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Yuvraj, Kumble put India in final
Indian cricketers to get video players
England snatch two-run victory, level series
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McCullum, Vettori hit centuries
PCA to hold tournament in Samuel Banerjee’s memory
Neelam, Gowda fail to qualify for final
Sania Mirza plays like Nastase, says Segura
Chandigarh to host three tennis tournaments
Lawrence School, Bishop Cotton shooters shine
India go down to Serbia-Montenegro Former Ranji cricketer to be honoured
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Yuvraj, Kumble put India in final
Colombo, August 7 After posting the highest total of the tournament so far of 262 for four, the Indians had to dig deep into their reserves to quell the late resurgence of the young West Indians, just about managing to stop them at 255 for nine. The islanders needed 12 runs from the last over to continue their giant-killing act but Ashish Nehra ensured that India secured a place in Tuesday’s final by giving away just four runs in the thrilling day-night encounter at the Premadasa Stadium. The Indians seemed to cruise along comfortably at one stage having reduced West Indies to 112 for six but Runako Morton (84) and Denesh Ramdin (74 not out) staged a remarkable recovery with an 83-run partnership. The Indians will now take on hosts Sri Lanka in the flood-lit final at the same venue on Tuesday. The Indian batting came good for the first time in the tournament with Yuvraj cracking a combative 110 to lift India from a precarious 51 for three. Yuvraj, who missed the previous two matches due to a viral fever, stroked 11 fours and a six and added 165 runs for the fourth wicket with Mohammad Kaif who made 83 not out. Anil Kumble, playing his first match on the tour, then produced an incisive spell of three for 38 to break the back of the second-string West Indian side. Irfan Pathan (2-34) and Ashish Nehra (2-60) blew holes in the Caribbean top order but the latter proved expensive in his return spells before making amends with the tight final over. The inexperienced Caribbean team did not let the absence of their skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul affect their resolve. The West Indies kept up a good rate to keep themselves in the game with a fair shout before running out of steam. India began their quest horribly, losing their first three wickets for 51 runs by the 17th over and losing Sourav Ganguly by way of injury when a short ball from Darren Powell smashed on to his left-arm. Ganguly was taken to hospital and the X-ray revealed no fracture but the left-hander was put out of the match. Virender Sehwag (6), VVS Laxman (7) and Rahul Dravid (10), meanwhile, were not worth their reputation in the middle. Sehwag was out of sorts; Laxman typically loose outside the off stump and Dravid, for the second time, losing his wicket to an off-spinner. Yuvraj Singh gave an early insight into his mindset when he cut and flicked left-arm pacer Deighton Butler for boundaries in the 11th over. Kaif was an ideal foil and the two took recourse to aggression to bail India out of mess. They batted together for nearly 30 overs, running hard between the wickets and pouncing for big shots on anything loose. They put on 165 runs from 177 balls. Yuvraj was the first one to reach his half century from 58 balls with seven fours and the century stand between the two came in 124 balls. This was Yuvraj’s third hundred in his career of 120 matches. It has taken him another 15 months and 44 games to reach the three figures after his 139 against Australia in the VB series
in February last year. A feature of Yuvraj’s innings was his crashing off-drives and thumping pulls whenever the fast bowlers pitched it short. The running between the wickets of the two young batsmen was also eye-catching. Kaif ran swiftly in his customary style between the wickets and cleverly hit his shots between the fielders. He shifted his gears admirably and with Mahendra Singh Dhoni who smashed an unbeaten 28 from 13 balls with two sixes and a four. The unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 46 runs came in the last four overs. The West Indies began the chase brightly enough but once Irfan Pathan struck twice in his opening spell, removing Xavier Marshall (19) and stand-in captain Sylvester Joseph (4), they began to lose their way. Ashish Nehra removed Narsingh Deonaraine (6) through a fine catch at mid-on by Kumble, who then began gobbling up wickets like someone who has been away from it for long. Scoreboard India Ganguly retired hurt 2 Sehwag lbw b Butler 6 Laxman c Ramdin b D. Powell 7 Dravid b Banks 10 Yuvraj c Best b Deonarine 110 Kaif not out 83 Dhoni not out 28 Extras
