourth for them since 1997.

With the exit of Paes and Bhupathi, who won the title thrice in a row — they did not pair last year due to personal problems — this is the first time that no Indian pair is in the final for the last four years in the Tournament. Prahlad Srinath and Saurav Panja finished runners-up last year.

As the match started to the roar of the packed stadium, Paes yet again came up with a better display compared to Bhupathi. But even the subdued game of Bhupathi was enough for the Indian duo to take the first set comfortably.

The six-time world champion had originally intended to fight in Ireland in a final appearance of a glittering career that had transformed him into a popular hero at home and one of the world’s boxing legends.

Cuban television did not say why Savon decided to cut short his remaining active career by several months. But it said he would join the national boxing squad as a coach.

Cuba’s sports authorities had unsuccessfully lobbied the International Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) to raise the competitive age limit in the heavyweight categories to 40.

In another surprise announcement, Cuban television said that long time national boxing coach Alcides Sagarra, who had trained the Olympic squad for three decades, was being replaced by Sarvelio Fuentes, another experienced teacher.

Sagarra was being put forward to represent Cuba in the IABA, the report said. Savon, a staunch supporter of President Fidel Castro’s Communist government, was hailed as a national hero, not only for his success on the world stage but for repeatedly rejecting lucrative offers to abandon his country’s amateur-only sports system and turn professional.

While PSCB demolished Bengal 3-1 in the first of the men’s team event semifinals, Railways outplayed Tamil Nadu by the same margin in the other at the Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium here.

In the women’s category, PSCB swamped Tamil Nadu 3-0 and Railways defeated Bengal by the same margin in the two semifinal ties.

Reigning champions PSCB had defeated Punjab - the team performed poorly this time - in the final last year while it would be a repetition of last year’s final in the women’s section.

PSCB carried too many guns for its opponents in both categories as Chetan Baboor and Subhajit Saha made mincemeat of their opponents in the men’s semifinal. Baboor won his two ties against Bengal’s Sourav Chakraborty 21-15, 21-13 and Anirban Nandi 21-12, 21-10 while Subhajit Saha trounced Amit Das 21-17, 21-19.

Anirban Nandi scored the single win for Bengal when he upset S. Raman 21-16, 21-19.

In the other semifinal, Ranabir Das, Sibaji Dutta and Subham Choudhury registered victories against Tamil Nadu players though A. Sharath Kamal defeated Dutta in three sets.

Anindita Chakraborty, Mallika Parekh and Susmita Roy had no trouble powering past the Bengal opponents as Railways entered the final in style.

Roy outlasted Nandita Saha 21-18, 13-21, 21-17 while Chakraborty defeated Kasturi Chakraborty 10-21, 21-11, 21-18. Parekh blasted Avanti Sinha 21-9, 21-10 for a comfortable victory.

PSCB’s top rankers Mouma Das, Montu Ghosh and M.S. Mythili also had little trouble against the Tamil Nadu girls.

While Das defeated T. Pradeepa 21-14, 20-22, 21-15, Ghosh and Mythili made short work of Lavanya Ratnam (21-11, 21-15) and S.J. Maria (21-15, 21-10), respectively.

Results (men’s team event semifinals):
PSCB b Bengal 3-1 (S. Raman lost to Anirban Nandi 16-21, 19-21: Chetan Baboor b Sourav Chakraborty 21-15, 21-13; Subhajit Saha b Amit Das 21-17, 21-19; Chetan Baboor b Anirban Nandi 21-12, 21-10); Railways b Tamil Nadu 3-1 (Ranabir Das b R. Rajesh 21-13, 21-17; Sibaji Dutta lost to A. Sharath Kamal 15-21, 21-13, 18-21; Subham Choudhury b K.S. Chakraborty 21-19, 21-11; Sibaji Dutta b R. Rajesh 21-13, 22-24, 21-19).

Rios won 6-1, 6-3 yesterday against Belarus’ Vladimir Voltchkov, who last year became the first qualifier to reach the last four at Wimbledon since John McEnroe in 1977, and will meet the Czech Republic’s Bohdan Ulihrach, after the qualifier came through in three sets against Frenchman Nicolas Escude.

This high-speed victory carried the comeback man to the final of the $ 1,000,000 event, making it more than ever likely that this week the unofficial favourite will be successful in both money and love.

