Sahara beat Rajdhani, enter final
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 27
An unbeaten knock of 75, off 61 balls with seven fours and three sixes, and deadly bowling of 3 for 13 by Dinesh Yadav, helped Air Sahara beat Rajdhani Sports by seven wickets and entered the final of the third C. L. Gupta Memorial Cricket Tournament for the Prem Lata Trophy at the Mohan Meakin ground.

Scores: Rajdhani Sports: 150 all out in 35.1 overs (Naveen Verma 44, Joginder Singh 30, Sonu Vaid 24, Dinesh Yadav 3 for 13, Kapil Mehta 3 for 29, Sunil Sharma 2 for 30). Air Sahara: 155 for 3 in 25.1 overs (Surender Dyama 75 n o, Jagjeet Singh 40 n o, Premveer Nagar 3 for 30).

Eventus Cup Cricket

Hewlett Packard defeated ABN Amro Bank by 63 runs in the Eventus Cup Cricket Tournament.

Scores: Hewlett Packard: 188 for 1 in 22 overs (Sandeep Tickoo 77, Sanjeev Sharma 52, Satish Menon 31 n o, Eris Khalid 1 for 41). ABN Amro Bank: 125 all out in 21.4 overs (Manjit Rana 32, Manpreet Singh 28, Deshbandhu 3 for 13, Vivek Dwivedi 3 for 26).

Suntan Cup

An unbeaten half century by Devi Singh (50, 8x4) and deadly bowling by Neeraj (3 for 13) helped Orient Craft defeat NIIT by six wickets and entered the final of the Suntan Cup Cricket Tournament at the Ramjas ground.

Scores: NIIT: 112 all out in 22 overs (Kapil Gupta 42, Vikas Sharma 26, Neeraj 3 for 13, Aamir 2 for 18). Orient Craft: 113 for 4 in 21 overs (Devi Singh 51 n o, Manoj Sharma 30 n o, Vishal Verma 2 for 20).

Royal Kashmir, Jindal enter polo semis
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 27
Sameer Suhag powered in seven goals to help Jindal Steel and Power crush Signature 10-4 to storm into the semi-final of the Rabo India Maharaja Hari Singh Cup Polo Tournament at the Jaipur Polo ground on Thursday.

In the second match, Oliver Taylor fired home seven goals to enable defending champions Royal Kashmir Army rally to defeat Teachers 10-6. They will take on South Delhi in the semi-final while Jindal will clash against Zara.

In the first match, Jindal enjoyed territorial supremacy to call the shots, and ran up a 9-0 lead by the fourth chukker when their rivals managed to open their account. Sameer Suhag was in blazing form as he scored at will. He scored one goal in the first chukker, and then went on a goal-blitz in the second, slotting home four goals.

Minutes into the third chukker, Sameer fired in his sixth goal and then Simran Shergill and G S Pandher scored a goal each. Vishal Singh converted a 40-yard shot to make it 9-0. As the match was heading for a lop-sided finish, Signature sprang into action with Manupal Godara scoring four goals.

However, Sameer had not yet done with his scoring as he accounted for the tenth goal to provide the icing on Jindal Steel’s triumph.

Teachers, who began with a one-goal advantage, got it nullified when Juan Ambroggio scored a goal in the first chukker for Royal Kashmir. Basheer Ali and Navin Khanna put Teachers in the lead once again.

But Oliver Taylor had other plans as he launched himself on a scoring spree to ensure Royal Kashmir’s victory. S. K. Yadav and Ambroggio got the other goals for the winners. Basheer Ali scored three goals for Teachers while Naveen Khanna and Lokendra Singh scored a goal each.

The semi-final matches will be held on Sunday.

Vijay Yadav flays the rumours
Tribune News Service

Faridabad, November 27
Former Test and one-day player of India Vijay Yadav has slammed those raising unnecessary hue and cry over the wicket of the Nahar Singh Stadium here, which had hosted a one-day match between the visiting Australian and New Zealand teams on October 28 last.

Speaking to mediapersons here today, Yadav who had prepared the pitch for the match of the TVS Cup, said some persons who had played in Ranji Trophy matches, had been trying to make the pitch an issue by levelling various allegations, which he said were baseless. The pitch was one of the best prepared recently in the cricket circuit in the country, he added. He said even the captain of the New Zealand Stephen Fleming did not blame the wicket, but had said that he could not read the wicket well and perhaps this was the reason that his team got out for a mere 98 runs.

He also maintained that the wicket had bounced and provided lot of seam in the initial overs.

About the cricket in Haryana, Yadav said that Haryana Cricket Association had been doing a wonderful job as far as chances and opportunities to talented youngsters was concerned.

The present Ranji team of Haryana had been a talented lot and could produce expected results in the Ranji tourney.

He said there was no biased or irregularities in the selection of players at various levels in the state teams.

Vijay Yadav had played several Test and one-day matches for India before his retirement about five years ago.

When asked about Abhijit Kale’s bribery episode, he did not comment. Yadav is running a cricket nursery (academy) at Sector-11 here.

Guru Gobind Singh College win

New Delhi, November 27
Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow defeated NCC, Karnataka and Goa 3-0 in the Subroto Mukherjee Cup Football Tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium on Thursday. In other matches, Govt School, Dimapur beat Dumdum Kumar Ashutosh Institute, Kolkata 3-2 and Oxform High School, Aizawl beat Army Boys BRC, Danapur 5-0.

Shastri hockey
Oil and Natural Gas Commission defeated Russia XI 4-3 in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Tournament at the Shivaji Stadium on Thursday. OSR

Ganga School annex hockey title
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, November 27
Ganga International School, Hiran Kudna trounced Guru Harkishan Public School, Shahdara 4-0 and annexed the DDA Inter-School Hockey Tournament at the Siri Fort ground.

Praveen Huda hit home two goals while Parveen and Trinkle scored a goal each.

Ganga School principal Mrs H Srow and manager Sushil Kumar Gupta felicitated the players and coach D. S. Jaggi for their fine display.