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| Wednesday, February
14, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Thrilling 31-run victory for India Seniors Waugh foresees confrontations ACB raises Rs 41 lakh for quake victims |
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2 more leggies for camp Paes beats Ghouse; Fazal ousted
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8-member team for ITF meets Sampras not scared of anyone Kournikova’s photograph is computer virus Goal-of-the-month by 80-year-old Bagan, East Bengal surge ahead Chandigarh eves beat HP
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Thrilling 31-run victory for India Seniors CHENNAI, Feb 13 — Faced with a daunting task of scoring 7.86 runs per over chasing a mammoth 393 run target, India ‘B’ - despite brilliant knocks by Sachin Tendulkar (77), Dinesh Mongia (102) and captain Robin Singh (64) — lost to India Seniors by 31 runs in the second match of the Hero Honda Challenger series at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here today. India ‘B’ were all out for 362 in 46.4 overs. India ‘B’, replying to India Seniors’ mammoth score of 392 in 50 overs, depended very much on little master Sachin Tendulkar, who enjoyed one life at 53. The master-blaster quickly touched form in another brilliant exhibition of the art of natural batting through out his knock of 77 off 57 balls with 14 fours and his stands of 57 for the first wicket and 42 for the fourth. He was the fourth man out at 132 in 18.2 overs. After Tendulkar’s unexpected fall, the onus fell on left-handers Dinesh Mongia and Robin Singh, the captain. They had a target of 240 in 30 overs, scoring at 8 runs per over, six wickets in hand. Twenty overs remaining, India ‘B’ were 224 for four. Fifteen overs remaining, they required 136 runs at 9.06 per over. Robin Singh and Dinesh Mongia (10.2, 93 bls, 2x6, 10x4) added 152 runs for the fifth wicket when Mongia fell. That sealed the match in India Seniors’ favour. Ominously for India Seniors, Tendulkar was dropped by Virender Sehwag at fine leg off Srinath. He was on 53, having reached his 50 off 38 balls, with 10 fours. When left-arm medium-pacer Sehwag replaced Srinath, Tendulkar belted him for three fours. But Sourav Ganguly dealt a big blow to India ‘B’ when he snapped up Tendulkar at short midwicket off Aashish Nehra. India ‘B’, tottering now at 132 for four in 18.2 overs, had little hope of making it as captain Robin Singh walked out to join Dinesh Mongia. Tendulkar and Mongia put on 42 runs for the fourth wicket in 6.2 overs. Robin and Dinesh posted the 150 mark in 19.2 overs for India ‘B’, scoring at every opportunity. Mongia enjoyed a life at 31, let off at midwicket. But he posted his 50 in 47 balls with four fours and a six, as he and robin coasted on. Robin posted his 50 off 57 balls with three fours. Mongia reached his 100, pulling Nehra over midwicket, off 87 balls with 10 fours and two sixes. But he fell to Sehwag for 102 caught at long off to see India ‘B’ 284-15 in 39 overs left and needing 90 balls (4x4). SCOREBOARD India Seniors: Ganguly c JP Yadav b Sukhwinder Singh 142 Das bowled JP Yadav 25 Laxman b Tendulkar 36 Badani c Chopra b D Ganesh 70 Y. Singh c Tendulkar
b Surinder Singh 51 Sehwag b Surinder Singh 0 Rathore not out 30 A Kapoor not out 3 Extras (lb 11, w 9, nb 15) 35 Total ( 6 wkts in 50 overs) 392 Fall of wickets 1-56, 2-150, 3-246, 4-342, 5-353, 6-358. Bowling: D. Ganesh 8-0-60-1, Surinder Singh 7-0-56-2, JP Yadav 5-0-32-1, Chopra 9-0-57-0, Tendulkar 9-0-52-1, R Singh 3-0-35-0, Md Khan 3-0-29-0, Sukhwinder Singh 6-0-60-1. India B: JP Yadav run out 24 Tendulkar c Ganguly
b Nehra 77 Khurasia lbw Srinath 1 Sukhwinder Singh c Das
b Ganguly 5 D Mongia c Sehwag b Nehra 102 R Singh run out 64 Khaif run out 40 Dahiya b Ganguly 1 Chopra run out 15 Ganesh c Badani b Mohanty 2 Surinder Singh not out 0 Extras (b 8, lb 9, w 2, nb 12) 31. Total (in 46.4 over) 362. Fall of
wickets: 1-57, 2-74, 3-90, 4-132, 5-284, 6-302, 7-303, 8-344, 9-362, 10-362. Bowling: Srinath 10-0-63-1, Mohanty 7.4-0-53-1, Ganguly 8-0-81-2, Nehra 10-0-75-2, Kapoor 8-0-53-0, Sehwag 3-0-20-0. |