(lb-4, nb-3, w-9) 16 Total (4 wickets, 50 overs) 262 Fall of wickets:
1-21, 2-21, 3-51, 4-216. Bowling: Butler 8-1-30-1, D. Powell 7-2-35-1, Best 7-0-40-0, Banks 10-0-41-1, Smith 10-0-43-0, Deonarine 8-0-69-1. West Indies Marshall lbw b Pathan 19 Morton c Dravid b Nehra 84 Joseph c sub b Pathan 4 Deonarine c Kumble b Nehra 6 Banks lbw b Kumble 6 Smith lbw b Kumble 26 R. Powell c sub b Kumble 4 Ramdin not out 74 Best b Sehwag 3 Butler run out 9 D. Powell not out 5 Extras
(b-2, lb-5, nb-1, w-7) 15 Total (9 wickets, 50 overs) 255 Fall of wickets:
1-37, 2-44, 3-59, 4-70, 5-98, 6-112, 7-195, 8-208, 9-240. Bowling:
Pathan 8-1-34-2, Zaheer 10-0-51-0, Nehra 9-0-60-2, Kumble 10-0-38-3, Sehwag 10-0-43-1, Yuvraj
3-0-22-0. — PTI |
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Indian cricketers to get video players
Colombo, August 7 This will supplement their sessions with team analyst S.
Ramakrishnan, who helps them evaluate the finer points of their batting, bowling and fielding, and also reviews past matches of their opponents. “We are talking to Microsoft to get portable media players for each member of the side so that they can watch their game on their own in their rooms,” Ramakrishnan said. A portable video player, with a seven-inch wide screen, can store up to 40 GB of data, said
Ramakrishnan, who travels with the team at home and abroad. Currently, the team has a video-based system that records the live telecast of matches even as, say, a player is watching his dismissal or any other footage. The recording on this video is the uninterrupted feed from the broadcaster, without the jarring interruptions of television commercials. “There are a lot of Indians working with Microsoft, and we are trying to take advantage of the fact so that our cricketers can be helped,” said the Chennai-based
Ramakrishnan. He said if not for this month’s Zimbabwe tour, the cricketers should get the portable video players after that. It will be another meaningful step towards getting increasingly intense preparations for Test and one-day internationals. He said the video players would stay with the cricketers for an entire series and would probably be taken back and given to them again at the start of a new
series. — IANS |
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England snatch two-run victory, level series
Birmingham, August 7 It was the closest winning margin in Ashes history, one of the most enthralling and tense games that either captain could remember and left the five-match series perfectly poised
at 1-1. Australia’s last three batsmen, playing and missing as often as they hit the ball and with nothing to lose, put on 104 off 133 balls on the fourth morning before Michael Kasprowicz gloved Harmison behind down the leg side. The dismissal sparking wild celebrations among the players and the Edgbaston crowd. Wicketkeeper Geraint Jones raced around, pumping his arms, while his team-mates mobbed each other. Flintoff kept his cool to shake hands with a deflated Brett Lee, who top-scored with 43 not out in an innings of
279, and Kasprowicz. Earlier, Warne had made a rumbustious 42 to suggest the possibility of a miracle escape before treading on his stumps. Man-of-the-match Flintoff took four for 79. He also took three wickets in the first innings and scored two half centuries. Moments before a finale which kept the series alive, England had been one shot away from defeat. “It’s been an epic game,” England captain Michael Vaughan said. “If we had gone down 2-0 today, I don’t think we would have come back. It’s been mentally draining.” Australia captain Ricky Ponting, whose side had resumed on 175 for eight chasing 282 to win, said: “It says a lot about the character of our team that we fought back the way we did. Unfortunately we just weren’t quite good enough. “I don’t feel shattered. I’m pretty proud at the moment. Lee and Kasprowicz probably feel shattered but we were really happy with what they did.” Today’s play lasted just 100 minutes but was as tense a passage a play as one could imagine, concluding an extraordinary match that swung repeatedly one way, then the other. “It’s probably the most nerve-wracking end to a Test I have ever played in,” said Ponting. “It’s right up there with any game I have ever played in.” Australia had resumed