 |
Tuesday,
March 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Aussies played like champs:
‘Ganguly will live to regret decision’
Pacers' nervousness cost India dear Aussies proved they are the best Australia have lifted the bar a little higher |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Rajyavardhan Rathore traps gold
Senior fencing from
March 26 Air-India Ladies Golf from today 4-0 victory for AG, Haryana
|
|
Aussies played like champs: Ganguly Johannesburg, March 24 Looking back at the positive aspects of India’s performance in the World Cup, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said his boys had learnt to play as a team during the 44-day tournament. “They have all done a great job. We did not win but we will go back home with our heads held high,” he said. India were thrashed by 125 runs in the final yesterday but it came after an impressive eight-match winning streak which is its best-ever. “We played well but lost to a side which was much, much superior to us on the day. But on the positive side we have learnt to play as a unit,” Ganguly said. “For a lot of our boys, it was their first World Cup and the way they stood up to the pressure, it was commendable,” he said. Ganguly even defended his three fast bowlers, whose poor performance in the final was one of the main reasons for India’s defeat, saying their previous good show in the competition should not be overshadowed by one bad day. “It was one of those bad days for them. They bowled a bit short. But all my regards to them.... all three of them have bowled splendidly in the tournament.” Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, who emerged as one of the most dangerous pace attacks in the world and shared as many as 49 wickets between them during the World Cup, came a cropper in the final. Together they went for as many as 211 runs from 27 overs without any success. “Probably they were over-psyched,” Ganguly said. “This being the final of the World Cup, they were all very keen to do well. They had a poor first spell and it kept on going after that.” “They didn’t bowl in the right places. They put the ball too short and were all over the place,” said Ganguly who had elected to field first, hoping his bowlers would be able to use the seaming conditions to their advantage. “It had quite a bit in the morning. If we had put the ball in the right places, we would have done alright.” The skipper said though his side fought valiantly while chasing the Australian total, realistically it stood little chance of overhauling the huge score of 359. “I thought we were going well but, frankly, 359 was a huge total and it would have taken a monumental effort from us to reach there,” he said. Despite the first-over dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar, the Indians tried hard to get close to the Australian total, with Virender Sehwag’s sparkling 82-run knock keeping the team in the hunt for quite some time. However, India ran out of steam at 234 in the 40th over. “We just wanted to go out there and play. We did not know how far it would take us. Getting seven and seven and a half per over is not an easy job in international cricket. We did not want to look at the target and were keen to go on playing,” Ganguly said. Ganguly said he was surprised to see the stands erupt in joy at the arrival of rain and felt it would have been unfair to Australia had India won by the Duckworth-Lewis method. “It just goes to show how dearly the fans wanted us to win but it would have been the wrong way to go about winning since Australia had played better cricket,” he said. “Hats off to them (Australia). They played very well. They were a better team than us. “It was not an easy track to bat early on as the wicket did a bit. But they played like real champions.” Ganguly said despite the defeat he was not inclined to alter the balance of the side by playing a fifth bowler in the side until and unless the player was an all-rounder.
PTI |
|
‘Ganguly will live to regret decision’
London, March 24 Ganguly’s decision was slammed by The Daily Telegraph as one “borne of a faint heart, based not on what advantage his bowlers might derive from first use of the surface but on what Australia’s aggressive pace bowlers would get from it”. The Indian skipper’s decision “to insert the holders will go down as an almighty gaffe which reeked of weakness,” said The Daily Mirror under a banner headline: ‘Wonders of the World Aussies Crush India’. “Surely he (Ganguly) should have backed India’s free-scoring batsmen to take on the might of Ponting’s attack but instead he was running scared of exposing them to Brett Lee’s ferocious attack,” it said. The Daily Express said Ganguly defied history and common sense in electing to field, a decision he “will live to regret”. “At the critical moment of this World Cup, India’s normally self-assured skipper lost his nerve,” it said with a screaming headline “Ruthless Aussies clean up”. “When Ganguly won the toss at the Wanderers yesterday morning, history and common sense told him he had to bat first with his powerful line-up and at least try to put Australia under some sort of pressure in the final.” “Yet he opted to bowl, presumably fearing Australia’s fast bowlers would do the same to India’s batting as they did on a similar pitch at Centurion five weeks ago, when they demolished them for 125. It was a decision Ganguly will live to regret as much as England captain Nasser Hussain does his decision to do the same thing in the first Ashes Test of the winter in Brisbane, when it was England who were