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Advani pots gold
India’s Pankaj Advani (right)
Rathore settles for bronze |
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Indian hockey plunges to new low
Anand, Sridhar in pre-quarters
Swimmers sink without trace
Paes: Bhupathi deliberately underplayed
WE HAVE DONE IT: Aussie Michael Hussey jubilates after hitting the winning run on day five of the second Test against England in Adelaide on Tuesday. — AFP photo
Indians were ill-prepared
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Advani pots gold
Doha, December 5 Shandilya and Advani today dazzled on the green baize and recorded fluent wins over Peter Gilchrist and San Aung, respectively, to make it an all-Indian final where the Bangalore youngster had the final laugh. Shandilya wrested the early initiative by pocketing the first frame 101-76. That worked as a wake up call for his younger compatriot who hit back with vengeance and won the next three frames to walk away with the gold. After bagging the second frame 101-40, Advani blanked his rival 100-0 in the third and then sealed the issue by claiming the fifth frame 100-32. In the men’s snooker section, the Indian team of Aditya Mehta, Yasin Merchant and Rupesh Shah got walk over from Singapore and moved into the pre-quarter finals. In billiards, played according to point format, Shandilya had blanked former world champion Gilchrist represented Singapore in this games. Gilchrist, originally from England, has settled down in Singapore and was considered a potential threat to the Indian. But he was totally off-colour today and Shandilya had no difficulty in beating him in straight frames. The 38-year-old Gilchrist put up a spirited fight in the first frame but after losing that 80-100, he virtually threw in the towel. Shandilya was in his elements as he cued perfectly and won the next two frames 101-33, 100-22 to reduce the semifinal to a virtual no contest. On the other hand, Advani lost the opening frame to Myanmar’s Aung but then rallied superbly to send his rival packing. The Indian champion lost the first frame narrowly by margin of five points (95-100) but then displayed a fluent game on the green baize in the next three frames to leave Aung bewildered. The Bangalore-based cueist won the next three frames with utmost ease 100-19, 100-20, 100-3. “It was much better than yesterday and I am getting used to the conditions. I didn’t start very well. I had a lot of chances to win the first frame, but I didn’t,” he said. The match between Advani and Aung had some drama as they restarted the frame but it was all by mutual consent. The frame had to be restarted as both players felt the other had played the wrong ball. “I thought Aung had played the wrong ball and he thought I played the wrong ball. It was not a dispute but as a mark of sportsmanship we settled the matter by restarting the frame. It was not right that I take the advantage,” said Advani.
— UNI, IANS
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Rathore settles for bronze
Doha, December 5 Title-favourite Rathore was below par in the first two rounds of the qualification stage at the Lusail range—scoring only 46 and 43—before finding the targets for a ‘perfect 50’ to help India end up second in the team event. Rathore fired 46 in the final, but the 36-year-old Armyman, with an overall tally of 185, had to settle for the bronze behind Chinese marksmen gold-medallist Nan Wang (189, 45 in final) and second-placed Vin Yuan Hu (187, 45). In the morning, the men’s trio of Rathore, Ronjan Singh Sondhi (136) and Vikram Bhatnagar (134) helped the country to its fourth silver and seventh medal from shooting range. Rathore, lying at 13th after two rounds in the qualifying event, perked up with a determined last-round effort that fetched him a perfect score of 50 and the third place. The Indian threesome, with an aggregate of 409 points, ended 15 short of champions China. Chinese Taipei took the bronze with a score of 397. Rathore threatened with legal action The upbeat mood in the Indian camp over Advani’s gold win was spoilt as Rathore was threatened with legal action by Doha Asian Games Organising Committee, who sought an immediate and unconditional apology for the star marksman’s “unwarranted and out-of-context allegations” against the volunteers. In a statement issued today, the Doha Asian Games Organising Committee (DAGOC) has asked Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for an immediate and unconditional apology from Rathore for his comments earlier this week. Rathore had criticised the officials, alleging that arrogant organisers had bluntly asked him to move aside at the Games Village during training sessions and coach Sunny Thomas also alleged that the volunteers didn’t know how to behave. However, Rathore denied allegations that he had offended the volunteers of the Asian Games, saying there was only a miscommunication and the matter had been blown out of proportion.