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SYDNEY, Feb 13 — Steve Waugh’s all-conquering cricketers flew out of Australia today for a tour of India and a chance to cement their claim as one of the greatest teams in the sport’s history. Waugh’s triumphant side have already climbed the twin peaks of Test and one-day cricket during their unbeaten Australian summer. They won all 15 matches during the 2000-01 domestic season, including a historic 5-0 clean sweep of their Test series against West Indies and all 10 of their matches in the triangular limited-overs tournament with west Indies and Zimbabwe. They extended their world record of consecutive Tests wins to 15 and are just four matches away from equalising the one-day record of 14 games without defeat they set this time last year. But Waugh, who achieved a personal milestone on Monday when he was named as Australia’s player of the year, has made no secret that he views the Indian series as the ultimate challenge of his side’s test of greatness. Australia in recent years have beaten every major cricket-playing nation in the world both home and away but have not won a series in India since 1969. “The Indian series will be the big one and the one we’ll be judged on,’’ Waugh said. “If we don’t perform over there then possibly we’re not as good as other sides that have won there in other eras.’’ Speaking to reporters before the team’s departure from Melbourne airport, Waugh added some spice to the tour by taking a swipe at Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. “He’ll have them fired up so you’ll see a bit of a different series to the usual Australia-India, there’s going to be a lot of confrontations,’’ Waugh said. “I don’t think there’ll be verbal stuff but there’ll be two teams out there giving it their best shot.’’ Waugh hit out at suggestions by former Indian Test player Navjot Singh Sidhu that local curators should doctor the pitches to suit the home team, saying it was against the spirit of the game. “The groundsman’s job is to produce the best wicket he can and then let the players go out there and play on it,’’ Waugh said. “If you’re not good enough to cope with different conditions then you shouldn’t be there.’’ Australia suffered a major blow just before the tour when paceman Brett Lee was ruled out with an elbow injury but he was replaced in the 14-man squad with tireless swing bowler Michael Kasprowicz. Kasprowicz will share the fast bowling duties with Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming, who missed the Test series against West Indies this summer with neck and finger injuries, and Jason Gillespie, who passed a late fitness test for a hamstring injury. Australia chose champion leg-spinner Shane Warne and the versatile Colin Miller as their slow bowlers, leaving out the unlucky Stuart MacGill who had a successful Test series against West Indies while Warne recovered from a finger injury. The first of three Tests starts on February 27 in Bombay after two warm-up matches. The tests will be followed by five one-dayers. Australian squad - Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Damien Fleming, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden, Michael Kasprowicz, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Colin Miller, Ricky Ponting, Michael Slater, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh. ACB raises Rs 41 lakh for quake victims NEW DELHI, Feb 13 — The Australian Cricket Board has donated Rs 41.25 lakh to the World Vision’s relief efforts for the Gujarat earthquake victims. ACB and the Australian cricketers, during the second final of the Carlton triangular one-day series between Australia and West Indies on Friday, made appeals to the fans to donate money for relief operations and the resulting contributions were given to World Vision, a press note said here yesterday. Australian cricket team’s support for the quake victims will continue during their one and a half month India tour. The visiting team will carry relief material from Australia which will be handed over to the World Vision India CEO, John Mathai during the invitation Press conference in Mumbai on February 14. |
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MUMBAI, Feb 13 — Leg spinners Narendra Hirwani of Madhya Pradesh and Sairaj Bahutule of Mumbai have been asked to join the Indian conditioning camp at Chennai beginning from February 15. Cricket board executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar said here today that selection committee chairman Chandu Borde had sent letters to Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai Cricket Associations