overwhelmed,” the report said. With a headline ‘Invincible Australia on top of the World’, Daily Mail observed: “With the curious exception of dear old England, nobody can lay a glove on these Australians at the moment, and in yesterday’s final it appeared that India were almost too intimidated to try. “Despite brave words beforehand, they were over-awed by both occasion and opposition, meaning that the final sadly went the way of so many other no-contests in the 2003 World Cup. The main business of this winter for Australia ended exactly as it started, with them getting the benefit of a poor decision by the opposition captain to bat second after winning the toss. Ganguly’s choice was almost as illogical as that of Nasser Hussain in the first Test at Brisbane last November. It similarly smacked of caution and, as at the Gabba, any hope that the bowlers would exploit any significant early movement was misplaced. “By the time they had finished their work only an act of God or Tendulkar, or less likely Duckworth-Lewis, was going to save India. Sadly, we never got to see the Sachin Tendulkar versus Brett Lee confrontation after the little genius miscued an attempted hook off the fifth ball of the innings from Glenn McGrath.” Stating ‘Australian greats scale new heights’, The Daily Telegraph wrote: Australia underlined their superiority in all forms of the game by roasting India in the World Cup final amid thunder, lightning and frenzied batting by their captain Ricky Ponting, who scored 140 of his side’s 359, the highest total in a World Cup final and the Australians’ highest one-day score. “Inevitably, with such a huge task confronting them, India were never in contention and Australia cantered home by 125 runs to win the trophy for a record third time.” “Ganguly’s opening bowlers choked and both Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan dropped too short to batsmen weaned on cross-bat shots.” The largely circulated tabloid The Sun commented that the Aussies had been near-certainties to win their second successive World Cup these past six weeks. “But nobody could have predicted the total slaughter they inflicted on the second-best team in the tournament. It was awesome.
PTI |
|
Pacers' nervousness cost India dear JOHANNESBURG: Frankly Indians didn’t believe they deserved to be in the same park as Australia. Sourav Ganguly had been suggesting it privately the Australians would take some beating. Going through the maze of World Cup, he had been going match by match and counting some ways through which he could avoid the Australians. He even made it obvious why he wanted to beat New Zealand because a semi-final line-up between Australia and Sri Lanka at Port Elizabeth could actually help India. It wasn’t to be. In a way, Ganguly was let down by the very forces he has been extremely proud in this world cup. Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Javagal Srinath had got sides out for 150-odd and inflicted heavy damage in the first 15 overs itself. He couldn’t believe his luck at winning a rare toss and licked his lips in anticipation of his fast bowlers going at the Australians on a juicy wicket. He even tossed the new ball at Zaheer Khan ahead of Srinath to show how much he believed in his Baroda left-arm seamer. But his fast bowlers were nervous and it cost the team dearly. The Australians intimidated the Indians even before the openers took guard in the morning. There is an aura about the Aussies and much as media builds up a close competition, one feels the players know how deep is the chasm between the best and second best team in the world. Indians are aware of Australian might and they appeared weary with the knowledge in the field. Sachin Tendulkar, on his part, showed his dignity in his moment of disappointment. He spoke perfectly sensibly of how a few players are always going to fail in a big game and how a few would succeed. He refused to glow at a rare award coming his way and termed himself as just a part of a team, rather than individual. A profound philosophy from a man who has little record in academics but a deep understanding in handling acute pressures. Instead of suffering disappointment, Indians should actually be quite proud. There is no shame in losing to the best side in the world — more so when the support structure in India compares nowhere to the Australian method. Australia has a cricketing culture which has been refined over the years and continues to get better and better. India on the other hand relies on some brave individuals to keep stoking the interest of millions of fans. Only two years with a professional like John Wright and the likes of Andrew Leipus and Adrian le Roux have shown what Indian skills could achieve if allied with discipline and hard work. It was thus disappointing when a crowd gathered near the Indian coach and started booing the players after the finals at Wanderers. Some fans made gestures so vulgar it startled Leipus sitting in the bus. Only a few hours before, these very men were the toast of India. It just made one shudder and think whether this team would be treated well back home. Would red carpets roll in Gang Ganguly’s honour or so-called experts castigate the team for losing the finals. If possible, honour these men for they had kept the campaign going through the last day of the World Cup and captivated us for close to two months. |
|
