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Friday,
March 22, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Mongia in; Yuvraj overlooked Pak confident of
N. Zealand tour New-look Australia take on South Africa Rain claims first day’s play
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Bopanna enters last four; Srinath bows out
Churchill beat
East Bengal Impressive wins for
Punjab, Haryana Irina asserts supremacy
in golf Customs win in Beighton Cup Bridge championship
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Mongia in; Yuvraj overlooked
Mumbai, March 21 Mongia, who was to lead the India ‘A’ team in South Africa, was picked in the 16-member squad which marks the return of master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and speedster Javagal Srinath, both of whom missed the just-concluded one-day series against Zimbabwe due to injuries. So does legspinner Anil Kumble who did not play in the last three one-dayers. India ‘A’ team will now be led by Jacob Martin. The squad, to be led by Sourav Ganguly, will leave for West Indies on April 1. The team for five match one-day series starting on May 25 would be announced later. Shah said dashing batsman Virender Sehwag, who is yet to recover completely from a shoulder injury, would be sent to West Indies, “if asked for by the team management, as soon as he is fully fit”. Team: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Sanjay Bangar, Dinesh Mongia, Shiv Sunder Das, Ajay Ratra, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Tinu Yohannan, Wasim Jaffer, Deep Dasgupta. Keeping the pitches in West Indies in mind, the selectors picked four medium-fast bowlers - with left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra making a comeback after missing the home series against England and Zimbabwe - and only two spinners, Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. “There was no scope for including a third spinner in the team. The wickets in West Indies help fast bowlers and that is why we have selected four genuine medium-pacers and one all-rounder in Sanjay Bangar,” Selection Committee chairman Chandu Borde said. “The two spinners we are taking are world-class bowlers who can be effective anywhere but
accommodating a third spinner would have been very tough,” he said. Surprisingly, Mumbai leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule was discussed as a possible third spinner but the names of off-spinner Sarandeep Singh and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, did not even figure in the discussions. Continuing with their efforts to find a stable partner for Shiv Sunder Das in the opening slot in Tests, the selectors recalled Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer to the national squad after a gap of two years. Jaffer, who played two Tests in the home series against South Africa in 2000, would be the regular opener though the selectors have also included Deep Dasgupta who has done better as an opening batsman than as a wicketkeeper. “Ratra will be the first wicketkeeper in West Indies. Dasgupta has been included more as a batsman,” Borde said. Ratra, who played in the one-day series against England and Zimbabwe, will make his Test debut in West Indies. Veteran stumper Nayan Mongia’s name also came up during discussions but the selectors preferred Ratra and Dasgupta over him. Asked about the injuries to Kumble, Tendulkar and Srinath, Borde said: “I have spoken to Kumble. The pain in his shoulder has gone. He is totally fit to play.” “Tendulkar and Srinath never had any injuries. They just wanted some rest,” he said. On the exclusion of Ajit Agarkar, Borde said he was more of a one-day player and thus was not picked for the Test squad. Borde said captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright had been informed about the selection and both had expressed their satisfaction with the team.
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Pak confident of
N. Zealand tour Islamabad, March 21 The New Zealand tour would go ahead as per schedule and the Kiwis would arrive in Karachi from Sharjah on April 18 to play two Tests and three one-dayers, PCB Director Munawwar Rana said. “We do not see any problems and neither has the New Zealand Board contacted us to discuss anything after the unfortunate incident in Islamabad,’’ The News, quoting Mr Rana, reported today. He said all arrangements for hosting the tour were proceeding smoothly and the best security measures would be in place for the touring side. New Zealand have agreed to tour Pakistan to compensate for their postponed tour last year after the September 11 attacks in Washington and New York and the US military action in Afghanistan.
