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India crash to 7-wkt defeat
Ganguly should be more flexible with ideas, says Manjrekar
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We paid price for playing defensive hockey: Gagan New Delhi, September 1 Striker Gagan Ajit Singh believes a defensive style of play was primarily responsible for the Indian hockey team’s dismal seventh-place finish in the Athens Olympics. The forward, who returned home from Greece along with his team-mates and some members of the athletics contingent late last night, declined to comment on the much-criticised strategies of coach Gerhard Rach but said whenever India play an attacking game, they emerge victorious.
India found new stars at Olympics: coach
Roddick blasts through, Sharapova struggles
India hope for a miracle against Japan in qualifier
Brazil optimistic over Ronaldinho
Bhupathi-Mirnyi duo
advances to 2nd round
Mizoram school off to winning start
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India crash to 7-wkt defeat Nottingham, September 1 Looking to get out of the wretched form of the Asia Cup, the Indian top order put up an inept display against an innocuous England bowling attack and were all out for a paltry 170 at the Trent Bridge ground. Steve Harmison claimed a hat-trick after debutant Alex Wharf had ripped through the top order to leave the Indian innings in shambles. Mohammad Kaif, under pressure to deliver, top scored with 50 as he led the recovery after India had slid to 89 for five in the 19th over. England were given a solid start by the India-born Viram Solanki who capped his return to international cricket with a cracking half century. Solanki's 52 came off 76 balls and contained eight fours as the young right hander added 63-runs for the opening stand with Marcus Trescothick (33). Andrew Strauss remained unbeaten on 41 while Andrew Flintoff, fast gaining the reputation as the world's best allrounder, provided the finishing touch with a blistering 34 off 23 balls with three sixes and a four. Put in to bat, the Indians, handicapped by the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, were found wanting on a track that was seaming but true in bounce. The 52-run second wicket partnership between captain Sourav Ganguly and V V S Laxman turned out to be a case of 'flatter to deceive' as batsmen after batsmen fell prey to their own indiscretion. Ganguly made 24 from 31 balls and struck four boundaries and seemed set for a long haul but perished top edging a pull outside off stump to be caught by wicketkeeper Geraint Jones. It was Wharf's maiden wicket. The right arm seamer had success in his very next over when Laxman, who looked confident at the number three slot and hit four fours for his 29 off 35 balls, went after an away going delivery to give Jones' his second catch. Harmison became the second Englishman and the 19th bowler to take a hat-trick in one-day internationals with the last three Indian wickets of Kaif, Laxmipathy Balaji and Ashish Nehra in his ninth over. Kaif and Balaji were consumed behind the stumps and Nehra patted back a return catch as Harmison upstaged Wharf. The strongly built Glamorgan allrounder cut his teeth in international cricket with 3 for 8 from 14 balls and scattered the winds of recovery which the visitors had begun to gather at the start of their innings. The Indians lost Virender Sehwag (4) early but looked to be recovering their poise through the association of Ganguly and Laxman before Wharf came on for his bowl in big cricket in the 12th over. Almost immediately, Ganguly mistimed a hook to be caught behind the wicket and then four balls later, Laxman was slow to withdraw his bat from the line of a delivery on his off-stump. Rahul Dravid (13) was then drawn into an ungainly position to hook and Darren Gough made no mistake with the chance at fine leg. Scoreboard India: Sehwag c Vaughan b Gough 4 Ganguly c Jones b Wharf 24 Laxman c Jones b Wharf 29 Dravid c Gough b Wharf 13 Yuvraj run out 4 Kaif c Jones b Harmison 50 Gavaskar c Collingwood Pathan c and b Pathan 3 Kumble not out 9 Balaji c Flintoff b Harmison 0 Nehra c and b Harmison 0 Extras
(lb-6, w-5, nb-3) 14 Total (all out in 43.5 overs) 170 Fall of wickets:
1-10, 2-62, 3-63, 4-80, 5-89, 6-129, 7-143, 8-170, 9-170. Bowling:
Darren Gough 7-2-29-1, Steve Harmison 8.5-0-41-3, Andrew Flintoff 8-0-28-1, Alex Wharf 8-0-30-3, Ashley Giles 10-0-25-1, Collingwood 2-0-11-0. England: Trescothick c Yuvraj b Balaji33 Solanki lbw b Pathan 52 Vaughan b Balaji 0 Strauss not out 41 Flintoff not out 34 Extras
(LB-1 W-7 NB-3) 11 Total (For three wickets in 32.2 overs) 171 Fall of wickets:
1/63 2/65 3/128 Bowling: Irfan Pathan 10-0-53-1 Ashish Nehra 6-0-23-0 L Balaji 10-1-37-2 Anil Kumble 6.2-0-57-0.