The Chilean newly-wed is using the tournament as a mini honeymoon with 17-year-old architecture student Juliana and was in buoyant mood from the start, breaking Voltchkov’s serve in the first game.

He completed that opening foray with a brilliantly wrong-footing topspin lob, and went on to break his opponent’s delivery three times altogether in the first set.

Voltchkov made better progress in the second set with his fierce, flat ground strokes, sometimes taken spectacularly from an airborne position. But the pacey hitting suited Rios’ counter-hitting style and one more break, in the sixth game was decisive.

There was one disconcerting delay when Rios called for the trainer after cutting his finger reaching for a drink, but it still took him less than an hour to reach his first final in six months.

“I have been moving well and I am trying to concentrate really hard to win the first tournament of the year,” said Rios, who showed no signs of the groin injuries which have threatened his career.

“I haven’t been back to Australia since I reached the final (of the 1998 Open) there, and winning this tournament would be the best way to return,” he added.

This suggests Rios believes he can once more be a serious contender in the year’s first Grand Slam, which starts in Melbourne in just over a week’s time.

His immediate focus though needs to be upon his opponent in tomorrow’s final, because Rios faces one of the bonniest fighters of them all.

Ulihrach, the remarkably durable Czech, saved two match points in the qualifying competition and then another match point to overcome the Frenchman Nicolas Escude 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9/7) in the longest match of the tournament.

It lasted two hours and 41 minutes and was Ulihrach’s seventh contest of the week.

It was also the fourth time he had come back from a large deficit to win.

“A cat may have seven lives, but I am hoping I will have five this week,” he joked.

Tired though he may well be when it comes to the showdown Rios has reason to beware — when they met in Rios’ home city of Santiago last year, it was Ulihrach who prevailed.

adelaide: German Tommy Haas swept aside Chilean Nicolas Massu to win the final of the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Tennis Championship here on Sunday.

Haas, the tournament fifth seed, was in control through-out his 6-3, 6-1 victory in 83 minutes at Memorial Drive.

It was Haas’ second ATP Tour triumph and he said it was a signal his Australian Open campaign later this month was on track.

“Definitely it will help, obviously winning some matches now gives me some confidence and winning a title is very important to me,” Haas said.

Haas battled back stiffness throughout the final but the ailment was not obvious, particularly with a blistering start in which he delivered four consecutive aces.

That set the tone for the remainder of the one-sided contest but Haas praised Massu’s performances this week.

“He has had a great week,” he said. “I don’t think his best surface is actually hardcourt... I think he’s going to be a very good player this year on clay, he’s fit and plays a lot of spin but he had difficulty with his first serve today.”

Massu struggled with his serve and served six double-faults, five coming in the latter stages of the second set and a poor first serve percentage of 37 per cent.

Not once did the Chilean hold a break point against Haas’ serve while the German had a dozen.

Haas, silver medallist at the Sydney Olympics, defeated three Australians on his way to the final — a first round win against Luke Smith followed by the scalps of top seed Lleyton Hewitt and Jason Stoltenberg.

canberra (AP): Australian Amanda Grahame beat countrywoman Annabel Ellwood 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7/3) on Sunday to advance to a second round meeting with French Open champion Mary Pierce at the Canberra International tennis tournament here.

Given a bye in the first round, top seed Pierce is playing her first tournament since she was forced to withdraw from the us open in September because of a shoulder injury.

“Everyone is saying it’s the best time to play Pierce, because she’s been off for (four) months with an injury,” Grahame said. “It would certainly help my ranking and profile, beating a top 10 player.”

Grahame is ranked 229th in the world and first caught international attention when she took Serena Williams to three sets at last year’s Australian Open.

Pierce was in the stands with her baseball player fiance Roberto Alomar watching today when Grahame beat Ellwood.

Russian Olympic silver medallist Elena Dementieva, the second seed, also has a bye in the first round. Third seed Chanda Rubin of the USA and fourth seed Sandrine Testud play their first matches on Monday.

SYDNEY: Serena Williams is convinced she and her sister Venus have taken tennis to a new level.

The Williams sisters have taken the tennis world by storm in recent years, with Venus last month signing the richest sponsorship deal in women’s sporting history.

Serena advanced to the second round of the Sydney International here on Sunday with a 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) win over American compatriot Lilia Osterloh.

