Rawalpindi, February 10
A beleaguered India go into the second one-dayer here tomorrow with its threadbare bowling attack under enormous pressure to stop the Pakistani juggernaut and square the series.

Bogged down by bowling worries, rendered worse by the finger injury to off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, the Indian think tank was left grappling to find ways to discover their winning ways again.

Although Pakistan also suffered a huge blow on the eve of the match after an unfit pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar was ruled out of what could have been his home game, Inzamam-ul Haq has enough options to choose from his bowling repertoire.

That the hosts won the first game in Peshawar without the ‘Rawalpindi Express’, speaks volumes about the bowling reserves of Pakistan.

India, in contrast, have been exposed thoroughly on the bowling front and it seems even if they rattle up a total in excess of 300, they might end up losing the game due to their bowlers’ inability to snap up 10 wickets.

Things have become hot on the war of words between the two camps as well. Inzamam has accused the Indians of “unsportsmanlike” action in appealing against him when he obstructed the field in the first ODI.

This was rebutted by Indian skipper Rahul Dravid through a media statement yesterday that the Indians could not be accused of having acted against the spirit of the game.

Dravid said he had got this confirmed from match referee Chris Broad and the two umpires — Simon Taufel and Asad Rauf — who officiated in the match.

With former players from the respective countries joining in the hot debate, the stage has been set for another no-holds barred battle between the two sides on what promises to be another batting pitch at the Pindi Stadium.

The pendulum has shifted the home team’s way ever since they rallied brilliantly from a sorry-reading 39 for 6 to turn things around in their favour in the series-deciding Test at Karachi.

The Test series victory over their archrivals, which came after a wait of almost two decades, seemed to have galvanised the Pakistan team into a formidable one and the victory by the D/L Method in the first one-day at Peshawar has only made the hosts more buoyant.

The Indians need to buckle down to the arduous task with determination or they can very well kiss goodbye to the chances of winning the five-match one-day series too.

The most heartening thing for the Indians is the return to form of champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar who showed fine touch in his knock of 100 after starting very cautiously in Peshawar.

The knock came on the heels of his poor run of scores in the Test series and should give the Indian camp a lot to be enthused about as he is one batsman the Pakistani bowlers fear the most. Tendulkar’s ability to rotate the strike and give more of it to young Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni was one of the brighter spots on an otherwise gloomy day in Peshawar.

The ace batsman has happy memories of this ground too, having scored a magnificent 141, albeit for a losing cause, when India chased Pakistan’s 329 for 6, the highest-ever score made here, and lost narrowly to be 1-2 down in the series in March 2004 before winning the last two ties to clinch it 3-2.

What the Indians would and must be eager to do is not to throw away another good start by losing wickets in the end overs and as was the case in the opening encounter when they lost way from 266 for 3 in 40 overs to finally muster 328, losing all their wickets in the process.

The tourists would be hoping for another big contribution from the Mumbai maestro, this time for a winning and series-levelling cause.

India have quite a few worries on the bowling front, going into the tie which is the second one to be played between the two countries at this venue.

The biggest anxiety is Harbhajan’s injury which has all but ruled him out of the match here too unless there is dramatic improvement within the next 24 hours.

Ramesh Powar, the stocky Mumbai off spinner, has been brought here as cover for Harbhajan and could play in the match if India decide to opt for two spinners and omit one of the four medium pacers who played at Peshawar.

S. Sreesanth, who played in the first ODI, was down with sore throat and fever after reaching Islamabad where the team is staying and might give way to Powar. He was expensive in the first match too.

Dravid has already admitted that the bowlers should do better than they have done so far on the tour, and unless the bowlers deliver the goods even a plus-300 score would not be able to clinch a win as the Pakistan team bats deep down the order.

The Indian bowlers struggled for the major part of the Pakistan run-chase at Peshawar on a shirtfront of a wicket with none able to make a big impression in the first 30 overs.

The redeeming part was they came back towards the end in poor light conditions to reduce the hosts from 201 for one to 299 for 7 after the great start provided by Salman Butt and Shoaib Malik who put on 151 runs only in 23.4 overs.

Dravid preferred to bowl Pathan for a straight 10-over spell but this limited his options in the end overs with the other bowlers not making any impression on the strong Pak batting line-up during the middle of the innings.

