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| Sunday,
July 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
HOCKEY WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS
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Zimbabwe fight back
Russian swimmers excel
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Brazil not taking Honduras
lightly Indian cagers pip Uzbekistan Prasad in sight of GM norm Rogge to work for
unity Rohit for world
meet of deaf Renovation work at snail’s
pace
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HOCKEY WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS Edinburgh, July 21 India now have six points along with New Zealand in pool A but the Kiwis have a match against Wales in hand. If New Zealand win that match, they would top pool A with nine points while India will be on six. India will now play Argentina tomorrow in the second round. The South Americans have been on a roll winning all their matches and are pool B toppers with nine points. If India beat Argentina, they will enter the semifinals and be assured of a slot in the 2002 Kuala Lumpur World Cup. India today packed their midfield hoping for more balls coming through to the forwards but the Egyptians were expecting that and they brought in more players into their circle. The Indian team management must have been on the edge of their seats after the goal-less first half as a defeat would have sent India packing from qualifying for the World Cup. But apprehensions were dismissed in the 42nd minute when Daljit Singh Dhillon found himself in the clear off a pass from the left flank which had been fed by the midfield. Daljit Singh made no mistake with his shot to beat the Egyptian goalkeeper Hasanein and give India the lead. Four minutes later, India again raided the Egyptian circle and in the melee, the ball hit a defender’s leg after Indian captain Baljit Singh Dhillon was stick-checked. The umpire pointed for a penalty stroke which Baljit Dhillon converted for India’s second goal. The Indians, now with two goals up, were constantly trying to get more scoring opportunities so that the match could be put beyond the Egyptians. The way India played the second half, it seemed that they had suddenly realised the job at hand and wanted to make sure that the New Zealand story was not repeated. Even Daljit Dhillon, who had missed a handful of chances against New Zealand, was releasing the ball early. The Egyptians, who till the first half, kept the Indians away, collapsed after the first goal and did not mark the Indians as severely as they were doing in the first half. India got their third goal in the 53rd minute when mid-fielder Arjun Hallapa, overlapping and coming into the circle, latched onto a cross and fired in with aplomb. With India leading 3-0, it seemed that the Egyptians were losing the fight. But off a counter-attack, they earned a penalty corner and scored in the 60th minute to pull back a goal for a 1-3 scoreline. India, somehow, managed to hold on for 10 minutes with a few attacks from their own forwards and must have heaved a sigh a relief when the hooter went. The other teams to have qualified for the second round are Poland (9 points) and Canada (6 points) from pool D. From pool C, 1998 World Cup silver medallists Spain and Japan are on six points. Both the teams are through to the second round but it remains to be seen who will top the pool. In pool B, Argentina go through with three wins but Belgium squeezed through on goal average, finishing second behind Argentina. France needed to beat Bangladesh 5-0 but could only manage a 5-2 victory after being 4-0 up at the break. It was heart-break for France while the Belgians hugged the Bangladeshis.
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Australia in
command
London, July 21 To the last ball before tea, Butcher lost Surrey colleague Graham Thorpe, lbw to Brett Lee for two, although suggested the ball may have been going over off stump. England, batting to save this match after an innings defeat in the first Test, almost saw captain Michael Atherton, deputising for the injured Nasser Hussain, out for a duck. With England four for nought in the fifth over atherton steered nemesis Glenn McGrath to Matthew Hayden in the gully. But for once Australia’s fielding let them down and the chance was dropped. It hardly dented their morale as seven balls later England lost Atherton’s fellow opener Marcus Trescothick for three. SCOREBOARD England (1st innings): 187 Australia (1st innings): Slater c Stewart b Caddick 25 Hayden c Butcher b Caddick 0 Ponting c Thorpe b Gough 14 M. Waugh run out 108 S. Waugh c Stewart b Cork 45 Martyn c Stewart b Caddick 52 Gilchrist c Stewart b Gough 90 Warne c Stewart b Caddick 5 Lee b Caddick 20 Gillespie b Gough 9 McGrath not out 0 Extras: (lb-9, w-1, nb-23) 33 Total: (all out, 101.1 overs) 401 Fall of wickets:
1-5, 2-27, 3-105, 4-212, 5-230, 6-308, 7-322, 8-387, 9-401. Bowling: Gough 25-3-115-3; Caddick 32.1-4-101-5; White 18-1-80-0; cork 23-3-84-1; Butcher 3-1-12-0. England (2nd innings): Atherton b Warne 20 Trescothick c Gilchrist
b Gillespie 3 Butcher not out 73 Thorpe lbw b Lee 2 Ramprakash lbw b Gillespie 40 Stewart not out 13 Extras:
12 Total: (4 wickets, 53 overs) 163 FOW: 1-8, 2-47, 3-50, 4-146. Bowling: McGrath 13-3-39-0, Gillespie 11-3-23-2, Lee 9-1-41-1, Warne 20-4-58-1.
