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Friday,
August 17, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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India delay the
inevitable
Ponting hits century
Asian, African officials to meet
today Samuel Banerjee Badminton Argentina qualify, Brazil move
closer |
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India delay the
inevitable
Galle, August 16 Rahul Dravid ensured the players would have to return on the morning of the fourth day as India seek to score 45 more runs to avoid their first innings defeat to Sri Lanka which seems inevitable now. With Javagal Srinath not likely to bat due to an injury on his left hand, effectively the last pair of Dravid, unbeaten on 37, and Venkatesh Prasad, batting on five, would need a miracle to save the match when they come out to bat tomorrow. India had started the day on a bright note with the bowlers putting up a much better show than yesterday though the Sri Lankans could not be prevented from reaching 362 in their first innings, in reply to India’s 187, and taking a vital 175 run lead. But all that good work vanished in thin air as the batsmen gave a disappointing show in the second innings too. They danced to the tune of Muthiah Muralitharan and crumbled against the pace of Desmond Fernando and Ruchira Perera. None of the batsmen except Dravid showed any application and most of them were out to injudicious shots. Dravid stood like a rock among the ruins, displaying a lot of character and determination to fight, but he ran out of partners. Unlike in the first innings, the Indians did not even have the cushion of a good start with Sadgopan Ramesh being bowled by Ruchira Perera when the score was only 15. The technically sound Shiv Sunder Das and one drop Mohammad Kaif, the two batsmen apart from Ramesh who made substantial contribution in the first innings, also did not stay for long getting out for 23 and 14 respectively. The rest of the batsmen, including captain Saurav Ganguly, simply disgraced themselves. PTI Scoreboard India (1st innings): 187 Sri Lanka (1st innings): Atapattu c Badani
b Harbhajan 33 Jayasuriya c Dravid b Zaheer 111 Sangakkara not out 105 Jayawardene c Dighe b Srinath 28 Arnold c Ramesh b Prasad 20 Tillekaratne lbw b Srinath 11 Perera lbw b Srinath 1 Vaas c Ramesh b Zaheer 13 Fernando c Srinath b Zaheer 3 Perera c Dighe b Srinath 0 Muralitharan c Kaif b Srinath 8 Extras: (b-1, lb-6, w-8, nb-14) 29 Total: (all out, 107.5 overs) 362 Fall of wickets: 1-101, 2-171, 3-211, 4-274, 5-292, 6-296, 7-316, 8-340, 9-342. Bowling: Srinath 24.5-5-114-5, Prasad 24-4-83-1, Zaheer 26-3-89-3, Harbhajan 33-12-69-1. India (2nd innings): Das c Perera b Perera 23 Ramesh b R Perera 2 Kaif c Tillekaratne b Murali 14 Dravid batting 37 Ganguly b Fernando 4 Badani c Sangakkara b Murali 5 Dighe c Arnold b Murali 3 Harbhajan c and b Murali 12 Zaheer c Arnold b Jayasuriya 3 Venkatesh batting 5 Extras:
(b-12, lb-2, nb-8) 22 Total: (for 8 wkts, 60 overs) 130 Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-37, 3-53, 4-64, 5-73, 6-81, 7-104, 8-120. Bowling: Vaas 14-2-40-0, Fernando 14-4-18-1, R. Perera 8-1-21-2, Muralitharan 20-8-32-4, Jayasuriya 4-2-5-1. |
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Ponting hits century
Leeds, August 16 England grabbed the early initiative as Andrew Caddick took both wickets to reduce Australia to 47 for two after just over an hour’s play. Michael Slater fell first, aiming to leg and falling lbw for 21 to Caddick before Matthew Hayden followed, also lbw, while Ricky Ponting led a charmed life as he clung onto his wicket. The morning session had been washed out by rain before Slater opened with a four off the first ball of the match, pulling a delivery from Darren Gough to fine leg where Alan Mullally contrived to miss the ball as he slipped on the damp outfield. The Australians, already assured of the Ashes after taking a 3-0 lead in the five-match series, made their customary fast start, cracking 15 off three overs before Hayden, on seven, edged Caddick just short of Marcus Trescothick at gully. SCOREBOARD Australia (Ist innings): Slater lbw Caddick 21 Hayden lbw Caddick 15 Ponting c Stewart b Tudor 144 M Waugh batting 72 Martyn batting 19 Extras 17 Total (in 66.2 overs, for
