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Sepak takraw: Malaysia humiliate India 3-0
Pugilists advance
Mouma makes winning start
India makes formal bid for 2014 Asiad
Sand a first for beach volleyballers
England in command
Ricky puts Punjab on top
Jeev in sole lead
Afghans getting training at NIS
Football tourney
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Shooters draw first blood
Doha, December 2 The men's team of Gagan Narang, P T Raghunath and Navnath Faratade bagged the bronze with a tally of 1776 points, just one point behind silver medallists South Korea at the Lusail shooting ranges. Hot favourites China expectedly bagged the gold by firing 1786 after the end of individual qualification rounds which decided the winner of the team event. Narang, who was part of the gold winning team at the Commonwealth Games, fired an impressive 595 while Raghunath produced 592. But world junior champion Faratade, who took the place of Bindra — out now with a back injury — in the Melbourne team, came up with a modest 589. Coach Sunny Thomas defended Faratade's performance but admitted the team missed Bindra. "Faratade is shooting in his first major event, so it is natural that he was a bit shaky. But, yes, Abhinav could have made a difference," Thomas said. In the women's event, the trio of Suma Shirur, Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Kaur Sidhu replicated the men's feat by shooting 1181 points. Again, the Chinese walked away with the gold by aggregating 1192 and Singapore fired 1183 to take the silver. Narang had more disappointment in store in the individual event, as he shot a poor 101.4 in the final after being third at the end of the qualification phase where he shot 595 out of 600 to go out of medal contention. He finished fifth overall with an aggregate of 696.4. Raghunath, the other Indian to qualify, shot 101.9 for an overall aggregate of 693.9 which gave him the 8th and last position. However, world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu appeared on course for the gold medal in the men's Trap event. He top scored with Naser Meqlad of Kuwait after the first day of qualification round, both shooting a total of 70 in the three rounds at the Lusaill Range. They will play two more qualifying rounds tomorrow before the finals. Other Indians in fray, Anwer Sultan and Mansher Singh were lying 11th and 20th with 65 and 62 points respectively. — PTI
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Sepak takraw: Malaysia humiliate India 3-0
Doha, December 2 India had withdrawn from this event and had notified the organisers about this. But, suddenly the decision was reversed and the team entered into the competition only to be thoroughly exposed.
India did not have a full team and not enough players to play the full match and had to concede the third Regu for lack of players. Malaysia did nothing extraordinary because a rag-tag Indian team hardly knew the basics of the game at this level of competition. Indians most of the time looked bemused at their rivals' display and after making some futile attempts to match their rivals, they gave up and enjoyed the game while conceding the points galore. After getting thrashed in two Regus (two sets in each Regu), the Indians failed to field the players for the third Regu and conceded it. Malaysia collected full 42 points in each Regu to total their score to 126. Indians earned seven and 10 points in the first Regu, 12 and seven in the second Regu to lose the match 36-126. After the match, Indian coach D Srinivas said his team had to forfeit the third Regu "because unfortunately we could not secure visas for all our players, so we had to forgo the third Regu." "The rest of the team should be arriving this evening," he said. He was hopeful his team would do better in the doubles event. Captain Biken Singh Chabungbam sounded confident of doing well in the next match. "We will definitely win our matches once our full set of players arrive," he said. — UNI
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Doha, December 2 The title holders first spanked Bangladesh 40-21 and then prevailed over Japan 44-25 to keep themselves on course for a fifth gold medal in the Games history. The Indians managed three bonus points in the first half against the East Asians and were leading 29-11 at half-time. They got a bonus point in the second session to wrap up the match quite comfortably at the Aspire Sports Academy. India have won the kabaddi gold medal each time since the sport was first introduced in the Asian Games in 1990. Bangladesh have been runners-up three times. In the morning, the India-Bangladesh match looked like getting close as India managed to lead only 9-8 at one stage in the first half. But Bangladeshi raiders rapidly succumbed to the sharp responses of India’s defenders and soon found themselves out of action. With 18 out points, four bonuses, and two lonas, India stretched their lead at half time to 24-14. In the second half, India dominated and ran out comfortable winners. An elated coach Balwan Singh said, “It was good to start the campaign on a winning note. We were confident of victory but our players became a bit complacent and the defence conceded some points.” Earlier, their traditional rivals Pakistan also got off to a fine start, defeating Japan 34-16 in another round-robin game. Japan struggled throughout the first half, scoring sporadic points as their raiders failed to make an impact, while Pakistan’s defence continued to successfully hunt in packs. With 18 out points, one bonus point and four lonas, Pakistan went into the half-time with a commanding 236 lead. After the break, they slowed down to conserve energy. — PTI
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Pugilists advance
Doha, December 2 Akhil, who won the sole boxing gold for Indian in the Commonwealth Games early this year, began his campaign by outpunching North Korea’s Ju Hyok Kwak to win the bout with a 22-7 points margin bantamweight category at the Aspire Sports Complex. In the 54 kg category, Jitender was more ruthless has he carved out a 36-16 victory over Ibrahim Al Gharagir of Jordan to progress into the pre-quarter finals. Jitender will cross swords with Pakistan’s much heralded Nauman Karim, who accounted for Macau’s Wai Tom Kang with a 28-14 victory on points. It would be a tough ask for the Indian tomorrow as Karim is 2003 world championships bronze medal winner and Busan Asian Games silver medallist.
