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Goa to host one-dayer pending BCCI nod
India on the rise
North crush Zimbabwe XI
Vincent’s knock goes in vain
Samuels hits 257
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Harikrishna tightens grip on title
Pakistan names players for PHL
PSB win hockey title
Thaworn Wiratchant maintains lead
Jalandhar school enter semis
Scorer clarifies on India’s total
RCA raking in the moolah
Parle Cup
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Goa to host one-dayer pending BCCI nod
New Delhi, October 29 “Goa will host a one-day international against England, provided the report of the BCCI Disciplinary Committee exonerates it and the findings are ratified by the board’s Working Committee,” BCCI Secretary S.K. Nair told reporters here. He added, “You can say it is a conditional allotment.” The state association had been facing charges of selling duplicate tickets for the
ODI, played on April 6, 2001. The BCCI Programmes and Fixtures Committee today allotted the three Test matches to be played against Sri Lanka in December to Delhi, Kanpur and Chennai. The matches would be held from December 2 to 6, from December 10 to 14 and from December 18 to 22, but the order of the venues would be decided later, taking into account travel plans of the Sri Lankan team. The Sri Lankan board had not asked for a warm-up game before the Test series and as of now, there was no plan to organise such a match. Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Mumbai would host Test matches against England next year. The matches would be organised from March 8 to 12, from March 16 to 20 and from March 25 to 29, followed by seven
ODIs, on April 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 and 22. Apart from Goa, the visiting Englishmen would play one-day internationals at Indore, Guwahati, Faridabad,
Cuttack, Kochi and Visakhapatnam. They were scheduled to play two three-day warm-up matches, to be played from February 25 to 27 and from March 2 to 4, the venues for which would be decided later. “We had to decide on the venues for the series quickly as the England and Wales Cricket Board
(ECB) wanted to finalise the travel schedules,” Nair said. “We previously wanted to take a decision in this regard after the annual general meeting of the board, but since it had been adjourned, the committee had to take the decision,” he said. The centres were allotted the matches according to the BCCI’s rotation policy and the decision had to be ratified by the Working Committee of the board, Nair said. “If the ECB so chooses, it can send its teams to access the venues decided for the series,” he added.
— PTI |
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India on the rise
There are different strains of themes which I have noticed from the first couple of matches. Obvious is obvious: Sri Lanka have slipped to a new level of incompetence and India are on the rise.
Theorists will adjust their landscape of favourites for the 2007 World Cup. For me, the disturbing signals are from seniors, who have to provide leadership to a touring
party. Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan are our favourite sons. A few failures cannot revise their reputations. They now have to dig their heels deep to ensure the team is not redefined if another week, god forbids, of similar intensity is going to rock our boat. A few things have been beyond control. Jayasuriya may be a little out of touch, but his injury has not allowed him to be his ebullient self. He alone now can answer the charge if he is now a foot slow or if his reflexes and eyesight are not what these used to be. Muralitharan has been confronted by a real quality batsman in Sachin Tendulkar after a long time and if there are only hundred-odd runs to defend, it restricts his
options. Mahela Jayawardene has to wed and I do not blame him, for it was arranged before the schedule was announced. I am concerned at the collective batting failure. It is the batsmen who win you games in the subcontinent. I do not approve of Kumara Sangakkara as an opener. The opening combination was duly tinkered with, but he was not the man to be the face of it. When everyone is gripped with the virus of failure, you do not put all your worries at the doorstep of your best man. Every individual has to pull his own weight. Upul Tharanga needs to be brought out of the closet as opener. I will not accept if the pitch is held up as a reason for our batting mishaps. The one at Mohali was perfect, backed with a lightning quick outfield. I certainly did not see it as one where the ball was holding up. Even at Nagpur, one would have to visit the match again to see if spinners really had that huge assistance in the second half of the day. When the spinning duo of Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag took successive wickets, it was the 10th and 11th overs of the innings and the ball was new. It is easy to overreact on such terrible reverses and I hope such a thing is not happening behind the closed doors of
the dressing room. There is nothing wrong with the quality of these batsmen. Most who go out of form suffer because they start believing that their best has deserted them. Being uptight will never be a solution, it actually adds to the problem. Sometimes being relaxed is the best option. The best process is to attend to the basics; watch the ball closely as it leaves the bowler’s hand and trust your ability which has brought you thus far. If it is technical issue, help is available from the support staff. The best man to convey the message is the
captain. Atapattu could cite from his own instance. When he began his career in India, he was a doddering wreck, where even scoring the first run was a matter of celebration. Amidst cries for his head, we believed in his ability, but more importantly, he believed in himself. He soon turned the corner and centuries and double centuries flowed. That message still has relevance. I have a massive regard for his ability and intelligence. We in Sri Lanka are actually in the process of appointing him as long-term captain, till the 2007 World Cup. It is a complete contrast with the Indians. Their batsmen are raking up massive totals and bowlers are dismissing the opponents for less than 200.
