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West Indies clinch thriller, lead 2-1
India “confused” about match strategy: Lara
Raina, VRV in Test squad
News Analysis |
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Indian men maul Mongolia, eves beat Croatia
UP, ITCF in semis
Sultan placed second on day one
Sania loses
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West Indies clinch thriller, lead 2-1
St Kitts, May 24 In another closely fought affair, West Indies clinched a four wicket win, with just a ball to spare. In actual fact, though, the issue was decided once Ramnaresh Sawan, who remained unbeaten on 115, his third ODI hundred, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who contributed a pugnacious 58, realised 121 runs for the fifth wicket. Sarwan was in sparkling touch from the moment he took strike. He was particularly severe on the thickset Ramesh Powar, twice dancing down the track to send him soaring over long on. He drove and pulled with aplomb. Yet when Irfan Pathan tested him with a bouncer, he shied away, adhering to his new mantra of ruling out the hook from his repertoire. Chanderpaul has a reputation of being most dangerous when batting with a runner, which he did on Tuesday, suffering from a hamstring pull. In a 68 ball stay, studded with three fours and a six, he ensured India did not obtain the breakthrough that could have tilted the balance the visitors’ way. For the third ODI in a row, Ajit Agarkar and Harbhajan Singh stood out in the Indian attack, while both Pathan and Powar struggled. Virender Sehwag’s timely 97 off 83 balls, decorated with nine fours and three sixes, was the principal pillar of an Indian outing, which fragmented in the last 15 overs from 211 for three to 245 for nine in 50 overs. This, on a 300-run pitch, opened the door for West Indies. St Kitts hosted its first major limited overs match at a new, picture postcard stadium against the back drop of the Caribbean Sea. An estimated 15 per cent of this island’s population was present at the ground. Venugopal Rao replaced Yuvraj Singh, who is was suffering from back spasms, while Munaf Patel, who failed to live up to his promise in the first two ODIs, vacated his spot for Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. The Windies had retained the same XI as in the first two matches. After Rahul Dravid called correctly, but decided to set a target on a dry, well rolled wicket, he failed to cash in, trapped lbw in the very first over of the innings by the persistent left-arm medium pacer, Bradshaw. However, Sehwag, a little flashily, and Suresh Raina, in a more orthodox fashion, quickly repaired the damage. Both Bradshaw and Fidel Edwards haemorrhaged heavily. The former was upper cut to point for six and Dwayne Bravo and Marlon Samuels were also despatched out of the ground over long-on by the Delhi opener, who interspersed any uncertainty with characteristically forceful cuts and drives. Raina played around an incoming delivery. But Kaif got rapidly into his strides to post a useful 61 and be involved in a third wicket stand of 112 with Sehwag. But Bravo got his revenge with a reverse swinging delivery which struck the Delhi opener on the full. Sreesanth kept his head in the final over. But a misfield by Dravid at extra cover allowed Sarwan to cross over for the strike. With two runs required to win off as many deliveries, he stepped out to unerringly find the gap through extra cover. Scoreboard
India Sehwag lbw Bravo 97 Dravid lbw Bradshaw 0 Raina b Bradshaw 26 Kaif run out 61 Dhoni run out 15 Rao run out 12 Pathan c&b Samuels 1 Powar b Sarwan 1 Agarkar c Lara b Bravo 8 Harbhajan not out 7 Sreesanth not out 1 Extras (lb-4, nb-1, w-11) 16 Total
(9 wkts, 50 overs) 245 Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-62, 3-174, 4-211, 5-216, 6-219, 7-224, 8-233, 9-243. Bowling: Bradshaw 8-2-41-2, Edwards 9-0-49-0, Taylor 4-0-30-0, Samuels 10-0-40-1, Bravo 8-0-45-2, Gayle 10- 0-36-0, Sarwan 1-0-1-1. West Indies Gayle c Dhoni b Agarkar 40 Samuels lbw Sreesanth 11 Morton lbw Agarkar 0 Sarwan not out 115 Lara c Dravid b Harbhajan 5 Chanderpaul lbw Pathan 58 Bravo run out 1 Baugh not out 1 Extras
(b-4, lb-2, nb-2, w-9) 17 Total (6 wkts, 49.5 overs) 248 Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-31, 3-116, 4-131, 5-237, 6-241. Bowling: Pathan 9-0-50-1, Agarkar 10-1-32-2, Sreesanth 9.5-0-57-1, Harbhajan 10-1-33-1, Powar 10-1-59-0, Sehwag 1-0-11-0.
