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India seize early advantage
Ganguly got me job, admits Greg Chappell
New Zealand rout Windies
Maharoof, Samaraweera lead Lankan fightback
Ghamanda Ram strides to a new record
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India lose 0-3 to Yemen
IWF slaps provisional suspension
on Shailaja
Police demands
Rs 72 lakh dues from PCA Tejeshwar, Roopishwar
best athletes Athletics meet
at IET, Bhaddal
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India seize early advantage
Nagpur, March 1 The visitors proved that that they were no pushovers in subcontinental conditions but most of the batsmen were guilty of throwing away their wickets after getting the starts which left them at a shaky 246 for seven at close on the opening day. Debutant Alastair Cook (60) and Paul Collingwood (53 batting) hit half centuries but England’s decision to bat first on a good batting track at the VCA stadium did not fetch them the desired results. Paceman S. Sreesanth made a memorable debut by snapping up two wickets while Irfan Pathan claimed three wickets to wreck the English batting line-up which was badly hit by the absence of established players like captain Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick. Collingwood played sensibly to hold one end up and had Matthew Hoggard for company at stumps on a day which saw runs come at a fairly slow pace. England started off well but only to lose way against some determined Indian bowling. Cook showed good temperament in making 60 in 206 minutes with seven fours and also put on 56 runs for the first wicket with Andrew Strauss. The other notable stand for the day was that of 67 between stand-in captain Andrew Flintoff, who made an impressive 43 in 70 balls with six fours, and Collingwood who batted sedately to make his third half-century and remain unbeaten at stumps. Sreesanth bowled with a lot of enthusiasm and determination and got rid of two key wickets in Strauss (28) and Kevin Pietersen (15). Seasoned campaigners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh put the brakes on the England scoring besides getting among wickets. England, 89 for two at lunch, could add only 68 runs in 30 overs while losing two wickets in the second session, an indication of the home team's control over the proceedings. In the morning the visitors had started their innings on a confident note when Strauss and the 21-year-old Cook, who showed no nerves after having flown in as emergency replacement before the match, batted with great poise. But once Sreesanth had Strauss caught brilliantly by V.V.S. Laxman at second slip, England started struggling against the Indian attack on the benign wicket. Ten minutes before the lunch break Bell, not looking too confident against Harbhajan, jabbed at a wrong one from the bowler and was caught superbly by the home team captain Rahul Dravid at slip. It was the first wicket for Harbhajan in more than two months after his wicket-less stint while giving away 355 runs in two Tests against Pakistan. Pietersen, after being dropped by Laxman at second slip off Sreesanth off the first ball of his third spell, succumbed to the same bowler four balls later in the second session. Collingwood and Flintoff then eschewed all risks and batted cautiously to put on 21 runs without being separated before tea. Flintoff became aggressive in the last session and smacked five fours off Sreesanth to force him off the attack. He smashed Kumble over the bowler’s head for a four before the veteran leggie trapped him leg before with a flipper bowled from slightly wide of the stumps. It was the Bangalore ace’s 495th wicket. Pathan then came back to trap Geraint Jones (14) leg before and bowled Ian Blackwell off the under edge in the space of six overs as England slid from 225 for five to 244 for 7. Dravid did not take the new ball and preferred to use Pathan with the old one and he succeeded in reverse-swinging it to get among the wickets. Scoreboard
England Strauss c Laxman b Sreesanth 28 Cook b Pathan 60 Bell c Dravid b Harbhajan 9 Pietersen b Sreesanth 15 Collingwood not out 53 Flintoff lbw Kumble 43 G. Jones lbw Pathan 14 Blackwell b Pathan 4 Hoggard not out 0 Extras (b-1, lb-6, nb-12, w-1) 20 Total
(7 wickets, 90 overs) 246 Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-81, 3-110, 4-136, 5-203, 6-225, 7-244. Bowling: Pathan 17-5-52-3, Sreesanth 18-4-56-2, Harbhajan 26-4-59-1, Kumble 27-9-61-1, Tendulkar 2-0-11-0.
