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Ganguly can mar Waugh’s farewell series
Scene set for titanic battle
Tejinder Pal flogs Punjab bowling, puts Railways on top
Punjab bounce back against Delhi |
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In NCR page: Karthikeyan
to drive Atwal qualifies
for US PGA tour Player of Year award for Woods JCT hold East
Bengal Sportspersons shaky as they face reversion Govt college win
hockey crown
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Ganguly can mar Waugh’s farewell series
Adelaide, December 9 The Indian captain’s rendezvous with Greg Chappell here in August involved clearing of mental cobwebs and his methods at the crease. ‘Don’t look out for bouncers’ was mental. ‘Try and move your back-foot to middle stump and look to play forward all the time’ was technical. When Ganguly put it into practice at Gabba, he could move better towards his off-stump to the slanted deliveries which caused slip catches in the past. And by looking to play forward, he had more space on the backfoot to essay pull shots. It resulted in an innings of 144 which has never been played by a visiting captain in the first Test of a series on Australian soil. More than numbers, Ganguly has also avoided the "mental disintegration" which the Aussies have turned into an art form. "There is a long list of touring captains whose careers have been cut short after being brutalised in Australia. Visiting captains find it hard to cop it," said a noted Australian journalist Robert Craddock. "You can almost see the maze — their eyes become redder, the voice has pain... Nasser Hussain was a total mess on the last tour," he said. "Teams usually play so when it is the last Test of the summer and there is nothing to lose. That Ganguly could do it in the first innings of the series was a real bonus. Australia really went hard but what Ganguly has done is heroic," Craddock said. Indeed very few captains survive a tour of Australia. Jeff Crowe of New Zealand could not do it, nor Mohd Azharuddin (India), Shaun Pollock (Australia), Wasim Akram (Pakistan), Courtney Walsh or Jimmy Adams (West Indies). Even great Sachin Tendulkar lost his heart for captaincy after the 1999-2000 series. Visiting captains have always approached Australia with apprehension. Local media sets up the mental trap. Unforgiving conditions and ruthless opponents then clinically pull the noose. No captain in living memory has avoided the doomed fate. Ganguly did receive his share of "music". He was mercilessly hacked by media for leaving the field early on a meaningless final day’s play against Queensland Academy of Sports. Then Shane Warne predicted Ganguly would be washed up by the fast bowlers. He was then seen as weak-kneed for choosing to field on winning the toss at Gabba. It is now apparent he is having the last laugh. "What they do (the local media) is nothing new. It always happens in Australia," said Ganguly. "But fortunately or unfortunately, my hotel doesn’t slip in the newspaper under my door." But Waugh surely is aware of what is being written and there is enough for cause of worry. One, India could avoid the pitfall at Gabba which has been the bane of visiting teams. Two, Ganguly could rediscover his touch when Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar made only one run between them. Three, the spectre of the 2000-2001 series in India could now return to haunt Waugh in his farewell series. India could not be beaten at home. Now potentially they can do it in Australia too. Australia must be revising their gameplans as it is still not late. Ganguly has tasted blood with his best Test innings ever and now that his aggression has paid off, he is unlikely to abandon his methods. A captain sound in heart and mind is nearly always inspiring. It will not only inspire the younger blokes but even the likes of Dravid and Tendulkar who want to leave a stamp of immortality against one of history’s best sides ever. Australians in the last two decades have always relied on their fast bowlers to rock the opponents before the batsmen deliver the final blow. They knew the lesson in the 70s, re-learnt it through West Indies’ pack of wolves of the 80s and from then on there has always been a couple of bowlers who fire in the thunderbolts for support actors to pick up on the wounded preys. McDermotts, McGraths, Gillespies and Aldermans nearly always had Damien Flemings and Paul Reiffels to do the clean-up act. Those in know of things say Australia would now surely go after the Indian bowlers to put pressure back on visitors’ batting. In particular, they would target Zaheer Khan. Waugh does not want to miss out on the trick. Ganguly too wants to cover all his bases. It is in the realms of reality we could have a repeat of epic 2001 series. — PTI
