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India spank Windies with clinical display
Lack of experience let Team India down
England name unchanged squad for
Raikkonen wins, Karthikeyan 12th
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Test run of A1 GP car
Crocker swims to new world record
Indians disappoint, Kovalev wins title
Inaugural Asian Indoor Games from Nov 12
Vijay Singh sizzles, Tiger Woods falters
Jeev finishes 18th in Aiful Cup
Venus meets Clijsters in final
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India spank Windies with clinical display
Dambulla, July 31 After the bowlers bowled a tidy spell to bundle out the Caribbean islanders for a paltry 178 in 47.4 overs, the batsmen never really looked in danger of messing up the run chase as they overhauled the target with 14 overs to spare in what turned out to be a lopsided floodlit encounter. Captain Rahul Dravid (52 not out) cracked his second successive half century to not only guide his team to victory on a difficult batting track at the Rangiri stadium, but also garner a bonus point. Suresh Raina (35) and Yuvraj Singh (28) were the other notable contributors in the contest. Mohammad Kaif (24) and Raina laid the foundation of a comfortable win after Sehwag departed early. Sehwag (2) edged a bouncing delivery from Jermaine Lawson for a leg-side catch by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramadin, but Kaif and Raina, a rare Uttar Pradesh pair in the middle, put 65 runs from 62 balls. Raina had a providential escape when he cut a catch to the gully region, where Ricardo Powell put down a straightforward chance. Thereafter Raina batted crisply and his two successive flicks over square leg against Darren Powell underlined the reasons why he was so much in the news. Kaif fell to a catch in the slips off Tino Best and Raina tamely patted a catch at short extra cover, but by then, India had seen off the threat of the new ball. Kaif batted for 39 balls for his 24 runs and hit five fours while Raina smashed 35 from 42 balls with five fours. Dravid and Yuvraj then put on 61 runs for the fourth wicket off 100 balls. Dravid was more prone to play his strokes and did it with utmost authority. With 36 required to win, Yuvraj played over a straight delivery to be bowled for 28 from 58 balls with three fours. Earlier, the Caribbean islanders, without several of their senior players, including Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, due to a pay dispute, hardly had a batsman who could take the attack to the Indian side. Narsingh Deonarine showed the patience to gather runs on a helpful pitch to topscore with 41 runs from 91 balls while Dwayne Smith (20), Denesh Ramdin (24) and Tino Best (24) played cameo knocks towards the end to prop up the total. The Windies never recovered once they were reduced to 32 for three, with Irfan Pathan (1-39) striking in the third over. Harbhajan Singh (2-24) was hard to get away with, as were Ashish Nehra (2-23) and Zaheer Khan (1-32). Virender Sehwag grabbed two for 39 while Suresh Raina pitched in with one for 23, besides a brilliant pick and throw to run out Sylvester Joseph, in the early stage of the innings. Pathan struck the first blow when he rapped left-hander Runoko Morton on the pads for one. Joseph then committed harakiri when he called for a non-existent second run and Raina, rushing from mid-wicket to square-leg to stop Marshall’s push, collected and threw the ball in one go to leave the former yards away. Marshall was consumed by Harbahajan Singh’s ‘doosra’, but Deonarine and Chanderpaul (22) added 52 runs for the fourth wicket to temporarily stem the rot. It was not long before the West Indies skipper fell leg before to give Raina his first international wicket, in the 31st over. Ricardo Powell fell to Sehwag in the next over, with only 85 runs produced from the top five wickets. Dwayne Smith then began with a bang, twice lofting Sehwag beyond the ropes, but wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni hung on to a thick edge to give Harbhajan Singh his second wicket. Deonarine’s vigil came to an when Sehwag trapped him plumb in front after he had featured in a 31-run stand with Denesh Ramdin. Ramdin then added another 32 with Tino Best before Nehra removed him and Darren Powell off successive deliveries. Scoreboard West Indies Marshall c Dravid b Harbhajan 26 Morton lbw b Pathan 1 Joseph run out 3 Deonarine lbw b Sehwag 41 Chanderpaul lbw b Raina 22 Powell b Sehwag 1 Smith c Dhoni b Harbhajan 20 Ramdin b Nehra 24 Best c Raina b Khan 24 Powell b Nehra 0 Lawson not out 3 Extras
(b-2, lb-6, nb-1, w-4): 13 Total (all out, 47.4 overs): 178 Fall of wickets:
1-1, 2-22, 3-32, 4-84, 5-85, 6-109, 7-140, 8-172, 9-172. Bowling:
Pathan 9-3-29-1, Zaheer 9.4-2-32-1, Harbhajan 10-1-24-2, Nehra 9-2-23-2, Sehwag 6-0-39-2, Raina 4-0-23-1. India Kaif c Joseph b Best 24 Sehwag c Ramdin b Lawson 2 Raina c Marshall b Smith 35 Dravid not out 52 Yuvraj b Lawson 28 Dhoni not out 15 Extras