— PTI |
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Ganguly got me job, admits Greg Chappell
London, March 1 Giving his version of the infamous spat with the former Indian captain, Chappell said his advice was given in good faith but the entire issue was blown out of proportion by the media. “Much has been written and said, a lot of it misleading, but in essence I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy,” Chappell was quoted as saying in ‘The Guardian’. “He was just hanging in there. Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us. It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected. He was not prepared to do that. “What I didn’t realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was,” he said. Chappell said the fact that he had helped Ganguly with his batting might have prompted him to think that he would have his way with the Australian. “I helped him with his batting then, so maybe he thought I would be his mate and support him now. Certainly there is no way I would have got the job here without his influence,” Chappell said. “I’m sure he thought he would be able to run me as he did John (Wright) in the latter part of his time as coach. But we clashed because his needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different,” he said. The 57-year-old Aussie said he had taken upon himself to resurrect the fortunes of the Indian team and not bother much about the Ganguly controversy. “The controversy will carry on but I have learned if I can’t be totally impervious to it then it is beyond my control. “I have to let it wash by and say ‘people have their reasons for saying what they do and I can’t be distracted by that’ and do what I believe in. “At the end of my time, whenever that might be, the team and therefore I will be judged ultimately on the results we achieve, not whether I have been able to convince this or that member of the media that what we are doing is in the best interests of Indian cricket,” he said.
— PTI |
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New Zealand rout Windies
Napier, March 1 New Zealand compiled 324 for six at McLean Park after being sent in to bat and the West Indies were restricted to 233 for nine in their 50 overs, though Runako Morgan reached his maiden one-day century. The win gave New Zealand a 4-0 lead in the five-match series after their 81-run win in the first match at Wellington, their three-wicket win in the second at Queenstown and their 21-run win in the third at Christchurch on Saturday. The performance of New Zealand’s top three batsmen, particularly Vincent, who batted through century partnerships with Fleming (67) and Astle (81), gave New Zealand a total the West Indies were unable to surpass. Vincent made 102, his second century in one-dayers, batting for 189 minutes, facing 114 balls and hitting 10 fours and a six. He put on 106 with Fleming for the first wicket and 156 with Astle for the second, a record for New Zealand against all countries in one-dayers. Morgan batted doggedly through the middle and late stages of the West Indies’ innings, sharing partnerships of 69 with Ramnaresh Sarwan (42) and 79 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul (30). He was left 110 not out when the innings ended, having 196 minutes, faced 155 balls and hit seven fours. It was Fleming who heralded New Zealand’s assault on a mediocre West Indies attack when he hit three sixes from the first three balls of the 12th over, the first bowled by Deighton Butler. The New Zealand captain hoisted each of the short, wide deliveries over the boundary around point and third man during a sustained attack which set his team on course for a heavy total. Fleming hit four boundaries, a single and three sixes from eight balls at the height of his attack on the bowling which brought 35 runs from eight balls and carried him to a half century from 38 deliveries. He went on to make 67 from 59 balls with six fours and four sixes. Astle’s partnership with Vincent surpassed the 148-run stand between Fleming and Hamish Marshall against Sri Lanka in 2004. Chris Gayle took three late wickets to limit New Zealand, when they seemed in sight of the highest one-day total posted against the West Indies, Australia’s 338. Scoreboard
New Zealand Vincent c Ganga b Gayle 102 Fleming c Ramdin b Smith 67 Astle c Ganga b Gayle 81 Taylor run out Morton 15 Styris c Smith b Gayle 5 McCullum c Sarwan b Bradshaw 21 Fulton not out 13 H. Marshall not out 2 Extras (b-2, lb-2, w-13, Total (6 wkts, 50 overs) 324 Fall of wickets: 1-106, 2-262, 3-274, 4-284, 5-290, 6-317. Bowling:
Bradshaw 10-0-74-1, Edwards 10-4-23-0, Butler 6-0-57-0, Gayle 10-0-50-3, Smith 9-0-73-1, Hinds 3-0-23-0, Sarwan 2-0-20-0. West Indies
Gayle lbw Mills 5 Ganga c Mills b Styris 15 Morton not out 110 Ramdin c Styris b Mills 10 Sarwan run out 42 Chanderpaul c Patel Smith c Styris b Vettori 1 Hinds st McCullum b Astle 0 Bravo c McCullum b Bond 3 Bradshaw not out 1 Extras
(lb-3, w-12, nb-1) 16 Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 233 Fall of wickets:
1-8, 2-46, 3-64, 4-133, 5-212, 6-214, 7-221, 8-229. Bowling: Mills 10-1-45-3, Bond 10-1-43-1, Styris 9-1-53-1, Vettori 10-0-32-1, Astle 1-0-3-1.