— PTI
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Mouma makes winning start
Doha, December 2 The 22-year old Kolkata-based player crossed the first hurdle as she overwhelmed Chao In Ma of Macau (China) in straight games to emerge 4-0 winner. Playing with confidence, Mouma attacked from the start and never allowed her rival to settle down in a tie which lasted 28 minutes. Mouma led all through the match and Chao found it difficult to withstand the Indian's powerful stroke play. The Indian served cleverly and made few errors to win the match easily with a 11-5, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7
scoreline. Swimmers sink
Two Indian swimmers in action — Rehan Poncha and Arjun Murlidharan — sank without a trace and failed to qualify for the finals in their respective categories in the Asian Games here today. In the 400m individual medley, 23-year old Bangalore-based Rehan finished fifth in the six swimmer-field in heat number three. Rehan, whose personal best in this event is 4:37.04, was placed in lane two and clocked a dismal 4:40.69. In the men's 200m butterfly, Arjun Murlidharan timed 2:07.96 to finish fifth in eight swimmer-field. The 19-year Indian champion, whose personal best is 2:04.56, was 10.31 sec behind the leader Ryuichi Shibata of Japan.
— UNI
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India makes formal bid for 2014 Asiad
Doha, December 2 The Indian contingent, led by IOA President Suresh Kalmadi, made a detailed presentation about its proposed infrastrucure and facilities for the games at a special meeting of the Olympic Council of
Asia. Incheon, South Korea, the only other bidder for the games, also made a presentation. In his address, Kalmadi stressed that the bid had the support of the Indian government, which had also sent Sports Secretary Madhukar Gupta as a part of the delegation. "It is the bid of a billion people. The whole of India wants the games to be held there. Therefore, we can expect a bigger participation and involvement," Kalmadi said. Kalmadi asked the OCA members if they had any queries or clarifications regarding India's bid, but none of them raised any questions. This has been interpreted by IOA officials as a virtual clean chit. New Delhi hosted the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 and also staged the ninth edition of the sporting extravaganza in 1982. India will host the 2010 Commonwealth Games which should help to get the Asian Games too when the OCA's General Assembly takes a final decision on the host venue next April. However, the bidders from Incheon launched a scathing attack on New Delhi's bid. Bid leader Shin
Yong-Suk said it was not fair for New Delhi to be considered as hosts for a third time. "For the same city to host the Asian Games a third time is not fair," he said at the meeting. Alleging that the India's financial muscle had helped New Delhi host the Games in 1951 and 1982, Shin said he was also unhappy with New Delhi's offer of free air tickets and accommodation to athletes and officials in 2014. "It is not good for the Asian Games," said Shin, adding he won't have any problem if any other Indian city bid for the games. The Korean leader also criticised New Delhi for seeking a second major games bid just four years after hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
— PTI
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Sand a first for beach volleyballers
“Beach volleyball in Mongolia is very difficult because we don’t have any beaches,” said Bayarmaa Tsogtbaatar, an indoor player who contests the women’s event with partner Yarinpil Enkhmaa. “There is a lot of sand in the Gobi desert but here in Doha it will be the first time we play on sand. It’s interesting to try it out and experience it.” “I’ve never thought about winning a medal. If we did win, we would be very famous in Mongolia,” she added. Beach courts are also a new thing for strife-torn Palestine, whose indoor volleyball team withdrew from the Games last week after being stranded in Gaza. “We don’t have beach volleyball facilities in our country, we don’t have any sand courts,” said Rafi Asfour, a teacher who admits he rarely sees his playing partner Ayman Odeh. “We have no training uniform and I had to pay to get here myself.” Cash-strapped Cambodia, which has not won an Asian Games medal for 36 years, has asked its indoor volleyball coach to switch sports for the next two weeks. Ham Ky Meng said the Kingdom had no money to play the sport so he asked two of its indoor players to start training on the sand instead. “For this event, I selected two players from the indoor volleyball team and we started a little beach volleyball training three months ago,” he said. “After this, we will return to indoor volleyball.” — Reuters
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5th One-dayer Team India upbeat after Laxman’s return, Twenty20 win Ashish Shukla
Centurion, December 2 Having already conceded the five-match rubber 3-0 to the hosts, the Indians would be desperate to escape the ignominy of a complete whitewash and finish on a positive note ahead of the start of the three-Test series.