(lb-5, nb-1, w-18): 24 Total (4 wickets, 36 overs): 180 Fall of wickets:
1-3, 2-68, 3-82, 4-143. Bowling: Powell 10-1-44-0, Lawson 10-0-66-2, Smith 10-0-37-1, Best 5-0-26-1, Morton 1-0-2-0.
— PTI |
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Lack of experience let Team India down
India will always wonder if Anil Kumble could have made the difference. India did not have Sachin Tendulkar or Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman pulled out in the morning. It was a side which was low on experience and was crying for some cool heads.
Besides, it is too obvious that three left-arm seamers is not the best way to have variety in your attack. A batsman is best confronted when he has different angles, line and lengths and field positions to contend with. Kumble, in all the years I have known, is master in creating pressure. He would have made good use of batsmen’s defensive mindset and who knows, with a few fielders breathing down their neck, it could have told on the Sri Lankan team. At no stage I am running down the inclusion of two debutants in Suresh Raina and Venugopal Rao. I would love to see Raina more in this tournament as I liked the way he walked into the middle for his first international game. There are some things about a cricketer which reveal his entire character. Unfortunately, Raina faced the first ball of his career like nothing he would have ever faced in his life. Murali’s wrong ‘un completely did him in. Murali presently is at the top of his form. His googlies are turning four or five feet which do not allow batsmen to pre-judge him. In this form, it will be difficult to hit him for boundaries. I could remember only two from this game and one of them went dangerously close to first slip. Rao, in his first international, has taken a huge step forward. He can hope for a career at this level. His performance acquires extra dimension on two counts: one, the side was close to being wiped out at the half-way stage and two, Murali had tasted blood. He virtually saw through Murali’s first spell which is no mean feat. Admittedly luck favoured him a couple of times but then the pitfalls of facing Murali is a road which has never been without potholes. Sri Lanka too had a youngster who shone through in his opening game. Dilhara Lokhuttige bowled a miserly and productive spell and his 21 runs in the middle was a critical contribution. I liked the way he and Farvez Mahroof shared the new-ball burden in the absence of Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa. I can also offer words of encouragement to Dilhara Fernando even though his figures reflect him to be the most expensive bowler from Saturday’s game. He went for 61 runs but from Sri Lankan cricket’s point of view, it is good that he is back. He has that pace and bounce which on good day will win Sri Lanka many a games. When you are missing top players, the best of the rest need to put their hands up. India needed Virender Sehwag to bat for long. But personally I would not like Sehwag to curb his natural style. He is best suited to play his own brand of cricket and tampering it might not work. Still, if an idea or two comes in his mind watching Sanath Jayasuriya bat, it would not hurt him or Indian cricket at all! Jayasuriya too is a blaster who over the years has learnt to shift gears. His batting with a dislocated shoulders just can not be measured by runs alone. There was a heroism in his act, an act of courage and a raging desire to win the game for his nation. It reminded me of my own knock in a Test in Pakistan when I had four fractures in the thumb but guided my team for those final 60-odd runs with the help of tailenders. Dravid, in his first full assignment as captain, handled the side very well. But he missed the presence of a fifth bowler. I would also criticise him for the choice of Yuvraj Singh at number three. I think Yuvraj is best suited at number five or six. To suggest that he batted at three to protect him against the spinners in the middle overs is kind of offering him crutches when he should be walking alone. If Dravid did not want to bat at three, Mohammad Kaif could have come at the fall of the first wicket for he has better technique against pace. Sri Lanka too have come out of the park with the feeling that not everything is right with their batting line-up. The likes of Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene have still not been able to spend time in the middle. It is taking them some time to wipe off the rustiness of a long break from the game. They need a good pool of batsmen who can cover up some poor form or injury, like the one we are confronted with on the count of Jayasuriya. India, despite the defeat, will take some positives from the game. It is not easy to balance a side when two or three top players are missing from the line-up.