— PTI |
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North crush Zimbabwe XI
Mumbai, October 29 Leg-spinner Mishra bagged four for 74 and off-spinner Sarandeep grabbed three for 79 as Zimbabwe XI, resuming at the overnight score of 50 for one after having conceded a 264-run first innings’ lead, were dismissed 19 minutes before tea on the penultimate day. The Zimbabweans, shot out for 94 in the first essay, to which North had replied with 358, put up a much better display in the second innings. The highlight of the Zimbabweans’ second innings was a blistering knock of 73 by lower-order batsman Charles Coventry, who slammed 10 fours in his 107-minute innings, in which he faced 90 balls, to keep team in the fight after the top order disintegrated. Scoreboard Zimbabwe President’s XI North Zone (1st innings) 358 Zimbabwe President’s XI Duffin b Joginder 16 Ferreira c Sangram b Sarandeep 7 Sibanda lbw Gagandeep
23 Masakadza c Ricky Ebrahim run out 12 Taylor c Mishra b Sarandeep 10 Coventry b Mishra
73 Utseya c Dhawan b Mishra 4 Mahwire not out 32 Cremer lbw Mishra 1 Ireland c Yashpal b Mishra 2 Extras
(b-7, lb-7, nb-11) 25 Total (all out, 79.1 overs) 257 Fall of wickets:
1-17, 2-58, 3-90, 4-116, 5-126, 6-156, 7-163, 8-233, 9-235. Bowling:
Joginder 10-5-59-1, Bhandari 4-1-15-0, Sarandeep 24-5-79-3, Mishra 27.1-5-74-4, Gagandeep 6-2-16-1. South follow on
Surat: South Zone were 158 for five in their second innings after following on the third day of the four-day Duleep Trophy match against Central Zone here on Saturday. Asked to bat again after facing a deficit of 213 runs after Central’s first innings’ score of 478, South lost wickets at regular intervals in their second essay. Only S. Sriram played a defensive game and was unbeaten on 94, which included 10 boundaries, along with Sreekumar Nair, who was yet to open his account, when the stumps were drawn. Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 127 for three in the first innings, South were all out for 265 in 76.3 overs, with wicketkeeper Dinesh Kaarthick being the top-scorer, making 51 (7x4, 1x6). For Central, Piyush Chawla took three wickets for 62 runs while Harvinder Singh and skipper Sanjay Bangar chipped in with two wickets each.