The tourists, struggling to last the full quota of overs and unable to reach 200 in the one-day series, are looking to build on the Twenty20 game victory at the Wanderers yesterday when they beat South Africa by six wickets. The biggest stumbling block in their quest for a win has been the form of openers Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer. The trio put together has produced only 66 runs from seven innings between them. Tendulkar (38 from three games), Sehwag (18 from two) and Jaffer (10 from two) have proved little better than sitting ducks against the pace and bounce of the South African quicks. That the rivals in Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman have probably fared worse is little consolation as the Indians don’t have a back-up to offset the disadvantage of early overs. The tourists are hoping that the return of Laxman would surely brighten up the picture even though the stylish right-hander would straightaway be thrust into the heat of battle. There is also hope in the improving form of Dinesh Mongia and Dinesh Kaarthick who showed the stomach to fight in Wanderers and should start as automatic choices in the playing eleven. Mongia, due to leave home after the one-day series, would be keen do his best to remind everyone of his ability. Mohammad Kaif, who was not picked for the Twenty20 game, might also get another chance at the venue where he played a sterling hand in India’s win over New Zealand in the 2003 World Cup which booked its passage into the semi-finals. Indeed, India have only happy memories from the venue where they have twice beaten South Africa in one-day internationals and also led that memorable assault against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup. Bowling is India’s least concern with Zaheer Khan and S. Sreesanth looking more than adequate and Irfan Pathan showing glimpses of return to form. Munaf Patel continues to be on the bench with a sore left ankle and Ajit Agarkar most certainly has bowled his last ball of the tour after having picked a groin injury. Patel, according to stand-in captain Virender Sehwag, continues to feel pain in his ankle. But he is expected to be fit in time for the Tests. Injuries have been India’s bane on the tour with skipper Rahul Dravid still recovering from a finger injury and Sehwag, Munaf and Agarkar also joining the list at one time or the other. Despite its overwhelming 3-0 advantage, there are creased furrows on the foreheads of the South Africans whose batting in this series has been wanting in several areas. In all the three games, South Africa have been rescued by one individual innings — be it centurions Jacques Kallis and Justin Kemp or Herschelle Gibbs who was left stranded seven short of his century in Port Elizabeth. Such rearguard action has been devastatingly backed up by its pacemen and top notch work in the field. But for three overs of spin from Smith, South Africans have only deployed its pacemen who have picked up all the 29 wickets to fall. — PTI
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Adelaide, December 2 Langer was caught by Kevin Pietersen at gully for four off the bowling of Andrew Flintoff, leaving Matthew Hayden (12 not out) and Ricky Ponting (11 not out) to a survive a tricky nine-over spell through to stumps. England were able to declare late in the final session after Collingwood grafted 206 and Pietersen 158 to put the tourists in control of the match just days after they were thrashed by 277 runs in the first Test in Brisbane. Collingwood became only the third Englishman, and the first since Wally Hammond 70 years ago, to score a Test double-century in Australia after a superb display over eight and a half hours. He also shared a record fourth-wicket partnership of 310 with Pietersen, who equalled his highest Test score, to subdue Australia’s bowlers on a docile pitch that offered little encouragement. Shane Warne (1-167), Brett Lee (1-139) and Glenn McGrath (0-107) all conceded over 100 runs in one of the worst collective performances of their careers with Stuart Clark (3-75) the pick of the bowlers. Scoreboard England (1st innings) Strauss c Martyn b Clark 14 Cook c Gilchrist b Clark 27 Bell c and b Lee 60 Collingwood c Gilchrist b Clark 206Pietersen run out 158 Flintoff not out 38 Jones c Martyn b Warne 1 Giles not out 27 Extras (lb-10, w-2, nb-8) 20 Total (6 wkts dec) 551 Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-45, 3-158, 4-468, 5-489, 6-491. Bowling: Lee 34-1-139-1, McGrath 30-5-107-0, Clark 34-6-75-3, Warne 53-9-167-1, Clarke 17-2-53-0. Australia (1st innings) Langer c Pietersen b Flintoff 4Hayden batting 12 Ponting batting 11 Extras (nb-1) 1 Total (1 wkt, 9 overs) 28 Fall of wicket: 1-8. Bowling: Hoggard 5-1-14-0, Flintoff 4-0-14-1. — Reuters
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Ricky puts Punjab on top
