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Sehwag to lead against Australia ‘A’ Indians have long way to go: Ponting Kale episode Pak cricketers cross over to India
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Chouhan unfazed Murali restricts England
Punjab boost chances with big win Powar hits ton; Railways
103 for 3
Himachal struggle Vikram, Prabhjot in hockey camp Mohan Bagan beat
Vasco 2-0 Shruti Dhawan sails
into semi-final National kho-kho commences Kho-kho meet begins Veteran athletics championship
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Sehwag to lead against Australia ‘A’
Hobart, December 18 The Indians, fresh from their historic win in Adelaide, will rest three of their frontline batsmen — Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman, but Sachin Tendulkar is likely to take the field to get some useful batting practice. With the two opening batsmen not being able to get the big scores in the first two matches, the performance of Sadagopan Ramesh will come under the scanner and the left-handed opener would be eager to prove his worth. Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, who is yet to play a match since arriving as a reinforcement last week, will also be keen to impress the team management. The match is quite significant from Australia’s point of view as it would give the selectors the chance to have a close look at the performance of some of the fringe players — particularly seamers — for a place in the national side. Australia are in dire straits after trailing the four-match series 0-1 and in desperate need of a pacer to bolster the injury-plagued bowling attack for the December 26 Melbourne Test. The home selectors are concentrating on youth and that is why Greg Blewett and Michael Bevan have missed out on getting a berth in the Australia ‘A’ side. Shaun Tait is the biggest punt the selectors are gambling upon in their selection puzzle as the bowler has pace which prompted Test captain Steve Waugh to comment “he’s probably the quickest, along with Brett Lee”. Tait, a strapping fast bowler from South Australia, knows he would be asked to intimidate the talented batting line-up of the visitors with his pace, though it is quite different to the qualities of Glenn McGrath, a bowler he admires and a legend who now has been ruled out of the Test series due to injury. “I’m not really a zone bowler that bores them out,” said Tait “I’m more of a bowler trying to bowl as many wicket balls as I possibly can.” Tait clocks regularly in the 145 km/h region and has been given a “licence” by his captain Michael Hussey to go hard at the Indians. “I think it’s good to have a licence like that, I can concentrate on just bowling fast. “They might not come out straight away how I want them to but there’s always bound to be a good ball in there which is a wicket ball”. “Indians have faced fast bowling before and they can handle it but we’ll have to see how it goes. You never know.” The two Australian gambles — Tait and his fellow quick Paul Rofeyare — were both a little surprised at their selection in the Australian ‘A’ squad. Tait had returned from a groin injury that sidelined him for three weeks so he said he was “surprised” to be packed because “I thought my name might’ve been chucked down a couple of steps.” Rofe has been a consistent performer in his four seasons with South Australia and has taken 19 wickets at 23.32 this season. Australian selectors are waking up to the fact their fast bowling brigade is not young anymore — Glenn McGrath is 34, Andy Bichel is 33, Jason Gillespie 28 and Brad Williams 29. Joining Tait and Rofe are relatively experienced Damien Wright of Tasmania who has 21 wickets this season, and former Test batsman Matthew Nicholson, who has resurrected his career with a move to New South Wales from Western Australia. Teams: Indians (from): Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag, Sadgopan Ramesh, Sachin Tendulkar, Deep Dasgupta, Anil Kumble, Laxmipathy Balaji, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Parthiv Patel. Australia ‘A’: Michael Hussey (captain), Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers, Martin Love, Brad Hodge, Cameron White, Wade Seccombe, Matthew Nicholson, Damien Wright, Paul Rofe, Shaun Tait. — PTI
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Indians have long way to go: Ponting