— AFP |
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Maharoof, Samaraweera lead Lankan fightback
Chittagong, March 1 Farveez Maharoof (72) tallied his maiden half century and Thilan Samaraweera made his 11th with an unbeaten 57 to advance Sri Lanka from 199 for five at tea. Malinga Bandara was not out with eight when the umpires called play closed for the day. Bangladesh spinners were on top in the second session with Enamul Haque capturing a pair of wickets, including that of Kumar Sangakkara, while Mohammad Rafique removed Mahela Jayawardene. Maharoof played 133 balls, hitting 10 fours and a six before being bowled by Shahadat Hossin. Sangakkara (69) was caught by Mohammad Ashraful off Haque, who also trapped Tillakaratne Dilshan on 22. Jayawardene was caught by Shahadat Hossain on 30. Sri Lanka lost opener Michael Vandort for nought when he was caught behind by keeper Khaled Mashud off fast bowler Syed Rasel on only the third ball of the first over. Upul Tharanga was then caught by Mohammad Ashraful off Mohammad Rafique at 42. Bangladesh had ended their innings all out for 319, adding only four runs to their overnight score of 315. Scoreboard
Bangladesh Omar c Samaraweera Iqbal b Bandara 34 Bashar lbw Bandara 29 Nafees b Maharoof 27 Ashraful c Tharanga Mashud lbw Muralitharan 6 Kapali c Tharanga Rafique b Malinga 17 Hossain c Tharanga Rasel b Malinga 1 Haque Jr not out 3 Extras
(b-11, lb-4, nb-15, Total (all out, 91.5 overs) 319 Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-76, 3-81, 4-146, 5-210, 6-248, 7-293, 8-308, 9-314. Bowling: Malinga 16.5-3-57-4, Maharoof 11-3-37-1, D. Fernando 17-4-50-0, Muralitharan 32-8-87-3, Bandara 13-0-61-2, Dilshan 2-0-12-0. Sri Lanka Vandort c Mashud Tharanga c Ashraful Sangakkara c Ashraful Jayawardene c Hossain Samaraweera not out 57 Dilshan lbw Haque Jr 22 Maharoof b Hossain 72 Bandara not out 8 Extras (lb-2, nb-11) 13 Total
(6 wickets, 86 overs) 313 Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-86, 3-149, 4-149, 5-178, 6-295. Bowling:
Rasel 14-1-66-1, Hossain 16-1-67-1, Rafique 28-5-76-2, Haque Jr 24-5-75-2, Kapali 1-0-7-0, Ashraful 3-0-20-0.
— Reuters |
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Ghamanda Ram strides to a new record
New Delhi, March 1 Ghamanda Ram, who is considered as a medal prospect in the Commonwealth Games at Melbourne this month, was head and shoulders above the rest as he strode to clock a time of 1:47.74 seconds which bettered the three-year-old existing mark of 1:49.16 seconds created by P.S. Primesh of Kerala in 2003. This was the show piece event of the day, and Ghamanda did not disappoint his supporters. Jaskiran Singh of Haryana and Satnam Singh of Punjab, who took the silver and bronze respectively, were at least 25 metres behind Ghamanda when he crossed the finish line. In the women’s 800m, Pinki Pramanik of West Bengal expectedly won the gold, but her timing of 2:05.05 was below the level she thought she would clock. Sutapa Das of Bengal and B. Venkat Laxmi of Andhra lifted the silver and bronze, in that order. The second meet record fell in the women’s 3000m steeple chase final when S Santhi of Tamil Nadu displayed tremendous stamina and fighting spirits to ward off a pushy field to clock 10:44.76 minutes, which bettered the previous record of 10:52.12 secs. Her team-mate K Maheswari gave a good chase, but could end up only at the silver spot while Asha Rani of Punjab Police settled for the bronze. The men’s 3000m steeple chase witnessed a close fight, but there was no surprise as Ram Bahadur Subba of the BSF broke away from the pack midway through the race to post a time of 9:03.84 minutes to win the gold. Om Prakash of Army and Mukesh Kumar of Madhya Pradesh collected the silver and bronze. In the exciting 200m events, P Muthusamy of Tamilnadu (21.81 secs) and H.M. Jyothi of Karnataka (24.27 secs) bagged the men’s and women’s gold, respectively. Gajan Upadhyaya of Uttar Pradesh vaulted over a height of 4.90 metres to canter away with the men’s polevault gold while Archana Bara of Bihar lifted the women’s hammer throw gold with an effort of 54.43 metres. Meanwhile, former president Umrao Singh was nominated as the president of the Athletics Federation of India as a stop-gap arrangement to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Suresh Kalmadi, who had been ruling the athletics body for over 20 years, to give the spot a high-profile status. Umrao Singh will be the acting president till a formal appointment is made in the next six months, to elect a regular president. |
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Federer, Nadal advance