with Warne on 20, Lee yet to face a ball and with apparently no chance of scoring the 107 runs needed for an unlikely win. The pair, however, living dangerously but refusing to be cowed by some viciously fast bowling from Harmison and Flintoff, put on 45 off 56 balls. When Warne stepped back on his wicket as he looked to leg-glance Flintoff, 62 were still needed from the last-wicket pair. But Lee and Kasprowicz somehow survived a barrage of short-pitched bowling to edge ever closer to the target. With 15 still needed, Simon Jones dropped a Kasprowicz upper-cut off Flintoff at third man to apparently seal England’s fate. England’s final-day tactics seemed questionable, their fast bowlers intent on bouncing out the final wickets. Things began badly, though. Strike bowler Harmison was soon taken off after a 3.2-over burst which cost 27 runs. Lee edged him off the splice for one of the four boundaries he conceded, with Warne also edging just over the slips. Flintoff, despite an overstepping problem, cranked up the pace after Warne’s departure and almost got his five-wicket haul only for Kasprowicz to survive a big lbw appeal after making just a single and then keep out a yorker. Vaughan ignored Simon Jones’ swing bowling but did give left-arm spinner Ashley Giles a try. The courageous Lee charged down the wicket and hit him to the mid-wicket rope. Moments later, Kasprowicz hit another boundary over mid-off. Harmison and Flintoff kept peppering. Lee took a nasty blow on his left glove from Flintoff, who had switched from the Pavilion End to the City End, then inside-edged Harmison over the top of his stumps for four. Flintoff dug another one in, Kasprowicz upper-cut and the isolated Simon Jones spilled the ball at third man with Australia on 267, needing 15 more. England seemed sunk before Harmison saved England. It was the closest match in international cricket since West Indies beat Australia by one run in Adelaide in 1992-93. Two Ashes Tests have been decided by three runs, the latest when England beat Australia in Melbourne in 1982-3. The third match of the five-Test series starts at Old Trafford on Thursday. Scoreboard England (1st innings) 407 Australia (1st innings) 308 England (2nd innings) 182 Australia (2nd innings) Langer b Flintoff 28 Hayden c Trescothick Ponting c G. Jones b Flintoff 0 Martyn c Bell b Hoggard 28 Clarke b Harmison 30 Katich c Trescothick b Giles 16 Gilchrist c Flintoff b Giles 1 Gillespie lbw b Flintoff 0 Warne hw b Flintoff 42 Lee not out 43 Kasprowicz c Jones Extras (nb-18, w-1, b-13, lb-8) 40 Total
(all out, 64.3 overs) 279 Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-48, 3-82, 4-107, 5-134, 6-136, 7-137, 8-175, 9-220. Bowling:
Harmison 17.3-3-62-2, Hoggard 5-0-26-1, Giles 15-3-68-2, Flintoff 22-3-79-4, S.Jones 5-1-23-1— Reuters |
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McCullum, Vettori hit centuries Harare, August 7 The aggressive McCullum drove, cut and pulled with gusto from the outset after arriving at the crease with New Zealand teetering on 113 for five. McCullum faced 112 balls and hit 15 fours and a six. He and captain Stephen Fleming, who scored 73, righted the innings with their sixth-wicket partnership of 120. The less elegant but equally effective Vettori smashed and grabbed his runs off 98 balls with 20 fours and two sixes. He reached his century off a record 82 balls with 15 fours, and was yorked by fast bowler Heath Streak two overs before the close. The previous New Zealand record was the 83 balls Bruce Taylor needed to reach three figures against the West Indies in Auckland in 1968-69. Medium pacer Blessing
Mahwire took three for 115. — Reuters
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PCA to hold tournament in Samuel Banerjee’s memory
Chandigarh, August 7 The general body of the PCA today decided to start an inter-college cricket tournament from this year. To be named the Samuel Banerjee Cricket Tournament, the championship, commencing from August 16, will see 16 top teams from the state compete for the honours. In the first year, the tournament will have three teams each from Chandigarh and Patiala, two teams each from Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana and one team each from Faridkot, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ferozepore. These teams, according to Mr