— PTI |
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England name unchanged squad for second Test
London, July 31 After England had twice been bowled out for under 200 at Lord’s there had been speculation that Durham all-rounder Paul Collingwood — who made 190 against Derbyshire and scores of 191 and 105 not out against Somerset — might be included to strengthen the batting. But England, looking for their first Ashes series win since 1986-87, stuck by the same 12 that lost the opener in a match where debutant middle-order batsman Kevin Pietersen twice top-scored with innings of 57 and 64 not out and fast bowler Stephen Harmison took eight for 97 in the match. “The selectors met on the Monday after the Lord’s Test and looked at the way we played and identified the obvious plus points,” David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, said in a statement today. England are unbeaten in four years of Test cricket at Edgbaston since losing to Australia by an innings and 118 runs in the first Test of the 2001 Ashes. England squad: Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan (capt), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones (wkt), Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Stephen Harmison, Simon Jones and Chris Tremlett.
— AFP |
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Raikkonen wins, Karthikeyan 12th
Budapest, July 31 McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen stormed his way to the fourth win of the season to close in on championship leader Fernando
Alonso, the Renault driver ending 11th and outside the points placing after being caught up in a first lap melee. Michael Schumacher, on pole position, escaped the muddle at the first corner — which saw Christian Klein’s Red Bull flip out of the track — with a clean get away, but the Ferrari driver could not hold on to the advantage and had to fend off a challenge from younger brother Ralf in Toyota for a second place finish. Spaniard
Alonso, who lost his nose cone in the first lap and whose own debri put another Red Bull racer David Coulthard out of the race, was on 87 points with his Finnish rival Raikkonen 14 points down with six races to go. Michael Schumacher, seven-time world champion, was third in the overall standings with 55
points. Narain’s better placing could look exaggerated, with six cars failing to finish but that in itself showed the hard work put in by the Jordan team on a punishing circuit. Tiago Monteiro overcame a slow start to finish behind his Jordan team-mate.
— PTI |
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Test run of A1 GP car
New Delhi, July 31 The Sheikh drove the car to Rashtrapati Bhavan and back on Raj Path in the test run. Those present at India Gate to flag off the car also included Mr Atul Gupta and Mr Anil Gupta who are part of the group along with Anil Kapoor who is the Indian partner for this event. The car, which was unveiled at a colourful event last night by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, is one of the 25 cars which will represent their respective countries later this year. The unveiling of the car was attended among others by former Union Minister and film star Vinod Khanna, his son Akshay Khanna, actress Amisha Patel, Congress leader Anand Sharma, besides Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim who have been confirmed as drivers in the race.