Mohali, December 2 It turned out to be a frustrating day for the visitors. It probably was one of those days when nothing went in their favour. Their bowlers struggled to contain Punjab batting without much success. For all their hard grind, they could evict just two rival batsmen as the hosts scored 296 runs during the day. Seamer H. Mazumdar was the only successful bowler and claimed both the wickets to fall in the day. As if this was not enough, they found their skipper Parthiv Patel injured. The former India wicketkeeper bruised his figure while keeping wickets. Though not serious, the injury has ruled him of this match. The sudden reverse suffered in the opening match against Saurav Ganguly-led Bengal on the home turf seems to have galvanised Punjab into a well-knit unit. After their bowlers led by Love Ablish gave a superlative display yesterday, the batsmen looked determined to pile up a huge score and undo the damage done in the first game. Ricky and greenhorn Karan Goel were both in fine form and batted in a resolute fashion. Hardly troubled by the rival bowling attack, they scored runs at will. Goel played a mature knock hardly giving the impression that he was playing only his third Ranji Trophy match. In fact, Goel was the more dominant of the two batsmen and played attractive strokes. He did all the hard work but was unlucky to fall caught behind when he was close to three-figure mark. His 95-run knock included 13 hit to the fence and one over it. Ricky has been in terrific form this season. He scored a fine century for North Zone in the recent Duleep Trophy match. In the low-scoring game against Bengal, he was the highest scorer in the first innings. He was in fine nick during the day today. Untroubled during the course of his marathon innings, he, batting with Goel, provided a solid platform to his side. The openers contributed 179 runs for the opening-wicket stand. Ricky went about the job after the fall of Goel's wicket. He progressed to 99 hoisting Hemant Watekar over he long off fence for a big six. The Amritsar batsman did not lose focus after the completion of his century. Scoreboard Gujarat (1st innings) 208 Punjab (1st innings) Ricky batting 142 Goel c Modi b Majumdar 95 Manish c Amit Gupta batting 32 Extras (nb-18, lb-4) 22 Total (2 wkts, 102 overs) 321 Fall of wickets: 1-179, 2-248. Bowling: Makda 21-3-48-0, Majumdar 17-0-70-2, Amit 23-5-69-0, Damani 11-2-31-0, Patel 19-2-65-0, Watekar 11-0-34-0.
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Jeev in sole lead Tokyo, December 2 Overnight joint leader Jeev, who won the Casio Open last week, aggregates 11-under 199 (67, 65, 67) after three rounds enjoys a comfortable four-stroke lead over Aussie Wayne Perske who returned a one-under 69 card to jump to the second place. Riding the form of his life, which has catapulted him to amazing heights this year, Asian Tour Order of Merit winner started with a bang hitting a hat-trick of birdies on the first three holes. He fumbled slightly dropping a bogey on the fourth but recovered soon by gaining another stroke on the sixth. After making the turn at three-under Jeev fired another birdie on the 10th but bogeyed the 11th hole as he went on to end the day at three-under. Singh has been unstoppable this year as he lifted the Volvo China Open title in April and the Volvo Masters in Spain in October. He was recently crowned the Asian Tours UBS Order of Merit winner after a joint third place finish at the UBS Hong Kong Open last month. Currently World No 55, a strong finish this week could see him breaking into the top-50 thus earning him an automatic qualification for next year's Augusta Masters -- the first major of the season. From here, Jeev heads off to the Asian Tour's season-finale Volvo Masters of Asia in Bangkok from December 14-17.
— UNI
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Afghans getting training at NIS
Patiala, December 2 At least 20 sportspersons, including officials, are presently enjoying free Indian hospitality at the NIS here as they train at a ten-day coaching camp in the disciplines of athletics,
wushu, judo, wrestling and boxing. According to Rohallah, manager of the contingent, members were very happy at the arrangements at the NIS. President of the Afghanistan Wushu Federation Syed Rahman
Youresh, said they expected a medal or two in Wushu at Doha as they had already undergone a one-month-long training under a Chinese Wushu coach, who was in Afghanistan in October. Iran was also giving a lot of aid and currently Afghan
taekwondo, karate and body-building teams were training in Iran for Doha Asiad. ''Our fencers are training in London and the cagers are training in USA for Doha Asian Games,'' he said.
— UNI
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Football tourney PATIALA: Jalandhar defeated Mansa 2-1 while Ropar took the tie breaker route to beat Sangrur 5-4 in the 19th Punjab State Inter-district Football Championship (u-16) which commenced at the local Polo Ground here today. In other matches, Kapurthala blanked out Amritsar 6-0, Mohali beat Ferozepore 2-0 while Nawashahr got a walk over against Muktsar. Patiala will play Mohali, Gurdaspur will take on Hoshiarpur and Fatehgarh Sahib will play against Bathinda tomorrow. |
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5th One-dayer
Doha, December 2