Sydney, December 18 “They have won one Test (in Australia) in 20-odd-years. They have got a long way to go before they can start talking like that,” said Ponting, smarting under the defeat to India in the Adelaide Test on Tuesday. “If they think they can be world champions after winning one Test, well, good luck to them,” the Australian Test skipper in waiting was today quoted as saying in a ‘Daily Telegraph’ report headlined “Ponting warns cocky Indians”. But Ponting was quick to point out that India did have the ability to become a top side in the world. “They have got the side (to be the number one), they are a good team but there is a long way to go yet.” Still licking the wounds after the shock defeat, Ponting said his side would have to play “extremely well” to prevent another defeat in the series. “We are going to have to play extremely well to win this series. They (Melbourne and Sydney) are both pretty good batting wickets which the Indians generally play well on,” he said. With the defeat sinking in slowly, leg-spinner Stuart MacGill said the mood in the dressing room was “pensive”. And there was pure admiration as MacGill tried to analyse India’s win in a report in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’. “The great lesson for us to learn this week is the way they won the Test match — they did it through patience.” “Dizzy (Jason Gillespie) and I both thought we had bowled as well as we had done in months, years perhaps, and yet they took no notice of the scoreboard and just proceeded to protect their wicket,” said the bowler. The furore over coach John Buchanan’s criticism of Australian batsmen’s shot selection was still evoking varied reaction in the media. — PTI
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Kale episode NEW DELHI: BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya has hinted that there is more in Abhijit Kale’s story than what meets the eye. “There is more to the story that has not yet become public knowledge,” Mr Dalmiya told Karan Thapar on BBC World’s Hard Talk India programme. During the programme, Mr Dalmiya claimed that contact between Maharashtra batsman Abhijit Kale and two selectors he was alleged to have attempted to bribe, continued till as recent as a month ago and did not stop in August as was reported earlier. According to him the last phone call between Kale and selectors Kiran More and Pranab Roy was made on November 18 from the office of Kale’s local cricket association.
— UNI |
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Pak cricketers cross over to India Wagah (Amritsar), December 18 Chetan Chouhan, member of Parliament and president of the BVCI along with senior officials of NTPC including Senior vice-president Satish Dyal and Senior Manager T.S. Rajput welcomed the Pakistan team. While talking to mediapersons Chouhan said this goodwill series would help the people of the two countries to come closer and would prove one more step towards creating harmonious relationship between two countries. He said for the normalisation of situation between two countries the BVCI sent the proposal to Sports Ministry to conduct this series, which was later accepted by them. Answering the queries, Chouhan said the veteran Indian cricket team was likely to visit Pakistan in October next year. When asked about the resumption of cricketing ties of official Indian team with Pakistan, he said the Indian team is likely to visit Pakistan in February or in the start of March next year. Sadiq Mohammed, veteran cricketer who will lead the Pakistan team in absence of Mazid Khan who could not come due to some personal reasons, strongly favoured a sportsperson as a Sports Minister in both countries. He said the people on both sides were missing cricket and other sports events between the two countries. He said the future of the cricket between the two countries would depend on the success of this series. Chouhan and Sadiq both were of the opinion that the politics had marred the sporting ties as well as other relationships of two countries. They said the politics should not be allowed to mix with sports. The Indian team: SMH Kismani, Kiran More, Parveen Amre, Chetan Chouhan, Shiva Ramakrishnan, Surender Khanna, Maninder Singh, Chetan Sharma, Yash Pal Sharma, Vivek Razdan, Gursharan Singh, Atul Wasan and Bhasker Pillay. The Pakistan team:
Sadiq Mohammad, Tasleem Arif, Azmat Rana, Aamir Malik, Mansoor Elahi, Mansoor Akhtar, Mehmood Rasheed, Ali Zia, Mohsin Kamal, Ejaz Ahmed, Ashraf Ali, Syed Tahir Shah, Saadat Ali and Shafqat Rana. |
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Chouhan unfazed Jalandhar, December 18 Terming the incident as bad, Chouhan disclosed that he had inquired about the condition of the pitch from Agra and was told that the pitch was not badly damaged and would be repaired well before December 24. The incident would not affect the spirit of the tournament as the cricket lovers were eager to witness the resumption of cricket ties between the two nations, he said adding that the elaborate security arrangements would be made for Agra tie. |
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Murali restricts England Colombo, December 18 Scoreboard England (first
innings): Trescothick c Jayawardene b Muralitharan 70 Vaughan c
Jayawardene
Butcher c Sangakkara
Hussain lbw b Vaas 8
Thorpe lbw b
Muralitharan 13 Flintoff c and b
Batty c Atapattu
b
Read not out 13 Giles run out 10 Kirtley not out 1 Extras: (b-4 lb-7 nb-1) 12 Total: (for eight wickets, 95 overs) 259. Fall of wickets: 1-78, 2-108, 3-114, 4-135, 5-139, 6-226, 7-236, 8-258. Bowling: Vaas 14-4-61-1, Fernando 12-3-55-1, Samaraweera 4-1-11-0, Chandana 26-7-82-2, Muralitharan 37-20-38-3, Jayasuriya 2-1-1-0.
