The ignominy of India having had to follow on, 274 runs behind, was forgotten in the dazzle that the 26-year-old Hyderabad batsman brought to the wicket in the first innings knock of 59 and an undefeated 109 in the second.

India, humbled in the Mumbai Test have still a long way to go in the second Test, still 20 runs behind.

Laxman, promoted in the batting order, seemed to be in excellent form as he plundered runs at will to notch up his second Test century and lead the Indian fight back after the hosts were bundled out for a paltry 171 in their first innings within an hour of play this morning.

The hosts recovered from a mid-innings slump which saw quick dismissals of Shiv Sundar Das (39) and maestro Sachin Tendulkar (10), but a rollicking 117-run partnership between Laxman and captain Saurav Ganguly brought some respectability to the Indian effort.

At close, Rahul Dravid was giving company to Laxman with seven runs.

With the rather long tail, Laxman and Dravid, the last recognised batting pair at the middle, have the responsibility of playing a big innings if the Indians hope to draw the match and prevent the visitors from clinching the series win after a long gap of 31 years on Indian soil.

The two Indian openers, Das and Sadagopan Ramesh (30), who had failed to provide a solid foundation in the three earlier innings during the series, faced a torrid time as they began the second innings with both Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie producing a fiery opening spell.

The opening pair overcame some anxious moments in the early stages of the innings but managed to put on 52 runs before the left-handed Ramesh returned to the pavillion, falling prey to leg-spinner Shane Warne.

Ramesh, who survived some edgy shots through the heavy slip cordon, came back to the comfort of the dressing room immediately after the lunch break as he went forward to Warne but only succeeded in edging to first slip where Mark Waugh latched on to a low catch.

Laxman put on 45 runs for the second wicket alongwith the diminutive Das who looked quite comfortable in the middle.

The hosts were cruising along comfortably at 97 for one before Das perished in a rather unusual manner with Gillespie doing the damage when he was brought back into the attack from the pavillion end after the drinks break.

The Orissa batsman knocked off a bail with his back foot, failing to control his balance while flicking the ball to the long leg region.

The Indian innings received a major jolt when Gillespie got rid of Tendulkar in the same spell and suddenly the home team’s effort of saving the match looked in disarray.

Tendulkar, who was expected to shoulder the responsibility of taking the Indians to safety, failed for the second time much to the delight of the Australians who bowled their hearts out to make early inroads in the Indian innings.

The star batsman played at an outgoing delivery from Gillespie, but only managed to edge the ball to Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps, leaving the Eden Gardens crowd in a shock.

Tendulkar’s early departure raised fears of another Indian middle order collapse but Laxman and Ganguly took the battle to the opposition camp by playing positively and unsettling the rhythm of the famed Aussie bowlers with a flurry of fours on both sides of the wicket.

Laxman was the more aggressive of the two as he used his feet to smash Warne for a number of fours. He also clobbered paceman Michael Kasprowicz for three boundaries.

With both Laxman and Ganguly going on the offensive, the Aussie bowling seemed to lack the sting forcing captain Steve Waugh to introduce his twin brother Mark to bowl his off spinners and lend some variety to the attack.

The left-handed Ganguly appeared a bit shaky in the early stages of his innings but opened up to execute some delightful shots after getting his eye in.

The duo seemed in no trouble at all in the morning session as they accelerated the pace of scoring to take the second innings total beyond the 200 mark without losing any further wicket.

Just when the partnership was beginning to look dangerous, McGrath inflicted a huge blow by evicting Ganguly with a gem of a delivery. Ganguly tried to play a well-controlled out-swinger, but the ball took the outside edge and flew to keeper Gilchrist who made no mistake with the catch. Ganguly made 48.

Rahul Dravid, who joined the action after his captain’s departure, played cautiously as usual as the Aussies put pressure on him by strengthening the close-in fielding cordon for the out-of-form batsman.