Aussies proved they are the best AUSTRALIA proved conclusively that they are the best cricket team by hammering India in the final of the World Cup. In doing so they became only the second side after the West Indies in 1979 to successfully defend the trophy, a remarkable feat that was achieved with a combination of devastating fast bowling and aggressive batting. When Adam Gilchrist sets about the opposition bowlers come away feeling as though they have spent ten minutes whirling around in the dryer. The bowlers end up being disorientated and their thinking muddled and on a pitch that offered a lot of assistance the Indian attack bowled a high proportion of rubbish. Where you want to try and get Gilchrist scoring as many runs as possible from drives, Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath fed him a steady diet of short balls that he devoured like an Afghan refugee who hadn’t seen food for a month. A series of cut and pull shots from Gilchrist quickly put Australia on top and negated the affect of losing the toss. Once Gilchrist had fired the opening salvo Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn cashed in on the hapless Indian bowlers to the point where they must have been happy to get through their overs in order to get off what had become a “killing field”. Ponting is a long hitter on the golf course and after his innings at the Wanderers you can see why - he hit twice as many sixes (8) as fours and some of his lofted shots travelled a long way even when you take into consideration the altitude of Johannesburg. Everything about Ponting’s captaincy oozes aggression and he’s not the sort of player to seek singles when a solid foundation has been established. From the moment he launched an onslaught on Harbhajan Singh with successive sixes he was on the lookout for the maximum wherever possible and the Indian bowlers provided him with plenty of chances. Ponting raced past Martyn who played extremely well considering he was hampered by a broken finger and World Cup final records fell in quick succession. The highest partnership and total were surpassed and the four Ponting hit off the last ball took him past Viv Richards 138*, the previous best score in a final. This was only the fourth century in a final but despite raining sixes to all parts of The Wanderers Ponting’s hundred came off more balls than the first one and the only other one scored by a skipper, Clive Lloyd in 1975. Not content with a commanding batting performance, Ponting then confirmed his advance as a leader. He maintained a cool-headed, aggressive approach as he juggled the tactics with showers threatening before the twenty five over mark. Once that obstacle was cleared the Australians settled into their relentless mode to mow down the Indian batting line-up. This was a victory set up by the batsmen but appropriately finished off by the ruthless bowling of Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee. They were the most devastating new ball pair in the tournament and they handled every pressure situation that was thrown at them. Australia’s final win was comprehensive and they played remarkable cricket to win every match and most of them by a wide margin. For all the plaudits handed out at the presentation ceremony the officials should be disturbed about the fact that there was hardly a close game once the Super Six stage commenced. There were some great individual performances but the tournament was disturbingly short on competitive matches.
TCM |
|
|
Australia have lifted the bar a little higher INDIA lost the World Cup final inside the first 10 overs of the match against Australia but it has made considerable ground during the tournament. Australia proved the pundits correct when they added to their impressive recent record of wins by taking the World Cup final in a canter. Adam Gilchrist intimidated the Indian bowlers on a wicket that offered the seam bowlers more than a modicum of assistance and from there it was all downhill for India. With each run made by the Australian batsmen the pressure was building on the Indian batsmen, especially Sachin Tendulkar. One thing about this Australian team is that, apart from their talent, they are the best-prepared team in world cricket. They came to this World Cup with the intention of peaking for the final. Everything they have done in the tournament was aimed at being on top of their game for the Wanderers finale. Even the set back of losing Shane Warne, then Jason Gillespie, has not been allowed to interrupt their preparation. Hogg and Bichel slipped into the team seamlessly. Ponting and Buchanan would not allow any negative thoughts to enter the minds of anyone involved with the touring party. Preparation is all about arriving for the start of a game at the perfect level of arousal. Too little arousal and you can feel tired and flat. Too much arousal and the adrenalin will race too much for you to focus on the micro level. Even focussing on the macro level is difficult. Very soon you will have exhausted all your energy. One of the main dangers for a player leading into a big game such as this is that he will have played the game over and over in his mind before the actual event. By the time he arrives at the ground he is mentally exhausted from having tossed and turned for hour after hour playing imaginary innings or bowling make believe overs. We have all made that mistake! It is only experience that teaches you to save your energy for when it is required. Either you learn that lesson early or your career will be a brief one. Australia was the more experienced of these two teams with six players having played in the winning team in 1999 and it showed up early. The Indian players appeared much more on edge than their Australian counterparts. India