— UNI |
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Crocker swims to new world record
Montreal, July 31 Crocker claimed his second straight 100m butterfly world title in 50.40 seconds, slicing 36-hundredths off his previous world mark of 50.76. But Phelps hardly offered his usual challenge, settling for silver in 51.65, half a second outside his own personal best. South African Roland Schoeman continued to display blistering form as he posted the second-fastest 50m freestyle time ever to capture the crown. Schoeman, who had set two world records en route to the 50m butterfly title, won in 21.69 seconds, second only to the world record of 21.69 of now-retired Russian great Alex Popov. Croatian Duje Draganja was second in 21.89 and Poland’s Bartosz Kizierowski was third in 21.94. Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry completed a backstroke double with her victory in the women’s 200m. Coventry, whose 200m backstroke gold was one of a complete set of Olympic medals she earned in Athens, clocked 2:08.52 to add the title to the 100m crown. Two international newcomers made their mark, American Kate Ziegler winning an 800m freestyle, in which Olympic champion Ai Shibata was relegated to third place, and Australian Danni Miatke winning the 50m butterfly. Ziegler, who had already won the 1,500m freestyle title here, won in a personal best time of 8:25.31, with Canadian Brittany Reimer thrilling the home crowd with a second-place finish in 8:27.59. Shibata, who had hoped to become Japan’s first woman swimming world champion, was third in 8:27.86. Miatke, swimming in her first long course international meet, was equally thrilled to show she belonged among Australia’s powerful women swimmers. The 17-year-old clocked 26.11 seconds to grab the 50m butterfly gold ahead of world record-holder Anna-Karin Kammerling and her fellow Swede Therese Alshammar. Kammerling, who earned the last of her three European titles in the event in 2002, took the silver in 26.36, and Alshammar, the reigning European 50m freestyle champion, was third in 26.39.
— AFP |
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Indians disappoint, Kovalev wins title
Pardubice, July 31 The best show for the Indians was an 11th place finish by GM Sandipan
Chanda, who won his last round game against International Master Konstantin Shanava of Georgia, and a 13th place finish by IM S.
Kidambi. The Indian duo initially shared the sixth spot along with 20 others on 6.5 points, but once the tie was resolved, it turned out that they did not have the best
tiebreaks. GM Andrei Kovalev of Belarus emerged as the clear winner of this 332-player tournament with a finely crafted victory over GM Mikhailo Oleksienko of Ukraine in the last round game. As this happened when the other two overnight leaders — Russians Vladimir Potkin and Evgeny Najer — had already drawn their game, Kovalev turned out to be the sole winner. He scored 7.5 points out of a possible 9.
Potkin, Najer, Sergey Azarov of Belarus and Alexander Kharitonov of Russia stood joint second, scoring 7 points apiece. The ninth and final round once again saw average performances from the 12-member Indian contingent as Kidambi did not try to test GM Daniel Fridman of Latvia. Playing the white side of a Slav defence, Kidambi sacrificed a pawn in the early middle game for some attack, but decided soon enough that his counter-play was probably not up to the mark. As a result, the Indian proposed a draw on his 21st move, that was accepted by Fridman after some
thought. Chanda, meanwhile, played a fine game to beat Konstantin
Shanava, who had so far displayed good temperament in the tournament. Getting a small advantage in the opening, Chanda sustained it to end up as the winner. IM S. Poobesh Anand remained the only undefeated Indian player after successfully holding another higher-rated player Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus who played black. The tournament yielded some advantage to Poobesh Anand as he stood to gain important rating points from here. Woman Grandmaster-in-waiting Tania Sachdev ended the event on a disappointing note, losing her last round game against Slaby Jerzy of Poland. Tania finished with a 50 per cent score. The other Indian girls in the fray had mixed results as Kruttika Nadig went down to Andrey Vovk of Ukraine while Eesha Karavade scored a resounding victory over Robert Havlacek of the Czech Republic. Amongst the men, GM Tejas Bakre held local GM Petr Haba to a draw,
M.R. Venkatesh drew with local hope Viktor Lazanicka while Satyapragyan also achieved the same reslt with Nicolai Pedersen of Denmark. Also drawing their games were
D.V. Prasad, S. Roy Chowdhury and Rahul Shetty. |
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Dilip Tirkey named skipper
