Amstelveen, August 20
India just about managed to avoid the ignominy of finishing last as they laboured to a scrappy 2-1 victory over England to take the seventh position in the Rabo Trophy hockey tournament here today.

After three consecutive defeats, the beleaguered Indians managed to break the sequence of debacles with a face-saving victory but the performance still left much to be desired for a team which has shown no signs of a turnaround.

India shot into the lead just two minutes before the breather through Gagan Ajit Singh before Deepak Thakur consolidated the position in the 53rd minute in a lacklustre encounter.

James Tindall scored a consolation goal for England in the last minute which saw some dramatic moments as the Englishmen got an opportunity to restore parity with a penalty corner at the stroke of the hooter.

But the jittery Indians had some luck going their way and escaped to victory much to the relief of coach Rajinder Singh Jr, who has blamed some “big-headed” seniors for the team’s miseries in this eight-nation tournament.

The Indians owed their victory to rookie goalkeeper Bharat Chetri, who was quite outstanding under the bar in his very first match in the tournament. Chetri pulled off a number of spectacular saves to keep his team afloat against the opponents who lacked scoring prowess.

The Indians could never really find any rhythm right through the contest and the number of mispasses and poor trappings only compounded their misery.

Chetri got into the act straightaway as he produced a couple of brilliant saves within the first 10 minutes of the match.

England enjoyed territorial advantage for most part of the opening session but the Indians managed to take the lead in the 33rd minute when Gagan Ajit deflected a push from Dilip Tirkey off a penalty corner.

After the breather, the Indian forward line showed a little more urgency and managed to weave a few well-orchestrated moves but without much luck.

The Englishmen also made a few forays into the Indian defence but invariably failed to get their act together inside the striking circle, Matt Daly being the offender on a couple of occasions.

Durban, August 20
Asia XI got their act together and lived upto their top billing to score a 17-run victory against Africa XI in the second one-day international of the inaugural Afro-Asia Cup here today.

Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara struck a stylish half century as Asia’s batting stars rediscovered their form to post a challenging total of 267 for seven.

The visitors then came up with a tidy bowling performance to bowl out the Africans for 250 at the Kingsmead ground.

Sangakkara hit a classy 61 while his compatriot Mahela Jayawardene came good with a composed 52 and Yousuf Youhana contributed a vital 42.

Virender Sehwag made a calm 38 at the top while skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq held the rudder with an unbeaten 32.

The absence of Jacques Kallis, due to a lower back muscle strain, was a blow to the Africans, who experimented by promoting Mark Boucher as opener.

But the move failed to work, with the wicketkeeper walking back to the pavilion after striking four boundaries.

A.B. de Villiers scraped around for 39, which contained two lives on 16 and 19.

A combination of fine fast bowling and poor shot selection saw Africa reduced to 72 for four in the 18th over.

Although Justin Kemp (38) and Steve Tikolo (43) played some daring shots, it was not enough to make up for the top-order collapse.

Poor running between wickets too undid African hopes before Muttiah Muralitharan came on to complete the clean-up act.

Sangakkara, in particular, made full use of it and more than made up for the early dismissal of Shahid Afridi and an unusuablly subdued innings by Virender Sehwag.

Jayawardene played the sheetanchor’s role while Youhana was more adventurous.

Inzamam, who twisted his ankle while batting and did not take the field, gave the innings the required momentum towards the close.

Kenyan allrounder Thomas Odoyo impressed with his line and length to collect three for 45 while South African Monde Zondeki suffered the most, returning with figures of 2 for 64 from nine overs.

Scoreboard

Asia XI

Istanbul, August 20
India’s ace driver Narain Karthikeyan was laid low by engine problems on the new Istanbul Park circuit and failed to complete the qualifying session of the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix here today.

The 28-year-old Indian was the victim of consecutive engine problems and experienced two engine changes in the morning sessions which prevented him from completing any lap.

Besides Karthikeyan, Jacques Villeneuve, the world champion in 1997, and Minardi driver Robert Doorbnoos, also did not complete the qualifying session.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher of Ferrari pulled into the pits across the 10th turn and decided not to set a time.

McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen claimed the pole position setting himself another chance to bridge the gap with Fernando Alonso of Renault, who is leading on the points table after 13 races.

Raikkonen was quickest with 1 minute and 26.797 seconds to dominate the fleet of 16 drivers who finished successfully in the error-strewn qualifying session.

Karthikeyan, who suffered the gear box problem yesterday, experienced an engine failure because of a defective valve and the engine was replaced and the second engine also experienced a failure of a different type.