Laxman played a gentle push to the mid-off region to take a single off Warne and complete his second century in Test career. The unbeaten effort, which contained 19 fours, drew a standing ovation from the crowd as well as the Australians as the batsman walked back to the pavilion at the end of the day.

Scoreboard

Australia (Ist innings): 445 all out

India (Ist innings):

S.S. Das c Gilchrist b McGrath 20

Ramesh c Ponting b Gillespie 00

Dravid b S Warne 25

Tendulkar lbw McGrath 10

Ganguly c S Waugh b Kasprowicz 23

Laxman c Mathew b Shane Warne 59

Mongia c Gilchrist b Kasprowicz 02

Harbhajan c Ponting b Gillespie 04

Zaheer Khan b McGrath 03

V Raju lbw Glenn McGrath 4

Venkatesh Prasad not out 7

Extras: (lb2, nb12) 14

Total (in 58.1 overs and 258 minutes) 171.

Fall of wickets: 1/0, 2/34, 3/48, 4/88, 5/88, 6/92, 7/97, 8/113, 9/129, 10/171.

Bowling: Glenn McGrath 14-8-18-4; Jason Gillespie Michael kasprowicz 13-2-39-2; Shane Warne 20.1-3-65-2

India (2nd innings):

Das hit wicket b Gillespie 39

Ramesh c Waugh b Warne 30

Laxman batting 109

Tendulkar c Gilchrist b Gillespie 10

Ganguly c Gilchrist b McGrath 48

Dravid batting 07

Extras (lbys 3, wbs 2 nbs 6) 11

Total (for four wickets) 254

Fall of wickets: 1/52, 2/97, 3/115, 4/232.

India, who crushed Scotland 5-1 in their opening match, take on hosts Bangladesh tomorrow in their last group A encounter. The Indians had managed the same victory margin against Japan in their last meeting in 1999 Asia Cup in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

Dilip Tirkey crafted the Indian victory in the match scoring two goals, one in each half to be adjudged ‘man of the match’ while gifted playmaker captain Baljeet Singh Dhillon netted another goal for the winners.

The interim Indian coach C.R. Kumar, was not happy with the winning margin as he thought his boys missed some good chances to reach the target.

“The boys dominated the match all through, but failed to reach the target. We’ll try to rectify our mistakes,” he said.

He added that they failed as Japan packed up their 25 yards in the first half. Despite their domination in the first half, India swallowed the first goal in the 27th minute for their defensive lapse. Japanese captain Yamabori Takahiko put his team ahead flicking the ball dodging one defender in danger zone from a Furusato Ryuji minus.

But the Japanese joy lasted only for six minutes as India levelled the score just three minutes ahead of the lemon break to lock the first half 1-1. Dilip Tirkey scored the equalizer for his side converting the penalty corner.

The match scenario changed totally in the second half when India created two chances in the very first minute.

In the third minute of the second half, Baljeet Singh Dhillon helped India take a 2-1 lead as the Indian skipper got enough time in danger zone to reach home. Dilip Tirkey, who was adjudged best player in the match, netted his second goal also from a penalty corner to extend the margin (3-1).

India got 10 penalty corners in the match, but they could convert only two chances and the Indian coach attributed it to experiment with new players.

Japanese manager Toichi Nagai in his post-match reaction said they were very disappointed about the results but hoped that they would be able to win against Scotland in their next match.

Results on the fourth day:

Group A:

India 3 — (Dilip Tirkey 30th, 40th, Baljit Dhillon 37th)

Japan 1 — (Yamabori Takahiko 25th)

Group B:

Pakistan 4 — (Kashif Jawad 26th, 49th, Muhammad Nadeem 54th, Muhammad Hussain 64th)

Egypt 1 — (Adnan El Sayed 44th)

Ireland 1 — (Justin Sherriff 15th)

Tamil Nadu’s stupendous batting performance for a second time in this match was capped by a fine unbeaten 144 by left hander S. Sharath who hit up his 14th century in Ranji career during his 291 minute stay at the wicket hitting two sixes and 18 fours.