arrived at the final with great hopes of lifting the trophy from the supremely confident and focussed Australians. The confidence gained from eight wins in a row since their loss to Australia had given them good reason for their optimism. Had not India’s recent victories been more decisive than Australia’s wins over New Zealand and Sri Lanka? The counter to that was that they had not batted against an attack as powerful as that possessed by Australia nor had they bowled against as formidable a batting line up as the boys from down-under. Sourav Ganguly would have been delighted to have won the toss on a wicket sporting some moisture from heavy overnight rain. He will have wanted to avoid facing the likes of Lee and McGrath for one thing, but it was also a chance for his attack to put some pressure on the Australian top-order. After all, had not the Australians been struggling to get a good start? What is often overlooked when sending the opposition in to bat is how much pressure it puts on the bowlers. The expectation is that they should take early wickets. This can increase the tension that, in turn, makes it hard to bowl with freedom and precision. Some bowlers try too hard in this situation. Others are prone to succumb to the pressure. On this occasion Javagal Srinath was the former and Zaheer Khan was the latter. As much as the Australians say they do not target particular bowlers, Gilchrist seemed to have Zaheer Khan firmly in his sights. Khan obliged by bowling in the areas he likes. Mind you, there are not many areas he does not like! Wide, short or full of a length will do him most times. Khan tried all three plus a few wides and no balls for good measure. It was not his day! There were enough balls bouncing and seaming to suggest that winning the toss was an advantage. The trouble was that the bowlers could not hit a line or a length. By the time Gilchrist had reached his fifty and Australia their 100 inside 15 overs, the Indian team body language told a dismal tale. A score of 350 plus was on the cards and you could feel the noose tightening on the Indian batsmen. More than ever India was going to require another masterpiece from the little master. He cannot always oblige. He is only human after all! What this score did for the Australian bowlers was to take the pressure off them. A few early errors were not likely to be fatal so they could steam in and try to unsettle the Indian openers. There was still enough moisture in the wicket to offer the new ball bowlers some assistance so batting was not easy against an attack that was able to do what the Indian bowlers had been incapable of doing. Bowling a line and length. Brett Lee was intent on destruction and Glenn McGrath was accurate as they set about strangling the Indian reply. Tendulkar was intent on fighting fire with fire. He hit McGrath for four from a short delivery, but once he was dismissed aiming a second pull shot at McGrath the trophy was on its way to Australia once again. Sehwag and Ganguly lived dangerously as they took to Lee and McGrath and while it was exciting the risks were high. As clouds gathered Ganguly may well have been thinking of the runs required before the 25 over cut off. If he was, there was some method in the madness. If not the method was questionable. It looked as if the captain felt the bowlers had left them with too much to do. Once the skipper finally imploded, and was quickly followed by Kaif, it appeared that he had left the rest of the batters with way too much to do. Sehwag and Dravid prospered for a while, but the Australians could taste victory as they closed in for the kill. This Australian team has lifted the bar a little higher. No other country is remotely close to having the combination of infrastructure and preparation that Australia possesses. Until such time as they do, or until some of the giants of this Australian team retire, I cannot see anyone matching their combination of talent and commitment to excellence. India has made considerable ground during this tournament. Ashish Nehra is a new star on the horizon and some of the young batsmen show signs of developing into excellent players and Tendulkar is still Tendulkar. There is much to look forward to for the Indian supporters, but they are still a long way short of being able to match the overall strength of this wonderful Australian team.
PTI |
|
|||||
|
Impressive win for Abhinav Chandigarh, March 24 The world junior record holder shot 599/600 in the preliminary round and then led the field with a score of 105 in the final for an aggregate score of 704 (599+105) to finish on top. Abhinav had earlier shot a perfect score of 600/600 in the Rocky Mountain Shooting Championship in Colorado Springs on February 22 in the USA, where he is pursuing his management studies and also training for the 2004 Olympics. At the Dortmund meet, Vitali Bubnovich of Germany shot a silver with a score of 597+102.7 for a total of 699.7 and Dick Boschman of the Netherlands shot a bronze with a score of 696.7. Abhinav will again be shooting in the on-going competition on March 28 at Munich before returning back to the USA where he will strive to get an Olympic quota at the World Cup at Fortvenning, USA, in May. |
|
