Faisalabad, January 24
After India wagged its tail, Pakistan top order returned the favours and riding on twin half centuries, the hosts reached 152 for one in their second innings on the penultimate day, thus killing prospects of any result in the second Test at the Iqbal Stadium here today.

Continuing his golden run with the bat, in-form Pakistani vice-captain Younis Khan was not out 64 while stumper Kamran Akmal made up for his first innings failure with an unbeaten 59.

The pair has so far put on 101 runs for their second wicket stand in 121 minutes.

Earlier, India took a 15-run first innings lead scoring 603 all out in reply to Pakistan first innings score of 588.

Pakistan openers Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal began positively and put on 51 runs for their opening stand in 12.1 overs before India got their first break through.

Salman Butt took a handsome boundaries off R.P. Singh who bowled short and ended up conceding 33 runs in his six-over spell. However, Butt fell trying to get after Anil Kumble when he hit straight to Sachin Tendulkar at mid-wicket. Butt made 24 with five fours.

Younis Khan looked impressive as he drove crisply against the pacers while he toyed with the spinners with his nimble footwork and deft touch play. He cover drove and pulled Kumble for boundaries, bringing up his half century in 92 minutes, facing 73 balls and hitting 10 fours.

Kamran Akmal excelled with his short arm pulls against the pacers.

He too relished pulling R.P. Singh to the fence as and when the pacer erred in length. The diminutive wicket-keeper batsman got to his half century just before close when he hit Kumble through the covers for his ninth boundary. His fifty took him 162 minutes, and he faced 113 balls and hit nine fours.

Earlier, Irfan Pathan missed his maiden Test ton as India were all out for 603 in their first innings, thus managing a slender 15-run.

Resuming the day at 411 for five, the overnight pair of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (overnight 116) and Irfan Pathan (overnight 47) continued to pile on the runs without much discomfort. Dhoni, in particular, was on fire taking a heavy toll on Shoaib Akhtar. In one particular over from the express pace bowler, Dhoni hit him all over and the pacer ended up conceding 20 runs.

Dhoni first smashed Akhtar for a scorching straight drive before playing him over slip for another boundary. Akhtar then went round the wicket only to see Dhoni pull him with disdain for another boundary. Having been hit for three fours, Akhtar lost his head and bowled a beamer well down the leg side that travelled to the fine leg fence for another boundary. Umpire Simon Toufel promptly declared it as a 'no ball'.

However, Dhoni's heroics finally came to an end against leg spinner Danish Kaneria when he gave him the charge, missed, and was brilliantly stumped by Kamran Akmal.

Dhoni added another 31 runs to his overnight score and was dismissed for 144. He batted 231 minutes, faced 152 balls and hit 17 fours and two sixes.

The Dhoni-Pathan partnership produced 210 runs for the sixth wicket.

Scoreboard

Pakistan (1st innings) 588

India (1st innings)

Sehwag c (sub) Farhat b Razzaq 31

Dravid run out 103

Laxman c Akmal b Kaneria 90

Tendulkar c Akmal b Akhtar 14

Yuvraj c Kaneria b Asif 4

Dhoni st Akmal b Kaneria 148

Pathan lbw Razzaq 90

Kumble st Akmal b Kaneria 15

Harbhajan lbw Afridi 38

Zaheer not out 20

R.P. Singh c and b Afridi 6

Extras (b-3, lb-15, w-3, nb-23) 44

Total (all out, 155.4 overs) 603

Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-236, 3-241, 4-258, 5-281, 6-491, 7-529, 8-553, 9-587.

Bowling: Akhtar 25-7-100-1, Asif 34-6-103-1, Razzaq 28-1-126-2, Kaneria 54-6-165-3, Afridi 24.4-0-91-2.

Pakistan (2nd innings)

Butt c Tendulkar b Kumble 24

Akmal batting 59

Younis batting 64

Extras (lb-2, nb-3) 5

Total (for one wkt, 43 overs) 152

Fall of wicket: 1-52.Bowling: Pathan 9-1-27-0, R P Singh 6-1-33-0, Kumble 12-2-56-1, Zaheer Khan 7-3-12-0, Harbhajan Singh 8-2-16-0, Yuvraj Singh 1-0-6-0. — UNI, PTI 

Faisalabad, January 24
India’s batting hero in the second Test, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, today described his match-saving counter-attacking knock as a calculated risk he had to take considering the tricky situation his team was in yesterday.

