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Yuvraj, Dinesh Mongia prop up North Zone
NR plans to run ‘cricket special’ India beat Malaysia 5-3 in hockey
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Rowing federation sets up think tank Bagan beat Salgaocar 1-0 Rakesh Bakshi manager of Indian football team Second hat-trick by SER’s
Balai Mandal Under-21 football fixtures
Namdhari XI drub Customs 3-1 in hockey Formula One powerboat racing in Mumbai
Poor outing for shuttlers
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Yuvraj, Dinesh Mongia prop up North Zone Chandigarh, March 4 On a pitch that eased out considerably as the play progressed, both the batsmen played flawless knocks. After North were provided a good platform by openers Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir, the Punjab players came together and held complete sway over the proceedings until both were back in pavilion in quick succession. After East Zone skipper Devang Gandhi won the toss and put North in, the seamers failed to exploit the early morning conditions. Former India seamer Debashish Mohanty looked out of sorts. The other seamer S S Paul, who has had a fruitful season so far, looked better but not threatening or penetrative enough as both the openers did not face much difficulty negotiating the two. Chopra and Gambhir were content to defend initially. Eschewing all adventurism they just concentrated on gauging the nature of the wicket as well the bowlers. The first hour produced 27 runs in 15 overs. Initial hard work over, both gained confidence as runs started to come at a decent rate. Gambhir, who has been an integral part of the India A team for quite some time now, started going for his strokes and scored most of his runs to the square of the wicket, while Chopra was comparatively subdued. East tasted their first success when Paul got the breakthrough, trappings Chopra lbw. Chopra batted for nearly two hours for his 27. When in sight of a half century Gambhir also departed in a similar fashion to off-spinner Sourashish Lahiri. Yuvraj and Mongia took charge at this stage and frustrated the pacers and spinners alike. Yuvraj’s was a typical aggressive innings and most of his shots were authoritative, while Mongia, more composed of the two, was less adventurous. Yuvraj was particularly impressive playing towards the cover area where he played some gorgeous shots. A gentle tap towards the deep mid wicket which fetched him three runs helped him complete a century. The knock did not include even a single false stroke. An error in judgement resulting in his run out ended a scintillating innings. Yuvraj’s 106-run knock included 16 fours. His third-wicket stand with Mongia yielded 197 runs. Yuvraj’s dismissal proved to be the opening the East bowlers were looking for. Mongia departed at the same total off Mohanty to a delivery which stopped after pitching. Laxmi Rattan Shukla did not have to move even an inch to take an easy catch at cover. Mongia, who opened up after completing his half century, was in full control at the time of his dismissal at 84. After the fall of these two wickets three more wickets fell in the heap, helping East Zone come back into the game. Mongia was satisfied after the day’s play. “If the last three wickets contribute 50 more runs to the total, it will be a decent total,” he said. North Zone: Akash Chopra lbw Paul 27, Gautam Gambhir lbw Lahiri 46, Yuvraj Singh run out 106, Dinesh Mongia c Shukla b Mohanty 84, Mithun Minhas lbw Paul 1, Ajay Ratra batting 8, Joginder Sharma c Doni b Paul 0, Gagandeep Singh c Doni b Mohanty 4. Extras
( b 4, lb 7, nb 17) : 28 Total (for seven wickets in 89.3 overs): 304 Fall of wickets:
1-82, 2-88, 3-285, 4-285, 5-288, 6-288, 7-304 Bowling: S S Paul 22-7-65-3, Debashish Mohanty 19.3-3-44-2, S Lahiri 20-5-61-1, Utpal Chatterjee 12-0-66-0, Kiran Powar 6-0-24-0, Rohan Gavaskar 2-1-5-0. |
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Yuvraj directed to play at Mohali Chandigarh, March 4 Though Mr Jagdale was not categorical enough, he made it clear that the star one-day batsman had been told to play in the Duleep Trophy final. "Zonal selector Kirti Azad might have sounded him about this," Mr Jagdale revealed. Reports appearing in a section of the media said that Yuvraj had some minor shoulder problem. The left-handed batsman, in fact, skipped the previous Duleep Trophy league match, which North Zone won, beating West Zone at Dharamsala. Concerns were also expressed over key players overlooking matches in premier domestic competitions on one pretext or the other. Yuvraj was not there at the nets when both teams warmed up for the final yesterday. He has been selected in the Indian team for the forthcoming one-day series against Pakistan. The preparatory camp for the crucial series against the arch rivals is scheduled to commence on March 7 at Kolkata. |