With first innings centurion, another left hander C.Hemant Kumar, Sharath added a record 207 runs for the third wicket in 58.1 overs before Hemant, approaching what would have been second successive ton in this match, was stumped by off spinner Virender Shewag for 87 of 147 balls in 245 minutes with one six and six fours.

Opener S.Rriram fell cheaply for 16, while the other opener S.Badrinath also followed suit attempting a third run, for 21 with four fours when Tamil Nadu began their second knock without enforcing a follow on after dismissing Delhi to force a 227 first innings lead, 35 minutes after the fourth day’s play today.

Debutant medium pacer for Tamil Nadu M.R.Srinivas had the best figures of four for 111.

Scoreboard

Tamil Nadu (Ist innings): 592 all out

Delhi (Ist innings): (overnight 354/7) G.Gambhir c Kapoor b Shrinivas 20, A.Chopra b Mahesh 11, R Sanghvi c Paul b Singh 31, M.Minhas c Sharath b Shrinivas 58, V.Sehwag c Paul b Mahesh 106, V.Dhaiya c Paul b Shrinivas 15, P.Chawla lbw b Singh 30, H.Choudhary run out 60, A.Bhandari b Shrinivas 20, A.Suman not out 0, R.Singh (jr) c Paul b Mahesh 3.

Extras (b-4, lb-5, nb-2) 11.

Total (all out in 106 overs) 365.

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-41, 3-107, 4-153, 5-179, 6-228, 7-285, 8-362, 9-362.

Bowling: S.Mahesh 29-5-102-3; M.R.Shrinivas 29-5-111-4; Robin Singh 20-10-45-2; Ashish Kapoor 19-2-54-0; Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan 9-0-44-0.

Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): S.Sriram run out 16, S.Badrinath run out 21, C.Hemanth Kumar st Chawla b Shewag 87, S Sharath batting 144, J.R.Madanagopal c Chawla b Suman 3, S.Mahesh batting 4.

Extras (lb2, nb-1) 3.

Total (for 4 wkts, 82 overs) 278.

Fall of wickets: 1/33, 2/37, 3/244, 4/262.

Bowling: Robin Singh (jr) 12-2-25-0; A.Suman 15-2-58-1; A.Bhandari 12-2-49-0; V.Shewag 14-2-33-1; R.Sanghvi 15-0-54-0; H.Choudhary 12-1-56-0; M.Minhas 1-0-1-0.

PUNE: Splendid batting by Sanjay Bangar (80) and Kulmani Parida (84) propelled Railways to end the fourth day at 314 for four, an overall lead of 437, over Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy pre-quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 99 for two, Railways with the help of a third wicket partnership of 75 runs between Bangar and Parida, took command of the situation before Bangar was caught by Iqbal Siddiqi off medium pacer Sachin Aradhye after his 257 minutes stay at the wicket.

Parida, who was more cautious and stayed at the wicket for 362 minutes, was caught by substitute K.Khadkikar off Siddiqui after adding an invaluable 133 runs for the fourth wicket along with Yere Goud (batting on 83 off 153 balls with nine fours and a six).

Goud, who stroked the ball well from the word go, has so far stayed for 208 minutes at the wicket. The other not out batsman along with him was Abhay Sharma on five.

Scoreboard

Railways (Ist innings): 431

Maharashra (Ist innings): 308

Railways (2nd innings): (overnight 99 for two) Amit Pagnis c Kanitkar b Sane 13, Sanjay Banger c Siddiqui b Aradhye 80, Tejinder Pal Singh c Aphale b Siddiqui 42, Kulmani Parida c (sub) Kashinath Khadkikar b Siddiqui 84, Yere Goud batting 83, Abhay Sharma batting 05.

Extras: (byes-1, lb-1, nb-5) 07.

Total: For four wickets in 111 overs 314.

Fall of wickets: 1/47, 2/98, 3/173, 4/306.

While Sarwan flourished, Brian Lara was again dismissed when he seemed on the brink of a big score. He fell for 45 as the West Indies batted throughout the fourth day to reach 286 for four.