3 wickets) 288 Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-42, 3-263. Bowling: Gough 13-2-47-0; Caddick 20.2-3-97-2; Mullally 16-5-44-0; Tudor 12-0-69-1; Butcher 1-0-7-0; Ramprakash 4-0-12-0. |
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Asian, African officials to meet
today New Delhi, August 16 The Afro-Asian Games are scheduled to be held in Delhi from November 3 to 11, in which more than 3000
sportspersons and officials from 95 countries in Asia and Africa are expected to participate. In addition, a solidarity run featuring the top runners of Asia and Africa will also be held. The delegates will visit the competition venues tomorrow, and will have discussions with the games technical committee. The OCA and ANOCA will meet the continental federations of Asia and Africa to discuss the preliminary entries received for the games. Though only 79 days remain for the kick-start of the Afro-Asian Games-football and hockey matches will start on November 2, though the formal inauguration of the games will be held only on November 3-the stage is far from set as unresolved bottlenecks on the organisational front, and delayed repair works on the stadia due to rain, threaten to disrupt the original schedule of the games. The games will feature eight disciplines-athletics, boxing, hockey, football, swimming, shooting, tennis, weightlifting-but the synthetic surfaces for athletic and hockey are yet to take concrete shape, due to rain interrupting the relaying works. Though a games secretariat has started functioning at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, very little information is emanating from the ‘secretariat’ as a lot of nitty-gritty is yet to be worked out regarding the conduct of the games. Teams for the football competition have already been named, as according to the IOA, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco will represent Africa while Iran, Kuwait, Thailand and India will represent Asia. The organising committee and various sub-committees having been packed with career politicians and ‘professional’ sports officials, there are very few dedicated officials in the setup who can carry out the job of the actual conduct of the games with sincerity and honesty. And this seems to be the bone of contention between the IOA and the Sports Ministry, as the former wants no role for the ministry in the actual conduct of the games, while the latter is determined to keep the games firmly under it’s thumbs. As per the provisions of the “agreement for allotment of the games”, the games will be owned by the AAGO. “As such, the conduct of the games will be managed by the IOA through the special organising committee of Afro-Asian Games”. But the Sports Ministry, with Ms Uma Bharati at the helm, is not prepared to play second fiddle, and is seeking a prominent role for itself in the conduct of the games. IOA President Suresh Kalmadi had declared as early as April that the “responsibility of organising the Afro-Asian games and the technical conduct of the games lie with the IOA and not with the Sports Ministry. The Sports Ministry’s note as well as the Cabinet decision is very clear that the conduct of the games will be managed by the IOA”. But as of now, things are at a deadlock, due to the tug-of-war between the IOA and the ministry. The Afro-Asian Games are supposed to be “unique”, as it is for the first time that the “best sportspersons” from Asia and Africa are going to compete against each other. And the participating