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Scene set for titanic battle It’s not often two teams can finish a Test match and concede that neither one had a psychological victory over the other. The first Test in Brisbane was a frustrating one because of the lengthy rain interruptions that didn’t allow either side to gather momentum and take control of proceedings. We had our moments on days one and five whilst India could claim victory on days two and four, with the weather wiping out the middle of the game. There were some outstanding individual efforts throughout, with Langer’s 100 on day one made in conditions tailor made for swing and seam bowling making it one of his best Test match centuries. Zaheer Khan showed his class with the ball to wrap up our first innings much quicker than we had hoped or anticipated. His controlled aggression and accuracy means the search for a Srinath replacement is well and truly over because this guy has the potential to be in the elite class of quick bowlers. Sourav Ganguly must have been ecstatic with his first century against Australia, especially so considering all the pre-match talk of his dislike of the bouncing ball. As always from a players’ perspective, the only answer to criticism is to go out there and perform, and to his credit, he did exactly that. Like many of the Indian batsmen, he possesses a tremendous eye, and pounces on any loose deliveries with clinical execution. Timing and placement were the features of his innings and we must now sit down and work out what we have to do next time around to reverse this early trend. Going into day five, we felt as if the momentum had swung slightly against us, and as such we were primed for a positive effort to turn things around and head off to Adelaide with some sort of ascendancy. Taking four quick wickets was the perfect start, especially seeing Andy Bichel play a part in the first two, because he’d had a tough day previously, and to come back straight away gave us the inspiration needed for the day. Part two of the day’s game plan was to then go out and play with purpose, which we did largely on the back of yet another brilliant display of batting from Matt Hayden. This guy is a superstar and is getting better each match, which is a daunting prospect for any bowler who confronts his imposing physical and mental presence. Personally I was pleased to spend time in the middle especially after the first innings duck and then the early let-off in the second innings. As a batsman you need and want time in the middle at the start of the series to get your confidence levels up. Sachin was certainly unlucky with his dismissal but I’m also sure he would have been disappointed at leaving a ball so close to his stumps, but that is why Test cricket is such a great game, because it makes us all vulnerable and nervous at times. Part three of the day’s plan was to hopefully send India in to bat for the final 20 overs in the search for early wickets and the remote possibility of a victory. It wasn’t achieved, but the scene is now set for a titanic battle over the next month.
— Gameplan |