Dubai, March 1 Top-ranked Federer beat fellow Swiss Stanislaus Wawrinka 7-6 (3), 6-3 on his return from a month-long vacation. Second-ranked Nadal defeated France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 in 2 hours and 33 minutes. The seven-time Grand Slam champion will next play 488th-ranked Kuwaiti wildcard Mohammed Al Ghareeb. Nadal showed no sign of the foot injury that kept him out for four months. He only returned to action this month. The first set went with serve, before Mathieu came from a break down to win the tiebreaker 7-5. Stung by the loss, Nadal changed gears. The Spaniard will get some time off to rest after second-round opponent Younes El Aynaoui, a Moroccan qualifier, withdrew because of personal reasons. Aynaoui defeated Wesley Moodie of South Africa, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round. Marat Safin returned from a six-month layoff to beat third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko. Showing no signs of the knee injury that kept him out of the game since last August, Safin rallied against his fellow Russian to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. He’ll face Belgium’s Olivier Rochus in the second round. Sixth-seeded Dominik Hrbaty lost 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 to Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, while seventh-seeded Radek Stepanek won 6-3, 7-6 (6) against John van Lottum. Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Christophe Rochus of Belgium, Bjorn Phau of Germany beat Italy’s Giorgio Galimberti 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. — AP |
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WADA team at NIS again
Patiala, March 1 The team, comprising of WADA’s India-based liaison officer Sajid Hashmat and Mr Greg Moon from the United Kingdom paid a surprise visit to the NIS weightlifting hall today morning and collected the urine samples of all 13 lifters, including six women, bound for Melbourne. The women lifters whose samples were collected are Geeta Rani (plus 75 kg), Kunjarani Devi (48 kg), Promila Velu ( 63 kg), Chaya Devi (53 kg), Renu Bala (58 kg) and Simple Kaur (plus 75 kg). Among the men, the names of Satisha Rai ( 85 kg), Vickey Batta (56 kg), M.Arun (62 kg), CPR Sudhir Kumar (69 kg), Mohammad Zakir (77 kg), Tejinder Singh (85 kg) and R.Edwin (56 kg) figure in the list of the WADA officials. Interestingly, the WADA officials were on the look out for the Indian athletes and the team members also made inquiries about the ‘missing’ ones. However, they could not make much headway among the athletes as all of them were busy attending the Federation Cup at New Delhi which will conclude on March 3. Earlier too on February 4, the same team had ‘raided’ the NIS campus but had to return virtually empty handed when certain athletes, who were on the WADA target list, ran away from the national camp. The WADA officials, who were carrying a list of ‘target athletes’ with them, later left for an undisclosed destination although there were thick rumours that the team may again visit the NIS on the next day. The prominent names that figure in the list of ‘target athletes’ are those of women lifters Tikina Gopal, P.Harita and P. Mangaraj, all three of whom are not in the ongoing national camp and were not available at the NIS during the team’s visit. A WADA team member disclosed that the IWF had given them specific information about the lifters attending the national camp on which they had based their visit. When asked if certain lifters had performed the ‘vanishing trick’ today on getting information about the WADA team’s arrival, the official declined to comment. Meanwhile, the ongoing senior National women’s weightlifting camp being held at the NIS here in preparation for the Commonwealth games was hit for a six when ace weightlifter Pujari Shailaja rushed to New Delhi late yesterday evening on the instructions of Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Officials. The chief coach of the women’s squad Ms Hansa Sharma remained incommunicado today although NIS sources maintained that she was present in the girls hostel throughout the day. However, a top Indian Weightlifting Federation official said it was almost curtains for P. Shailaja as far as her international career was concerned. The weightlifting squads, both men and women, are scheduled to leave the NIS for New Delhi enroute to Melbourne on March 4. |
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India lose 0-3 to Yemen