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New-look Australia take on South Africa Johannesburg, March 20 A new-look squad, led by batting supremo Ricky Ponting, is designed to take Australia through to next year’s tournament, which will be played at the same grounds on March 23 next year, one year and one day after Friday’s match. Ponting has been appointed as captain in place of Steve Waugh who was axed as one-day captain by Australian cricket authorities. Waugh, who captained Australia to victory in the 1999 World Cup in Britain, is on holiday at a game reserve in South Africa. The Australian Test skipper and brother Mark Waugh were dropped out of a 15-man one-day squad which includes two uncapped players in Tasmanian all-rounder Shane Watson and Queensland off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, both aged 20. Australian convener of selectors Trevor Johns said earlier this month at the announcement of the team: “We think we have chosen a squad that has a good mix of youth and experience. Giving the side a chance to play together in South Africa and Zimbabwe will prepare it well for next year’s World Cup.” Shaun Pollock will return as captain of South Africa’s one-day squad after missing the Test series against Australia because of a side strain. South Africa won a triangular series in Australia last month, beating New Zealand in the best-of-three finals after Australia failed to qualify. All three teams finished on equal wins in the round robin stage, with Australia being squeezed out on bonus points. But Australia won three of their four matches against South Africa in the tournament. South Africa will be buoyed by a win in the third and final Test in Durban on Monday, which ended a string of five successive Test defeats against Australia. One of the key selection posers the Australians will hope to resolve in South Africa is the opening batting pair. Mark Waugh and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist had been regular openers but Test opener Matthew Hayden has been recalled to the one-day side and will have a chance to win a long-term place in the shorter version of the game after playing in only 29 one-day internationals. Also in the squad is Queensland opening batsman Jimmy Maher, who shone for Australia A against South Africa and New Zealand and was outstanding in Australian domestic matches this season. South Africa have a formidable record in one-day matches at home, where they have not lost a series since Australia pipped them 4-3 in 1996-97. One of the keys for the home side could be World Cup star, all-rounder Lance Klusener, who has been back to his best form, starring in two provincial four-day matches after being dropped from South Africa’s Test side. Teams (from): South Africa:
Shaun Pollock (capt), Mark Boucher, Nicky Boje, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Gary Kirsten, Lance Klusener, Neil McKenzie, Makhaya Ntini, Johnty Rhodes, Roger Telemachus. Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Andy Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Darren Lehmann, Jimmy Maher, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Shane Watson. Umpires:
Brian Jerling, Rudi Koertzen (RSA) TV umpire: Shahid Wadvalla (RSA) |
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Rain claims first day’s play Wellington, March 21 The umpires abandoned play without a ball bowled with the Basin Reserve buffeted by gale-force winds and driving rain. More rain is forecast for early tomorrow but it is expected to clear. Butcher cracked his right thumb taking a slips catch in the opening Christchurch Test win over New Zealand, and was considered out of the running for the Wellington match. But he has batted in the nets this week and today’s weather intervention bought him some more time in his recovery to play. England coach Duncan Fletcher said Butcher was confident he would be able to bat, but that catching was a problem. “We want to wait for as long as we can to test his thumb before we make a decision,” said Fletcher today. “Twenty-four hours made a big difference to Butcher this week, so this will be an advantage to him.” England lead the series after their 98-run win in last weekend’s Christchurch Test. Fletcher took the team to an indoor facility in the afternoon to keep the players active after the loss of the first day’s play. “It would be easy to go back to the team hotel and switch off, but we have to be ready to switch on and play, even though we are one-up in the series,” he said. Fletcher confirmed the same 12 that played in Christchurch would be fielded again in Wellington, meaning that if Butcher could not convince selectors of his fitness then all-rounder Craig White would come into the starting eleven. Butcher would be given fielding drills to check if he could last out the Wellington Test, Fletcher said. Fletcher said the Basin Reserve pitch looked “underprepared” when he glanced at it earlier in the week before the deterioration in the weather. The pitch has been under large covers for the past two stormy days and locals believe it to be a result-pitch given the outcome of domestic games there this season. No play was possible before lunch and match umpires Steve Dunne and Darrell Hair made an inspection at 5 am (IST) today and decided to call off play for the rest of the day. High winds and rain are forecast to continue with clearing conditions expected tomorrow. Play will be extended by an hour over each of the four remaining days to make up for some of the lost playing time.