requesting them to send Hirwani and Bahutule to Chennai to attend the camp till February 19. With Anil Kumble, who is recuperating from shoulder operation, ruled out of the home series against Australia the selectors are desperate to find a suitable replacement for the ace leg spinner. The camp will restart after the Challenger Trophy, now in progress, and will continue till the selection of the Indian team for the first Test during the three-dayer scheduled to be held at Nagpur from February 17 to 19. With the inclusion of Hirwani and Bahutule, the total number of players in the camp has gone to 27. A visibly happy Bahutule told PTI here that he was looking forward to joining the camp. “I want to go and attend the camp and it will be good experience to work under coach John Wright of New Zealand,” he added. UNI: The Indian cricket think-tank seems to be taking the leg-spin wizard Shane Warne, a bit too seriously. The last time around in 1998 when Warne was in India with the Australian team, he was massacred by the Indian batsmen specially Sachin Tendulkar, who set the tone with a scintillating double century (his first in first class cricket) for Mumbai in the tour opener. However, the Indians are still wary of the terror that Shane Warne holds, with the selectors giving a late call up for Mumbai leg spinner Sairaj Bahutule. The selectors chose as many as seven spinners for the conditioning camp. However, it seems none of them seemed to be up to the mark, thus making the selectors asking in-form leg spinner Sairaj Bahutule to join the camp. Bahutule, who has represented India in the one-day version, however has not yet played a Test match. Last season he could not find a place even in the Mumbai side. But this season has been a different tale with Bahutule coming out all guns firing to emerge as the highest wicket-taker in the Ranji League matches. The Chairman of the selection committee Chandu Borde known for his googlies, before a shoulder injury restricted him from bowling, had stated that he had not seen Bahutule in the longer version of the game and that he could not bowl the googly. |
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Paes beats Ghouse; Fazal ousted MUMBAI, Feb 13 — Leander Paes, embarassed by the fact that even as a holder he did not qualify for a seeding, today took out his wrath on newly-crowned national champion Mustafa Ghouse thrashing him 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of the $ 50,000 MTNL ATP Challenger Tennis tournament here at the Cricket Club of India. Paes’ ranking within a year has fallen to 233 but for Ghouse the wide disparity was obvious during the 60-minute one-sided contest. Even when Paes was caught wrong-footed or even when he slipped he was athletic enough to produce a winner. Paes was taken aback though in the very opening service of the match when Ghouse drilled three service returns and came on two break points. Paes immediately unleashed a crisp serve and volley game to remove the disadvantage. Then he broke all three service games of the city player. Ghouse had his chances and once took Paes to three deuces and had three break points in the fifth but lost it with stray shots. Paes was in no mood to give any concession and disputed couple of line decisions. Ghouse could manage to hang on to his service in the fourth game but lost the next with a double fault. Paes clinched the issue with an ace and now meets Nir Welgreen of Israel, who in the morning shocked seventh-seeded Filippo Messori of Italy 6-2, 6-1. Earlier, Davis cupper Syed Fazaluddin was beaten by top-seeded Filippo Volandri of Italy 7-5, 6-4, while America-based son of Vijay Amritraj, Prakash was outclassed by second-seeded Italian Vincenzo Santopadre 6-4, 6-1. Two other seeds to bow out were Oleg Ogorodov, seeded eighth from Uzbekistan and seventh-seeded Filippo Messori of Italy. Oleg was defeated by Czech Frantisek Cermak 4-6, 1-6. Yesterday, Germany’s fifth seed Marcello Craca and Israel’s sixth seed Andy Ram lost their matches. Prakash, watched by his illustrious father Vijay, recently honoured with United Nations ambassadorship, dropped his second service game and was broken at love in the sixth game of the first set. In the second set, he suffered another setback in the opening game and lost his final service at love to the Italian ranked 183. Prakash (17) was playing for the first time in India at an age when his father was already a national champion. He doesn’t have the height advantage of his father neither showed the court craft Vijay was famous for. He played typical American style tennis. But he does possess a big serve which was evident when he smacked two aces. However, he was unable to show accuracy and was passed umpteen times.