Chandigarh, July 31 Other members of the team are Kanwalpreet Singh, Harpal Singh, Viren Rasquinha, Ignace Tirkey, Arjun Hallappa, Bimal Lakra, Jaswinder Singh, Prabdeep Singh, Deepak Thakur, Gagan Ajit Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Rajpal Singh, Ravipal Singh, Didar Singh, Devinderpal Singh, Devesh Chauhan and Bharat Chetri. About the absence of dragflicker Sandeep, Gill said, “We have other plans for him and Didar is supposed to be his replacement.” Gill said Navpreet and Raghunath, who were overlooked, needed to work hard. Gill said all players had been scanned under the ‘watchful eyes’ of the selectors. “Our target is Beijing 2008. We have a pool of at least 40 players. We have to train three or four dragflickers,” he stated. |
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Inaugural Asian Indoor Games from Nov 12
Chandigarh, July 31 Confirming the same, Randhir Singh, Secretary General, OCA, said the games would take place every two years, and consist of disciplines having television broadcasting potential and which are not part of Asian Games or the Olympics. He said the sports programme will have eight exciting sports with strong television appeal, such as extreme sports, aerobics, acrobatics, indoor athletics, dance sports, futsal, inline hockey, fin-swimming and 25 short course swimming. He said in 2007, Macau will hold these games where more disciplines could be added. The idea behind conducting these games was to gradually increase the importance of these sports so that they may be included in the Olympics. On the 15th Asian Games to be held next year from December 1 to 12, at Doha (Qatar), he said it would be the biggest Asian Games ever organised. Sportspersons from 45 different countries will participate in 39 disciplines. Randhir Singh, who is also the Secretary General of the Indian Olympic Association, said the Doha Asian Games will set a new Asian record of 423 events. In the last Asian Games held in Busan, Korea, there were 419 events. The 39 disciplines are: swimming, archery, athletics badminton, basketball, bowling, boxing, cue sport, chess, cycling, equestrian fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, soft tennis, squash, table tennis, taekwondo lawn tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu. He was confident that India might get to host the 2014 Asian Games. He said the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2014 Asian Games would prepare the country for staging the Olympics. Regarding the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games, he said it was in 1984 when Kathmandu, Nepal first played host to these games while the last edition of the games was held in Islamabad in 2004. The next SAF games are to be held in 2006 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. |
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Vijay Singh sizzles, Tiger Woods falters
Montreal, July 31 Overnight leader Vijay Singh opened in sizzling fashion with birdies on seven of his first nine holes to move to 20-under and a commanding five shot lead over American Zach Johnson, who was five-under through 11 holes at the Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club. At the same time, Woods, who began the day just one stroke back of the Fijian, stumbled out of the gate with three consecutive bogeys from the second. The British Open champion, who fired a course record equalling 11-under 61 on Friday, recovered with a birdie on the seventh and ninth but still headed into the turn one-over on the day trailing Vijay Singh by nine strokes.
— Reuters |
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Jeev finishes 18th in Aiful Cup Tokyo, July
31 The 34-year-old from Chandigarh, who was 38th on the Japan Merit List, finished at 10-under 274 with rounds of 74, 65, 69 and 66 for his fourth finish in the top 20. Local hero Tatsuhiko Takahashi won his maiden title here after nine years on the Tour as he kept at bay the fast-approaching Yasuaki Takashima in the final stages. Overnight leader Takahashi pulled in two good single putts for birdies on the 15th and 17th and ended at 16-under 268 to win his first title. Takashima made a run with three birdies on the front nine, but managed only two on the back stretch to finish at 15-under 269. Another player making a bid was Liang
Wen-Chong, who despite a six-under 65 for 14-under 270, finished third in a tie with four others.
— PTI
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Venus meets Clijsters in final
Stanford (California), July 31 She will play for the championship against fourth-seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters, a 6-4, 6-0 winner over Anna-Lena Groenefeld yesterday. The second-seeded Williams will play her 500th career match in the very tournament where she made her debut 11 years ago, when it was in Oakland. Williams came back by doing what she does best: dictating the pace, showing patience and winning big points with athletic putaways at the net. She looked tired at times and struggled with her serve in her first tournament since winning Wimbledon in dramatic fashion earlier this month.
— AP |
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