— PTI |
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Ganguly blames batsman
Nottingham, September 1 "We paid the price as we did not play well. The batsmen did not put enough runs on the board. It was a good wicket to bat," Ganguly said after the match. India, who were cruising at 69 for 1 at one stage, lost wickets at regular intervals to set England a modest target of 171 which the hosts achieved comfortably in just 32.2 overs. "We were coasting well at 69 for one. It was good start but we lost too many wickets." Even though England achieved the target with over 17 overs to spare, Ganguly defended his bowlers saying they did not bowl that badly. "Bowlers did not bowl badly. The pitch had eased out a lot after the lunch break." Ganguly declined to say whether he would be effecting any changes to the side for Friday's match at Oval. England captain Michael Vaughan was quite elated to have won the match with a bunch of youngsters including batsman Andrew Straus, bowler Alex Wharf and come-back man Vikram Solanki. "It was a fantastic win. We were quite comfortable with so many young players. It was a quite professional approach from the ball one," Vaughan said.
— PTI
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Ganguly should be more flexible with ideas, says Manjrekar
Mumbai, Sept 1 "The time has come for (Sourav) Ganguly to be a little more flexible with ideas, especially the batting order. He needs to see outside the inner ring, look at fresh talent. People whom he backed have let him down because of injuries," Manjrekar told a press conference here. The former middle-order batsman was hinting at some of the fast bowlers, Zaheer Khan in particular, breaking down frequently and upsetting the team balance, as well as the seven-batsman formula which has served the team well in the past. "Lack of a good bench strength is India's great weakness," he said, adding the batting order also needs to be looked afresh. "Someone like Mohd Kaif has not been able to play a significant role for a long time. It's time to promote him to number three or four and see the difference," Manjrekar said. Supporting him was his former captain Krishnamchari Srikkanth, who remarked that his co-commentator on SetMax channel, which is to telecast the ICC Champions Trophy live from September 10 to 25, was actually hinting at giving a chance to the new wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Kartik at number seven. The two former Test players were part of a promotional campaign uncorked today by the channel ahead of the mega event in England. "Dinesh Kartik should be played at number seven. Sanjay has been more diplomatic," the one-time dashing batsman butted in and said. "India are lacking a good bowling allrounder and a wicketkeeper who can bat. Now Kartik is available and including him (in the playing eleven) would be the first step forward," Srikkanth said. The former opener said he was in favour of 100 per cent use of available technology and not something in between, like say 50 per cent or 70 per cent use of technology to assist the umpires. "I am not in favour of 50 per cent or 70 per cent of technology being used. Either it should be used in totality or there should be the human touch throughout," he said. Manjrekar, while agreeing partly, said he was not sure how technology would be entirely error-free when the field umpires are wired to the stumps as well as to the TV room to hear no-ball calls as would be the case during the Champions Trophy. "What happens when there's a simultaneous shout of no-ball into the field umpire's earphone by the third umpire sitting in the TV box and at the same time a snick, picked up by the stumps microphone, also relayed to him through the earpiece. He would get confused," Manjrekar said. "Also as a batsman I would like to take advantage of a no-ball call, especially against a spinner, which may not be possible in this tournament," he added. Two captains, Ricky Ponting of Australia and Tatendu Taibu of Zimbabwe, have said they are not in favour of the experiment being conducted during the Champions Trophy by the International Cricket Council. Srikkanth, however, predicted a victory for Ganguly and his team in the mega event, saying he was not basing his optimism on any single factor but on gut feeling. "India had done well in one-day tournaments held in England in the past, winning the World Cup in 1983 and the NatWest Trophy a couple of years ago. This Champions Trophy could turn out to be a case of third time lucky for India. They lost to New Zealand in the Nairobi final (in 2001) and had to share it with Sri Lanka last year. "We will win it this time. The conditions should suit us and our bowlers bowl better in England. It's what I feel within myself," he said. Manjrekar, on the other hand, was averse to committing himself on the tricky issue. "It's dangerous to predict India's chances. They have not done well of late, but they had a similar bad run in New Zealand before going on to reach the 2003 World Cup final in South Africa," he pointed out, adding, "Fitness would be the key factor."
