Tendulkar and Laxman virtually ruled out a defeat for the home team but India’s declaration of their second innings did not come till late in the final session after reaching a score of 471 for eight.

With a victory target of 333 almost impossible to achieve in the remaining few overs of the day, West Indies, who had scored 497 in their first innings to take a 139-run lead, decided not to come out for their second innings.

The draw meant the three-match series, which was already won by India following their wins in Mumbai and Chennai, ended with a 2-0 result in favour of the home team.

Laxman, who put on a record 214 runs in a crucial fifth wicket partnership with Tendulkar, remained unbeaten on 154, his nearly nine-hour knock studded with 17 boundaries.

Tendulkar, who had completed his 31st Test hundred yesterday, batted beautifully this morning before being dismissed for 176 shortly after the lunch break. The master batsman faced 298 deliveries and struck 26 fours.

Tendulkar was declared the man-of-the-match while Harbhajan Singh, who picked up 20 wickets from the three Tests, was named the Man-of-the series.

Earlier, Tendulkar and Laxman, who came together when India were precariously placed at 87 for four, added 104 runs in an extended two-and-a-half-hour morning session today to take the score to 299 for four at lunch.

Tendulkar, who resumed at his overnight 114 in the team score of 195 for four, did the bulk of the scoring in the morning session. He showed a lot of urgency and scored at a very brisk pace which gave an impression that India were looking to declare their innings at around tea time.

Laxman, who started from his yesterday’s score of 30, was happy playing second fiddle to Tendulkar and reached his half-century with a fine drive between mid-on and long-on against Darren Powell. By lunch, they had already improved on the India’s previous best fifth wicket stand of 204 against West Indies by Sunil Gavaskar and Brijesh Patel achieved at Port of Spain in 1975-76.

West Indies skipper Carl Hooper claimed the new ball after the 17th over of the day, 81st of the innings, and used six bowlers but failed to unsettle the Indian batsmen who looked in no discomfort ever.

But Tendulkar got out immediately after the lunch break when Chris Gayle came up with a fine catch at wide gully off seamer Cameron Cuffy.

The fall of Tendulkar, when India were leading by 160 runs, put the brakes on the scoring with Laxman and the young wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel batting very cautiously.

Laxman, who was on 66 at lunch break, became very defensive in a bid to prevent a collapse. It was only towards the end of the post-lunch session that runs began to come easily once again for India.

Laxman, who took a long time in progressing from 66 to his nineties, hit a boundary to move to 96 before a single brought him within three runs of his fourth Test hundred. He then pulled Carl Hooper to the mid-wicket fence to bring up his second consecutive century at the Eden Gardens just before the tea break. Laxman’s previous knock at this ground was the famous 281 against Australia last year.

India 1st innings: 358

West Indies 1st innings: 497

India 2nd innings:

Bangar c Chanderpaul b Dillon 0

Sehwag c Chanderpaul b Dillon 10

Dravid lbw b Powell 17

Tendulkar c Gayle b Cuffy 176

Ganguly lbw b Cuffy 16

Laxman not out 154

Patel run out 27

Harbhajan c Hooper b Samuels 26

Srinath c Hooper b Chanderpaul 21

Kumble not out 8

Extras (b-8, lb-7, nb-1) 16

Total (for 8 wkts decl, 159 overs) 471

FoW: 1-0, 2-11, 3-49, 4-87, 5-301, 6-373, 7-407, 8-458.

It was yet another red-letter day for Harbhajan, known as “Bajji” who has considered as a “darling boy” of Kolkata. Some 50,000-odd spectators at the Eden Gardens adored him for his outstanding batting feat today. He was in the crease only for 18 minutes in which he had faced 18 balls and scored 2 sixes and 3 boundaries and added 26 runs to his credit. The spectators Eden cheered applauded and Greeted “Bajji” and said “ jug jug jio” (a Marxist way of greeting in the Marxists-ruled city of Kolkata) and wished him a long life.

***

Hooper’s hopes of grabbing a consolation win vanished within the first hour this morning when his bowlers failed to dismissed either Tendulkar or Laxman. He tried spin and pace, but the batters remained unflappably focussed.

Tendulkar’s was a marvellous effort, played under a lot of pressure and with the team vulnerable, he did the right thing by playing his natural attacking game, because then the bowlers start worrying even more. Some of his strokes were stunningly brilliant, especially the one when he changed his mind and transformed a paddle sweep into a square cut. He could not score a double hundred, but had effectively ensured that India would not lose.

Laxman played an uncharacteristic knock, but a very vital one. He curbed his attacking instincts to support Tendulkar for almost a day, and showed that he is capable of putting his head down and applying himself when the situation warrants.