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NR plans to run ‘cricket special’
New Delhi, March 4 Given the high cost of air fare, it would not be possible for everyone to fly to Pakistan, he said, adding that the bi-weekly bus service between the two countries would also be inadequate to carry them. “Under the circumstances, the Railways have to pitch in because the rail fare should be affordable to every one,” he said. The official, who preferred anonymity, said talks had already been held at the joint secretary level between the ministries of External Affairs and Railways. “We hope a final decision in this regard will be taken in a day or two. But the Northern Railway is all prepared to run a special train on a short notice.” “The officials are trying to thrash out whether the train should run directly to Lahore or Attari, where the disembarking passengers will board a bus for going to Lahore,” he said. — UNI
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Cricket telecast CHENNAI:
A city-based media company has urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to ensure that the terrestrial telecasting rights for the forthcoming India-Pakistan cricket series were made available to a national broadcasting corporation like Prasar Bharati. Krishnaswamy Associates (P) Ltd said it was “pained” that a commercial broadcaster like Ten Sports had refused to sell the rights to Prasar Bharati. “Under international competition law, this would amount to
‘refusal to deal’, which is an unfair trade practice liable for action by appropriate regulatory authorities,” it said in a memorandum to the TRAI. The company has also filed a public interest litigation before Madras High Court in this regard, according to a press note.
— UNI
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India beat Malaysia 5-3 in hockey
Madrid, March 4 India, desperate to bag full points after an unconvincing 1-1 draw against minnows Belgium on Tuesday, got off to a shocking start — conceding two goals in a span of three minutes — before bouncing back in style for their first win of the tournament. Deepak Thakur (16th), Gagan Ajit Singh (27th and 46th), Dilip Tirkey (29th) and Baljit Singh Dhillon (65th) did the scoring for India after Boon Huat Chua (10th) and Kuhan Shanmuganathan (13th) gave Malaysia 2-0 lead early in the game. M.A. Rahim converted a penalty stroke in the 62nd minute to revive hopes of a Malaysian comeback but the side paid dearly for failing to make use of as many as 10 penalty corners — three of which came in the last three minutes. India, who missed their first penalty corner in the fifth minute when Kanwalprit Singh’s hit was stopped brilliantly by the Malaysian custodian, did not repeat their mistake the second time. Dilip Tirkey’s powerful grounded shot hardly gave any time to the goalkeeper to react propelling India to a 3-2 lead six minutes before the breather. It was India’s first win in two matches that took their tally to four points, while Malaysia crashed to their second straight defeat. The Indians dominated the game for much of the 70 minutes, but were prone to errors, especially in the back and it helped Malaysia to stay in the match. The Indian forwards also missed as many chances as they converted and as such, the score-line reflected a close match which it was not. Pak beat Belgium The individual brilliance of Pakistan proved just too much for Belgium as the Asian giants won 2-0 in a pool B match at the men’s Olympic hockey qualifying tournament here today. However, it took Pakistan all of 50 minutes to breach the Belgian wall as Kashif Jawad deflected Ghazanfar Ali’s penalty corner pass in the 51st and then Muhammad Saqlain capped a fine 1-2 move with skipper Muhammad Nadeem for the second goal in the 62nd. Pakistan, with two wins from as many games, have six points while Belgium remain on one point from the 1-1 draw with India in their first match. As they did against India on the first day, Belgium threw numbers at the mercurial Pakistani forwards in the first-half. Pakistan applied tremendous pressure, but the Belgian defence soaked it all in, including four penalty corners to take the breather on level terms.