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Bulawayo, July 21 Replying to West Indies’ mammoth first-innings 559 for six declared, the home team had reached 112 for no loss in their second innings at stumps on the third day. Scoreboard Zimbabwe (first innings) 155 West Indies (first innings) (overnight 393-3) Ganga c & b Price 89 Gayle c Price b Streak 175 Chanderpaul c Whittall b Streak 7 Sarwan c Blignaut b B.Strang 58 Hooper c Taibu b B.Strang 149 Samuels b Price 42 Jacobs not out 19 McGarrell not out 8 Extras (b-1 lb-10 nb-1) 12 Total (for six wickets declared, 168 overs) 559 Fall: 1-214 2-261 3-289 4-420 5-520 6-538 Bowling: Streak 35-8-110-2, Blignaut 30-6-116-0, B.Strang 45-15-111-2 (nb-2) Price 44-6-157-2, G. Flower 13-1-52-0, Whittall 1-0-2-0. Zimbabwe (2nd innings): Ebrahim batting 51 Campbell batting 58 Extras (lb-1, nb-2) 3 Total: (no loss, 42 overs) 112 Bowling: King 9-4-14-0; Collins 6-0-26-0; McGarrell 11-3-25-0; Stuart 4-0-22-0; Hooper 11-3-19-0; Samuels 1-0-5-0.
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Ganguly confident of a turnaround Colombo, July 21 India restricted New Zealand to 211 from their 50 overs yesterday but folded for 127 in reply on a slow, turning wicket. “There are still five matches to go for us. The loss last night was disappointing but there’s no need to panic,” Ganguly told reporters today. “The conditions were difficult for the team batting second and we’re confident of a turnaround. “It wasn’t one of the best surfaces to play a one-day match on and the toss became vital.” India take on hosts Sri Lanka tomorrow in another day/night game at Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium. “I’ll be praying I win the toss tomorrow because there are no secrets, the team that wins it will want to bat first,” he said. Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya did not disagree. Jayasuriya led his team to victory in the tournament’s opening game on Wednesday when he scored 80 in of Sri Lanka’s 220 runs and then bowled out New Zealand for 204. “The pitch is the same for both teams but I hope I win the toss,” he said. “We have been bowling well but our batsman struggled in the first game. We are hoping to set that right tomorrow.” Jayasuriya said he was not underestimating India, despite their opponents being without top batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who is out with a fracture in his right foot. “Yesterday was just one bad day for India,” he said. “They have been playing well ever since beating Australia earlier this year. We can’t afford to take them lightly.” Jayasuriya said his team would especially watch out for off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, nicknamed ‘turbanator’ because he wears a traditional Sikh turban. Singh picked up two wickets for 25 runs from his 10 overs yesterday. “He is a very dangerous guy. We’ll have to handle him with care,” Jayasuriya said. India are not planning many changes in their team, although coach John Wright said they may switch the batting order around. Left-hander Yuvraj Singh filled Tendulkar’s opening slot of yesterday but scored only six runs. “We have to think about our opening options. Our batting line-up has to be more flexible since Sachin is not there. Amay Khurasiya could still come in to open,” Wright said. Khurasiya (29) is a hard-hitting batsman who is making his return to the India side after almost two years. India have already ruled out fast bowlers Debasish Mohanty and Ajit Agarkar, who suffered sunstroke, for tomorrow’s match.