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Tejinder Pal flogs Punjab bowling, puts Railways on top New Delhi, December 9 Railways, who have proved to be very difficult customers to tame on their home ground at the Karnail Singh Stadium this season, once again lived upto to their reputation when they opted to bat after winning the toss. Though they lost Amit Pagnis early in the match with just 18 runs on the board, Sanjay Bangar and Tejinder Pal Singh joined hands to hoist a 201-run partnership for the second wicket in 214 minutes off 315 balls. Sanjay Bangar, who was dropped by Pankaj Dharmani at second slip off Amit Uniyal in the fourth over of the day when Railways were 17 for no loss and Bangar had scored only 6 runs, made the most of the reprieve to associate himself with T.P. Singh in an entertaining partnership. The Punjab bowlers suffered as both Bangar and Tejinder Pal Singh used their willow like a sledge hammer to scythe through the Punjab bowling. Amit Uniyal mostly bore the brunt of the batsmen’s ire as he conceded 94 runs in his 22-over spell while Ritender Singh Sondhi, Gagandeep Singh, Navdeep Singh and Rajesh Sharma also came in for a lot of punishment. Tejinder Pal Singh’s knock of 168 contained 21 boundaries and three sixes. He carted the bowlers to both the on-side and offf-side boundaries with equal felicity, and hoisted Navdeep and Dinesh Mongia over the long-on fences and Rajesh Sharma over the straight field for huge sixes. Sanjay Bangar, who cracked 13 boundaries and one six in his 79, was equally impressive with his stroke play. He blasted Rajesh Sharma over the straight field for his lone six. Bangar left after he helped T.P. Singh put Railways on top, and the hosts were 219 when he was trapped by Navdeep Singh in the 66th over. After Bangar’s exit, Tejinder Pal Singh found another able foil in Jai Prakash Yadav and they collected 75 runs for the third wicket. Tejinder Pal Singh’s marathon knock was ended by Gagandeep Singh when he forced the batsman to edge the ball into the hands of Dinesh Mongia in the first slip. Singh stayed at the wicket for 286 minutes and faced 207 balls. J.P. Yadav was unbeaten on 41 at close of play, with Yere Gound on 5 not out. Yadav’s 41 came off 81 balls, laced with seven boundaries. Railways have already collected 10 points from three matches, and are placed at a comfortable position. Punjab would face the going tough, unless their bowlers succeed in getting some quick wickets on the morrow. Brief Scores: Railways (1st innings):
311 for 4 in 89.3 overs off 362 minutes (Amit Pagnis 10, Sanjay Bangar 79 Tejinder Pal Singh 168, Jai Prakash Yadav 41 no, Yere Goud 5 no, Gagandeep Singh 1 for 40, Amit Uniyal 1 for 94, Ritender Singh Sondhi 1 for 55, Navdeep Singh 1 for 47, Rajesh Sharma none for 52, Dinesh Mongia none for 21).
Mumbai on top MUMBAI: A deadly combination of pace and spin saw Mumbai bowl out Kerala for a paltry 165 on the opening day of the Elite group A match at the Wankhede Stadium. However, Kerala bowlers did well to send back Mumbai opening batsman Vinayak Mane for a duck with just 15 runs on the board off eight overs. Wasim Jaffer (3) and Bahutule (5) were at the crease when the stumps were drawn. Earlier pacemen Munaf Patel (three for 45) and Usman Malvi (three for 33) and offie Ramesh Powar (three for 27) ripped through Kerala first innings.
HP bowl out Orissa CUTTACK: Continuing their insipid performance, Orissa batsmen were bowled out for 246 in their first innings on day one of their four-day Plate Division group B match against Himachal Pradesh at the Barabati Stadium. At close, Himachal had replied with 29 for the loss of opener Sandeep Sharma's wicket. Scoreboard Orissa (1st innings):
Shiv Sundar Das c S. Singh b V. Bhatia 28, Subrat Behera c S Sharma b S. Singh 38, Niranjan Behera c N. Gaur b S. Singh 3, Rashmi Ranjan Parida c S. Sharma b A. Sharma 25, Pravanjan Mullick c M. Bisla b V. Minhas 27, Sanjay Roul b V. Minhas 4, Sukhwinder Singh c A. Thakur b V. Malik 49, Debashis Mohanty lbw S. Singh 9, Sanjay Satpathy c M. Bisla b V. Bhatia 26, Srikanta Jena c M. Bisla b S. Singh 11, Deepak Mangaraj not out 4. Extras:
(b-3, lb-14, nb-5) 22. Total: (all out in 81.2 overs) 246. Fall of Wickets:
1/64, 2/74, 3/82, 4/118, 5/132, 6/133, 7/163, 8/216, 9/230. Bowling: Vikramjit Malik 16-3-42-1, Ashok Thakur 14-3-39-0, Vinod Minhas 15-2-47-2, Sangram Singh 12.2-4-39-4, Vishal Bhatia 23-4-60-2, Amit Sharma 1-0-2-1. Himachal Pradesh (1st innings): Manvinder Bisla batting 20, Sandeep Sharma c S. Singh b D. Mohanty 6, Vishal Bhatia batting 3.
Extras 0. Total: (for 1 wkt in 6 overs) 29. Fall:
1/9. Bowling: Debashis Mohanty 3-0-11-1, Deepak Mangaraj 2-1-14-0, Srikanta Jena 1-0-4-0.