Karthikeyan’s team-mate Tiago Monteiro was 15th in 1:30.710 secs behind Takuma Sato of BAR-Honda. Monteiro was followed by Christijan Albers of Minardi. — PTI

Reno (Nevada), August 20
Arjun Atwal fired in two late birdies over the last five holes to make his 13th cut of the season at the end of the second round of the $ 3 million Reno Tahoe Open at the Montreux Golf and Country Club.

Barring the PGA Championships last week, Atwal has made the cut in each of his tournament starts.

Atwal, who started the day at two-over after his first round 74, had four birdies and two bogeys as he moved from tied 76th to tied 67th to give himself a shot at a better placing on last two days.

Asian Tour No. 1 Atwal began the day at the third and birdied the third, but gave that back on fifth and turned at even par.

On the back nine, he birdied the 11th, but bogeyed the 12th. Then as holes seemed to be running out, he birdied the par-four 14th and the par-three 10th to come to two-under for the day and even for the tournament.

That helped him get into weekend rounds right on the cut line, which came at even par.

Atwal sacrificed some accuracy for distance which he got up to a little over 306 yards. His putting also improved to 26 as against 29 on first day.

Daniel Chopra missed the cut with a two-over 74 on second day after his first day six-over 78.

Abu Dhabi, August 20
Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Grandmaster Alexander Goloshchapov of Ukraine in the fifth round of the Master’s section of the Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival here.

Grandmaster Ashot Anastasian of Armenia shot into sole lead with an emphatic victory over GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan of Iran. The Armenian took his tally to 4.5 points and is now trailed by five players, including Goloshchapov on four points. Ganguly, after the loss, remained on three points.

Candidate International Masters Parimarjan Negi and Abhijeet Gupta raised visions of a good finish on a much better day for the other Indians in the fray. Negi drew with much higher rated Azerbaijani International Master Rasul Ibrahimov, while Gupta efficiently brushed aside the challenge of Amanov Mesgen of Turkmenistan to reach three points each with just four rounds remaining in this $ 16,400 prize money tournament.

Ganguly was a trifle unlucky as he mishandled a better position to go down. Playing against the French defense by Goloshchapov, the current national champion got a slight advantage after the opening and went for an interesting pawn sacrifice in the middle game to initiate an attack against the king. Goloshchapov found some solace in the trading of queens even though his pawn structure was decidedly fractured in the process.

At one point in the middle game, Ganguly had a choice to take a draw by repetition of position but the Indian simply tried too hard to force matters.

Negi yet again agreed for a draw in what many thought was a better position for him. The 12-year-old is currently focused on gaining some rating points as he lost quite a few in his last two events.

It was a Queen’s Indian wherein Ibrahimov faltered in the early middle game to give Negi a comfortable and probably advantageous position. Fearing disaster, the Azerbaijani offered a draw after just 21 moves that was accepted by Negi.

Abhijeet Gupta survived a few anxious moments before coming on top against Mesgen. The Indian, playing white, was up against the Queen’s Indian defence and failed to get any advantage when the middle game surfaced. Mesgen played quite well to exert pressure on the king and won a pawn almost forcefully. However, Gupta had some counter play on the other wing and slow manoeuvreing ensured him sufficient counter play.

In the later part of the game, Mesgen miscalculated in a wild position and the result was loss of a central passed pawn after which Gupta netted a rook for bishop to romp home in 47 moves.

In other games involving Indians, International Master DV Prasad registered a fine victory over Al-Sulaiti Ghanem of Qatar, while Woman Grandmaster-in-waiting Tania Sachdev had a smooth sailing over E Momeni of Iran.

Eesha Karavade, Kruttika Nadig and Akshat Khamparia ended on the losing side against Sergei Grigoriants of Russia, Oleg Boricsev of Hungary and Mahjoob Morteza of Iran, respectively, while M B Muraidharan drew with local hope Faisal Abdulla. — PTI

Chennai, August 20
Indian swimmers bagged three silver and four bronze medals on the opening day of the 4th Asian Age-Group Swimming championship being held in Bangkok.

Punjab’s Puneet Rana, Veerdhayal Khade (Maharashtra) and Bangalore’s Rohit Hawaldar won silver medals, while Shikha Tandon, Rehan Poncha, Aaroon D’Souza (Bangalore) and Bengal’s Mamoni Pondal were the bronze medal winners in diving, according to a fax message by Virendra Nanavati, Secretary-General, Swimming Federation of India.