sportspersons “will not represent their country, but will form part of the team/teams selected to represent either continent”, though India, being the hosts, have the privilege of fielding a team in events where their
sportspersons have not figured in the Asian contingent. |
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Samuel Banerjee Badminton Chandigarh, August 16 Meanwhile the seeds had a smooth sailing into the next rounds. Isha Sharma, Oscar Bansal, Prerak Sharma, Saurav Kapoor displayed their prowess in beating their opponents with ease. However, Neha Sethi of Chandigarh played a tough match before bowing down to Sanya Sareen of Punjab. Results (preliminary rounds) — Under-13 (boys): Saurab Kapoor (Har) b Gurbax (Pb) 15-5, 15-0; Divya ( J&K) b Navjot Singh (Pb) 15-0,15-0; Prerak Sharma (Har) b Tarun Rai (Pb) 15-3,15-4; Parit (Del) b Munish Bansal (Chd) 15-6, 15-10; Anshul (Har) b Lakshaya (Delhi) Oscar Bansal (Chd) b Aman Matta (Har) 15-3, 15-1; Bhavesh Malik (Har) b Puneet Joshi (Pb) 15-1,15-4; Bob Sharma (Pb) b Deepak (Har) 15-9, 9-15, 15-4; Gaurav Sharma (Har) b Sameer (J&K) 15-7,15-10; Vikas Kaul (Chd) b Prateek Mittal 15-2,15-9; Adhiraj b Anurag (J&K) 15-4,15-10; Abhinav (Del) b Nitin (Har) 15-9,17-14. Under 16 (Boys):
Rajeev (Del) b Ramneek (Pb) 8-15,15-7,15-5; Gaurav Kapoor b Anuj Gupta (Del) 15-5, 15-10; Mayank (Pb) b Tanmay (Raj) 15-7, 15-4; Rohit Bhakar (Har) b Harpreet (Pb) 15-2,15-5; Arunav Gupta (J&K) b Neeraj Kapoor (Chd) 15-10,15-7; Aman Makkar (Del) b Bharat (Har) 15-11, 15-11; Sahil Arora (Pb) b Sumit Aora (Del) 15-1, 15-5; Sachin Garg (Har) b Jaswinder (Pb) 15-1,15-1. Under 19 (Boys): Vivek Sharma (Chd) b Amit (J&K) 15-2,15-1; Sumit (Har) b Rohit Kapoor (Pb) 2-15, 15-13, 15-9; Vikas (Har) b Asim (Pb) 15-1,15-8; Sandeep (Raj) b Iqbal (Pb) 17-14, 15-12; Varun (Chd) b Sahil Arora (Pb) 15-7,15-8; Vikram Saini (J&K) b Mubashin Khan (Del) 10-15,15-12,15-10. Under 13: (Girls):
Sehar Chadha (Pb) b Purnica (Chd) 11-7,11-1; Sanya Sareen (Pb) b Neha Sethi (Chd) 7-11,11-6,11-7; Seeema (Chd) b Anu (Har) 11-1,11-2. Under 19: Aarti (Pb) b Priyanka (Chd) 11-0,11-0; Anita (Har) b Ankita (Chd) 11-0, 11-0; Isha Sharma (Chd) b Monika (Har) 11-3, 11-1; Parnita (Chd) b Vijay (Chd) 11-1,11-1. |
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Argentina qualify, Brazil move
closer
Rio De Janeiro, August 16 First half goals from Juan Sebastian Veron and Hernan Crespo, from a penalty, gave leaders Argentina victory in Quito and ensured they will finish in the top four of the South American qualifying group. Brazil remained fourth but closed the gap on Paraguay and Ecuador above them as well as pulling clear of fifth-placed Uruguay with their win in Porto Alegre, where Paraguay captain Jose Luis Chilavert was again the centre of attention. Chilavert, who on Tuesday had provocatively suggested that Brazil return territory they took from his country in the War of the Triple Alliance in 1870, nearly came to blows with Brazil’s Roberto Carlos at the end. The pair had to be kept apart by security men after the Real Madrid player appeared to make offensive gestures at Chilavert during the game. The top four teams benefitted from Uruguay’s shock 0-2 defeat away to bottom team Venezuela on Tuesday. The week’s fixtures will be completed when Colombia play Peru at home, needing a win to take them above Uruguay. The top four teams qualify directly for Japan and South Korea while the fifth play off against Oceania winners Australia. With four games each left Paraguay (26 points), Ecuador (25) and Brazil (24) look well-placed to join Argentina leaving either Uruguay (21) or Colombia (19 with a game in hand) to play off against Australia.
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Chandigarh, August 16