The tournament’s final will be played on August 5. Reuters |
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Russian swimmers excel Fukuoka (Japan), July 21 Russia took top honours in the synchronsied swimming team event and on the open water in the 25 kilometre marathon. Italy won the women’s 25km race. The medal table is set to take on a different look tomorrow when the first of eight days of pool competition get underway. Three gold medals will be decided with Australian Ian Thorpe likely to figure in two. He is hot favourite for the 400m freestyle while the Australian team will challenge the USA in the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay. The women’s 800m freestyle will also be decided. But it was Russia’s day today. They now have eight medals at the championships, including four gold. Their synchronised swimmers successfully defended their title despite the absence of several key members of the Sydney Olympic gold-winning team. Anastasia Davydova and Anastassia Ermakova, who made a successful world debut by winning duet silver on Friday, led their young eight-women team in a powerful and dynamic performance. They received one 10, three 9.9s and a 9.7 for technical merit and three perfect 10s, a 9.9 and a 9.8 for artistic impression, giving them a final score of 98.917 points. Japan took silver with 98.083 points and Canada bronze with 97.453 points. Former powerhouse the USA could only manage fourth position. “We practised hard to win the gold medal. I think our performance deserved gold,” said Ermakova (18). Coach Tatiana Pokrouskaya said: “Although our team is young, I think the judges gave us high scores because the music has a theme, the performance is hard and the level of our technique is high.” Russia, along with Italy, also reinforced their superiority in open water swimming. Yury Koudinov won the men’s 25km title in 5:25.32, more than half an hour faster than Italian Viola Valli’s 5:56.51 in the women’s race. Stephane Gomez of France took men’s silver and fellow Frenchman Stephane Lecat the bronze. The Netherlands Edith Van Dijk was second among the women and Germany’s Angela Maurer third. With the open water swimming program now over, Italy stands tall with five medals, including three gold and two bronze. Russia have two open water gold and three silver. It was Valli’s second gold of the championships after triumphing in the 5km swim on Monday. But it was tough going and she had to claw back a two minute gap to finish first. Valli (29) struggled in the early stages in the warm seas off western Fukuoka but found a spurt of energy in the last five kilometres to reel in Van Dijk and touch almost four minutes clear, despite a pain in her waist. Van Elk said Valli was simply too strong over the gruelling marathon which was made all the more difficult by large waves and a fast current. “I was 1.5 metres ahead of the others for a while but Valli was swimming real fast. I made my return with Valli but she sped up in the last 6.5km and I could not catch up with her,” she said.
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Brazil not taking Honduras lightly Bogota, July 21 Despite having to weather a storm of criticism from home media upset that the current vintage bear little relation to the Peles and Tostaos of the samba stars’ glorious past the Brazilians have made it to the last eight without too much nailbiting following Thursday’s win over Paraguay. Late goals from Beletti and Denilson patched up the damage inflicted by a defeat to Mexico on day one — but couldn’t defuse criticism from former star Socrates, who blasted poor coaching as the reason behind below — par recent results and demanded an improvement. Brazil’s quarter-final comprises a veritable David against Goliath match-up against Honduras in the western city of Manizales on Monday. The Hondurans and fellow quarter-finalists Costa Rica benefited from no-shows by Argentina and Canada after a wave of kidnappings and bombings in Colombia almost forced the event’s cancellation. And both newcomers have seized their opportunities by facing through the opening stage. Brazil, while not underestimating their minnow foes, could almost be forgiven for privately thinking that another title — it would be their seventh — is as good as in the bag. The withdrawal of the Argentines, who have dominated South American World Cup qualifying, left the ‘auriverde’ as overwhelming favourites to claim the trophy and go some way towards making up for their poor World Cup form. Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is hoping inconsisent star Denilson will turn in the kind of match-winning performance against the Hondurans which he displayed against Paraguay, conjuring a 3-1 win after the favourites had been a goal down and heading for the exit door. With striker Ewerthon likely to be ruled out through injury, Guilherme is likely to partner Denilson as the Brazilians go for the jugular. Scolari, who replaced Emerson Leao just over a month ago in the Brazil, hotseat, is mulling the benefits of a 4-3-2-1 system rather than the 3-5-2 he has largely leaned on to date. “We’re looking at a few things as Honduras are playing very well and they could pose us a a few problmes,” Scolari said yesterday.
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Indian cagers pip Uzbekistan Beijing, July 21 Both India and Uzbekistan got of to a slow start with the former trailing 10-11 after the first quarter. India outscored Uzbekistan 24-12 in the second quarter to end up the first half 34-23, Xinhua news agency reported. After the game resumed, the Indians raced on to a 57-37 lead late in the third quarter. However, they were held pointless in the following eight minutes while Uzbekistan surged back with five consecutive three-pointers.