There was a case for Ganguly to declare and go for a win, but I think the slowness of the wicket, the hard travel schedule the team has already had and the thought of more travel rigour for the seven one-dayers would have compelled him to change his mind. But he should be happy and proud with what his team has achieved in the series. He did not have too much luck with umpiring decisions, but I think he led the side admirably.

There were many pluses for India from this series , none more important than Parthiv Patel’s superb wicket-keeping and compact batting. He has a wonderful temperament, which is what marks out the modest from the good players at the highest level. I think we will hear a great deal more about this young man.

Zaheer Khan was another who impressed me with his aggression and willingness to put in hard work. He has risen rapidly in the last year to become the spearhead of the attack, and on wickets where he gets more help, should have far more impressive figures.

The spinners, Harbhajan and Kumble, revelled in the conditions, picking up 36 wickets between them. By the time the West Indies could fathom their turn and change of pace, the series had been lost. I reckon that Kumble and Harbhajan would be a handful for better batting sides too in such conditions. Remember, Australia lost here in 2001.

The top order — barring the luckless Ganguly — pulled its weight, with Sehwag providing the fireworks, and Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman the sustenance. The Indian batting looks solid and should only get better.

The West Indies should count the form of Chanderpaul as a boon. He has been amongst the runs for some time now and is easily the side’s most reliable player. Sarwan is another one who caught my eye, though he loses his concentration when the bowling has been blunted. Marlon Samuel, who got only one Test, looked a class player and if Lara returns, the batting should have more depth.

I think this Test was a moral victory for West Indies because for most of this match, they had India on the mat. In fact had Sachin Tendulkar and Laxman not scored centuries in the second innings and added 212 runs for the fifth wicket, India were in danger of losing the match. But hats off to the duo for they fought till the last and salvaged pride for India.

I felt Saurav Ganguly should have declared earlier so as to let his bowlers have a go at the West Indian batsmen in the last innings, but India chose to bat well into the mandatory overs. Well, as the leader of his side Ganguly knew whether to declare or not and I think it was a case of all is well that ends well. I know some critics will say Indian bowlers were not on target here but I think playing too much cricket recently was bound to have its effect. That is why it would have been better to rest a spinner and play newcomer Amit Mishra in this Test but it is all over now.

India have little time to prepare themselves for the one-day series which gets underway at Jamshedpur from Wednesday. The West Indians cannot be taken lightly in the one-dayers so the Indians must not relax with the win in Tests. With the World Cup just three months away, India should try and iron out small problems in this series and get confidence for the big one.

But the Indian women team failed to keep up the momentum and went down to Bulgaria 1-2 after missing out on several winning chances.

Russia scored their seventh victory in the Olympiad when they toppled Netherlands 2.5-1.5 to remain atop the tables on 24 points and are followed by Hungary on 22.5 points.

In the women’s section Georgia (19) stretched its lead by two points defeating defending champion China 2.5-0.5. USA on 17 points shared the second spot while India were placed in a joint 13th position with six more rounds to go.

Sasikiran took a step ahead in establishing himself in the elite group with a finely crafted victory over Gregory Kaidanov on the top board.

Playing white, Sasikiran opened with the Queen pawn and faced the Queen’s gambit declined by Kaidanov. Just after the opening, Sasikiran took the initiative with a timely pawn advance in the centre and succeeded in weakening Kaidanov’s pawn structure that proved the vital factor after the exchange of queens.

To top it off Sasikiran obtained the Bishop pair and crippled the knights of Kaidanov who pawns fell like nine pins towards the end of the game. Sasikiran completed the rout in 54 moves.

“Kaidanov played a couple of weak pawn moves that gave me the advantage and after I got the Bishop it was easy,” Sasikiran said.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly is certainly on a roll here. The Kolkata-based player looks set to obtain his final GM norm as he has already scored 4.5 points in his 6 games so far.

Playing white on the third board against GM Larry Christiansen, Ganguly was up against a Caro Kann defence. The middle game was fiercely fought after the players castled on opposite flanks in the Classical set up and Ganguly was the first to obtain the breakthrough that opened up the kingside and made possible a dangerous navigation.

Christiansen had no answer to a perfectly calculated attack and his position collapsed when Ganguly obtained irresistible threats against the King. The end for Christiansen came in just 40 moves.

“I played quite solidly, got a favourable position and it turned out to be a comfortable victory, said Ganguly after the game.

On the second board, GM P Harikrishna drew with Boris Gulko who played white. It was a long theoretical battle in the Caro Kann defence that reached a Rooks and pawns endgame wherein Harikrishna had no trouble holding despite having a pawn less. The game lasted 50 moves.