“It was a calculated risk. I had to go for my strokes at some point of time and I decided that it was the right time and I should go for it,” said the 24-year-old Ranchi-born player who made 148 in 152 balls, hitting 19 fours and four sixes.

Dhoni, who rescued the sinking Indian innings from 281 for five with his maiden century and a record sixth wicket partnership with Irfan Pathan, said he wanted to first check the pace and bounce of the wicket before going for his shots.

“It was a challenge for me. I just wanted to hang in there for a while, get adjusted to the bounce and pace of the wicket.” Asked which had been the most special congratulatory message he had received for his knock, Dhoni promptly referred to Kapil Dev’s remarks in Mumbai yesterday in which the legendary all-rounder said “Dhoni is my hero”.

Dhoni said Shoaib Akhtar’s spell with the new ball yesterday afternoon was a fiery one.

“It was quite fiery. I believe he was consistently bowling over 148 kph. It was something really fast.” Asked about the beamer he faced from the ‘Rawalpindi Express’, Dhoni said the ball must have just slipped out of his hands.

“Of course a beamer always surprises you and yes, I was a bit surprised,” he said, adding it could have been unintentional.

Akhtar was thrashed by the Indian stumper for two consecutive fours prior to the beamer for which he was no-balled and also warned by umpire Simon Taufel.

The youngster from Jharkhand described the wicket at the Iqbal Stadium here as the best he had ever played on.

“It’s the best batting wicket I have ever played on,” said Dhoni, who singled out leg spinner Danish Kaneria for punishment yesterday before being stumped off the same bowler today. — PTI

Melbourne, January 24
South Africa produced a brilliant bowling performance at the death to snatch a tense nine-run victory over Sri Lanka in their triangular series one-day match in Adelaide today.

Sri Lanka were chasing South Africa’s 263 for five after Boeta Dippenaar had scored a career best 125 not out before Johan van der Wath and Andrew Hall combined to take wickets and restrict runs in the final overs.

Tillakartne Dilshan (82 not out) and Mahela Jayawardene (52) had combined to score 107 runs and were cruising to victory in the 45th over before Jayawardene was bowled by Van Der Wath.

Hall then bowled Russel Arnold and ran out Malinga Bandara on successive balls to swing the game back in South Africa’s favour.

He then bowled five dot balls in the final over to restrict Sri Lanka to 254 for eight off 50 overs.

Scoreboard

South Africa

Earlier, Mahesh Bhupathi and comeback star Martina Hingis had reached the second round in mixed doubles after beating Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of the Chinese Taipei and Na Li of China 6-2, 6-2.

Sanam keeps Indian hopes alive

Sanam Singh kept the Indian flag flying by first winning his junior singles match and then, partnering compatriot Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, storming into the second round of the doubles event with a straight set win in the Australian Open here today.

However, the girls continued to disappoint and the Sanaa Bhambri-Sandhya Nagaraj pair, already out of contention in singles, lost their doubles match as well going down 4-6, 3-6 to the Swede pair of Michaela Johansson and Johanna Larsson.

Sanam, seeded third in singles, came back from a set down to beat unseeded Australian Todd Ley 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 to advance into the third round. He will now take on unseeded Austen Child of New Zealand.

Meanwhile, in the boys doubles event Sanam was at it again teaming with Jeevan to beat the unseeded Belarussian pair of Ruben Bemelmans and Frederick De Fays 6-1, 7-5 to advance to the second round. — UNI

Melbourne, January 24
Maria Sharapova beat fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 7-6 (6), 6-4 today in an error-filled quarterfinal at the Australian Open.

Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, will play Justine Henin-Hardenne in the Thursday’s semifinals.

There were three service breaks by each player in the first set, including two missed opportunities by Petrova serving for the set and a double-fault by Petrova on break point when she led 6-5.