But the Indian captain does not have many options except to bring in Rudra Pratap Singh for Zaheer Khan, who went for over 7 an over.

Dravid would also be eager to see that his bowlers complete their overs in time after being docked 20 per cent of his match fees (the team was docked 10 per cent) for India having bowled two overs short in the first ODI, a Level 2 offence as per the ICC’s Code of Conduct.

Another infringement of the ICC’s rules governing over-rates would invite an even bigger reprimand on the Indian skipper and he would be conscious of this when setting the field and making changes to it here.

The venue is also a happy hunting ground for the hosts who have 12 out of 16 ties played here including the clash against India two years ago.

Teams (from): India: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, (vice-capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh and S Sreesanth.

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Younis Khan (vice-captain), Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Yousuf, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Asif, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Yasir Arafat, Umer Gul and Arshad Khan. — PTI

Adelaide, February 10
Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan ran out four Australian batsmen today to spark a 22-run victory in the first final of the tri-series limited overs series.

They will have to come back from 1-0 down for only the third time in 26 years to claim the best-of-three series.

Sri Lanka batted first and set a formidable target as Kumar Sangakarra's 83 led it to 274-8 off its 50 overs.

Atapattu scored a half-century (53) but the game shifted on a late burst from Chamara Kapudegara (38 off 21 balls) and Dilshan (26 off 20 balls).

Sri Lanka took 88 runs off the final 10 overs, making the most of the absence of Australia’s spearhead Glenn McGrath.

Dilshan ran out Ponting by the length of the pitch after a mix-up with opener Simon Katich but his best intervention removed Damien Martyn.

Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took 3-40 to make sure of the result, Sri Lanka’s first win over Australia in Adelaide.

Gilchrist’s exit, caught at deep backward square for 26, was followed by the run out dismissals of Ponting and Martyn. Ponting was stranded when Katich refused a single and when Martyn went the Australians fell to 64-3.

Muralitharan joined the attack with plenty of runs still to defend, and silenced crowd taunts of “no ball” by artfully deceiving Andrew Symonds (16) with his doosra.

Katich (56) was run out by Dilshan as Michael Clarke (80) refused his partner's optimistic call and Mike Hussey fell to the same fielder after Clarke took off to escape an lbw appeal.

Panic had set in, and when super-sub James Hopes swept Muralitharan straight to Dilshan, the match was effectively over.

The second match of the finals will be played Sunday in Sydney with game three, if needed, scheduled for Brisbane on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka

Atapattu b Hogg 53

Jayasuriya c Hogg b Clark 25

Sangakkara c&b Symonds 83

Jayawardene c&b Clark 11

Arnold c Symonds

b Bracken 24

Dilshan not out 26

At last Sunil Gavaskar has come out in the open on the topic of chucking. It is only fair that the chairman of a prominent cricket committee of the ICC makes his stance clear. Although it is still not very clear how the menace of the growing number of chuckers internationally will be curbed.

Only a few days ago, I was seeing a fairly recent Sri Lanka vs South Africa replay of a match. Sri Lanka’s highest Test wicket-taker bowled a couple of leg-breaks. I was baffled with the clean action, perfectly correct and normal release of the ball with least assistance from the elbow, which, for some odd reasons, is overplayed when off-breaks are thrown up. All puns intended!

So this business of seeking shelter in physical defects at the time of birth is nothing more than a hog-wash. In any case, why should a natural defect become a source of strength in the eyes of the laws of the game? Would a naturally blind person be allowed to fly an aircraft? Or a handicapped person, in any other way, finds it easily comfortable to join the armed forces? All these queries I am posing for the technical committee of the ICC.

In Pakistan, a fair amount of heat has been generated with the javelin-throw action of Akhtar. Greg Chappell has found a pleasant supporter in India’s former coach John Wright. We can expect much of this heat to trickle on to the field in the remaining one-dayers.

Also the dismissal of the Pakistan captain in Peshawar was not taken very kindly by the followers in the host country. Rightly or wrongly, we may find the ‘dosti’ aspect of the series taking the back seat. And a lot of fire will emerge in the remaining contests, making up for all the staleness in the first two Tests.