M.P. Pandove, Secretary of the PCA, were the semifinalists in the various inter-college tournaments conducted by Panjab, Punjabi, Guru Nanak Dev and Punjab Agricultural universities. In the format for the first year, the teams would be divided into four groups of four teams each and after the completion of the league matches the four top teams would play in the semi-finals. At the school-level, the general body decided to continue with the Parle G Tournament which was getting a very good response in the state. The PCA annual general body also decided to give a big boost to club cricket in the state. It asked all its district units to conduct district-level inter-club tournaments. After the completion of the inter-club tournaments the winners would then take part in a state-level inter-club championship. The total allocation of funds for the regional coaching centres being run by the PCA has also been increased from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 65 lakh. The PCA also decided to give funds for the development of cricket grounds at the district level. Any institute, a school or a college, which has a cricket ground can sign a MoU with the district unit for the development of the ground with the funds coming from the PCA. The PCA will not only pay for the laying of the pitch and the purchase of basic equipment like rollers and grass cutting machines, but will also pay 50 per cent of the salary for a full-time cricket coach. Already, two institutes in Chandigarh and an equal number in Patiala have availed of this facility. The meeting also decided to give match exposure to the under-15, under-17 and under-19 teams before they take part in the inter-state tournament. This year the under-15 team would play matches in Chennai, while the under-17 team would visit Kolkata. The under-19 team would tour Mumbai. These tours would be for minimum period of 11 days. The general body also approved the match to be played against the Australian Youth team, which is scheduled to be held at the PCA Stadium on September 21 as also the Challenger Trophy to be played in the middle of October and the one-day international when the Australian team tours the country. The meeting also set up various committees of the PCA for 2005-06. |
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Neelam, Gowda fail to qualify for final
New Delhi, August 7 Czech Republic’s Vera Pospmsilova topped the round with an effort of 64.26 metres, closely followed by Song Aimin of China (64.15 metres), according to information received here. Only seven contestants managed to achieve the qualifying mark and the line-up for the final was completed by the five best throwers from the rest of the pack. Neelam’s effort fell well short of her personal best of 64.55 metres achieved at the Busan Asian Games three years ago. She could not even match her best performance of the current season (60.65 metres) recorded in Patiala in May. The thrower, ranked 26th in the world, reached the final at the last edition of the World Championships in Paris two years ago, finishing 12th. Neelam managed her best effort in her first throw itself but her next attempt was a foul while she managed just 53.07 metres in the third and final effort. Natalya Fokina of Ukraine was the contestant to go through to Tuesday’s finals with the lowest measurement of 59.30 metres, way ahead of what the Indian managed. Meanwhile, national record holder Vikas Gowda put up a brave effort but was pipped by a few centimetres to the men’s discus throw final. Gowda, ranked 29th in the world, managed a best effort of 62.04 metres which fell short of the qualifying mark last night. Only 10 of the 27 athletes in the qualifying event managed to breach the cut-off mark of 63.50m whereas 12 berths were available in the final. But two other competitors — Frantz Kruger of South Africa and Jarred Rome of the USA — had better performance than Gowda. Kruger threw 63.44m while Rome was narrowly ahead with a clearance of 62.72m. The 22-year-old Indian’s effort was well below his personal best of 64.69m which he had set in Charlotte in April this year. The performance must have disappointed Gowda, a student in statistics at the University of North Carolina in the USA, who also represented India at the Athens Olympics. In the Olympics, he finished eighth in the qualifiers with an attempt of 61.39 metres, thus narrowly missing the finals of the competition. German great Lars Riedel, seeking his sixth world discus title, came up with his best throw of the year, 66.22 metres, to qualify for today’s final. Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, the Olympic and defending champion, had the top qualifying mark of 68.79m.