— Reuters |
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Punjab boost chances with big win Chandigarh, December 18 In a lop-sided and probably one of the shortest matches in the national championship in recent memory, the hosts virtually toyed with the visitors to score an innings and 95-run win on the second day. After resuming their innings from141 for three today, the host batsmen did not exactly distinguish themselves. With seasoned batsmen like Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj Singh and Pankaj Dharmani in their ranks, the hosts were just able to put 209 on the board. The Andhra batsmen, who displayed a total lack of resolve and commitment while batting, actually did them a huge favour. After they had conceded a 179-run first innings lead, they fared marginally better and were dismissed for 84 runs in the second innings. Gagandeep Singh and Vineet Sharma, who had sliced through the first innings in virtually no time yesterday, claiming five wickets each, repeated their demolition act today. If the first innings of Andhra lasted 17.4 overs, the second innings could only be extended to 33.1 overs. While Gagandeep Singh completed his second five-wicket haul of the match, Vineet remained unlucky to fall short by one wicket. He was well on course to achieve the landmark, but was denied the opportunity as the last batsman Shankar Rao was run out. For Gagandeep this was his fourth five-wicket haul of the season. The seamer now has 29 wickets from six matches in his kitty. Seamer Shabuddin was perhaps the only Andhra player to keep his reputation intact. He emulated the Punjab seamers, completing a well-deserved five-wicket haul. While promoted up the batting order, he played a 23-run cameo which included four fours. He also emerged the highest scorer from the side. Though Punjab seamers deserve all credit for their stupendous efforts, the foggy and overcast weather conditions to which Andhra players are not used to also contributed to the team’s downfall. With the victory, Punjab’s points tally has now reached 11. Mumbai, with 18 points, are way ahead of other teams in the group and are assured of a berth in semifinal. The Railways, the other team in reckoning for the semifinal stage, have 10 points with one more match to play after the ongoing match against Mumbai. Punjab will clash with Mumbai in the last league match of the group. Scoreboard Andhra Pradesh (1st innings): 30 Punjab (1st innings):
Ravneet Ricky c Pathak b R. Prasad 20, Yuvraj Singh c R. Prasad b Krishna 38, Dinesh Mongia c M.S.K. Prasad b Shabuddin 38, Pankaj Dharmani lbw Krishna 39, Munish Sharma c R. Prasad b Krishna 10, Samrat Sharma b Shabuddin 11, Amit Uniyal c Fayaz (sub) b Shabuddin 22, Chandan Madan c M.S.K. Prasad b Shabuddin 0, Gagandeep Singh b R. Prasad 10, Navdeep Singh lbw Shabuddin 5, Vineet Sharma not out 0. Extras
(lb 13, w 3): 16 Total ( all out in 61 overs): 209 Fall of wickets:
1-64, 2-68, 3-141, 4-149, 5-166, 6-166, 7-167, 8-199, 9-209. Bowling:
Shabuddin 22-7-52-5, K. Krishna 18-4-77-3, A.S.K. Verma 5-0-25-0, R.V. Ch Prasad 12-4-35-2, Shankar Rao 4-2-7-0. Andhra Pradesh (2nd innings): H. Vatekar c Yuvraj b Gagandeep 12, Amit Pathak lbw Vineet 7, Shabuddin b Gagandeep 23, Y.G. Rao c Madan b Vineet 14, Y.V.G. Rao c Madan b Vineet 17, M.S.K. Prasad b Gagandeep 1, I Srinivas c Yuvraj b Gagandeep 0, R. Prasad b Vineet 0, A.S.K. Verma lbw Gagandeep 0, Shankar Rao run out 8, K Krishna not out 0. Extras
( lb 2): 2 Total (all out in 33.1 overs): 84 Fall of wickets:
1-14, 2-37, 3-46, 4-75, 5-76, 6-76, 7-76, 8-76, 9-83. Bowling:
Gagandeep 16-4-32-5, Vineet 11.1-4-32-4, Uniyal 6-1-18-0.