Seven unforced errors opened the tiebreaker before Sharapova hit an ace to level at 4-4. Petrova later blew two set points and Sharapova finally took the first set in 71 minutes when Petrova, fittingly, double-faulted on Sharapova’s set point, her eighth double-fault of the first set to Sharapova’s seven.

Sharapova broke Petrova’s serve to open the second set and went up 4-1 when Petrova again double-faulted on break point, her 11th of the match. Petrova broke back to 4-3, but Sharapova clinched the match three games later, fending off three break points and winning when Petrova hit a backhand long.

Petrova finished with 49 unforced errors in the match while Sharapova had 36.

Sharapova had beaten the 23-year-old Petrova in three of four previous matches, including the quarterfinals at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year.

Eighth seed Justine Henin-Hardenne fought back from a set down to topple top seed Lindsay Davenport 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 today and reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Henin-Hardenne twice double-faulted on break point to hand Davenport the early advantage in a sloppy first set that included six breaks of serve.

Among men, Argentina’s fourth seed David Nalbandian wore down unseeded French veteran Fabrice Santoro to win through to his first Australian Open semifinal today.

Nalbandian overcame early problems with Santoro’s unorthodox play before he realised a lopsided 7-5, 6-0, 6-0 win in just one hour 41min on Rod Laver Arena.

The Argentine will play Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in Thursday's semifinal. The unseeded Baghdatis beat Croatian seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3.

Nalbandian has now reached the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam events — French Open (2004), Wimbledon (2002) and US Open (2003) and the Australian.

He is bidding to become only the second Argentinian to win the Australian Open following Guillermo Vilas’ titles in 1978 and 1979.

Nalbandian (24) said he had gained extra confidence from beating world number one Roger Federer in the final of the Masters Cup in Shanghai last November and by making his first Australian semi-final. — AP, AFP

Patiala, January 24
Notwithstanding the Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s claims of setting up a defence university in place of the National Institute of Sports (NIS), the management of the Asia’s premier sports institute has chalked out a plan to further develop and upgrade the infrastructure at 
the institute.

This development has virtually put the NIS authorities and the Chief Minister on a collision course since the latter has been issuing statements that a defence university will come up in place of the NIS. According to the Chief Minister, 90 per cent of the institute’s infrastructure has already been shifted to SAI’s southern centre in Bangalore, a statement which is being vehemently denied by the NIS administrators.

According a the NIS Regional Director, Mr L. Ranawat, the Director-General of the SAI has cleared the first phase of the plan and a budget of Rs 12 crore has been sanctioned which will be given to the CPWD for initiating development projects.

Under the plan, sports infrastructure like playfields would be equipped with the latest equipment, including modern synthetic surfaces and money has also been sanctioned for installation of floodlights at the athletics track 
which boasts of an eight-lane state-of-the-art 
synthetic track.

According to Mr Ranawat, plans are afoot to provide an Astroturf. The lawn tennis and the volleyball courts will also be equipped with floodlights while the technical faults in the cycling velodrome, which hosted the National track cycling meet last week, have also been rectified.

An outdoor and indoor shooting range will also come up within the precincts of the institute while there are plans to set an additional synthetic track for athletics laid adjacent to the eight-lane track already in use.

To tide over the paucity of rooms for national campers and students attending various courses at the institute, the DG has also sanctioned 300-bed men’s hostels and a 100-bed hostel for women
athletes.

INTACH has also planned the renovation of the main palace building which houses the administrative block of the institute. Also to be renovated are the buildings housing the faculty for sports sciences, silver jubilee hostel and the health centre.

Chandigarh, January 24
The much-awaited JCT-East Bengal match in the 10th National Football League to be played at Ludhiana has been rescheduled. According to Arjuna awardee Inder Singh, secretary of the Punjab Football Association, the match earlier scheduled for January 31 will now be played on February 2 at Ludhiana’s Guru Nanak 
Stadium at 2 pm.

The All-India Football Federation has also rescheduled the second home match of JCT. As per the earlier draw, JCT were scheduled to play Goa’s Dempo SC at Ludhiana on February 3. However, as per the revised fixtures, the JCT-Dempo match will now be played at Ludhiana on February 7. The draw for the subsequent rounds will be announced later. — TNS