Scoreboard

West Indies (1st innings): 304

South Africa 1st innings): 332

West Indies (2nd innings):

Hinds c Boucher b Donald 14

Gayle c Boucher b Boje 44

Samuels b Kallis 51

Lara c Pollock b Ntini 45

Sarwan not out 71

Hooper not out 31

Extras (b14, lb7, w1, nb8) 30

Total (4 wkts, 105 overs) 286

Fall of Wicket: 1-15, 2-78, 3-147, 4-210

Sampras, who had not lost three matches in a row since 1997, said it was good to be back on the victory trail following his 6-4 6-4 first-round win.

“I felt like I’ve been struggling a little bit over the past couple of weeks,” said the third-seeded Sampras, who won here in 1994 and 1995. “Today, I felt like I got my game going. It was a pretty solid effort. I hit the ball pretty well.

“I feel like I’ve got some room to improve a little bit. Hopefully, as the week goes on, I’ll get some confidence and get some more matches under my belt.”

Arriving at this tournament in the Coachella Valley, Sampras had lost to compatriot Todd Martin in the fourth round of the Australian Open, followed by opening-round defeats to fellow American Chris Woodruff in Memphis and to Andrew Ilie of Australia in Scottsdale.

One service break in each of the two sets of the 71-minute match was all Sampras, who delivered 17 aces, needed to brush Prinosil aside.

The fourth-seeded Agassi was a quick 6-3, 6-2 first-round winner over Hicham Arazi, a result that served as pay back for the Moroccan’s first-round defeat of Agassi here last year.

Agassi also found some satisfaction in finally getting the best of a lefthander after losing his last two matches to Briton Greg Rusedski in the San Jose final and to Spaniard Francisco clavet in the first round at Scottsdale last week.

The only men’s seed to be upset on the opening day was 12th-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, who finally surrendered to Chilean Nicolas Massu 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (6-8) in a three-hour, 30-minute marathon match.

Defending champion Alex Corretja of Spain struggled to a 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) first-round victory over Gaston Gaudio, one of several talented, young Argentine players performing well on the ATP Tour.

Australian Open runner-up Arnaud Clement of France also progressed with a 6-0, 6-3 win over ilie.

Roger Federer suffered a rare first-round elimination, losing 6-3, 5-7, 1-6, to Nicolas Kiefer of Germany.

Federer has had a great start to 2001, most notably by winning three matches to lead the Swiss Davis Cup team to a first-round victory over the USA last month.

He also picked up his first career title at Milan in February and reached the final in Rotterdam.

Women’s No 1 Martina Hingis and her chief rival, power-hitting Venus Williams, led a charge of tough-talking young players into the quarterfinals.

Hingis had to rally in the second set to overcome 16th seed Barbara Schett of Austria 6-3, 7-6, while Williams eliminated Australian veteran Rachel McQuillan 6-4, 6-2.

Waiting for Williams in the round of eight will be Russian eighth seed Elena Dementieva, who vowed to defeat the 2000 Wimbledon and US Open champion if she is on her game.

“If I play 100 per cent and she plays 100 per cent, I will beat her for sure,’’ said the 19-year-old Dementieva, who advanced past 16-year-old compatriot Lina Krasnoroutskaya, who retired with a foot injury after losing the first set 3-6.

“I’m stronger inside.’’

The first time that graceful Dementieva faced the powerful Williams, the Russian shocked her in a dead-rubber match in a 1999 Federation Cup match.

The last time the 20-year-old Williams and the Russian played was for the gold medal in Sydney, which Williams took in the straight sets.

Dementieva said she had been overwhelmed by the pressure of playing for her country, but would not be intimidated by Williams.

“She’s won all her matches because she’s stronger physically,” Dementieva said. “She’s a great player but nothing special. She’s a girl like me....The Russian people aren’t afraid of anything.’’