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Powar hits ton; Railways
103 for 3 Mumbai, December 18 In reply, Railways reached 103 for three at close with captain Sanjay Bangar on 36 and Shreyas Khanolkar on 34 at the crease. Beginning the second day at 236 for 5, Mumbai soon found themselves in trouble with overnight batsman Amol Muzumdar falling after adding just four runs to his overnight 91, thus missing out on a well-deserved century. After Muzumdar’s fall, wickets kept falling at regular intervals with Harwinder Singh accounting for three wickets to leave Mumbai at 312 for nine. At this stage, the burly off-spinner Powar took things in his own hands smashing the Railways bowlers to all parts of the field to bring up his first century of the season and his third Ranji century, He was well supported by Munaf Patel who cracked an unbeaten 32 in just 24 balls to swell the Mumbai total to 388. Powar who was unbeaten on 32 overnight in 115 balls, today showed his attacking instincts adding a further 99 runs in just 115 balls inclusive of 10 boundaries and two sixers. He was last man out for 131 edging Zakir Hussain to the keeper. His 131 came in 233 balls with 12 fours and two sixers. —
UNI
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Himachal struggle Dharamsala, December 18 At the close of play today, Himachal were 15 without loss with Manvinder Bisla and Sandeep Sharma batting at 0 and 10 runs, respectively. J&K face defeat Nagpur: Earlier, replying to Vidarbha’s first innings total of 379, the visitors were all out for 104.
— PTI
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Vikram, Prabhjot in hockey camp
New Delhi, December 18 The decision to include these two players in the camp was taken after the suspense over India’s participation in the tournament ended with the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) accepting the right of the India Hockey Federation (IHF) to select its national squad. The Indian team will leave for Kuala Lumpur from Chennai on January 5. According to MHF secretary S Satgunam, the organising committee of the tournament had accepted the IHF view that it would select the best team for the tournament. The MHF had earlier threatened to withdraw the invitation to India on the plea that it was sending its second string team but the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) had insisted that it would be sending its best team for the competition and nobody had a right to dicate to “us”.Mr Satgunam was quoted by the Malaysian media as saying that India would be in the line up of teams for the tournament. “We had clarified with them on the reports, which appeared last week and claimed that the Indians are sending a second team to the tournament.” “The IHF has informed the MHF that the team that will be coming for the tournament is a national side,’’ the media reported quoting Mr Satgunam. In a letter sent to MHF on Monday, IHF secretary general K Jothikumaran said they had a rotation policy for players going for major tournaments and that there was no question of fielding a weaker side for the tournament. Mr Satgunam said the MHF would put this issue behind them and carry on with their organising of the tournament. The other teams in the fray for the Azlan Shah cup are Australia, Germany, Pakistan, South Korea, Spain and hosts Malaysia. Germany and Australia have already announced their squads for the tournament. — UNI
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Mohan
Bagan beat Vasco 2-0 Kolkata: Former champions Mohun Bagan continued their winning streak as they overcame Goa’s Vasco Sports Club 2-0 in their NFL tie at the Salt Lake Stadium here today.