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Prasad in sight of GM norm Dortmund (Germany), July 21 Prasad, thus, maintained himself in the joint lead with 7 points alongwith Varga, Adrian Mikhailchisin and Lobzhanidze. With the norm in sight, it was a safe first draw from Prasad. In a formal Sicilian game, Prasad accepted the draw from the Hungarian. Prasad who holds a GM-norm from the Sakthi GM tournament held in Chennai five years ago, will get his second norm tomorrow, if he draws against a player rated above 2500.
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Rogge to work for unity Luasanne (Switzerland), July 21 Rogge, who replaced Juan Antonio Samaranch as IOC president after winning a crunch ballot in Moscow on Monday, said his main task would be to ensure unity within the Olympic movement. “My major daily preoccupation, my role as head of the IOC, is going to be maintaining unity in the sports and Olympic movement,” Rogge said. “I want to stop division,” he said at a ceremony to mark the beginning of his tenure at the IOC’s Lausanne offices. Rogge’s words of conciliation followed a bitter tirade launched by South Korean Olympic powerbroker Kim Un-Yong on Thursday. Kim, who came a distant second to Rogge in Monday’s ballot with 23 votes to the Belgian’s 59, tore into the IOC saying Rogge’s victory proved the body was a Europe-dominated “rich-man’s club.” But Rogge countered Kim’s remarks yesterday. “I can understand the disappointment of certain people but I can only repeat what I’ve already said — I stand for unity and not division,” said Rogge, a close friend of outgoing chief Samaranch.
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Rohit for world
meet of deaf Chandigarh, July 21 he team is lead by former Thomas Cup player Rajeev Bagga of Maharashtra, who is also thrice winner of singles and doubles title in the last three World Deaf Games. This time team championship has been being introduced and Rohit is determined to play his role for a gold medal. Rohit, at 17 years is the youngest member and has represented India earlier also in the meet held in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 1997. In 1999, he was honoured by the then Governor of Haryana at a function held at Raj Bhavan. Rohit also played for Haryana in the open nationals in the below-16 section. When this correspondent last met Rohit during a badminton tournament at Panchkula, he had informed that Bhiwani was without any state department badminton coach for many years. Even till now no badminton coach has been appointed at Bhiwani which has also produced national subjunior champion (under-13) Sumit Kumar and doubles sensations Surinder and Varinder. |
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Renovation work at snail’s
pace Patiala, July 21 Only meetings, without any structured agenda, are being held and even the minutes are not properly circulated, according to a source. The plea taken by top officers is that the renovation work is slow due to the monsoons. The 1995 SAF Games were held at Chennai and the decision to hold the same was taken only a couple of weeks prior to the games. Everything was in place when the games actually commenced. However, despite the fact that the go-ahead for the Afro-Asian Games was given by the Prime Minister five months ago, nothing concrete has been done to upgrade the existing infrastructure. In an attempt to hasten up things, SAI made some important administrative changes that included the shifting of former hockey Olympian M.P. Ganesh from the post of Regional Director, SAI Southern Centre at Bangalore to that of Executive Director (Personnel), a post earlier held by Mr Amrit Mathur. Lt Col B.S. Ahluwalia was given the dual charge of Chief Stadia Administrator in addition to his post of Executive Director (Academics), National Institute of Sports, Patiala. Various agencies engaged in renovating the outdated stadia include the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Repair work, though at a sluggish pace at the National Stadium and Nehru Stadium is being handled by the CPWD and the DDA is looking after the work at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium which still faces the problem of the roof leakage. The MCD is looking after repair of both the Ambedkar Stadium and the Chattrasal Stadium while the responsibility of renovating the Talkatora swimming pool is with the NDMC. The plan to change the old scoreboard at the National Stadium may fall flat on its face due to high cost involved. Athletes, officials and technical delegates accompanying various contingents will be housed either in four star or five star hotels in and around New Delhi, the reservations of which have already been made. Nearly 1500 rooms will be required to host the 3000-odd athletes and officials from nearly 40 countries. |
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Luasanne (Switzerland), July 21