Hingis’s opponent in the quarters will be Italian Silvia Farina-Elia, who ousted 11th seed Anke Huber of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Defending champion Lindsay Davenport, the second seed, overpowered friend and former doubles partner Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-2, to set up a quarterfinal showdown against seventh seed Serena Williams, who routed Bulgaria’s Maggie Maleeva 6-3, 6-2.

The muscular Williams beat Davenport in the final of Los Angeles last year in a third-set tie-breaker, but Davenport got revenge in the US Open quarters with a stunning straight-set victory over the defending champion.

Although the 0-1 defeat at the hands of Vasco at Margao on February 2 still haunts the mill men, it is their position in the 12-team league which is giving them the jitters. Placed at the bottom with only six points from six draws, JCT are the only team who have not won a single match so far. Vasco, on the other hand, are better placed at the fifth position with 18 points from four victories and six draws.

Vasco took off on a promising note, vanquishing the strong Churchill Brothers 1-0 in the opening round. Thereafter, they beat JCT 1-0,State Bank of Travancore 2-1,and former champions salgaocar 2-1.The Goan outfit drew their matches against FC Kochin 1-1,Air-India 1-1,Mahindra United 0-0,Tollygunge 0-0,and ITI 0-0 twice. The team with Derrick Perreira as coach has so far scored eight goals while conceding 10 in 12 matches. A well-knit team, Vasco's strength lies in their foreign talent. Uzbekistan's Khoshomov Avazbek, Ronaldo D'Silva, Edson Wanderly and goalkeeper Ramos Rogerio have performed creditably. The midfield is efficiently managed by Gregory Clark, Ravi Babu, and Ronaldo D'Silva.I n the defence, Vasco have the dependable Sanjay Parte, Agnelo Colaco, and Seby Dias.

Vasco's goals have come through Avazbek, Rustam Zabirov, Peter Rodrigues, Ravi Babu, Seby Dias, and Kishore Palkar. In fact it was Peter Rodrigues who shattered the hopes of JCT in the away match on February 2.

JCT are still struggling to regain the winning touch. After the 2-2 draw with Mohun Bagan in the first round, the mill men began to lose their way and on several occasions luck did not favour them. Against Air-India, JCT were leading by 3-1 before eventually losing 3-4 in a needle contest. With victory eluding them, JCT's frustrations have grown with every passing day.

Unlike the previous edition, the Hardip trio of Sangha, Saini and Gill are yet to strike an effective combination. Injuries to Sangha and Saini have kept them out of action for long spells.Jaswinder, the livewire of the attack, also joined late after recovering from an injury.

The absence of Deepak Mondal, who shifted to East Bengal, has robbed them of a stout defender. Nevertheless, JCT are trying to make the most of whatever talent is available and in fact a lot depends on the energetic Hardip Gill, Jaswinder, Ram Pal and Jaswant.

Dipankar Roy and Carlton Chapman struck within a space of 25 minutes in the first half to give the Kolkata giants their first win in the second leg of the league after their resultless first outing against Mahindra United.

East Bengal, who had to share points with the Goan side in their first leg fixture, shot ahead as early as the 5th minute when Dipankar produced a pimple on the goal-net with a perfect right-footer after getting a lob from Amal Raja 10 yards from the rival citadel at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan.

Dipankar also had a hand in East Bengal’s second goal when he put through a ball to Chapman who managed to beat the off-side trap by the rival defenders and booted home a booming shot, beating keeper Ansah Edward hands down.

The home team, which went for the break with a 2-0 lead, looked satisfied with it, giving Churchill an opportunity to pull one back through Shkvrin Igor 15 minutes from the final hooter.

East Bengal are now at the top of their group with 30 points.

MUMBAI: F.C. Kochin, in a match replete with boorish behaviour from players, notched up their eighth win, a 2-1 victory over Air-India today in the National Football League (NFL) here at the Cooperage.

Kochin soared over Air-India with two classic headers from their imported players Eugene Gray in the 27th minute and Aaron Cole in the 58th minute.

Air-India could salvage a goal through a penalty kick successfully taken by Tapas Ghosh in the 80th minute.