— PTI, UNI
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Indian hockey plunges to new low Doha, December 5 After thrashing Bangladesh 6-0 in their opening match, the Indians, with the lack of experience and skill, cut a sorry figure and virtually played like novices to throw their Asian Games campaign in disarray at the Al Rayyan stadium. It was a truly a pathetic display by the former champions who had set their eyes on a berth in the final of the championship. The Chinese scored through Liang Hu (13th), Xiantang Liu (20th) and captain Yi Song (59th) while Rajpal Singh (35th) and V Raghunath (61st) found the target for the Indians. Women, too, paid a heavy price for some lapses in the striking circle as they went down 1-3 to China in a round robin hockey match today. The Indian eves, who launched their campaign in style by thrashing Taipei 7-0 in their opening match, had themselves to blame for frittering away the chance to gain full points at the Al-Rayyan hockey stadium. Buarong Fu struck two goals for the Chinese while Ren Ye chipped in with one goal. Surinder Kaur scored a consolation goal for the Indians in the 57th minute. After this defeat, the Indians were placed fourth in the table with three points while Korea and Japan were jointly atop the table with seven points. Coach M.K. Kaushik was understandbly disappointed with the effort of his team. “I expected that we would beat China. China is not too tough a team for us, but we made some mistakes with our finishing and our players did not play to my expectations. We will cover this in future matches”, Kaushik said. — PTI
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Sharath, Roy bow out of singles race Doha, December 5 Sharath Kamal, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist in Melbourne this year, surrendered to Peng Lung Chiang of Taipei 0-4 in a one-sided contest at the Al Arabi Indoor Hall. Sharath Kamal had no answer to Chiang’s offensive game as he went down tamely 5-11, 5-11, 8-11, 4-11 in just 20 minutes much to the dismay of the handful of Indian supporters who turned up to cheer the Indian player. Soumyadeep also suffered a similar fate though he had the consolation of winning one game against Hong Kong’s Yuk Cheung who recorded a 4-1 win to sail into the men’s singles quarterfinals. Roy raised hopes of a fighback by clinching the third game but his fancied rival capitalised on a few unforced errors by the Indian. Cheung eventually carved out a 11-7,13-11, 11-13, 11-5, 11-8 victory. “Nothing seemed to go right for me. He played very well and deserved to win. We have to keep trying hard”, Roy said after the match. Boxing: Akhil,
Jai lose Indian boxers Akhil Kumar and Jai Bhagwan were knocked out by much superior opponents from the ertswhile Soviet Union in the preliminary round bouts at the Asian Games today. Kumar was stopped inside the distance by strong Uzbeikstan fighter Orzubeh Shayinmov when the referee stopped the one-sided bantamweight (54 kg) contest at 1 minute, 46 seconds into round three of the round of 16 bout. The victory enabled the Uzbek competitor to reach the last eight. Later Jai Bhagwan went down after putting up a brave fight against his Kyrgistan rival Asylbek Talasbaev on points (33-22) in their lightweight (60kg) class preliminary round contest. Bhagwan started off well and was down 7-10 in the opening round, but lost ground in the second as his rival widened the lead to 20-12. Handball: India crash out India fought tooth and nail before crashing out of the handball event after their 30-47 loss against title contender Bahrain in the 15th Asian Games here today. The winners led 22-15 in the first half before going on to record a comprehensive Group A win at the Al-Gharrafa Indoor Hall. India had begun their campaign with a defeat against hosts Qatar but bounced back with a comfortable 31-14 win over Macau. Despite the loss, Naya Chandra Singh Rungbam had another good outing today, while Firoz Ahmed Khan also shone in the match. Amid the waves of Bahraini attacks, goalkeeper Sachin Bhaskar Wagh impressed with nine saves out of 29 shots.
— PTI, UNI
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Anand, Sridhar in pre-quarters
Doha, December 5 World number 31 Anand had no difficulty in warding off the challenge from Bahrain’s Jaafar Hasan with a 21-9, 21-11 victory in just about 15 minutes in the round of 32. Anand played an attacking game right through the contest giving very little chance to his opponent who lacked the skills to counter him. Sridhar was a little less convincing as he got past Sri Lanka’s Dinuka Nishan Karunaratne with a 21-16, 21-12 verdict in a tussle which lasted 20 minutes at the Aspire Hall. There was good news for India in the men’s doubles event also as the experienced pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar got the better of the Sri Lankan brother duo of Diluka Karunaratne and Dinuka Karunaratne with a facile 21-6, 21-9 victory to march into the pre-quarter finals. Rowers in final
Indian rowing duo of Anil Kumar Mehrolia and Bajranglal Takhar finished second in the second semifinal to book their final berth in the men’s double sculls event at the West Bay Lagoon here today. In men’s lightweight double sculls event too, the Indian duo of Kiran Yalamanchi and Bijender Singh finished second and qualified for the finals. In men’s double sculls semifinals, the Korean pair of Dal Ho Kim and Jung Wook Ham timed 3:31.05 (1:40.73+1:50.32) to win the race, followed by the Indians. Anil and Bajranglal took time to accelerate and finished the first 500m at 1:44.39, well behind the Koreans. They reduced the margin in the final 500m metre but in the end, that was not enough as they finished second best in the race. In Final A, the Indian and Korean pairs would be joined by their opponents from China and Uzbekistan. In the first semifinal of the men’s lightweight double sculls category, the Indian pair of Kiran Yalamanchi and Bijender Singh finished behind the Kazakh duo of Ivan Kharitonov and Artyom Issupov (3:36.62) with a timing of 3:39.02.