— UNI |
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8-member team for ITF meets NEW DELHI Feb 13 — An eight-member Indian tennis team — four boys and four girls — will participate in the ITF Tournaments to be played in Malaysia (Grade 3), Singapore (Grade 2), Thailand (Grade 2) and Philippines (Grade 2) from March 12 to April 2. All-India Tennis Association (AITA) secretary Anil Khanna announced here the boys’ team would comprise Sunil Kumar (Chandigarh), Rohan Gajjar (Maharashtra), Nishank Mishra (Delhi) and Vinod Sewa (Calcutta) while the girls’ team include Sania Mirza (Andhra Pradesh), Megha Vakharia (Maharashtra), Sasha Abraham (Andhra Pradesh) and Ankita Bhambri (Delhi). Sandeep Kirtane will be the coach, and Naseema Mirza the manager. Mr Anil Khanna said the executive committee of the AITA at its meeting in Bangalore had decided to support the participation of the junior players in international tournaments in a bid to give proper exposure to talented youngsters. |
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OAKLAND, Feb 13 — Pete Sampras has not won a Grand Slam off grass since 1997 and no longer has the burning desire for the top ranking he once had, but at 29 he still believes he has the goods and mental fortitude to keep up with tennis’ young guns. “I’m not scared of anyone,” Sampras told Reuters in a recent telephone interview from his Los Angeles home. “It’s a question of how much I want to compete. I’m not going to play 20 to 25 events like I used to. I need to play enough to stay sharp, but with my ability, I think I can still play with anyone,” he insisted. In his last three major events — the 2000 US Open, the 2000 Tennis Masters Cup and the 2001 Australian Open — Sampras failed to produce the firepower and willpower that brought him a record 13 Grand Slam titles and the number one ranking a record six years running. He was streamrolled by young Russian Marat Safin in the US Open final, was left wide-eyed by the wizardry of Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten at the Masters Cup and fell to his longtime whipping boy Todd Martin last month in Australia. But the aging former world number one bristles at suggestions that it is time for him to step aside and let the next generation battle for Grand Slam glory. “There’s a lot of good young players but no one who really scares me,” he said. “Andre Agassi is the one guy who can beat me when I’m playing well, but with Safin and Kuerten, even though they’ve beaten me, I feel like the match is on my racket.” “The majority of guys now are baseliners. It’s not like I’m a huge guy with just a huge serve and nothing else. Week in and week out it does get tougher, but when I’m on, it’s tough for guys to beat me,” said Sampras, who will take a wild card entry into next week’s Memphis tournament to keep sharp ahead of next month’s bigger events at Indian Wells and Miami. “I just need to stay inspired and motivated and that’s my challenge,” he added. “I still have the tools.” Sampras’s coach, Paul Annacone, said that when his pupil is on, he still has no peers. “When Pete plays his best tennis, he’s unequivocally the best player out there,” Annacone said. Will he produce that tennis 12 months out of the year? That’s up to Pete. “He still has room for small improvements and I think he’s motivated to make them.” After winning his seventh Wimbledon title and record 13th Grand Slam last summer in a dramatic five-set victory over Patrick Rafter, Sampras could retire tomorrow and be considered by many the greatest ever. When he reflects back on his most recent Wimbledon victory, Sampras still gets a little choked up.
— Reuters |
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Kournikova’s photograph is computer virus PALO ALTO, Feb 13 — A promised photograph of Anna Kournikova, the world’s ninth-ranked professional tennis player, is being used as the hook for a fast-spreading computer virus, Internet security firms said. The virus struck computers in Europe and the USA overnight. It uses a so-called worm to spread in the same manner as last year’s “Love Bug” virus, which infected an estimated 15 million computers and sent servers crashing around the world after unsuspecting people opened an e-mail with “I Love You” on its subject line. “It’s an old virus concept but you put a pretty face and a nice pair of legs on it and people open it,” said Steve Gottwals, director of product marketing for F-Secure Corp. The Kournikova virus — also known as the
vbs and sst virus — was first discovered in August and has been found in more than 50 large companies, including Fortune 500s, Network Associates Inc. said in a statement. The subject line on the Kournikova virus e-mail reads: “Here you have, ;o)”. The body of the e-mail says “Hi: Check this!” When users of Microsoft Corp.’s Outlook e-mail software open the attachment, which is disguised as a photo file, the virus infects their computers and sends itself to every name in the users’ address book. “It’s not dangerous in a sense that it’s data destructive,” said Mr Vincent Weafer, director of the Symantec Antivirus Research Center. The Kournikova virus and others like it are damaging because they have the potential to clog e-mail systems and to cause servers to crash. “They spread and burn very quickly, but die very quickly,” Weafer said. Moscow-born Kournikova, 19, graced the cover of Sports Illustrated on June 5. Someone on one website is asking $50 for copies of that much-read issue. Kournikova, who has never won a
WTA title, recently was defeated by Amelie Mauresmo at the Paris Open indoor tennis tournament.