— PTI |
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Punjab bounce back against Delhi Patiala, December 9 The visitors were still 70 runs adrift of the hosts first innings total of 298 and with just two wickets left. Punjab bowlers, including skipper and off- spinner S.P Singh, bowled with verve and once medium pacer Love Abhilesh sent back opener Shikhar Dhawan cheaply, the visitors seldom looked at ease against the bowlers. Wickets fell at regular intervals and barring Kuldeep Rawat and opener Agnesh Kumar none of the Delhi batsmen looked capable of taking charge. Brief scores: Punjab: 1st innings:
298 all out Delhi: 1st innings: 228 for 8 (Kuldeep Rawat 36, Agnesh Kumar 30, Rajiv Unniyal 33, Dilip Kumar 25, Shikhar Dhawan 14, Varun Khanna 2 for 46, S.P Singh 3 for 57, V.R.V Singh 1 for 53, Love Abhilesh 1 for 12, Sandeep Sanwal 1 for 24). |
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Atwal qualifies for US PGA tour
According to news reaching here, Atwal finished the six-round finals with a tally of 12-under 420 to be tied for the eighth place yesterday. Chopra shot a final-round four-under 68 to aggregate 13-under 419 and was sixth in the 170-men field. His close friend Daniel Chopra, a Swede who honed his golfing skills in India, also advanced into the elite Tour. It was a sweet redemption for Chopra, as he had missed qualifying from Nationwide Tour after finishing 21st in the Money List in 2003. Chopra made four bogies in his last seven holes in the final tournament of the Nationwide Tour to miss the opportunity by the narrowest of margins less than 1,200 dollars. It has been an outstanding year for Atwal, who not only won on the European and Asian PGA Tours (Carlsberg Malaysian Open and Hero Honda Masters), but is also in the reckoning for the Order of Merit crown on the Asian PGA Tour. He is currently leading the race and is approximately $ 31,000 ahead of the second placed Zhang Lian-wei of China going into the final tournament of the season. Atwal started the day tied at 10th place at nine-under. At the Panther Lake course, he made birdies on the second, fifth and seventh holes to virtually seal his place. On the back nine, he made bogies on the 13th and 16th and a birdie on the 15th, but signed off in style with a birdie on the final hole. Chopra, who also started at nine-under, made five birdies and a solitary bogey on the ninth. His birdies came on the second, fifth, seventh, tenth and 18th. Mathias Gronberg of Sweden topped with a six-day tally of 20-under 412. The European PGA Tour, who has four titles under his belt on the other side of Atlantic, promptly donated his winner’s cheque of $ 50,000 to cancer research. — UNI
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Player of Year award for Woods
Thousand Oaks, December 9 Woods won five times, including two World Golf Championships, had the lowest scoring average and was second on the money list, despite playing only 18 times. “There’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction because it just shows that guys on the tour respect that I was consistent, that I’ve won numerous times,” Woods said yesterday. “I think that’s what the award reflects.” The PGA Tour does not release vote totals. Ben Curtis was voted Rookie of the Year for winning the British Open in his first appearance at a major. Peter Jacobsen was voted Comeback Player of the Year for winning the Greater Hartford Open at age 49, his first tour victory in eight years. Woods won for the sixth time in seven years; no one else has won Player of the Year more than twice since it was created in 1990. Woods became the first player since Greg Norman in 1995 to win the award despite not winning a major. He led the PGA Tour in victories for the fifth straight year, and his 68.41 adjusted scoring average was the second-lowest in history behind his 68.13 mark in 2000. While Woods has said majors are the most important, more than that went into this vote. “Number of wins and quality for the entire year,” Woods said. “I had the second-lowest scoring average in tour history next to mine in 2000, so that shows I played at a consistent level for the entire year.” Singh was equally consistent, winning four times — in the winter, spring, summer and fall — and ending Woods’ four-year reign atop the money list with $ 7.5 million. — AP