Serena, the 1999 US Open champion and world No 5, is under no illusions about what she and Venus have achieved. And she remains proud of it too.

“We are big names in world sport,” she said. “I mean, we’ve done something in tennis that no-one else has ever done.

“We’ve actually raised the level of tennis. I know a lot of people even say they go home and work harder since Venus and I have been out on the tour.

“So we actually did what Martina Navratilova did — took tennis to a new level.”

North Zone champions Jamia Milia Islamia, runners-up Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) Meerut, Delhi and Aligarh Muslim University topped their respective pools to move into the last four grade.

Jamia, CCSU and AMU finished their pools with an all-win record, Delhi made it by virtue of a better goal difference.

Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Varanasi did a favour to Delhi as they held Madras to a goal-less draw. Madras needed a clear five goal victory for a semifinal berth but they failed to score even one goal and finished third with four points in pool B.

Delhi and Barkatullah Khan University both had six points each but the former had better goal difference-4 goals as against 2 by the later.

Hosts Jamia overpowered Rajasthan 3-0 to top pool ‘A’ with nine points. The winners led 2-0 at half time.

Parveen gave Jamia the lead in the 16th minute and then striker Hamza Mujtaba shot home the second goal two minutes later. Sanjeet completed the tally for Jamia Milia in the 37th minute.

Jamia scored 18 goals and conceded only one in their league assignment.

CCSU edged out Bangalore 2-1 after leading 2-0 at the lemon break. Tariq Aziz put CCSU in the lead in fourth minute and then Kuldeep scored the second goal a minute before the breather. Hari Prasad reduced the margin for Bangalore in the 49th minute.

Bangalore with six points finished second in pool ‘D’.

In group ‘C’ AMU overcame spirited Jiwaji University, Gwalior 4-3. The winners led 4-1 at interval.

Salim Siddiqui opened the account for AMU in the fifth minute and two minutes later Meraj Aziz increased the tally (2-0).

Meraj Aziz scored his second and team’s third goal in the 22nd minute(3-0). Three minutes later Vijay Swarankar reduced the margin for Jiwaji, scoring a superb goal (1-3).

AMU consolidated their lead once again in the 26th minute through Iqbal Khan (4-1).

In the second session Sanjay Pandey and Vijay Swarnakar scored a goal each for the losers in the 45th and 48th minutes, respectively.

It was Ashok Kumar, the 17-year-old lad from Delhi, playing with a handicap of +4, who took over from his senior partner Gangjee, coming in with a one-under score of 69.

Gangjee, who had scorched the turf at the BPGC with a six-under 64 while winning the recently concluded Western India open, came home on par 70 for a combined score of 139.

Ashok Kumar had birdies on the first and third hole and a bogey on the ninth to finish the front nine one-under, 34. On the back nine, he had a bogey on the 11th, which he nullified with a birdie on the 18th, to finish par-35 and one-under over the 18 holes.

Sharing the spotlight with Ashok Kumar was South Africa’s Dean Lambert, with a +2 handicap, who also returned a one-under score of 69. However, his teammate, Richard Stern, who enjoys a +1 handicap, did not have too good a first round, finishing two over 72, for a combined score of 141.

In third place was Sri Lanka’s team of K.A. Chandradasa and R.A.A. Rohana with 144. While Chandradasa came home on par, Rohana finished four strokes over, at 74.

Tamil Nadu made shortwork of Madhya Pradesh 74-52 to end their league engagement with an all-win record and top the four-team group B today.

Hot favourites for the title, Indian Railways women recorded another emphatic win beating Maharashtra 79-36 for their second successive win in group A late last night. Now they will meet Kerala, who have already made the last eight grade, in their last league assignment to decide the group leader. The match between Punjab and Maharashtra would decide the third team for the quarterfinals from the group.

In the men’s section, Uttar Pradesh kept their hopes alive of qualifying for the pre-quarterfinals knock-out edging an off colour Services team 67-61. Uttar Pradesh needed a win having lost their encounters to last year’s runners-up Bihar and Punjab. Services have a victory to credit having beaten Bihar in their opening encounter in the group B.

In the qualifying rounds in the men’s section, Maharashtra and Kerala who have been all their league matches topped the group D and group E, respectively. Now they would play among themselves and the winner would get a berth in the pre-quarterfinal knock-out.