— Reuters |
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Goal-of-the-month by 80-year-old BERLIN, Feb 13 — When 80-year-old Kurt Meyer sent a 16-metre-shot shot crashing high into the top corner of the net during a recent football match there was never any doubt who was going to win the German ARD television channel’s “goal-of-the-month” award. “I struck the ball rather well with my right foot and was thrilled when it went soaring into the top right hand corner — but never did I dream it would win me the goal-of-the month award,” said Meyer after learning his goal was voted the best scored in Germany last month. Of the thousands of viewers who took part in the monthly vote, more than two thirds voted for Meyer’s goal in preference to those of the stars of Germany’s top professional Bundesliga. When ARD phoned to tell him he had won the award, the excitement was too much for Meyer, who wept with joy. “I just couldn’t stop the tears running down my cheeks.” “I was so proud,” mumbled the veteran footballer, as he sat afterwards surrounded by friends and fans in his team’s crowded Recklinghausen club-house. He recalled that it was more than 70 years since he first began kicking a ball about on the streets of Recklinghausen, often in bare feet, because “the money wasn’t there for a pair of shoes”.
— DPA |
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Bagan, East Bengal surge ahead CHANDIGARH, Feb 13 — Former champions Mohun Bagan maintained their top position, accumulating 14 points from four victories and two draws on conclusion of the sixth round of the fifth National Football League at Mumbai
yesterday. Although FC Kochin checked the winning spree of the green and maroon brigade with a 2-2 draw at Kochi on February 10,the valuable point gained kept Bagan on top of the
table. The Kolkata outfit also have the best goal average, having scored 11 goals in six outings while conceding
five. Arch rivals East Bengal also surged ahead with a victory against Air-India yesterday which put them at the second place with 13
points. Another Kolkata outfit,Tollygunge Agragami, registered their first win in the league getting past ITI through Abdulateef Seriki’s
goal. Salgaocar, who lost two matches previously, got back into their rhythm with a 2-1 win over Churchill Brothers to jump to the third
spot. Churchill Brothers had registered the league’s biggest victory in the fifth round when they had routed JCT 4-0 in a home match at Margao on February 6. The pathetic run of JCT Phagwara and State Bank of Travancore continued
unabated. Both the teams have not won a single match in the NFL so far. In
fact SBT were on the verge of picking up full points against JCT after Abdul Hakkim gave his side the lead but medio Harinder’s equaliser in the dying minutes gave the struggling Phagwara outfit some
relief. Debutants Vasco Sports Club, Goa, and Mahindra United played a goal-less draw at Margao on February 9 which put them at the fifth and sixth positions respectively. In all,11 goals were scored in this
round. The seventh round will kick off at Thiruvananthapuram tomorrow where State Bank of Travancore will meet Mahindra United in a home match.
The following are the standings of the teams in the NFL on conclusion of the sixth round (read under teams, matches played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, and points):
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Chandigarh eves beat HP CHANDIGARH, Feb 13 — The 29th Senior National Women Handball championship began here today evening and in first match Chandigarh eves pipped Himachal Pradesh 25-8. The tournament is being conducted by the Chandigarh Handball Association under the aegis of the Handball Federation of India. The match began with city girls dominating the proceedings right from the beginning and an early lead of 4-2 paved the way for confidence-building among the Chandigarh girls. The lead was however maintained and it was 11-4 at half time. Ultimately in the second half, with the cheering from the select gathering helped Chandigarh to emerge winners at 25-8. Asha of Chandigarh was the highest scorer with six goals followed by Reetika Mandeep and Neeti, who scored five goals each. Rina scored four goals. For the losers side, Shobha was the highest scorer with three goals, Lalita and Amino scored two goals each while Bhawna scored one goal. |
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