— PTI |
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Vincent’s knock goes in vain
Cape Town, October 29 South Africa scored 201 for nine after winning the toss and choosing to bat first on a sluggish pitch and then dismissed New Zealand for 182 in 47.5 overs. New Zealand’ number three batsman Vincent faced 109 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes. His dismissal in the 43rd over, when he pulled a short delivery from fast bowler Makhaya Ntini and was caught at midwicket, reduced the visitors to 165 for eight. New Zealand seemed to be cruising to victory on 127 for four in the 31st over. Then medium-pacer Justin Kemp had Jacob Oram caught behind for 11 to rekindle South Africa’s hopes. Ten balls later, left-arm spinner Nicky Boje spotted Brendon McCullum advancing up the pitch and reacted by pitching his delivery
wide. McCullum missed the ball and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher struck to stump the New Zealander for one. In Boje’s next over, Graeme Smith stationed himself at silly point and Daniel Vettori duly prodded a catch to the South African captain to be dismissed for
nought. Vincent’s dismissal nine overs later effectively ended New Zealand’s challenge. Earlier, Scott Styris and Kyle Mills struck key blows to restrict South African
batsmen. Styris varied the pace and style of his deliveries effectively to take two for 29 from 10 overs. He dismissed Smith, who scored 36, and Shaun Pollock for nought in consecutive overs. Scoreboard South Africa Smith b Styris
36 Puttick b Bond 0 Gibbs lbw b Mills 33 Pollock c Adams b Styris
0 Kallis c Vincent b Mills 51 Prince b Vettori 19 Boucher c & b Mills 40 Kemp not out
8 Langeveldt c Adams b Mills 1 Ntini b Bond 0 Nel not out 4 Extras
(lb-1, nb-2, w-6) 9 Total (9
wkts, 50 overs) 201 Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-69, 3-71, 4-74, 5-120, 6-182, 7-188, 8-196, 9-197. Bowling:
Mills 10-0-44-4, Bond 10-0-42-2, Adams 6-0-39-0, Styris 10-1-29-2, Vettori 10-0-31-1, Astle 4-0-15-0. New Zealand Fleming c Smith b Ntini
6 Astle c Gibbs b Ntini 3 Vincent c Prince b Ntini 90 Styris c Kemp b Nel 27 McMillan c Boucher Oram c Boucher b Kemp 11 McCullum st Boucher b Boje 1 Vettori c Smith b Boje 0 Franklin c Puttick Adams lbw b Langeveldt 6 Mills not out 2 Extras
(lb-5, nb-1, w-6) 12 Total (all out, 47.5 overs) 182 Fall of wickets:
1-7, 2-16, 3-80, 4-93, 5-127, 6-129, 7-137, 8-165, 9-177. Bowling:
Pollock 7-0-36-0, Ntini 10-1-29-3, Nel 9-1-32-1, Langeveldt 7.5-3-35-3, Kemp 6-0-19-1, Boje 8-0-26-2.
— Reuters |
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Samuels hits 257
Brisbane, October 29 The Caribbean tourists held a 288-run first-innings lead when they declared at a ground record 612 for nine following the end of Samuels’ 304-ball knock in the last session.
— AFP |
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Harikrishna tightens grip on title
Hoogeveen (The Netherlands), October 29 The draw helped Harikrishna retain his full-point lead over Sokolov and Emil Sutovsky of Israel and now needed a draw with white pieces against women’s world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the final round. In the other game of the four-player double-round-robin event, Stefanova held Sutovsky to a draw. Harikrishna was now on 3.5 points, with Sokolov and Sutovsky on 2.5 points each and Stefanova on 1.5 points. Sokolov tried hard, but faced an important theoretical novelty by Harikrishna in the Slav defence game, that was hard to handle. Playing black, Harikrishna uncorked his new idea on the 14th turn and thereafter, a series of exchanges led to a pawn-plus endgame for Sokolov, but there was ample counterplay for the Hyderabad-based player. Sokolov went for further exchanges and effectively transposed to a rook-and-pawns endgame, which was a forced draw. The game lasted 36 moves. Stefanova played quite solidly to hold Sutovsky, who employed the Grunfeld defence with black pieces. The peace was signed after 48 moves. In the open section, Parimarjan Negi drew with Grandmaster Arkady Eremeevich Vul of Russia to move to 4.5 points after eight rounds.