— PTI |
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Roddick to face Blake in final
Washington, August 7 Roddick will play unseeded James Blake, who needed just 68 minutes to upset 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3, in the first all-American final since 1990. “I don’t want to get too high-and-mighty about my serve because I still have one match to go,” said Roddick after the match yesterday. “But I am feeling good about it this week.” The 13th-seeded Paradorn fought gamely in the opening set, battling to win each of his service games but was never able to deal with Roddick’s booming serves.
Roddick got 73 per cent of his first serves in for the match and had no double faults. He lost only two service points in the opening set and one in the tiebreak — on a net cord. The fifth-ranked Roddick captured the tiebreak 7-4, winning the final two points on Paradorn serve. “His serve is tough to read,” said the Thai. “He would look like he was going to slam it down the middle but then he would hit it out wide. “Those serves are tough to get because when the ball lands, it just bounces away. The serve is his big weapon. And he was serving well today.”
Roddick’s potent serving continued in the second set, allowing Paradorn only one point the entire frame. He broke Paradorn in the fifth game of the set to take a 4-1 lead and served out the match. Blake, (25), the 2001 Washington champion, broke Berdych’s serve just once in each set but it was enough because the Czech was unable to do likewise.
— Reuters |
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Sania Mirza plays like Nastase, says Segura
San Diego, August 7 Segura, an Ecuador-born American player who roamed the courts in the 1940s and ‘50s, felt Sania’s hard-hitting game resembles Romanian tennis legend Nastase. “She has a natural way of hitting the ball and she hits it hard. She reminds me of Ilie Nastase,” said the 84-year-old legend. Expressing delight at a number of quality players dominating the women circuit, Segura said, “I have never seen so many girls with such good ground strokes, deep and consistent. My prediction is we’re going to have a different crop of players coming on. There once was a gap between the Williams sisters and the others, but now that gap isn’t there.” Sugura was merely 5’6” and had bowed legs because of rickets. But his brilliant footwork and a devastating two-handed forehand — described by his adversary Jack Kramer as the “greatest single shot ever produced in tennis — made life difficult for players, including Kramer and Pancho Gonzales. After retiring from the tour, Segura became a teaching professional for many years it was under his watchful eyes that Jimmy Connors honed his skills during his formative years. Segura was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame 1985.
— UNI |
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Pierce enters final
Carlsbad, August 7 “She’s a dangerous player if you let her play, so the key the ball was hitting the ball hard and deep, staying aggressive and trying to come forward,” said Pierce, who ripped 28 winners to only 13 from Peng. “I had a couple of return games I was really happy with, staying down and hitting through the ball. In important moments I served well and that was key.” After upsetting Kim Clijsters and losing a three-set doubles contest on Friday, Peng was a step slow all day. The 19-year-old was unable to impose her baseline game and never took advantage of the opportunities given her, failing to convert on all eight of her break point opportunities, including six in the last game of the first set. “I was really tired after playing almost four hours last night,” Peng said. “My energy didn’t come back. My fitness is getting better, but I need to do more.” The 30-year-old Pierce is experiencing one of the best stretches of her career, reaching the French Open final, the Wimbledon quarter-finals, winning a match at Fed Cup and now reaching her first final in San Diego since 1998. She has won 15 of her last 17 matches.