New Delhi, March 1 A porous defence, clueless midfield and defunct forwardline saw India struggling throughout the match and a slightly better show after the lemon break had no impact on the outcome of the match. It looked like a home match for the visitors with a motley crowd of 100-odd people cheering their heart out for Yemen, in contrast to the stoic local crowd that sat glued to their seat, watching their favourites running in the middle without purpose. Before the sparse crowd could settle in their seats, a six minute goal by Salem Saeed Abdullah unhinged the entire Indian side, missing their key seven members due to injury, and the hosts were never in the game thereafter. Abdullah’s low, angular free kick somehow managed to go past the Indian wall and deflected by a player, the ball crashed into the net with goalkeeper Sandip Nandy rooted to the ground (1-0). Once the Indian defence was exposed, Yemen resorted to playing long passes with Fekri Al-Hubaishi and Ali Al-Nono on the prowl upfront. The Yemen forwards ran Indian defence in dizzy disarray and the visitors scored their second goal of the match in the 43rd minute. Al-Nono’s solo run down the right flank outwitted Mehtab Hossain and NP Pradeep saw him feeding Al-Hubaishi and though it was almost impossible not to score from his position, the latter fumbled a bit before slotting it home (2-0). And conceding a third goal in the 56th minute in fact sealed the fate of the game in the visitors’ favour. India had lost their previous Asia Cup qualifier to Japan by a 6-0 margin.
— UNI |
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IWF slaps provisional suspension
on Shailaja
New Delhi, March 1 Shailaja was found to have traces of a banned substance Stanozol during a random out-of-competition test by World Anti-Doping Agency officials during their recent visit to Patiala. “Report has been received from International Weightlifting Federation that her (Shailaja’s) sample has returned adverse analytical findings such as Stanozol, a metabolite of Stanozolol which is anabolic steroid. We are shocked to receive the report of positive finding,” IWF General Secretary Balbir Singh Bhatia said today. “Shailaja has been provisionally suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). We are requesting the world body for testing her ‘B’ sample,” he added. Immediately after receiving the communication from the world body, the Indian Weightlifting Federation decided to pull her out of the squad for the Commonwealth Games. — PTI |
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Police demands
Rs 72 lakh dues from PCA Ropar, March 1 The SSP said if the amount pending with the PCA was not paid to the police then he would seek legal action against the PCA. The Ropar police was charging the amount as per the time spent by the police for providing security to VIPs and cricketers and to maintain smooth functioning of the match. Total 639 security personnel deployed during the match. “All documents regarding non-payment of dues by the PCA already been prepared and a reminder notice will be sent to PCA Chairman I.S Bindra tomorrow, he added. Sources said the immediate cause of the SSP's outburst was the PCA decision to deploy private security at the entry gates of Mohali stadium in the coming cricket match. The SSP said if the PCA could pay service charges to private security agencies then why not paying due amount to the police. "Despite the fact that we have sent many reminders regarding the non-payment of the dues to the PCA, we did not get anything so far. The question of non-payment of dues had already been raised in the Vidhan Sabha , he added.
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Tejeshwar, Roopishwar best athletes
Patiala, March 1 Results: (all men): 100m: Sukhdeep Singh Brar-1, Sarabjit Singh -2, Sukhritpal Singh-3. 200m: Sahil Vinayak-1, Rajat Bharti-2, Tejeshwar Singh-3. 800m: Tejeshwar Singh-1, Veerinder Singh-2, Devan-3. 1500m: Amar Kaplas-1, Tejeshwar Bhardwaj-2, Devan-3. 5000m: Tejeshwar Bhardwaj-1, Varinder Jit Paul Singh-2, Arvish Goyal-3. 10000m: Saurav Jain-1, Varinder Jit Paul-2, Rajmeet Singh-3. Long jump: Tejeshwar Bhardwaj-1, Abhishek-2, Ajay-3. (All women): 100m: Supriya-1, Priyanka-2, P.Aggarwal-3. Shot put: Julie Anne-1, Megha-2, Khushboo-3. Javelin throw: Roopishwar Kaur-1, Khushboo-2, Priyanka-3.
OC
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Athletics meet
at IET, Bhaddal Ropar, March 1 In the javelin throw (women), Rashmi Garg bagged the first position, Sandeep Kaur second and Mehak Bhatia stood third. The first year contingent won the best march past trophy.
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Indonesia
Open World snooker PIA register win |
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