— UNI, PTI
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Doha, December 5 The fact that the field is strong cannot be an excuse for the Indians who came in full strength here knowing fully well the high quality of the opposition. They performed so badly that no trace is visible of their participation. In men’s 50m butterfly heat two, Ankur Poseria clocked 25.92 sec to finish first among the eight swimmers, and despite leading the heat it was so poor a timing that he failed to qualify. Another Indian, Virdhaval Khade, was in heat four of the same event and he ended sixth in the eight-swimmer field. Khade timed 25.59 sec, which was a whopping 0.91 more than the heat winner China’s Dong Wang (24.68). In the 100m backstroke (heat three), national champion Arjun Murlidharan finished last in the seven-member field. He clocked 1:01.64 and Japan’s Junichi Miyashita who timed 55.95 won the heat. The difference between the winner and the Indian was a staggering 5.69. Murlidharan took 29.35 sec to cross his first fifty and clocked 32.29 sec for his next fifty. Meanwhile, Rehan Poncha continued with his dismal show. The Bangalore-based swimmer finished fifth among the six in heat two of the 400m freestyle. As if it was not enough, Indians also appeared in 4 x100m Freestyle relay and the quartet of Virdhaval Khade, Rehan Poncha, Arjun Murlidharan and Ankur Poseria timed 3:35.94 to be placed sixth among seven teams. Japan with a time 3:25.55 was the leader of this heat. — UNI
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Paes: Bhupathi deliberately underplayed
Doha, December 5 ‘The Indian Express’, as they were famously called when at their prime together, was tamely defeated 6-2, 6-3 in 76 minutes in the first round game to lose the rubber 2-1 and Paes promptly gave out a war cry, saying Bhupathi’s performance was not honest. “I just feel that Hesh (Bhupathi) should be honest with himself, his injuries and his tennis,” the 33-year-old veteran player said without mincing any words. “I have tremendous respect for him. He is a fantastic tennis player and has done a lot for the country. But at the moment, he needs to be honest with himself,” Paes said. Paes, the captain of the Indian team, also threatened to drop Bhupathi.
— PTI
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Adelaide, December 5 In a dramatic turnaround, England crumpled to 129 all out, leaving the Australians with the task of scoring 168 runs for victory off 36 overs. Australia achieved that with ease by six wickets to seize a 2-0 lead in the five-Test series and now head to Perth, where victory in the December 14-18 third Test would win back the Ashes after they relinquished them for the first time in 16 years in 2005. Despairing England must win two of their remaining three Tests to draw the series and, as holders, retain the Ashes. Australia showed their intent to go after the tantalising win from the start with 10 runs off Matthew Hoggard’s opening over, before Justin Langer fell in his next over, cutting to Ian Bell at backward point for seven. Matthew Hayden scored at a run a ball but when on 18 he skied an attempted pull shot off Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood took an outstanding catch running backwards, leaving the home team 33 for two but bang on the run rate. Mike Hussey was promoted to No. 4 ahead of the threatened Damien Martyn to join Ricky Ponting and the pair rattled along at five an over, putting on 83 runs in 76 minutes before Ponting fell to Ashley Giles for 49. Martyn’s Test future is in jeopardy after another cheap dismissal for five, but a sign of England’s frustrations came when Michael Clarke got four overthrows from a over-cooked throw by Pietersen to give him seven runs. Hussey guided his team to victory with a hustling 61 not out and hit the winning runs as Australia reached 168 for four off 32.5 overs, with Clarke not out 21. Scoreboard
England (Ist innings) 551/6 dec Australia (Ist innings) 513 England
(IInd innings) Strauss c Hussey b Warne 34 Cook c Gilchrist b Clark 9 Bell run out 26 Collingwood not out 22 Pietersen b Warne 2 Flintoff c Gilchrist b Lee 2 Jones c Hayden b Lee 10 Giles c Hayden b Warne 0 Hoggard b Warne 4 Harmison lbw McGrath 8 Anderson lbw b McGrath 1 Extras
(b-3, lb-5, w-1, nb-2) 11 Total (all out, 73 overs) 129 Fall of wickets:
1-31, 2-69, 3-70, 4-73, 5-77, 6-94, 7-97, 8-105, 9-119, 10-129. Bowling:
Lee 18-3-35-2, McGrath 10-6-15-2, Warne 32-12-49-4, Clark 13-4-22-1. Australia
(IInd innings) Langer c Bell b Hoggard 7 Hayden c Collingwood
