New Delhi, December 14
India scored an emphatic 188-run victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test to go up 1-0 in the three-Test series at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here today, but not before the visitors stretched the match beyond lunch.

Sri Lanka chasing a victory target of 436 runs were all out for 247, 41 minutes after lunch. Resuming at 123 for 5, the Lanka batsmen stonewalled India’s bid to polish off the tail, till Kumble and Harbhajan came good after the recess.

The Indian spinners kept the batsmen guessing with their sharpness and consistency, though the wicket did not aid them much. The last three Lankan wickets finally fell for 44 runs, with Kumble claiming four and Harbhajan three. For the off-spinner, it was a particularly satisfying display after having to show just one wicket for his first innings toil.

Kumble, who captured 10 wickets in the match, was expectedly adjudged the man of the match.

The Kotla ground has always proven lucky for Kumble as it was here that he took ten wickets against Pakistan in 1999 to equal Jim Laker's record.

“The wicket had uneven bounce, and it was pretty hard work. It was not a typical Kotla ground. You had to beat the bat with the pace as there was no spin,” said Kumble. He will play in his 100th Test in Ahmedabad, the venue of the third Test.

Sachin was given a special momento for his world record-setting 35th Test hundred. This was India’s sixth Test win on the trot at Kotla, and ninth overall off 28 matches, to maintain their unbeaten Test record against Lanka at home.

The Test win, which followed the ODI series triumph, has boosted the confidence of the Indian team, though former skipper Sourav Ganguly received a jolt after the victory celebration when the national selectors dropped him to bring in Wasim Jaffar for the third Test in Ahmedabad, starting on Sunday, December 18.

The selectors’ decision was a bit harsh on Ganguly as he had not only scored a gritty 40 in the first innings, but also gave vital support to Sachin Tendulkar in the second innings. He also hit 39 under difficult circumstances in the second innings, but the selectors did not take cognisance of his knocks.

But the victory did not come to India on a platter as after some despairing moments, they sensed it was at a hailing distance only when Harbhajan Singh removed the stubborn Mahela Jayawardene, off the penultimate ball of the 90th over.

Jayawardene, resuming at nine, kept the Indian bowlers at bay to keep the scoreboard moving. He put on 68 runs for the eighth-wicket with Tillakaratne Dilshan after Jehan Mubarak departed for three, and 44 runs with Chaminda Vaas. Kumble bowled Dilshan with a straight one, when the batsman stepped out to drive, and missed, though victory still quite a distance away for the hosts.

The exit of Dilshan was indeed a major breakthrough, but with Jayawardene still around, there was no way the Indian bowlers could relax. Jayawardene seemed in no mood to give up his wicket and looked capable of taking the battle to the Indian camp.

Vaas and Jayawardene hit a few streaky boundaries helping the visitors reach 203 for 7 at lunch.

After the break, Jayawardene raced to his ninth Test half century. And when he looked set and confident, he was caught by Gautam Gambhir at forward shortleg of the bowling of Harbhajan.

Jayawardene’s 67 came off 164 balls and contained seven boundaries.

From 131 for 6, Sri Lanka inched to 243 for 8, but of the second ball of the next over of Kumble, Harbhajan at short midwicket caught Vaas. Four runs later, Harbhajan forced Murali to edge the ball into the hands of Dhoni, and it was all over for Sri Lanka.

Scoreboard

India (Ist innings): 290

Sri Lanka (Ist innings): 230

India (IInd innings): 375 for six declared

Sri Lanka (IInd innings):

Gunawardene lbw Pathan 9

Atapattu c & b Kumble 67

Sangakkara c Dhoni b Agarkar 33

New Delhi, December 14
Skipper Rahul Dravid today said Feroze Shah Kotla might be a lucky venue but India still had to work hard for its sixth consecutive win at the historic ground.

“It was not just because of the lucky ground, we played good cricket. And we played hard,” Dravid said after India crushed Sri Lanka by 188 runs to win the second cricket Test and took an unassailable 1-0 lead in the three-match series. “It was not that kind of a win where we put a total on the board and the ball turned square later on. It was a hard working win.

“We did not get a score in the first innings but bowled them out. The ball kept low later on but it was not a bad wicket. Our bowlers did well to get 20 wickets,” he said.

The victory extended a winning streak that began with the win over Zimbabwe in 1992-93 and included defeats of Australia (1996) and Pakistan (1998-99) and two more of Zimbabwe in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

Dravid said the reason behind sending Irfan Pathan to open in the second innings was a tactical move.

“We have no intention of making Pathan an opener. He is a bowler who can bat, and he has done well as a batsman,” the captain said.