— PTI |
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We paid price for playing defensive hockey: Gagan
New Delhi, September 1 “We did not play attacking hockey. Rather we were a bit defensive. But whenever we have followed an attacking style, we have won,” he said referring to India’s two wins in the competition. India came from the death to beat South Africa 4-2 and then trounced Korea 5-2 for their only wins from seven matches in the August 13 to 29 Olympic Games. Rach had come under flak from some members of the team, including Dhanraj Pillay and Prabhjot Singh, for his strategies in the tournament. But Gagan said he would not comment anything on the German’s strategies although he admitted that they were different from that of Rajinder Singh, who was removed from the chief coach’s post just a fortnight before the Olympics. “Whenever there is a change, the style will definitely change. But now he (Rach) is our coach. We better concentrate on our game and play for the country. The federation is there to look after the coach,” he said. Gagan said the forwardline failed to live upto the expectations but also blamed some poor umpiring for India’s pathetic show. “Several of our players were injured and we had some bad luck as well. We played well in the beginning of the competition. “We played well against Holland and against Australia. But the last minute loss against the Australians affected the morale of the players a bit. We were also affected by poor umpiring against New Zealand,” he said. It turned out to be a quiet homecoming for the team as there was hardly anyone to welcome the players. All the members of the team, including veteran Dhanraj Pillay and captain Dilip Tirkey, reached here from Athens via Dubai along with the gutsy heptathlete J.J. Shobha, Soma Biswas, Chitra Soman and Manjit Kaur. Pillay, whose outburst against Rach made headlines during the Games, gave a slip to the waiting media. The other players, including Prabhjot Singh, who had accused Rach of under-utilising him in the tournament, declined to speak on the team’s performance citing a gag order from the Indian Hockey Federation. “We can’t speak. We have been asked not to do so by the IHF,” Prabhjot said. Rach and assistant coach Oliver Kurtz did not come to India since they left for Germany from Greece. Assistant coach Jagbir Singh said, “various areas need to be addressed and we need to work on these areas. It’s difficult to summarise what went wrong in Athens.” He also did not comment on the strategies adopted by Rach. J.J. Shobha, who braved excruciating pain to finish a creditable 11th in heptathlon, said she could have done better in her event but for the ligament tear near the left knee. “My injury prevented me from giving an improved performance. But I hope to do better next time,” said the 26-year-old from Andhra Pradesh.