— PTI |
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Services reign supreme in rowing nationals Chandigarh, March 4 Corps of Engineers finished second best with one gold, three silver and one bronze. They won the gold in the light weight men's coxless fours. Services swept the other teams aside as they emerged champions without facing any challenge. The standards left much to be desired, specially in the women's section. Orissa women had the better of Chandigarh. They won two gold and one silver while Chandigarh had to be content with one gold, two silver and one bronze. Kerala managed to win a gold, silver and a bronze. Justice OP Verma, Governor, Punjab and Administrator, Chandigarh was the chief guest. He said the administration would help in upgrading the course here to six lanes according to international standards. It would help the city host international championships. RK Pillai of Services in the men's section and Pravasini Dwivedy of Orissa dominated the single sculls and double sculls events, rowing to gold without much difficulty. Through out the championship Pravasini Dwivedy did not have to exert herself as other rowers failed to come any where near her. She won the gold in the single sculls almost a full minute ahead of Saroj Bala of Chandigarh. Pravasini Dwivedy was home in 9:49:62 while Saroj Bala's time was 10:49:47. Sonali Ashok Gite was way behind in 11:37:37. Pravasini then teamed with Mamata Jena for the gold in double sculls ahead of Chandigarh duo of Gurpreet Kaur and Gurnoor Kaur. Seema Uttaman and Jincymol Varghese of Kerala were third. Sunil Kumar won the lone silver medal for Punjab in the men's single sculls. RK Pillai was way ahead in 9:06:61 while Sunil managed to reach home in front of Parveen Kumar of Corps of Engineers(9:40:17). Corps of Engineers team managed to perform better in the light weight men's double sculls as Manu K and Parveen Kumar (7:52:45) finished behind RK Pillai and Bajrang Lal (7:45:59). Karnataka's Binoy Lukose and Abhilash VS (8:06:66) finished third. Chandigarh's Kirandeep Kaur and Ramanpreet Kaur finished third in the women's coxless pairs as Kerala's Raji Rajan and Sobini Rajan took the gold. Orissa's Mamata Jena and Kabita Shyanti had to settle for the silver. Chandigarh's Saroj Bala, Gurpreet Kaur, Gurnoor Kaur and Sukhman Kaur took the gold in the coxless fours while Kerala finished second. Only three teams had entered the event. Delhi managed to take home the silver medal in the lightweight men's coxless fours while winning bronze in coxless pairs and coxless fours. The results: Women: Single sculls:
Pravasini Dwivedy (Orissa) 1, Saroj Bala (Chandigarh) 2, Sonali Ashok Gite (Maharashtra) 3 Double sculls:
Pravasini Dwivedy/ Mamata Jena (Orissa) 1, Gurpreet Kaur/Gurnoor Kaur (Chandigarh) 2, Seema Uttaman/ Jincymol Varghese (Kerala) 3 Coxless pairs:
Raji Rajan/Sobini Rajan (Orissa) 1, Mamata Jena/ Kabita Shyanti (Orissa) 2, Kirandeep Kaur/ Ramanpreet Kaur (Chandigarh) 3 Coxless fours:
Chandigarh (Saroj Bala, Gurpreet Kaur, Gurnoor Kaur and Sukhman Kaur) 1, Kerala (Sobini Rajan, Jincymol Varghese, Seema Uttaman and Binumol) 2 Men: Single sculls:
RK Pillai (Services) 1, Sunil Kumar (Punjab) 2, Parveen Kumar (Engineers) 3 Light wt double sculls:
RK Pillai/Bajrang Lal (Services) 1, Parveen Kumar/ Manu K (Engineers) 2, Binoy Lukose/ Abhilash VS (Karnataka) 3 Coxless pairs:
Yousef R/Shyju CM (Services)1, Roshan Lal/Rehman Mujeeb (Engineers) 2, Krishan Kumar/Gyanenderpal Singh (Delhi) 3 Coxless fours:
Services (Inderpal Singh, Manoj Augustine, Jagtar Singh and Rajesh Kumar) 1, Engineers (Uday Bir Singh, Manjunathan, Gurinder Singh and Haridev Kadyan) 2, Delhi (Naresh kumar, Krishan Kumar, Ajay Kumar and Pradeep) 3 Light wt coxless fours:
Engineers (Roshan Lal, Haridev Kadyan, Manu K and Rehman Mujeeb) 1, Delhi (Pradeep Kumar, Dharmesh, Gyanenderpal Singh and Rajeev Kumar Malik) 2, Karnataka (Mahesh G, Antony H, Siju Thomas and parveen Singh) 3. |