— PTI |
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Pakistan names players for PHL
Karachi, October 29 Missing from the list is drag-flicker Sohail Abbas, who was a big star of the inaugural edition of the PHL in Hyderabad. A PHF official, however, said though the players had been named for the PHL, the dates of the event were still an issue. “We want our players to go to India and their players to come and play in our league. But there is still a problem because the PHL dates clash with our national championship,” Sardar Naveed Khan, Director (Marketing), PHF, was quoted as saying in the news report. He said the PHF was trying to reschedule their three-tier national championship as much as possible and expected the Indian Hockey Federation to make PHL dates flexible.
— PTI |
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PSB win hockey title
Jalandhar, October 29 In a fast-paced final, Punjab Police made numerous attempts to score a goal but in vain. In the eighth minute, Jugraj Singh’s attempt to convert a penalty corner was thwarted by PSB goalkeeper Maninder Singh. Punjab and Sind Bank striker Mandeep Singh scored the first goal and set up the second goal for team-mate Dharminder. Olympian Baljit Dhillon of Punjab Police reduced the margin by converting a penalty corner. The match witnessed some rough play, with players of the two teams being shown five green and two yellow cards. Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla gave away the trophy to the winning team.
— TNS |
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Thaworn Wiratchant maintains lead
New Delhi, October 29 The Asian Tour money leader displayed his fine touch to card 68 with some superb putting. Harmeet Kahlon of India played poorly on the back nine to card one-over 73 and slip to overall eighth after making an impressive 64 on day two. Another Thai player, 21-year-old Prom Meesawat, shot a three-under 68 for a tied second place with South African Hendrick Buhrmann. Jyoti Randhawa kept the Indian title hopes alive when he returned the day’s best card of 67 with five birdies. “It feels good to have the best card of the day”, Jyoti said. However, Arjun Atwal could not regain his wonted form as he returned a poor one-over 73 to end up nine strokes behind the Thai leader. Kahlon began with a birdie and had two more on the third and the seventh before topping it with an eagle on the eighth. On the return journey he bogied his way to decline on the ninth, 12th, 14th and 15th. |
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Jalandhar school enter semis
New Delhi, October 29 In the tie-breaker, Jalandhar scored through Prem Kumar, Jatinder Pal Singh, Ashok Kumar and Lakhwinder Singh, while Chandigarh scored thrice, through Simrandeep Singh, Rupinder Singh and Preet Inder Singh. In another quarterfinal, Town High School, Orissa, defeated Birsa Munda Vidyapitha, Rourkela, 3-1.
— OSR |
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Scorer clarifies on India’s total
Mohali, October 29 He said on the last ball of the match, Sachin Tendulkar had got a single as the winning run and not hit a boundary as mistaken by the
media. Sachin’s score in the official scoreboard is 67 and not 70 as the batsman had scored the single through his hit to long off. The umpire had not signaled a boundary, the scorer said.
— PTI |
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RCA raking in the moolah Jaipur, October 29 And if one takes into account the sale from tickets, the figure will touch an astonishing Rs 6-crore mark. Till now it was the Punjab Cricket Association which was laughing all the way to the bank and had the distinction of generating the maximum revenue from staging of international cricket matches. “We have broken that record,” sources in the RCA said today. “We have exceeded their figure already with two days still to go for the match,” they said. Profit from ticket sales has already hit the roof with Rs 3 crore expected to be earned over the counter.
— PTI
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Parle Cup
New Delhi, October 29 Brief scores: Ganga: 153 (Mohit Sharma 50, Taran Preet 39; Gaurav Sharma 3 for 26, Ashish Yadav 2 for 26, Hemant Singh 2 for 27); Ravindra: 154 for 5 (Hemant Singh 84 n.o., Ashish 42; Mohit Sharma 2 for 15, Amanjeet Singh 2 for 28). |
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