On the fourth board, GM Abhijit Kunte’s Sicilian Nazdorf held him in good stead against GM Alexander Ivanov. In the middle game Abhijit got the dynamic balance he was looking for and subsequent exchange of pieces led the game to a heavy pieces endgame where the draw was agreed to in 42 moves. “It was a good performance beating the strong USA 3-1, both Sasikiran and Ganguly played very well,” said GM Evgeny Vladimirov, the coach of the Indian men’s team.

While the men made merry, the women had only themselves to blame for a rather subdued showing from good positions against Bulgaria.

On the top board S Vijayalakshmi held the advantage against GM Anotoaneta Stefanova but failed to find the best plan for a drawn result.

Aarthie Ramaswamy blundered her chances after getting a violent middle game against WGM Margarita Voiska and eventually lost while Swati Ghate, who could have easily won, miscalculated and drew with WGM Maria Velcheva.

The 23-year-old Thai, one of the hottest properties in the game, has shot up the rankings from a lowly 120 at the start of the year, to within touching distance of the 16th position attained by India’s Vijay Amritraj in 1980.

Should he go higher than that, and all the signs are that he will, Paradorn will become the highest ranked Asian player of all time.

After a good start to the season when he reached the semi-finals in Chennai, and his first ATP final in Brest, Paradorn’s form dipped during the claycourt season, suffering three consecutive first-round defeats.

Everything was to change at Wimbledon, however, where he produced one of the biggest shocks of the year to crush Andre Agassi in straight sets.

From then on the Thai suddenly added self-belief to his breathtaking ability, and his career has gone into orbit.

“When I beat Agassi people could have called it a fluke,” he said. “But I’ve proved that it wasn’t with my results. I beat Hewitt in Tokyo and if you can beat the number one in the world you think you can beat anybody.”

That attitude propelled him to his second career title (the first was this year in Long Island) in Stockholm last week and he continued the surge into Paris where he thrashed world number four, Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero en route to the semi-finals.

Paradorn is one of the most popular players on the tour and according to American player Andy Roddick “nobody has a bad word to say about him.”

He has a remarkably simple attitude to the game, and while many players surround themselves with physios, psychologists and fitness trainers, Paradorn is happy to be coached by his father Chanachai.

“People say I should change my coach, but why?” he says. “My father has got me from outside the top 100 to in the top 20 so I think it works pretty well.”

He is also content to continue living off the beaten tennis track in Bangkok, practising in the humid climate with tennis playing brothers Tanakorn and Naratorn, the latter who is also a full-time player. “It means a lot of travelling, but Bangkok is my home,” he said. “I like it there and it also means that I’m very used to the heat wherever I go on tour.”

Paradorn puts his meteoric rise down to some simple advice from his father. “I used to try and hit winners from all over the court,” he said. “My dad just told me you better start just getting into court and making your opponent work and wait for the right ball to go after.” Those words of wisdom have certainly paid off this season as he tries to emulate his boyhood idol, American Michael Chang.

“He’s one of the great Asian players and reached number two in the world,” said Paradorn who is becoming something of a phenomenon in his native Thailand.

“He’s the one that I’m always looking up to. Hopefully there will be a lot of young kids looking up to me soon.”

Paradorn’s emergence as one of the game’s most exciting young players is a major boost for the men’s game which is sometimes accused of lacking characters.

His shots are mesmerising, he prowls the court with the grace of a tiger, and, most of all, he plays the game with a smile on his face. He even politely bows, Thai-style, to all four corners of the stadium after he finishes a match. Then, of course, there is the lucky red shirt, which is becoming part of his appeal. Whenever he is close to winning a match, he pulls on a red shirt, the traditional colours for Thais on Sunday.

“When I put that shirt on it means I’m gonna finish the match, I’m gonna win the match,” he said after his entertaining battle with Roddick on Friday.

“I love playing tennis and showing my personality on the court.”

“Four men and a woman have been arrested for offences of theft and conspiracy to kidnap,” Scotland Yard spokesman said here yesterday adding that the arrested were lodged in central London police stations.

The five, believed to be Romanians and Albanians, were held by the Metropolitan Police Serious and Organised Crime Squad. The plot was discovered after a tip-off from a tabloid newspaper whose reporters had infiltrated a gang, originally because they were thought to be planning an art theft, the Sunday Telegraph claimed today.

They were plotting to kidnap Victoria and possibly her children with a view to demand $ 7.82 million ransom for her and possibly her children, media reports said.