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Rowing federation sets up think tank Chandigarh, March 4 The meeting was of the view that greater efforts should be made to attract girls to the sport as currently Indian girls were going well at the Asian level although India had a very small base for the sport. “If more and more girls could be drawn to the disciple, then India would do even better at the international level ,” Col C.P. Singh Deo, who today was re-elected secretary-general of the federation, said while briefing the media about the deliberations of the meeting. Also, present at the briefing were the newly elected president, Brig K.P. Singh Deo (Retd), Mr A.V. Narayana Reddy, treasurer, and Mr T.C. Gupta, senior vice-president. The RFI, accepting a request of the Chandigarh Rowing Association, decided to reduce the ban imposed on Chandigarh rower Laxman Singh to two years from his earlier life ban after he had failed in a dope test at the Hyderabad National Games in 2002. Although rules of FISA (international rowing federation) stipulate strict action against any athlete who uses banned substances, in the case of Laxman Singh the RFI accepted the plea that Laxman had unknowingly used a substance given by a doctor. The RFI secretary-general said once the period of the ban (which still has a few months to run) was over Laxman would be free to return to the sport. For smoother functioning of the RFI the federation today set up two commissions - an athletes commission and a commission for public relations. The former, which will be headed by an active rower, will help rowers to air their grievance against the federation. In any case the RFI does not want the athletes (rowers) to go to court to seek removal of their grievances. Thus this commission was aimed towards this direction. The second commission, to be headed by Prof Promod Kumar Singla of Chandigarh, will help the federation to maintain better relations with the media. The convener of the public relations commission is Mr Inderpal Singh, also of Chandigarh. On the recommendation of the Chandigarh Rowing Association today’s meeting (which elected the office-bearers) decided to extend the term of the office-bearers from the current two years to four years on the pattern of the Indian Olympic Association. This, it was explained, will help the RFI to functioning more cohesively. The RFI also granted affiliation to the Madhya Pradesh Rowing Association, thus increasing the number of affiliated units to 19. Earlier, the executive committee of the RFI reviewed the roadmap prepared for winning a medal in the 2006 Asian Games. The long-term developments plans of the association were also reviewed. The following is the full list of the RFI executive council: Brig K.P. Singh Deo — president; Col C.P. Singh Deo — secretary-general; Mr A.V. Narayana Reddy — treasurer. Mr T.C. Gupta (Chandigarh) Senior Vice-President; Dr I.D. Sharma (UP), Mr G.Somashekarappa (Karnataka), Mr Pramod Bhave (Maharashtra), Mr A.K. Absar Hayarika (Assam), Prof Mahender Singh (Manipur) and Prof J.S. Naruka (Delhi) — all vice-presidents. Mr M.V. Sriram (Tamil Nadu), Mr Kalyan Sarangi (West Bengal), Mr Prabjeet Singh (Punjab) and Col K.R. Chakravarti (Army) — all joint secretaries. Ms Shakuntala Chanda (Tamil Nadu), Mr P.K. Singla (Chandigarh), Dr Gurdeep Singh (A.N.), Ms Sunita Yadav (Maharshatra) and secretary SSCM (ex-office) Wg Cdr. M. Baladitya — all executive committee members. |
Kolkata, March 4 Bagan, who appeared rudderless before the breather, repeatedly getting lost in a web of mispasses, looked a transformed side in the second half and pulverised the Salgaocar defence launching waves of well-planned moves at the Salt Lake Stadium encounter. The all-important goal came in the 51st minute when Mehtab Hossain essayed a floater into the box from the right and Brazilian Edu headed home, leaving Salgaocar goalie Rajat Ghosh Dastidar stranded. Dastidar, otherwise, had a good day under the bar, as he saved his side’s downfall on several occasions. Salgaocar, who had the upperhand in the first half, holding complete midfield sway, lost steam as time wore on to surrender the dominance to their rivals. After 13 matches, Bagan now have 18 points, while Salgaocar remained on 17. — PTI
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Rakesh Bakshi manager of Indian football team Mr Bakhshi has been officiating in state association elections and has acted as commissioner in the junior National Football Championships and in many National League matches. Mr Bakhshi is also a member of the disciplinary committee of the All-India Football Federation.