Rajyavardhan Rathore traps gold New Delhi, March 24 Rathore, who won a bronze medal in double trap in the International Shooting Sports Federation World Cup for shotgun at the same venue last week, had scores of 46,46,47 to amass 139 in the qualifying round in the morning but could shoot only 41 targets in the final round, to just about make it to the gold. The 139 targets he shot in the qualifying round was a very good score, and he rode to gold on the strength of this good show. Chen Shih Wei of Chinese Taipe, who lifted the silver medal, had a captivating score of 43 in the final round, which was the second best score among the six finalists - the best being the 44 shot by Wu Min Lun, also of Chinese Taipei, who finished fourth - but his comparatively poor run in the qualifying round undid his hopes of lifting the gold. Chen Shih Wei, who shot 47, 45, 43 for a total of 135, was placed third after the qualifying round, behind his team-mate Shih Wei Tin, who had scores of 43, 46, 47. In the final shootout, Wei Tin, however, could hit only 40 targets, to end up third. Rathore’s 139 was as good as the gold-winning score at the World Cup held in Perth recently. Rathore was a member of the Indian team, who lifted the bronze medal in the last Asian Clay Championship held in Bangkok. Moraad Ali Khan and Gaurav Sondhi were the other members of the team. But Gaurav Sondhi and Moraad Ali Khan could not live upto their promise today, as they could not even qualify for the final round. Gaurav had scores of 39, 41, 44 in the qualifying round to finish seventh while Moraad Ali Khan ended up a poor 16th, with scores of 38, 35, 42. However, in the team event, the scores of Rathore, Moraad and Gaurav helped India win the bronze medal with a total of 378 while the gold went to the Chinese Taipei team of Chen, Shih and Wu, who had a combined score of 396. Hong Wei, Fan Jing and Xi Jun, also of Chinese Taipei, collected the silver with a combined score of 379. Rathore said he was under pressure to perform, which told on him in the final round, as expectations were very high after he won the bronze in the World Cup. Rathore said he was now looking forward to the World Cup in Granada (Spain) in June, at Lonatto in Italy and in Cyprus, both in September, to secure a quota place for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. In between, there is the Asian Shooting Championship at Lankawi in Malaysia, where two Olympic quota places will be at stake. In the minimum qualifying score (MSQ) double trap contest, Ronjan Sodhi of India took the first position, with a total score of 126 (34, 47, 45) while another Indian, Dil Bahadur Thapa, finished second at 112 (34, 42, 36). Aladba Hamad of Qatar finished third with a total of 101 (36, 34, 31). Shagun Chowdhary won the bronze medal in double trap for women, with scores of 24, 28, 34 (86). Dai Qiwen and Liu Zhongyan of China annexed the gold and silver, respectively, with scores of 96 and 94. The trap event will be held on Wednesday, after a rest day on Tuesday. |
|
Senior fencing from
March 26 Chandigarh, March 24 Punjab is hosting the championship after a gap of about 10 years, having held the seventh national senior championships at Patiala in 1984. Mr Khanna said Punjab had surpassed all past records in the organisation of National Fencing Championships and carved a niche for itself, having hosted all the three championships at one go, starting with the junior national championships held at Ferozepore last month, followed by the sub-junior nationals at Patiala from March 21 to 23 and the senior nationals scheduled to take place in the end of March. At the last senior national championships held at Pune — Manipur wrested two titles in men’s section — foil and sabre while Punjab won the epee team event. In the women’s section Manipur once again asserted their supremacy in two events — foil and epee — while Assam won the sabre team event, introduced for the first time. Mr Khanna said the senior nationals would also be treated as ‘‘selection trials’’ to select the probables for the Indian team’s participation in the Asian senior championships scheduled to be held in Korea in June this year. |
|
Air-India Ladies Golf from today Chandigarh, March 24 According to Lady Captain Mrs Gaitri Singh, eight ladies are contesting for the seniors trophy and five girls for the junior cup. In the absence of the defending champion, Irina Brar, who is still nursing an injured knee and back, Parnita Garewal, the only single handicapper competing in the championships, will be staking her claim to the title. Mr Sanjeev Talwar, Regional Director, Air-India, will give away the prizes on March 28. The participants will be playing for the following prizes: Grewal Salver
— Best Gross Score (overall) Air India Challenge — Best Nett Score (overall) Bawa Gill Trophy — Best Gross Score (13-24 handicap) Rani Jagdish Kaur Cup — Best Nett Score (13-24 handicap) Meters and Instruments Trophy — Best Gross Score (25-36 handicap) Ell Ess Trophy — Best Nett Score (25-36 handicap) Lady Governor’s Cup for seniors Junior
Trophy |
|
4-0 victory for AG, Haryana Chandigarh, March 24 AG Haryana scored their first goal within the five minutes after the start of the play. AG J&K, who was participating this tournament after the gap of four years, couldn’t give any fight to the mighty AG Haryana. In the second match of the day, Delhi Audit ousted AG Shimla by 4-0. Earlier, AG (Audit) Haryana Ashwani Attri inaugurated the tournament while Principal Accountant General (Audit) Punjab & UT Y.C. Satyawadi presided over the function. Tomorrow’s Fixtures: Semifinals: AG Punjab vs AG Haryana at 9 a.m. Delhi Audit vs AG UP 10.30 a.m. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Indian
cricket fans are in a forgiving mood after Australia beat India to
lift the World Cup. 
(
Security
beefed up around Captain Sourav Ganguly's residence after the
team's defeat in the finals. 