— PTI |
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India found new stars at Olympics: coach
New Delhi, September 1 “Our performance was not bad nor very good. But the relay team, Binu and Anju produced good results. India now have four or five star athletes in Anju, Binu, Sobha, Manjit Kaur and Chitra K Soman. The only problem is that they do not have enough international experience,” said Ogorodnik, a sprints coach with the erstwhile USSR in the ‘80s, after arriving with a batch of athletes here last night. The Ukrainian said the
competition on an Olympic stage was totally different from the challenges faced at the Asian Grand Prix meets or even at the Asian Games. “They need to take part in more high class competitions like the European circuit where the best athletes compete.” Lauding the gutsy performance of Shobha in heptathlon, the coach said but for the injury, the Indian would have finished fifth or sixth. On men’s one-lap record holder Binu, he said with rigorous practice the Railways athlete could go below the 45- second mark in the 400m. “I am not very happy with Binu’s time (45.97) in the final,” Ogorodnik said. “For the Olympics he could practice for just a few months. With rigorous practice for one year he can go below the 45-second mark,” he said. The 24-year-old Binu, who broke Paramjit Singh’s national record clocking 45.48 seconds to advance to the final, will also be honoured by ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh for bettering his record of 45.73 set in the 1960 Rome Olympics. The coach was also impressed with fine show of the women’s relay team comprising Rajwinder Kaur, K.M. Beenamol, Chitra and Manjit Kaur in reaching the final setting a new national record of 3 minutes, 26.89 seconds. “The split time of Manjit, the national record holder, was 49.85 seconds and it was the second best in the entire field,” the coach said describing how the Indian girl suddenly caught the eye of her rivals. But Manjit was unlucky on the day of the final as she had to pull out of the race after a bout of fever and vomitting. The Indians took the final replacing Manjit with S Geetha but the absence of the record holder was telling as the quartet finished a poor seventh just ahead of hosts Greece. “I was warming up for the final. But suddenly I had a bout of fever and vomitting and had to be hospitalised for one day,” the Punjab girl said. The Ukranian also hit out at the media for casting doubts that some of the athletes are on drugs. “Look, how many tests the athletes underwent in Athens before the event and after the event and all of them returned negative,” he said. “All these reports about athletes on dope are hampering their performances,” he said.
— PTI |
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Roddick blasts through, Sharapova struggles
New York, September 1 The second seed raced through his opening match in 72 minutes to set up a potentially tricky second round meeting with Spain's Rafael Nadal. ''I'm just glad to be back,'' Roddick said. ''I couldn't wait to start the match. ''I think it was tough for Scoville, but he gave it a good run and he'll be back. Hopefully he will look back one day and think it was a cool experience. ''I knew he was a little bit nervous, so I thought I would go at him and show him some early on. The serve surprised me, when I hit it I didn't really pay much attention but then I heard a few 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the crowd.'' Sharapova arrived in New York billed as the new queen of tennis after her dazzling win over Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final, but she was forced to rough it against gutsy American Laura Granville, scraping a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 victory. The Florida-based Russian mixed sublime winners with a rash of unforced errors but showed real character when she served to stay in the match at 4-5 in the decider. When a fierce first serve finally ended the contest after two hours, nine minutes of pulsating action, she breathed her huge sigh of relief and pumped her fists. ''Tonight was a very tough match, especially as it was my first big night match on Arthur Ashe. I was making so many unforced errors, I was out of it at times,'' she said. Earlier top seed and defending women's champion Justine Henin-Hardenne was given a scare by 15-year-old Czech qualifier Nicole Vaidisova when she fell 1-4 behind in the second set after taking the first 6-1 in 17 minutes. Normal service was resumed as she won five consecutive games but the Belgian admitted the teenager, who won her first WTA tournament in Vancouver earlier this month, had proved a big surprise. Fifth seed Lindsay Davenport, who is one of the favourites to challenge Henin-Hardenne for the title, cruised into the second round with a 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Slovakia's Lubomira Kurhajcova — her 18th consecutive victory. Another serious contender for the title, French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, was equally impressive, crushing Ludmila Cervanova 6-1, 6-0 in 42 minutes to lead a total of 11 Russian women into the second round. Eleventh seed Venus Williams also moved through with an unconvincing 6-3, 7-6 win against Hungary's Petra Mandula. In men's first round action Russia's Marat Safin, the 2000 champion, suffered his earliest US Open exit in six attempts as the 13th seed slumped to a 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 defeat to experienced Swede Thomas Enqvist. Last year's beaten men's finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero survived, just, although he will have to improve dramatically if he is going to make a similar impact this year. The Spaniard spent four hours, 28 minutes on Louis Armstrong Court to scramble past Czech qualifier Tomas Zib 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3. Fifth seed Tim Henman overcame a painful back and 39 aces from giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic to advance, the Briton recovering from a set down to win 7-6, 6-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Double Olympic gold medallist Nicolas Massu of Chile maintained his hot streak, blasting away Jose Acasuso of Argentina for the loss of just six games. Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan also cruised into the second round, coming from a set down to beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.