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Second hat-trick by SER’s
Balai Mandal Kapurthala, March 4 Eastern Railway will meet Integral Coach Factory, and Central Railway, Mumbai face South East Central Railway, Bilaspur, or North East Railway,
Gorakhpur, also on Saturday. The coach of North Eastern Railway lodged a protest that Dushant Yadav, a non-Railway represented
SECR. In today’s league encounters, Balai Mandal of SER, Kolkata scored the second hat-trick of the championship against Southern Railway, Chennai, who lost by nine goals to five. Earlier Balai Mandal had scored a hat-trick against Railway Board, New Delhi.
ICR, Chennai, defeated North Western Railway, Jaipur, by two goals to nil. Sri Kumar scored in the fifth and 55th minutes of the match. In another league encounter Northern Railway, New Delhi, defeated South Central Railway 2-0. The goals were scored by Ashish Gandial and Jaspal in the 54th and 71st minute. In other league encounters North Eastern Railway,
Gorakhpur, beat Metro Railway, Kolkata, 1-0. Ahey Singh was the scorer.
Western Railway routed South West Railway,
Hubli, by 9-0 in a one-sided match. — UNI |
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Under-21 football fixtures Chandigarh, March 4 The fixtures: March 19: Himachal vs Jammu and Kashmir; Delhi vs Haryana. March 20:
Uttar Pradesh vs Uttaranchal; Punjab vs Chandigarh. March 21:
Jammu and Kashmir vs Delhi; Himachal vs Haryana. March 22: Chandigarh vs Uttaranchal; Punjab vs Uttar Pradesh. March 23:
Himachal vs Delhi; Haryana vs Jammu and Kashmir. March 24: Uttar Pradesh vs Chandigarh; Uttaranchal vs Punjab. March 26:
semifinals March 28: final |
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Namdhari XI drub Customs 3-1 in hockey Mumbai, March 4 Namdhari XI, leading 1-0 at the breather, netted in two more in the second half to win the match comprehensively. In the fourth minute of the Namdharis, who looked much fitter and faster than their opponents, took the lead when Anmolak Singh sounded the board after getting a pass from Nirwair Singh. Just a minute into the second half Namdhari defender Gurpreet Singh made it 2-0 when he converted a stroke. Didar Singh (senior) then increased the lead to 3-0 when he was bang on target off Gurvinder Singh’s pass in the 54th minute. One minute later Customs speedy forward Ajay Ayappa narrowed the margin with a field goal in 55th minute. The match witnessed some rough play by both the teams with the umpires — P. Sudhakaran and Ranjit Dalvi — flashing four green cards and two yellow cards to control the proceedings.
— PTI |
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Formula One powerboat racing in Mumbai Mumbai, March 4 Speaking to the press ahead of the event, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Ajit M Nimbalkar, said the Maharashtra Government expects events like these to put the state on the international sports map. While the first leg of the Powerboat Championship will be held in India, the rest of season will see races in Saudi Arabia on March 26, Portugal, May 16, two legs in Italy on May 30 and June 20, China, August 1, South Korea, August 8, Malaysia September 26, Singapore, October 3, Hong Kong, October 17, and Indonesia, October 31. The venues for two other races would be announced later. The Mumbai event will see 24 boats with speeds up to 240 km per hour in action. Among the stars in Mumbai is Guido Capellini, who is the record-holder with eight championship titles.
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New Delhi, March 4 Men and women’s national champions Chetan Baboor and Aparna Popat, along with Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Nikhil Kanetkar, were sent packing by their respective rivals. Only Trupti, who made it to the main draw via a qualifying round, moved to the second round as she staged a fine rally after losing the first game to oust Canada’s Charmaine Reid 3-11 11-6 11-6 last night. — UNI
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Chandigarh, February 4