The Indian bowling has come in for a lot of flak on this particular tour. Both experience and inexperience have got the stick for obvious negative tactics. Looking for dot balls with wayward strategy is poor cricket thinking. But kindly allow me ask what is India’s main strength? Is it batting or bowling? Batting of course.

So, all the more reason to expect 40-50 extras runs to lend cover to the mediocre bowling. Also, every fielder on his toes would help the Indian captain look the man in charge, who must come in at number three. All other experimentations can wait till against inferior oppositions. — UNI

Paris, February 10
Sania Mirza bowed out of the singles event at $ 600,000 Open Gaz de France as the Indian teenager went down in straight sets to home favourite Tatiana Golovin in a second round match yesterday.

Sania failed to reproduce her round one form, where she defeated sixth seed Italian Flavia Pennetta, and was easily overpowered by the world No. 24 Frenchwoman 6-4, 6-2.

The Hyderabadi, who also crashed out of the second round at Australian Open last month, still has a chance in the doubles event where she, along with her South African partner Liezel Huber, has already advanced to the second round. — UNI

Changwon, February 10
India stares at a relegation from the Asia-Oceania Group 1 after Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj tamely conceded their singles matches to their Korean rivals in the Davis Cup tie here today.

In the cold conditions, the Indians cut a sorry figure with Hee-Seok Chung beating a jaded Bopanna 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening singles and veteran Hyung-Taik Lee sweeping away Prakash Amritraj 6-2, 6-2, 6-0.

Captain Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will try to bring India back when they play the doubles match tomorrow and the reverse singles are scheduled on Sunday.

Losing another match would cost India their place in Group 1 and they will have to battle it out in the play-off against the zonal Group 2 winner to avoid relegation.

Bopanna had the best chance of putting India ahead and he seemed on the right path after pocketing the first set.

Rather diminutive, chubby Chung took time to fathom Bopanna’s game and turned the table on the India by winning the next two sets with ease.

His back up against the wall, Bopanna put up some fight in the fourth set and both the players were tied 4-4 when Chung broke the Indian and went on to serve for the match.

The 249th ranked Prakash Amritraj had no realistic chances against Korean ace Lee, ranked 89th, and he began on an ominous note as his rival broke him in the first game. — UNI

Amritsar, February 10
Hosts Guru Nanak Dev University lifted the All- India Inter-University (both men’s and women’s) artistic gymnastics championships with 229.55 points and 165.85 points, respectively, here today.

In the men’s section, Vikram University, Ujjain, was runners-up with 220.40 points and Calcutta University, Kolkata and Kurukshetra University were joint third with 212.35 points.

In the artistic gymnastics (women’s segment), Kurukshetra University stood runners-up with 131.35 points while Kakatiya University, Warangal, and Calcutta University were jointly declared third with 118.32 points.

Team championship for Rhythmic Gymnastics in the women’s section went to Kurukshetra University which secured 114.175 points while GND varsity, remained runners-up with 110.115 points and Punjabi University, Patiala, and Panjab University, Chandigarh, were joint third with 98.50 points each.

Surekha of Kurukshetra University with 45.60 points was adjudged the best rhythmic gymnast while Loveleen of GNDU with 45 points stood second and Jashandeep of Punjabi University and Poonam Chauhan of Kurukshetra varsity with 44.80 points each were joint third.

Ludhiana, February 10
Gujarat caused a flutter by defeating defending champions Jharkhand 31-27 on the second day of the 34th Senior National Handball Championship for Men being held at the indoor multipurpose hall of Guru Nanak Sports Complex here today.

Hosts, Punjab who had drubbed Tamil Nadu yesterday in their first outing, toyed today with Orissa whom they routed comprehensively 21-3 to register their second consecutive victory.

Results: SSCB beat Maharashtra 26-6; Assam beat West Bengal 18-10; Haryana beat Manipur 20-14; Kerala beat Chandigarh 23-9; Tamilnadu beat Rajasthan 30-12; Uttranchal beat Pondicherry 20-12; Madhya Pradesh beat Himachal Pradesh 34-24; Delhi beat Goa 39-12; Chhattisgarh beat Andhra Pradesh 32-24; and Jammu and Kashmir beat Bihar 23-11.