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India “confused” about match strategy: Lara
St. Kitts, May 24 “I am sure they would be a bit more confused deciding to bat first as this is something against the norm for India. We have got them thinking which is important,” Lara said, throwing down the gauntlet at the visitors ahead of the two remaining games of the series. While lauding Ramnaresh Sarwan for his match-winning century, Lara put the onus on other players in the side saying they also needed to contribute. “Sarwan is now maturing as a batsman, a player in the team. He is now pivotal, the catalyst. But I expect to see more from others as well,” he said. “I don’t want to be depending solely on Sarwan now. Some of the younger players need to put their hands up,” Lara said. Lara’s counterpart Rahul Dravid blamed the lack of experience for the defeat. “Sachin (Tendulkar) is injured and Yuvraj Singh was missing today. It is about 450 games of experience missing. Normally they are a certainty in the side. Of course, when they are back it would add a lot of stability to the side,” Dravid said. Lara also agreed that this factor made the critical difference in the match. “The key for us was to have
(Shivnarine) Chanderpaul bat at number six. We had more experience coming on later in the innings. “When Sehwag got out, I told the boys at the water break that I don’t think they would score 300 runs. We knew they had a lot of inexperience. Still we didn’t expect them to score 60 runs from the final 20 overs but they did to our benefit,” Lara said. Dravid felt the three run-outs in the last 15 overs of the Indian innings turned the tide in the hosts’ favour when a total of beyond 300 looked on the cards. “Three run outs were the ones which cost us the game today. That’s probably the area we need to work on. We can’t end up getting run-outs in this manner, it cost us a lot,” the skipper said. “Running between the wickets is an area we have been talking a lot about. Batting towards the end of the innings is another area,” he said. “We expected the wicket to slow up later but batting first, it was probably a 280-run wicket. We were well on course but batted badly in the last 15 overs,” Dravid said. Despite West Indies getting home with only a ball to spare, Dravid felt the hosts were always ahead in the game as they had wickets in hand. “We tried to take the game towards the end. We felt if we could get one or two good overs, we would be in business. It almost worked,” the Karnataka batsman said. He said Sreesanth was given the final over as it was bowled from the slightly better end of the ground. “He
(Sreesanth) was bowling pretty well. I wanted to give him the slightly better end. Irfan bowled the penultimate over at a difficult end since he is more experienced.” “Such experience is good for the boys. This would help them for some of the tournaments we have in future,” the skipper said.
— PTI
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Raina, VRV in Test squad
Mumbai, May 24 While veterans Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman expectedly made their way back into the squad, Ajit Agarkar was surprisingly dropped as he has been the most impressive bowler on show in the three one-dayers against the West Indies so far. Taking the flight back home along with Agarkar after the one-dayers would be RP Singh, Venugopala Rao and Robin Uthappa while off-spinner Ramesh Powar will stay on after being awarded a berth in the Test squad for the first time. The selector also decided to pick Dinesh Kaarthick as the second wicketkeeper for the four-Test series ahead of Parthiv Patel. Raina found a place largely because of the spot left vacant by Sachin Tendulkar who yesterday opted out of the tour after failing to recover fully from a shoulder injury. The squad announced by BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah had no place for former captain Sourav Ganguly, cooling his heels since the tour of Pakistan in January-February this year. Also failing to find favour with the selectors was left-arm speedster Zaheer Khan. The selectors had a telephonic conversation with captain Rahul Dravid, coach Greg Chappell and co-selector Ranjib Biswal before naming the squad. Explaining the logic behind picking untested VRV ahead of Agarkar, Selection Committee Chairman Kiran More said the Punjab bowler was chosen with an eye on future. “VRV Singh was selected as we wanted to groom him for the future. He has done well in domestic cricket and also bowled well for India A in Abu Dhabi except in the final (against Pakistan),” More said. “Also we consider Agarkar as a fine one-day cricketer whose Test record is not that impressive. He’s done extremely well in the one-day matches in the West Indies and we are happy for him,” the former India stumper said. More was referring to Agarkar’s poor Test record of 58 wickets in 26 matches at a costly 47.32 per wicket as compared to his impressive one-day haul of 249 wickets in 162 ties at just over 27 per wicket. “Also, in Karachi (against Pakistan in January) on a seaming wicket, Agarkar was not considered for selection,” More pointed out while adding he was not completely out of Test reckoning. The selectors also named the India A team for the Top End series in Australia in June-July. Teams: Test team for West Indies: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Wasim Jaffer, Suresh Raina, M S Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, VRV Singh, Ramesh Powar and Dinesh Kaarthick. India A for Australia: Venugopala Rao (capt), Parthiv Patel (vice capt, wk); Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, T P Singh, Piyush Chawla, Setheshwar Pujara, R P Singh, S S Paul, Rajendra Jadeja and Sidharth Trivedi.