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East take first
innings lead Kolkata, March 21 East Zone made 365 in their first innings. Batting for the second time, the home team made 102 for two when stumps were drawn. Central innings would have folded much earlier, had not Hirwani and Gaud arrested the slide with a determined and gritty 95 for the last wicket. N. Hirwani made a solid 38 facing 54 balls from 105 minutes. After losing five quick wickets for merely 136 runs yesterday, Central innings received rude jolt early today when overnight batsman Raja Ali returned to the pavilion for 11 caught by Shukla off Ingty. Harvinder Singh, Kulomani Parida and S Pandey left sans any resistance leaving Central tottering on 219 for nine. However, Sourashis was the pick of the lot returning with the figure of 26 overs for 57 runs and five wickets.
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North Zone 54 for no loss Pune, March 21 West Zone (1st innings): 396 North Zone (1st innings): 238 West Zone (2nd innings): Williams c and b Sanghvi 29, Jaffer c Kavaljit b Sarandeep 58, Kanitkar c Sangram b Nehra 45, Merchant lbw Sarandeep 12, Bhoite c Sanghvi b Manhas 10, Bahutule b Nehra 1, Powar run out 20, Pathan b Nehra 7, Mongia not out 76, Kambli b Nehra 4, Salvi not out 4, Extras (byes 1, lb 3, nb 3) 7, Total (69 overs, 285 mts) 273 for decl Fall of wickets: 1/68, 2/116, 3/132, 4/149, 5/157, 6/162, 7/187,
8/188, 9/194. Bowling: Ashish Nehra 15-3-55-4 (2 nb), Vineet Sharma 11-4-34-0 (1 nb), Sarandeep Singh 19-4-59-2, Rahul Sanghvi 12-0-77-1, Mithun Manhas 12-3-44-1. North Zone (2nd innings): Chopra not out 25, Rathore not out 26, Extras ( nb 3) 3, Total (12 overs and 51 mts) 54. Bowling: Ifran Pathan 6-1-20-0, Avishkar Salvi 5-1-24-0, Sairaj Bahutule 1-0-10-0.
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Bopanna enters last four; Srinath bows out New Delhi, March 21 Sixth-seeded Rohan Bopanna put his big serve and volley game into good use to outgun Ben-Qiang Zhu of China 6-4, 6-2 to set up a men’s singles semi-final clash against unseeded Deri Meir of Israel. Deri Meir knocked out seventh-seeded Branislav Sekac of Slovakia, the winner of the title in the first leg, at 6-2,7-6 (7-5). Vishal Uppal finally ran out of luck when he bumped into fifth-seeded Dmitri Mazur of Uzbekistan and lost in straight sets at 4-6,4-6 while eighth-seeded Prahlad Srinath fell to second-seeded Lee Childs of Great Britain 6-4,7-6 (7-3). Dimitri and Childs will clash in the second men’s singles semi-final. The semi-finals are slated to be played tomorrow. Rohan Bopanna, who is going from strength to strength with every victory, was unstoppable once he got into his rhythm. Firing some blinding down the line and sliced back hand winners, he had the Chinese player in knotts, and after warding off some resistance from Zhu in the first set, Bopanna was his own boss in the second set, to race to a quick victory. That he has lots of energy stored up in his lythe frame was proved beyond doubt when he partnered Vijay Kannan to storm into the doubles final, beating the Chinese pair of Yu Wang and Ben-Qiang Zhu in the semi-final, at 6-3,6-2. The fourth seeded Bopanna-Kannan pair will take on Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand in the final tomorrow. The Thai pair disposed of Kamala Kannan and Vinod Sridhar 6-3,6-1 in the second semi-final. |
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Churchill beat East Bengal Margao, March 21 After a barren first half, Zee Churchill put pressure on the rival defence and scored the all-important goal in the 81st minute through defender Husseni’s header off a cross from Sayed Amin Mousavi from the left. East Bengal, who held the upper hand in the first half, had the territorial edge over their rivals and created more scoring chances. They had themselves to blame for the defeat as they did not capitalise on the chances that came their way. Medio Dipankar Roy was the culprit as he missed two sitters in the second half. With this win Churchill, who have played one match less than Mohun Bagan, got placed on par with Bagan with 32 points from 16 matches an head the table by virtue of better goal difference. East Bengal, who suffered their eighth defeat, remained at the eighth position with 23 points from 17 matches. Churchill were reduced to 10 men four minutes before the final whistle as striker Abdul Saley received his second booking from referee Walter Pereira after he tripped Tushar Rakshit from behind. Referee Walter also showed yellow cards to Churchill’s Sameer Naik and East Bengal’s Dipak Kumar Mondal.