— Reuters |
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India hope for a miracle against Japan in qualifier
Kolkata, September 1 Returning from the disastrous LG Cup outing, India are trying to put together a decent side even as they are
severely hamstrung by a series of injuries, the latest being skipper Baichung Bhutia. National team coach Stephen Constantine today announced that veteran defender Debjit Ghosh will lead the side in Bhutia’s absence. Baichung Bhutia has been ruled out the India-Japan pre-World Cup qualifier and East Bengal’s AFC Cup quarter-final tie after he underwent an arthroscopy on his left knee yesterday. The India-Japan tie is on September 8 and the East Bengal’s AFC Cup tie is on
September 15. Dr Debashis Chatterjee told UNI, “Bhutia underwent a microsurgery for a torn cartiledge on his left knee. There was a cartiledge tear.” He said Bhutia would require three to six weeks to recover fully and that rules out the footballer for the Indo-Japan tie. Bhutia had suffered the injury during India’s disastrous LG Cup campaign in Vietnam. In conceding 19 goals in five matches the Indian team has erased any semblance of silver lining that it had shown two years back. “We are trying to get a respectable result in our match against Japan. If anything we are not prepared to see the same result as we saw last time,” Constantine said. “I would have liked to play the game at 3.30 pm in in the mid-day sun not in the evening. That would have given them little time to recover and the conditions would have been harder. “Not that it would have changed the fate of the tie, but it would have given us some sort of a standing. They are a much superior side and we only plan to defend as well as we can,” he added. Even as the blame game continues with the selectors criticising the coach for his alleged high-handedness and Constantine blaming the lack of infrastructure, the players are a confused lot. Meanwhile, Sur Kumar Singh has walked out of the side reluctant to be in the list of stand-byes and Sandip Nandy came into the squad while Baichung Bhutia joins the list of the injured. Yet to recover from the 0-7 loss to Japan, India will now bank on R.C. Prakash, Abhishek Yadav and Bijen Singh as the strike force. Mahesh Gawli might play in the game if he gets rid of the mysterious stomach bug. Debjit Ghosh, while stating that there was no additional pressure of being a captain, said the prime duty was to salvage some pride in the Japan match. The fact that four of the first eleven players are missing- Baichung Bhutia, Ashim Biswas, Jo Paul Ancheri and Seby Dias — is not helping the cause either. What is making the task even more staggering is that Japan is coming with a full-fledged team barring Junichi Inomoto and Hidetoshi Nakata. Trained by the legendary Zico, the 23-member squad will have star keeper Kawaguchi Yoshikatsu who plays for FC Nords Jaeland of Denmark. It has five World Cuppers-Alessandro Santos, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Shunsuke Nakamura, Shinji Ono and Koji Nakata in its ranks. Nakamura plays for Italy’s Reggina and the attacking medio has 12 international goals, while Ono plays for Holland’s Feryenood. They also have two very promising strikers in Atsushi Yanagisawa, who plays for Italy’s Messina (13 goals), and Naohiro Takahara, who plays for Germany’s Hamburger FC,(12 goals). The logic behind bringing a stronger team is that the Japanese thinktank will want to score as many goals as they can keeping in mind that if Oman wins their last match against India, which they will in all probability, then things will boil down to goal difference. Japan plays their last match against Singapore at home. The battle lines being drawn, India can now only hope for a miracle to save them from another slaughter before their home crowd.