“On slow low pitches, it is sometimes better to bat against new ball. My reasoning was that it was the best time for Pathan to play his shots,” he said.

“Laxman was there to force the pace... and we needed experience and ability to play the turning ball later on,” Dravid said. On Sourav Ganguly’s surprise exclusion from the squad of the third Test, Dravid said it was a “happy problem” in having to decide between Yuvraj Singh and Ganguly for the next Test.

“I don’t think it is a problem. If you call it a problem, it is a happy problem. It is a good problem when we have two or three players doing well (for one slot).

“It is not going to be right on whoever is left out, but that is the way international cricket is,” he said.

Anil Kumble echoed Dravid’s opinion when asked about his love affair with the Kotla where he has now picked 48 wickets in five matches, including his latest match haul of 10-157. “It is not just Kotla, it is just a coincidence,” he said after bagging the man-of-the-match award.

The 35-year old, who has pushed his tally to 478, would be playing in his 100th Test in Ahmedabad, venue of the third Test from December 18 to 22. “It is a good feeling. I started 16 years ago... did not expect to go on for so long,” he said.

Sri Lanka skipper Atapattu said it was a disappointing loss but they will lift their game for the third Test beginning in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

“Yes, it is disappointing. We were doing well till tea on the day two but we missed the trick from there on. It demands us to lift our game in the next match,” he said.

Atapattu, who scored 67 runs, singled out Mahela Jayawardene for his effort also of an equal number of runs. “Mahela and I batted well,” he said.

Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody said the team competed well in the second cricket Test against India but lost because of two “two small periods”.

“We have lot of positives to take from the match but we lost the game in two small periods. On the second day, we needed to play some good cricket but 45 minutes of madness cost us,” Moody said after Sri Lanka’s 188-run loss at the Feroze Shah Kotla.

“Again in the second innings last evening we lost quick wickets going into the fifth day.”

Moody said the visitors failed to capitalise on dismissing India for a modest 290 in the first innings, which left Muttiah Muralitharan with a huge task.

“We should have had a 100-run lead going into the second innings but that was not to be. Murali is a wonderful bowler, he tried everything he could but it just did not work.” — PTI

Ludhiana, December 14
Holders South Korea, who had established lead in the road race events, continued to dominate the proceedings in the track events of the 25th BSA Asian Cycling Championship and the 12th Asian Junior Cycling Meet which began at the Punjab Agriculural University velodrome here today. Koreans bagged both the gold medals which were decided today.

For hosts India, it was a satisfying day today as two of its riders, Rana Abhishek and Tombisana Devi, gave a fine performance to qualify for the final of the elimination race for the junior men sprint 200 m flying start and junior women sprint 2000 m flying start, respectively.

For the junior boys, Hwaang In Hyeok of South Korea proved too good for his rivals to bag the gold while Saeki Syo of Japan and Kang Dong Jin from South Korea secured the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

In the elite men's elimination race, Park Sung Baek from South Korea came out triumphnat to lay his hands on the gold medal. The silver and bronze medals went to Alexey Lyalko of Kazakhstan and Limbyunk from South Korea, respectively.

Meanwhile, the following cyclists have qualified for the finals of different events: elite women (sprint 2000 m) — Gao Yawei of China, You Jina of South Korea, Zhang Lei of China, Gu Hyon Jin of Korea; junior men (sprint 200 m) — Wang Qiming of China, Kang Dong Jin of Korea, Kohara Masamichi of Japan, Choe Lae Seon of south Korea, Mohd Yunos Edrus of Malaysia, Awang Hasni of Malaysia, Sasaki Yoshinori of Japan and Rana Abhishek of India.

Elite men (200 m flying start) — Zhang Lei of China, Kim Chi Bum of South Korea, Kitatsuru Tsubasa of Japan, Gao Ya Hui of China, Wong Kin Chung of Hong Kong, Jeon Yeong Gyu of South Korea, Mohd Nasir Juaidi of Malaysia, Nu Po Hung of Chinese Taipei; junior women (sprint 2000 m flying start) — Zhang Lulu of China, Park Eun Mi of South Korea, Og Min Soon of South Korea, Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong and H Tombisana Devi of India.

Mr Surinder Singla, Finance Minister, Punjab, formally inaugurated the championship today. Capt Amrinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab, who was supposed to come to inaugurate the championship failed to turn up.

While addressing the participants, Mr Singla announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for the Cycling Federation of India.

Chennai, December 14
Chances of India making it to the semifinals vanished after they went down 0-1 to Germany for their third defeat in four matches in the Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament here this evening.

Earlier, Olympic champions Australia beat Netherlands 3-2 in a tough match to keep its slate clean. Of the five goals in the game, three came from penalty corners. And the only goal in India-Germany match, too, came from a penalty corner in a tournament which is otherwise dominated by field goals.