PTI PP, Tollygunge split points JALANDHAR: Punjab Police held Tollygunge Agragami to a goal-less draw in the sixth Tata National Football League here today. In the first half, a move by Nigerian Akkem Aboloni went waste. Mehtab Hossain gave some anxious moments to the defenders of Punjab Police. |
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Impressive wins for
Punjab, Haryana Jalandhar, March 21 Though Orissa wasted three penalty corners Mukta managed to score a field gaol in the 11th minute. In the second half, Orissa dominated the show but failed to score. In the second match, Railways crushed Karnataka 9-0. Pritam scored the first goal in the fifth minute and Suman Bala scored another through a short corner in 12th minute. Mamta and Surinder Kaur scored two field goals in 25th and 34th minutes respectively. After the lemon break Pritam, Jyoti and Surinder Kaur took the lead to 9-0. In another match Chandigarh and Jharkhand settled for a draw as both teams failed to score any goal. Chandigarh and Jharkhand were awarded eight and four penalty corners each. Punjab defeated Delhi by 6-0. Roohi Dhillon scored five field goals, whereas Mohan Davinder Kaur scored one. In the last match Haryana crushed Air India 8-0. Sandeep Kaur scored a hattrick. |
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Irina asserts supremacy
in golf Chandigarh, March 21 While Irina won in the gold division her mother, Madhu Brar, won in the silver division for the second consecutive year. Although Kanika Minocha seemed to be inching past her till 14 holes, Madhu hit an eagle on hole 13 to change her luck. the other mother and daughter team of Dimple Minocha and Kanika Minocha emerged runners-up in the gold and silver categories, respectively. The bronze plate was lifted by Neelu Chopra. The nett prizes in the bronze division were won by Rima Dhillon and Kiran B.M. Singh. The following are the results: Silver salver: Irina Brar - winner; Ladies Challenge Cup (Nett 0-12): Dimple Minocha - winner; Overall trophy (nett 0-36): Madhu Brar - winner, Bawa Gill Trophy (gross 13-24), Kanika Minocha - winner, Rani Jagdish Kaur (nett 13-24), Pikka P Singh - winner, Binny Bath - runner-up, Meters and Instrument Trophy (gross 25-36): Neelu Chopra - winner, Ell Ess Trophy (nett 25-36): Rima Dhillon - winner, Kiran B M Singh - runner up, Lady Governor’s Cup (above 50 gross): Binny Bath - winner, Seniors (best nett), Kiran B M Singh - winner, Juniors (gross): Kanika Minocha - winner. |
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Customs win in Beighton Cup Kolkata, March 21 In the other match of the day at East Bengal ground, Police AC routed Students AC and moved to the second round of the world’s oldest hockey championship. Defender Rajinder scored three in a row through penalty corner in the 5th, 18th and 30th minute of the play. After the breather centre half Koushik Dey and S. Lodh increased the tally for the customs and sailed into the next round. Jaydev Mukherjee scored the lone goal for WBP.
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Bridge championship Chandigarh, March 21 Bridge is a game of cards, played in more than 70 countries. Col Singh said the association was an affiliate of the Bridge Federation of India and in November 2000, they organised the first All-India Chandigarh Open meet. Col Singh said seven rounds of Swiss league boards per round would be played on March 23 and 24. Top eight teams would play in the semi finals in two groups of four teams each. Two top teams from each group will enter the finals in round robin on March 25 to decide the winner. Pairs event will begin on March 24 and the final will take place on March 25. He said the tournament had been sponsored by General Insurance Corporation of India and a sum of Rs 50000 was at stake in prize money. |
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Mumbai, March 21