Bagan drew the first blood in the 31st minute when, following an Asim Biswas pass, captain Rennedy Singh let go a prompt rightfooter that beat Vasco goalie Rogerio Ramos but struck the sidepost to return into play. Rennedy reacted quickly bouncing on the return ball to slam home the first goal of Mohun Bagan. The second goal for Mohun Bagan came in the 10th minute of the second half with Rennedy once again in the thick of things. Rennedy made a solo run down the left before sending a curling cross from near the goal-line. Brazilian Eduardo jumped but his header was off target. However, a goal hungry Barreto was waiting at the far end. He scored with a diving header to cap a brilliant move with a sparkling goal (2-0). Playing under an overcast sky and on a heavy underfoot, the conditions were never ideal for classy football. But Mohun Bagan gave a brilliant account of itself holding on to the reins of the match and dictating terms throughout the game.
— UNI
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Shruti Dhawan sails
into semi-final New Delhi, December 18 Afreen, who had been riding on a high wave after she upset the apple cart of top seed Liza Pereira yesterday, found the tall and athletic Shruti Dhawan too much to handle and petered out rather tamely after putting up a game fight in the first set. Shruti served and returned with consistency to end the dream run of Afreen. But the focus of attention was on the ‘kid’ of the tournament, Sanam K Singh of Chandigarh. This 15-year-old tennis prodigy made sixth-seeded Kamala Kannan of Tamil Nadu huff and puff before bowing out of the men’s singles. Kamala
Kannan, after winning the first set rather comfortably, ran into a virtual roadblock as Sanam K Singh, who looked just a child in front of the well-built Kamala
Kannan, mesmerised the goodly gathering on a chilly day with his fluent strokes and immaculate returns to keep Kannan on his toes in the second set before the sixth seed could coast home at 6-2, 7-6. Sanam Singh also crashed out of the boys under-18 singles when he was beaten by Jeevan Nedunchezian in straight sets at 6-3, 6-3. Giant-killer Gurmehar Singh’s progress too came to an expected end when second-seeded Punna Vishal got the better of him with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. In a baseline duel of two tall players, Punna Vishal came up trumps as his panther-like agility and stunning stroke play left Gurmehar gasping at critical junctures. Top-seeded Vinod Sridhar had yet another easy outing when he took in his stride seventh-seeded Somdev Dev Vamran 6-2, 6-0. Wild card Divij Sharan of Delhi stunned third-seeded Kedar Tembe 6-4, 6-4 to complete the men’s singles semi-final
lineup. In the semi-finals, Vinod Sridhar will take on Divij Sharan while Kamala Kannan will run into Punna Vishal. In the other women’s singles matches, fourth-seeded Ankita Bhambri beat Parul Goswami 6-1, 6-4, seventh-seeded Samrita Sekar beat Punam Reddy 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 and Sanaa Bhambri toyed with sixth seeded Lata Assudani 6-1, 6-1. Boys q-finals (u-18): Saurav Kohli beat Siddharti Gulati 6-3, 6-4, Navdeep Singh beat J Vishnuvardhan 6-2, 6-1 and Divij Sharan beat Sumit Prakash Gupta 6-0, 6-2. Girls q-final (u-18): Punam Reddy beat Vandana Murali 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 6-4, Sanaa Bhambri beat Kartiki Bhat 6-4, 6-4, Parul Goswami beat S Gangotri 6-2, 6-2 and Mathura Ranganathan beat Preeti Subramanium 6-2, 6-2. |
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National kho-kho commences Patiala, December 18 In the boys section, holders Karnataka have been placed in pool A along with minnows Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. Punjab have been grouped in pool D along with Andhra Pradesh, Tripura and
Sikkim.
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Kho-kho meet begins Patiala, December 18 In the boys section, holders Karnataka have been placed in pool A along with
Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. Punjab have been grouped in pool D along with Andhra Pradesh, Tripura and
Sikkim.
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Veteran athletics championship Hisar, December 18 He said the state team for participating in the 25th National Veteran Master’s Athletic Championship to be held at Hyderabad from February 13 to 15, would be selected during the meet. He informed that winners of the 24th National Veteran Master’s Athletic Championship held recently at Imphal would also be honoured on this occasion.
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Hobart, December 18
Sydney, December 18