With its fourth consecutive win, Australia assured itself a place in the medal round, as they remain the only team to remain unbeaten in the tournament so far. The Netherlands, who suffered their first defeat now face India in their last encounter.

All India needed was a draw to keep its chances alive of making it to the medal round.

Though the home team put up a better performance than its dismal show against the Aussies yesterday, it was unable to make a dent in the deep defence of the young experimental German side.

The Germans, needing a win desperately to stay in the top four, had India reeling under pressure right from the word go. They almost took the lead in the second minute when Witthaus attempted a powerful reverse flick from the top of the striking circle.

If India managed to keep the German lead to a solitary goal, credit must go to Bharat Chhettri who had a splendid performance in the Indian goal. He executed at least three brilliant saves, including two of penalty corner strikes by Jan Marco Montag, the man who scored the decisive goal in the 17th minute from the second penalty corner.

When Germany forced its first penalty corner, it was Kanwal Preet who brought a goal line save of Montag's flick.

Though the game was played on a brisk pace, yet the level of hockey dished out by the two teams was mediocre with both sides fumbling with trapping. It was at the fag end of the match when India mounted pressure on the Germans that saw some good moves with Gagan Ajit, Prabhjot and V.S. Vinay attempting both solos as well as combined moves but they fumbled inside the striking circle.

India’s only penalty corner came in the 45th minute from which Sandeep flicked straight into the goalkeeper.

Germans, who were more effective in marking Indian attackers, especially Gagan Ajit, played to a game plan of holding on to their early lead. The supremacy of their defence was so evident that India hardly put their goalkeeper Christian Schulte to any severe test in the game.

Chennai, December 14
Matt Naylor of Australia had the distinction of scoring the 2000th goal of this elite tournament. This was, incidentally, the first goal of the fourth day of the tournament and the 47th of the tournament so far.

Interestingly, with the change of rules and changing strategies, penalty corner conversions are no more the match winners. As of now only 14 of 51 goals have come from penalty corners and six from penalty strokes. This included the goals Taeke Taekema scored in the 20th and 42nd minutes against Australia.

Today’s first game saw both the Netherlands and Australia scoring from penalty corners. While Taeke Taekema scored from both the penalty corners, Smith converted the first penalty awarded to Australia. For the Olympic champions Australia, Andrew Smith scored their second goal from a penalty corner to put them in the lead again.

So, penalty corner conversions have accounted for nearly 28 per cent of the total goals scored so far. Penalty strokes take about 12 per cent of the share.Only six goals have been scored through strokes so far.

As many as 60 per cent of the total goals — 31 to be precise — have been field goals.

But if one looks back at previous editions of the tournament, penalty corner conversions accounted for, if not more, 50 per cent of the total goals. Jan Floris Bovelander, for example, won many a battle for the Netherlands single handedly with his penalty corner conversions. Then came Brad Lomans who helped the Netherlands win the 1998 World Cup.

Similarly, Sohail Abbas, too, won many matches for Pakistan with his lethal drag flicks. In the current tournament, Pakistan is yet to score a goal from penalty corners.

Spain, which had Juan Amat and Escude brothers as penalty corner specialists, are also found wanting in this department now. Calum Gilles of England was another deadly exponent of penalty corners. Argentina had their penalty corner specialist in Jorge Lombi.

According to Hockey statistician B.G. Joshi, in the 2000 goals scored in the tournament, there were 60 hat-tricks, of which only one came from an Indian player. The Netherlands topped the list with 19 followed by Germany (11) and Pakistan (9).

New Delhi, December 14
A fine brace by MacPherlin Omagbemi Dudu in a space of two minutes helped Sporting Club de Goa crush Assam Rifles, Shillong, 3-0 as the Goan side stormed into the final of the Durand Cup football tournament at Ambedkar Stadium here today.

Leading 1-0 at half time, after Bebiano Fernandes had put them in the lead in the 33rd minute from a Dudu heading pass, the Goan side displayed technical superiority and outplayed their opponents with Nigerian recruits Dudu and Chidi Edeh, well supported by Adbefyo Adewusi and N. Rajesh Meetei, threatening the rival defence umpteen times in both the halves.

Skipper Dudu made it 2-0 for the National League runners in the 43rd minute through a fine effort, dribbling pass the onrushing rival goalkeeper after collecting a Chidi pass and slamming the ball home into the empty net.

One minute later, the National League best player and highest scorer Sporting captain rounded off the tally scoring another brilliant goal collecting a long clearance from his side’s defence and placing the ball to the right of the advancing goalkeeper into the net. — UNI