— Reuters |
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Chandigarh to host three tennis tournaments
Chandigarh, August 7 Mr Kashyap said three tennis scholarships to outstanding young players of Chandigarh — Kinshuk Sharma, Vijayant Malik and Inayat Khosla — will also be given. While Kinshuk was a member of the India’s Junior Davis Cup team and also toured Europe as a member of the ITF Junior team, Vijayant won the AITA Super Series and Inayat won an International Girls Tournament in Lahore, Pakistan. He said CLTA had a graded system of financial incentives to all Chandigarh players who performed outstandingly at national and international levels. The CLTA has offered to establish Sub-Centres for tennis coaching in various educational institutions in the city. The CLTA would provide specialised coaching and physical training through its faculty on the campuses of these institutions. The CLTA would also assist the institutions in developing and upgrading their infrastructure, said Mr Kashyap. |
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Lawrence School, Bishop Cotton shooters shine
Solan, August 7 The results: Individual events — In the .177 peep sight air rifle (junior boys) Bishop Cotton School (BCS), Shimla bagged the top two positions. Piyush Jain won the gold medal by scoring 353/400 points while Vikramaditya Singh won the silver by scoring 337 points. In the same category for junior girls both the gold and silver medals were bagged, respectively, by Simrith Sidhu and Gagan Dhillon of Lawrence School who managed to score 279 and 253 points, respectively. In the .177 open sight air rifle (junior boys) all three positions were bagged by studnets of BCS. Maninder Singh, Karan Godara and Rajkaran Singh won the gold, silver and bronze by securing 314, 309 and 280 points, respectively. In the .177 open sight air rifle (junior girls) top two slots were bagged by Lawrence School while Shimla Public School managed to get the third position. Sehaj Mann, Vidushi Jain and Chaunticha won the gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively, by securing 220, 219 and 218 points respectively. Lawrence dominated the .177 open sight air rifle (sub-junior boys category) in which Gursher Romana, Akshar Deshta and Param Veer Sangha won the gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively, by securing 252, 215 and 213 points. In the air pistol (NR) sub-junior boys category Arjun Singh of DAV, Sector 15, Chandigarh, and Akash Thakur of the same school bagged the first two positions by securing 280 and 232 points, respectively. In the junior girls category Sanya Parmar of Carmel Convent, Chandigarh, with 245 points won the gold medal while Akansha of YPS, Mohali was second by securing 232 points. In the team events, in the .177 air rifle open sight junior boys category, the BCS team comprising Karan Godhara, Rajkaran Singh and Maninder Singh won the gold medal by securing 903 / 1200 points. The silver medal was won by the Pinegrove team comprising Gunpreet Brar, Anhadbir Siddhu and Yashowardhan. The team secured 505 points. The bronze medal was bagged by the DAV, Shimla, team comprising Nishant Mahajan, Ankir Rana and Sanal Gupta. The team secured 504 points. In the .177 air rifle open sight sub junior boys category Lawrence won the gold medal. The team comprising Gandrav Saini, Gursher Romana and Akshat Deshta secured 670 / 1200 points. The BCS team won the silver medal by securing 562 points. The team comprised Rohit Beniwal, Mohit Gupta and Samrat Singh. The bronze medal was won by the Pinegrove team comprising Japinder Bajwa, Harkirat Dhillon and Oojas Sehgal. The team secured 362 points. |
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India go down to Serbia-Montenegro
Visakhapatnam, August 7 The higher-ranked Serbs were yesterday beaten by Asian champions Korea in a thrilling five setter but today they held their nerves to win the contest, which lasted almost two hours. Serbia and Montenegro won the match 25-15, 24-26, 25-23, 17-25, 15-12 at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
— PTI
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Former Ranji cricketer to be honoured Patiala, August 7 Sunil Saggi has been selected as he was the manager of the Punjab (u-16) cricket team which won the All-India Inter-State Championship held in Nagpur in 1997-98. Prominent among others who will be honoured are Dronacharya awardee Gurcharan Singh, IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh and former Indian skipper Bishen Singh Bedi (life time achievements awards category), Yashpal Sharma, Maninder Singh and Yusuf Ali (veteran cricketers), K.Hariharan, Rajan Seth, Kamal Juneja, Vijay Chopra and R.D. Singh (umpires and scorers category) , M.S Unnikrishnan, Vijay Lokpalli and Ashok Kumat (media), Anurag Thakur, Mrs Sunita Sharma and S.P Bansal (achievers category), Bantoo Singh, Devinder Choudhury, Ramesh Sikka, Ajay Verma, K.K. Nigam and M.P Singh (coaches and managers category), Tejasvi Yadav, Tanmay Srivastva, Avinash Yadav, Mayank Jagdale, Varun Mishra and Varun Sharma (most promising cricketers category).
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Zidane to return as captain Si Wom DAV school students shine
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