— UNI |
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Bhutia discharged
Kolkata, September 1 Bhutia, who sustained a cartilage damage during the LG Cup in Vietnam, underwent a successful micro surgery under orthopaedic surgeon Dr Debashis Chatterjee and was discharged this morning, nursing home sources said.
— PTI |
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Brazil optimistic over Ronaldinho
Teresopolis, September 1 “He’s going to continue receiving treatment and we hope he will be able to train on Thursday,” Runco said.
“He’s got a good chance of playing.”
Elsewhere, injury problems continued to mount for the world champions.
Central defender Juan was reported as doubtful while Gustavo Nery, reserve to Roberto Carlos at left-back, pulled out of the squad with a broken wrist. Runco said that Bayer Leverkusen defender Juan, who is due to arrive later this week, had suffered a head injury during a Bundesliga match at the weekend. Juan had won a place in the centre of the defence with his performances at the Copa America in Peru in July, where Brazil won the title. Uncapped Leandro from Brazilian champions Cruzeiro was on Tuesday named as the replacement for Gustavo Nery, who plays for German champions Werder Bremen. Brazil have already lost striker Luis Fabiano and midfielder Diego through injury. Meanwhile, five players — AC Milan trio Kaka, Cafu and Dida and Bayern Munich’s Ze Roberto and Lucio — were not selected in an apparent reprisal after they missed the so-called Peace Match away to Haiti two weeks ago.
— Reuters |
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Teen sensation Rooney joins Manchester United
London, September 1 The deal was completed with four-and-a-half hours to go before the closure of the transfer window. United will pay Everton a basic £ 20 million, with half to be paid immediately and the other half due on August 1, 2005. There are contingent payments totalling up to an extra seven-million pounds dependent on the fulfilment of various clauses over the next five years. Rooney’s representatives, Pro-Active Sports Management Ltd, could be paid £ 1.5 million — depending on Rooney’s loyalty to United — for their role in the acquisition of the player and the negotiation of his personal terms. Rooney will be unveiled at a press conference today. He said: “It was a tough decision to leave Everton, the club I’ve supported and played for all my life, but I’m excited to be joining a club as big as Manchester United. “I feel this can only improve my career, playing with top players in top competitions like the Champions League and I can’t wait to meet up with the team.” Manager Alex Ferguson is thrilled to have Rooney on board after competition for his signature from Newcastle.
— AFP |
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Bhupathi-Mirnyi duo advances to 2nd round
New Delhi, September 1 Bhupathi, pairing with Belarussian Max Mirnyi, overcame rusty form to defeat Argentine pair of Martin Garcia and Sebastian Prieto 4-6 6-4 7-6 (3) at the Flushing Meadows. The fourth seeded Indo-Belarussian pair will take on the winner of Rainer Schuettler of Germany/Mikhail Youzhny of Russia vs Argenita's Federico Browne/Guillermo Canas tie. Schuettler was in the German team that stopped Bhupathi and Leander Paes' pursuit of an Olympic gold in the semifinals in Athens last month. Paes will have a chance to avenge his Athens defeat too, when he takes on with Czech Republic's David Rikl the Croatian duo, Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic, in his first round clash.—PTI
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Mizoram school off to winning start
New Delhi, September 1 In the second match, Achabiegei NCC School, Imphal defeated Sainik School, Goalpara (Assam) 8-2. Raju Mangand scored three goals for the winners while Tilminchan and Rajesh Singh scored a brace each. Sajan Kumar Singh accounted for the other goal. Zakir Khan and Tyanchandra got the goals for Sainik School. Olympic silver medallist in shooting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was the guest of honour, who was felicitated by chief guest Air Marshal H.S.
Garkal. |
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India's hopes of redeeming their batting pride and reputation as world beaters were dented when they crashed to a seven-wicket defeat against England in the first NatWest Challenge one-day cricket international here today.