Later, the police made four more arrests were made in connection with another plot to kidnap Victoria, the spokesman said.

“I am stunned by what has happened today (Saturday),” Victoria told Sunday’s News of the World.

“It’s clear these people were serious and that, of course, has scared the life out of me. It is terrifying to think that someone would want to do that to you and your children. I am in absolute and total shock,” she said.

This is the second time a plot to abduct Victoria has been revealed.

In January 2000, gangsters tried to snatch her and her son Brooklyn, then eight months old, and hold them at a house in Hampstead, London.

Anand, who successfully defended his World Cup title in Hyderabad recently, won 1.5-.5 in the two-mini-match to move into the semifinals, according to information received here.

Anand, the two-time World Cup winner and former FIDE world champion, used his black pieces to perfection to beat Yusupov in the second game after both the players were forced to split points on the opening board.

The first game, which was a French defence with Winawer variation, saw Anand with white pieces trying hard to force a result. But once Yusupov captured his advanced pawn, the players agreed for a draw after 53 moves.

In the final game, Yusupov opted for the Queen’s pawn opening. On the 27th move Anand got back the pawn he had given earlier and then the queens were exchanged on the 29h move.

Soon after Anand slowly gained advantage and won space by winning a pawn and then extended his advantage into a winning position.

Unable to force his way back into the game, the German surrendered after 59 moves.

In the other quarterfinals, Karpov outplayed Vladislav Tkachiev in both games for a 2-0 win, while Gurevich rallied from behind to beat Alexy Dreev.

After losing the first game, Gurevich tied the score with a victory in the next game. In the play off he drew the first game against Dreev before winning the crucial next board to move into the semifinals.

Manipur, who booked their place in the final of the country’s premier soccer tournament for the first time, will lock horns with defending champions Kerala for the coveted trophy on Tuesday.

The home team, which was cheered all through by a 25,000- strong crowd, scored through Ratan Singh, Reneddy Singh, Bijen Singh and James Singh in the penalty shoot-out while the Goans netted through Covan Lawrence, Menino Fernandes and Bibiano Fernandes.

The culprits for Goa in the penalty shootout were Jules Dias Alberto, whose shot was brilliantly blocked by Manipur keeper Noren Singh, and Climax Lawrence, whose powerful drive went abegging. T Bungo Singh shot wide for the home team.

The penalty shootout was resorted to after the rival teams failed to break the deadlock in the scheduled time and also 30-minute extra-time.

Manipur were down to 10 men from the 18th minute of the match when a red card was shown to N. Uttam Singh.

Crowd violence had forced the match to be abandoned yesterday and it was played afresh today amid tight security in and around the Khumen Lampak Stadium.

The hosts went on a rampage from the beginning as forwards Bijen Singh, Rennedy Singh and Nilakumar combined well to create some chances but fine defence by the Goan custodian prevented them from scoring.

The Goans who were leading 1-0 when the match was abandoned yesterday, came close to scoring in the 15th minute against the run of play when Sukhdev Arvade gave a through pass to Alvito D’ Cunha whose stinging right-footer was fended off by Manipur goalkeeper H Noren Singh.

Goa’s forward-line today got a boost with the return of their star striker Alvito, who missed the last two matches after earning a red card during the quarterfinal encounter.

The hosts suffered a jolt soon after when N. Uttam Singh first earned a yellow card and later shown a red card for a rough tackle in the 18th minute.

NATIONAL KARATE
VIJAYAWADA: About 500 boys and girls from all over the country will participate in the two-day national open all style karate competition to be held here from November 9. The competitions will be held in four events and only those having any title from White Belt to Black Belt will be eligible for participation, event convenor J Srinivasulu told reporters here on Saturday. The tournament, organised by Okinawa Koshiki Goju-Ryu Karate-do Shirenkan-India, will be held at the municipal indoor stadium here. PTI

DAS TO LEAD ORISSA
CUTTACK: Indian opener Shiv Sundar Das will lead Orissa in the ensuing Ranji Trophy campaign being played under a new format, according to Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) sources here. All-rounder P Jayachandra has been named vice-captain of the 14-member team announced for the first two matches of the season. Orissa will meet Assam in their first match at Guwahati from November 9. The team: Shiv Sundar Das (capt), P Jayachandra (vice-capt), Sanjay Raul, Prabhanjan Mallick, Rashmi Ranjan Parida, B.B.C.C. Mohapatra, Subrat Behera, Goutam Gopal (wk), Debasis Mohanty, Ajay Barik, Bipin Singh, Sujan Mohanty, Sanjay Satpathy and Satya Ranjan Satpathy. Coach: Asjit Jayaprakasham. PTI