In the boys water polo events, the Indian team won both their round-robin league matches beating Thailand 13-5 and Chinese Taipei 16-2.

Rana’s medal came in the 50 metre breast stroke (open group) as he clocked 29.81 seconds, Khade (in under-14) claimed the silver in the 100 metre freestyle with a timing of 55.23 seconds, while Hawaldar (15-17 age group) finished second in the 800 metre freestyle event with a timing of 8 min 42.67 sec.

Shikha Tandon, who was expected to finish for the gold, faced stiff competition in her bronze medal (2 min 29.38 sec) effort in the 200 metre backstroke (open group), while Rehan Poncha finished third (4 min 09.13sec) in 400m freestyle.

In the 400m individual medley final, D’Souza timed 4min 56.87 sec for bronze, while Mondal was adjudged third in the one-metre spring board diving final. — PTI 

New Delhi, August 20
Pankaj Advani secured a berth in the knockout stage with his sixth straight victory in the league stage of the juniors section of the World IBSF Under-21 and Seniors Snooker Championships in Manama, Bahrain, today.

The 20-year-old Indian blanked local hope Hussein Al Watani 4-0 in a Group UD match at Juffair Dome, according to information received here.

Advani showed fine form in routing the Bahrain player 60-53, 56-5 99-8 112-5 with breaks of 56 and 76. After wins in the first two frames, Advani just about missed the century mark in the third as he stopped short on 99 but he notched it up in the very next frame with a break of 112, which was his fifth 100 in the tournament.

The Indian had an interesting tie against Michael While of Wales whom he defeated 4-1 (83-50, 57-70, 103-8, 69-21, 75-20) yesterday. Advani posted breaks of 84 and 50 against White’s 50 and 70 in the best of seven frames match.

Another Indian challenge, Aditya Mehta continued his winning run by beating Ali Faisal Radhi of Bahrain 4-0 in Group UA yesterday. He scored 92-4, 74-15, 76-17, 48-1 in his fifth league match of the tournament, being played on a league-cum-knockout format.

Mehta will next take on David Morris in his sixth match.

In the seniors section, former world billiards champion Geet Sethi beat Mohamed Buainnein of Qatar 3-0 (40-30, 67-9, 68-30) in a Group SB match. — PTI 

New Delhi, August 20
Setting a precedent, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will scan this year’s list of names approved for the Arjuna, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya Awards to ensure that there is nothing controversial about it.

In the past, the names of the award winners were announced by the ministry after the selection panels approved them. But this time, the file has been forwarded to the PMO by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for clearance, though the selection panels consisted of eminent sportspersons, most of them still active at the international level.

Cue sports champion Geet Sethi headed the Arjuna, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Dhyan Chand awards selection panel, which also included many Arjuna awardees. Former Olympian Gurbachan Singh Randhawa headed the Dronacharya Award selection panel, which included renowned coaches and former sports celebrities.

Both panels finalised the names of the award winners by Thursday evening, but the ministry, instead of making an announcement, particularly in the absence of a regular Sports Minister after the death of Sunil Dutt, played it safe by forwarding the chosen names to the PMO for final clearance.

In the past, the choice of sportspersons for the Arjuna and Dronacharya Awards had kicked up controversies. But the government wants to steer clear of any doubt by getting the PMO involved in the clearance process.

Chandigarh, August 20
JCT Football Academy and Border Security Force split points after a 1-1 draw in the 19th Punjab State Super Football League at Phagwara today.

Both the teams had an equal share of exchanges although BSF held the upper hand initially. It was in the third minute that BSF broke the deadlock when Kamal Kishore found the target through a well-taken header.

Thereafter, action was confined to the midfield. After the interval, BSF had a good chance when Santosh sent a cross from the right for the well-positioned Boy Singh who, however, failed to head the ball into the net.

JCT Football Academy’s sustained efforts eventually bore fruit in the 75th minute when striker Hardip Singh’s power-packed shot from 30 yards sailed into the net giving the BSF goalkeeper absolutely no chance (1-1). Tomorrow, JCT Mills will meet Mahilpur FC at Phagwara.

Meanwhile, the second division match at Narur Panchhat today was abandoned due to inclement weather.

Patiala, August 20
Senior Punjab Sports Department (PSD) fencing coach and Secretary of the Punjab Fencing Association (PFA) Arun Vij was elected Secretary General of the Fencing Federation of India (FFI) at a meeting held at the Major Dhayna Chand National Stadium in New Delhi yesterday.

The present incumbent, Arvind Khanna, will the President of the association for the third successive term.