— PTI
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Agarkar’s exclusion surprising
Abhijit Chatterjee The national selectors, of late, have developed a knack of doing the unexpected. Otherwise, who can explain the exclusion of Ajit Agarkar from the 16-member squad, which will take on the West Indies in the four-Test series starting next month. Agarkar has been the most consistent bowler in the on-going one-day series against the West Indies (as also the most experienced fast bowler in the squad) and dropping him does not make good cricketing sense, specially since Chandigarh’s V.R.V. Singh, who has got the nod of the selectors ahead of Agarkar, is still to prove his worth at the highest level. What probably went against the Mumbai paceman is his poor Test record of 58 wickets in 26 matches at a cost of 47.32 per wicket compared to his more impressive one-day record of 249 wickets at a little over 27 runs per wicket. In contrast, V.R.V. Singh who got his international cap in the recent home series against England was not so impressive in the one match he played and the mauling he received at the hands of Kevin Pieterson is not to be quickly forgotten. He, however, performed fairly well for India A in the recently held tournament at Abu Dhabi. The team undoubtedly will sorely miss the services of Sachin Tendulkar. In fact, Sachin’s absence from the team will only add to the pressure on skipper Rahul Dravid who might even have to open in the Tests also given the fact that the list of 16 has only two recognised openers in Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer. But Sachin’s replacement, Suresh Raina, will surely have to do something extraordinary if he has to return the confidence, which the national selectors have reposed in him. Could not the selectors have discussed the inclusion of deposed captain Sourav Ganguly, specially given the fact that the team touring the West Indies is lacking woefully in experience? Or was there a fiat from cricket coach Greg Chappell, with whom the selectors had a telephonic talk before finalising the team that in no case was Ganguly’s name to be discussed? Mumbai’s off-spinner Ramesh Powar, who came in for some mauling in the one-day matches specially in the third tie at St Kitts on Tuesday, should also count himself lucky to be retained in the Test squad.
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Indian men maul Mongolia, eves beat Croatia
Turin, May 24 Anand, playing his first game after flying in from Sofia, beat Mongolia’s cheeky, young FM Cegmed Batchuluun in 34 moves to set the tone and the Indian team came out with all guns blazing. Against the Indian wizard, who is exactly 500 Elo points above him in the rating list, the Mongolian teenager tried everything in his arsenal but proved no match at all. K. Sasikiran then got the better of Bayarsaihan Gundavaa’s defence and P. Harikrishna took the game away when he beat a lowly Balgan Bayarmandah in the third match. Mongolia put its sole GM Bazar Hatanbaatar on board four, perhaps to pick up a stray point instead of sacrificing it to Anand but national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly put paid to any such hopes and capped the team’s brilliant form, taming his rival.
— UNI
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UP, ITCF in semis
Panchkula, May 24 The other team which made it to the semifinals was ITCF, which beat Chhattisgarh by 22 runs. In the first match of the day, Haryana piled up 155 runs in the allotted 20 overs. Interestingly, no Haryana batsman hit a boundary. Ubed Kamaal troubled the batsmen and claimed three wickets for 12 runs in 2.1 overs. Sourabh Singh’s heroics helped UP win. Sourabh made an unbeaten 57 runs, slamming six fours and a six to achieve the target in 19.3 overs. Continuing their winning spree, ITCF also reserved their berth in semifinals after beating Chhattissgarh by 22 runs in the second match of the day. Put in to bat first, ITCF mustered 139 runs for six wickets in the allotted overs. In reply, Chhattisgarh were bundled out for 117 runs in 20 overs. The highest scorer was Shishir Pandey, who scored 29 runs with the help of two boundaries. Parveen, Rubal, Umesh and Harish Garg snapped two wickets each. In the day’s last match, Haryana thrashed Andhra Pradesh by 114 runs. Batting first, Haryana scored 161 runs with the help of fine knock of 71 off 46 by Karan Verma. Karan hit seven fours and three sixes during his innings. For AP it proved a tough job to achieve the target and they were bundled out for a paltry 47 runs. Rahul Rana took four wickets for 16 runs. Brief scores: Haryana: 155 all out (Karan 27, Parveen 29, Ubed 3 for 12), UP: 156 for six in 19.3 overs (Sourabh 57, Ajit 34, Vanshaj 2 for 22); ITCF: 139 for six (Charanjit 50, Tejwinder 28, Bheema 1 for 10), Chhattisgarh: 117 all out (Shishir 29, Gurmeet 22, Parveen 2 for 16); Haryana: 161 for nine (Karan 71, Sachin 28, Nagraju 3 for 32), AP: 47 all out in 10.3 overs (Vijay 17, Rahul 4 for 16).
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Sultan placed second on day one
New Delhi, May 24 Sultan shot two rounds of 24 and 25 to total 49 out of 50 on day one of the event yesterday. Three more rounds are slated to be played before the final placings are determined. The other Indians in fray, Mansher Singh and Manavjit Singh Sandhu were placed 15th and 16th respectively among the pack of 11 shooters on 48 points.
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Sania loses
New Delhi, May 24 Sania went down 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 to the ninth-seeded Krajicek who will now face either Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States or Anastasiya Yakimova of Bulgaria, who play later in the day, in the quarterfinals. The Indian, ranked 38, was playing her first tournament on the WTA circuit after a three-week rest.
— PTI
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