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JCT hold East Bengal Ludhiana, December 9 For JCT Phagwara, the draw was more or less satisfying. "Keeping in mind the reputation of the opponents who have in their ranks some of India's best players, the one point gained is not all that bad," said coach Sukhwinder Singh. Boasting of an impressive line-up that included star strikers Baichung Bhutia and Alvito D'Cunha, Nigerian Mike Okoro, ace defenders Suleh Musah and Mahesh Gawli, internationals Debjit Ghosh, Dipankar Roy, Sashti Duley and S. Malsawmtluanga, all of whom made history at Jakarta on July 26, East Bengal were eyeing their maiden win but gritty JCT defence manned by Nigerian stopper back Musa Aliu and KV Dhanesh, formerly of ITI, thwarted their designs. The return of star medio Joe Paul Ancheri provided a big boost to the team which also had a couple of greenhorns like Jaspal Singh, Shivraj Singh and Baldip Singh. JCT's game centred around star forward IM Vijayan and Ancheri. JCT held the upper hand in the first half with Vijayan coming quite near but East Bengal goalie Sandip Nandy rushed out to check him. Soon after, Ram Pal's cross to Vijayan saw the latter sending an overhead lob to the well-positioned Charanjit Kumar, who only managed a weak deflection. Charanjit again missed a good scoring chance a few minutes later and at the stroke of half time, Vijayan's stinging right-footer was collected by Nandy with some difficulty. On resumption of play in the second half, JCT again were in full flow and a curling free kick by Vijayan went abegging as Ram Pal failed to connect. East Bengal hit back with a counter-attack with Mike Okoro moving in dangerously but in a hurry he only managed to shoot into the side of the net. JCT also had a good chance thereafter but Ancheri failed to capitalise on a defensive lapse. Towards the end, East Bengal went on the offensive and kept JCT under pressure. Sashti Duley centred for Baichung Bhutia from the left but Bhutia only managed to head the ball over the bar. Both the teams missed the services of key forwards. While East Bengal took the field without star Brazilian striker Douglas da Silva, scorer of the only goal against Salgaocar, JCT missed the services of Nigerian striker Stephan Abarowei. Both of them are nursing injuries. East Bengal also missed the services of deep defender Deepak Mondal and Bijen Singh. For the large crowd, the outcome was satisfying as the hosts hardly appeared to be overawed by the opponents from Kolkata. Mr KS Aujla, an ardent foothall fan, summed up the feelings thus: "We did not want the home team to lose on the very ground where they had humbled the Kolkata giants 2-0 in the previous edition." JCT will now meet Goa's Salgaocar SC here in their second home match on December 14. |
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Sportspersons
shaky as they face reversion Chandigarh, December 9 Upset over the move, sportspersons made frantic calls to their seniors, sports administrators and office-bearers of various national and state associations to "avert reversions and in some cases even removal from jobs" of those who have crossed the maximum age. The Director-General of Police, Dr
A.A. Siddiqui, however, denied any move to ask these 437 outstanding sportspersons to "submit their resignations" before they are given fresh appointment letters. "There is no such thing. Since the case is pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, what we have proposed is that all these sportspersons would be reverted to their original ranks for a day before they are promoted back to their present ranks. There is no question of asking them to resign or re-employing them. "We already have created 437 posts for them and they would be given the same positions as held by them," Dr Siddiqui added. Sportspersons held that signals were for putting in their papers first , before they are given fresh appointment letters. In that case, they felt, many of them who have crossed the age limit for employment may not be able to rejoin the Punjab Armed Police, an organisation to which they have given their youthful years. They felt that most of them after promotions, would lose the seniority they held at present. "Even if we are promoted back to our present ranks a day after our technical reversion to our substantive ranks, we all will lose in terms of our length of service and seniority given to us in recognition of achievements ," they added. |
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Govt
college win hockey crown Hamirpur, December 9 Earlier, in the first semifinal match, Dharamsala College thrashed Sarkaghat College by 6-0 and Mandi beat Hamirpur by 1-0. Mr Balbir Badaliya, Registrar, NIT, Hamirpur, gave away shields and prizes to the winners and runners up. |
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