b Flintoff 18 Ponting c Strauss b Giles 49 Hussey not out 61 Martyn c Strauss b Flintoff 5 Clarke not out 21 Extras
(b-2, lb-2, w-1, nb-2) 7 Total (4 wkts, 32.5 overs) 168 Fall of wickets:
1-14, 2-33, 3-116, 4-121. Bowling: Hoggard 4-0-29-1, Flintoff 9-0-44-2, Giles 10-0-46-1, Harmison 4-0-15-0, Anderson 3.5-0-23-0, Pietersen 2-0-7-0. Man of the match:
Ricky Ponting. — AFP
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Indians were ill-prepared
India’s one-day series was a disaster alright and going by the way the South Africans had plotted and planned the campaign, there may not be much relief for the Indians in the Test series that follows. The Indians made a mistake in coming in cold to the African continent. They did not have a camp, nor did the selected players play any first-class cricket for a fortnight before coming to South Africa. In today’s fierce international arena, to come to a country where the pitches are radically different than the ones in the sub-continent without any match practice was asking for trouble and the Indians got it in full measure. It’s not as if the Indians had played such good cricket that the players needed the rest, and whoever decided that there should not be any participation in domestic first-class cricket was naive at best and stupid at worst. This business of burnout is a readymade excuse for some players who have no loyalty to the system that gets them international caps. Yes, injured players have to have enough time for rehabilitation, but not those who play three one-day games in the space of a fortnight and claim that they are tired and need rest. If that is the case, then clearly the fitness parameters are not right and need to be revisited. With the kind of sophisticated training advice and facilities the modern player gets, he should be fit enough to play virtually every other day. Quite simply, players get fitter by match play than training in the gym. The scheduling also was of no help, with there being just one practice game before the series began and even for the Test series, there’s just one match before the series starts. Even after that, there are so many rest days that for an ‘out-of-form’ team, even the odd player who is in form can lose his rhythm. India’s problems in the one-day series was that their batting simply never took off. That there were only three scores over 50 shows how good the South Africans were in bowling to the plan they had for each batsman. On the other hand, there didn’t seem to be any planning for the South African batsmen, nor was there any effort to try and change things around so that the South African bowlers could be attacked and put under pressure. Shaun Pollock was allowed to bowl pretty much as he wanted and nobody tried to make him alter his length by standing outside the crease or taking off-stump guard or doing something that would make him think. Pollock was successful in capturing an early wicket and once that happened, the Indians in the absence of the captain Dravid had nobody who could come and steady the boat. They tried a variety of players at the number three position and found that nobody could quite fill that spot, which is as much a specialist position as the opening pair is. Dinesh Kaarthick is an energetic young man, but at the moment, he doesn’t have the experience and the temperament to play for India as a batsman. Sure, he will score runs, but that would be every ten innings or so, which is what is not expected of a number five batsman for India . Yuvraj’s absence was felt as apart from his batting ability, his quicksilver fielding would have given the Indian bowlers the lift that they needed after the mauling they used to get in the last overs. On these seamer-friendly pitches, apart from Zaheer Khan, nobody looked like troubling the South African batsmen, and that’s worrying. It also questions why India keep picking the extra seamer when it’s strength is in spin. Harbhajan and Anil Kumble will be the guys who will trouble the South Africans, and they need good support from the fielders. India disappointed because in spite of the foreign conditions, they went down without a fight. Let’s hope that the Test series will be a different story, though somehow one feels that it may not be so. — PMG
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Doha, December 5
India today missed out on a gold medal as Olympic silver-medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore managed an individual bronze in double trap shooting after guiding the country to team silver on the fifth day of the 15th Asian Games here.
Both men and women lose to China
