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Pathan takes Baroda
into Ranji semis
Russia clinch Hopman Cup
Chennai Open
ONGC rewards
Asiad medallists Jarnail does it for Shers
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Cape Town, January 5 India began rather disconcertingly. After the success with Kaarthick as an opener in the first innings, it was surprising that Virender Sehwag was reverted to the top of the order. India needed to keep wickets intact before contemplating quick runs. But as he’s been doing of late, the Delhi batsman triggered a crisis by driving without any use of his feet. Indeed, the turmoil deepened, as Wasim Jaffer was caught off the glove attempting to leave a delivery. It was a precarious six for two; and another wicket could have fallen on the same score, had the incoming Indian batsman been “timed out”. But the umpires persuaded the fielders not to appeal. The second Indian wicket went down at 10:43 local time. But Sachin Tendulkar was ineligible to bat until 10:48, having been absent from the field towards the latter stages of the previous day. The fourth umpire, Murray Brown, belatedly informed him of this. VVS Laxman, who was to follow, was reportedly in the rest room. So, Ganguly accoutred himself to arrive at the crease. By the time he reached, six minutes had passed from Jaffer’s exit, or three minutes more than the allowed time for a batsman to fill a breach. However, the umpires took the blame for the confusion; and an episode of a player being “timed out” in a Test match was averted. Ganguly, after an unconvincing four through the slips to open his account, was all pugnacity and panache. He evaded the short-pitched deliveries, while authoritatively off-driving and pulling the speedy Makhaya Ntini to the boundary. Indeed, the roughs outside his off-stump notwithstanding, he disdainfully cut Paul Harris against the spin. But Jacques Kallis, reverse swinging the ball and probingly pursuing an outside-the-off-stump line, obtained an edge to gully to the unconcealed delight of his team-mates. It was 90 for three. Play had settled into a pattern, with Harris pitching on the greater wear and tear on the southern side of the pitch and the quicker bowlers operating from the other end. But the left-arm spinner’s approach was to frustrate, rather than attack, as he bowled from over the wicket outside the right-hander’s leg stump. The ploy worked, though, as Dravid, venturing to force the pace, was caught and bowled. This prolific run-getter had, unusually for him, failed to record even a half-century in this series. More uncomfortably, India were 114 for four. Ganguly’s enterprise was underlined by the snail-paced progress of Dravid and Tendulkar after the southpaw’s exit, with 19 overs elapsing before another boundary was struck — a sweep by Tendulkar. But that was his last flourish, as Asad Rauf’s dreaded finger soon declared him lbw. It was, therefore, left to Kaarthick to stretch the first-innings surplus. He cut and drove with aplomb, even cheekily reverse swept Harris and late cut the lively Dale Steyn, to notably excel where others had struggled, until an erroneously permitted seventh ball of an over removed Munaf Patel. Scoreboard India (1st innings) 414 South Africa (1st innings) 283 India (2nd innings) Jaffer c De Villiers b Ntini 2 Sehwag c Boucher b Steyn 4 Dravid c&b Harris 47 Ganguly c Gibbs b Kallis 46 Tendulkar lbw Pollock 14 Laxman run out 1 Kaarthick not out 38 Kumble c Gibbs b Steyn 6 Zaheer run out 1 Sreesanth c Kallis b Steyn 4 Patel c Pollock b Steyn 0 Extras (lb-5, nb-1) 6 Total (all out, 64 overs) 169 Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-6, 3-90, 4-114, 5-115, 6-121, 7-147, 8-165, 9-169. Bowling: Ntini 8-1-29-1, Steyn 7-0-30-4, Pollock 15-5-24- 1, Harris 22-6-50-1, Kallis 12-0-31-1. South Africa (2nd innings) De Villiers c Kaarthick b Zaheer 22 Smith not out 21 Amla lbw Kumble 10 Extras (b-1, nb-1) 2 Total (2 wickets, 16.2 overs) 55 Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-55. Bowling: Zaheer 8-1-24-1, Sreesanth 4-0-16-0, Kumble 4.2-1-14-1.
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Aussies accomplish Mission Whitewash
Sydney, January 5 Opening batsman Justin Langer (20), the third veteran retiring after the match, combined with Matthew Hayden to pick off the 46 runs needed as Australia won the fifth Test by 10 wickets after England was skittled for 147 in its second innings. Hayden (23) hit a six off Sajid Mahmood to make the scores level, then took a single from the next ball for the winner. The Australians have now won 16 and drawn one of their 17 Test matches since the shock Ashes series loss in England in 2005, including the last 12 in succession. Ricky Ponting, widely criticised after being the first Australian captain in 16 years to lose the Ashes when his squad went down 2-1 in England 16 months ago, guided the hosts to a clinical and ruthless series triumph this time. Warwick Armstrong’s side of 1920-21 is the only other team to sweep a five-match Ashes series. Ponting was voted player of the series after scoring 576 runs at an average of 82, including two important hundreds. England resumed on the fourth morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground at 114 for five and lost its last five wickets for 33 runs in just over an hour. Kevin Pietersen, the last of the recognised batsman, sparked the last batting capitulation when he edged McGrath to Adam Gilchrist on the third ball of the morning and was out for 29. McGrath took the last wicket, James Anderson (5), scooping a catch to Mike Hussey at mid-on, to return 3-38. Warne will finish his career with a world record 708 Test wickets. McGrath had 563 Test wickets and is the leading Test paceman of all time. Scoreboard England (1st innings) 291 Australia (1st innings) 393 England (2nd innings) Strauss lbw Clark 24 Cook c Gilchrist b Lee 4 Bell c Gilchrist b Lee 28 Pietersen c Gilchrist b McGrath 29 Collingwood c Hayden b Clark 17 Flintoff st Gilchrist b Warne 7 Panesar run out 0 Read c Ponting b Lee 4 Mahmood b McGrath 4 Harmison not out 16 Anderson c Hussey b McGrath 5 Extras (b-2, lb-3, w-1, nb-3) 9 Total (all out, 58 overs) 147 FoW: 1-5, 2-55, 3-64, 4-98, 5-113, 6-114, 7-114, 8-122, 9-123. Bowling: Lee 14-5-39-3, McGrath 21-11-38-3, Clark 12-4-29-2, Warne 6-1-23-1, Symonds 5-2-13-0. Australia (2nd innings) Langer not out 20 Hayden not out 23 Extras (lb-3) 3 Total
(no loss, 10.5 overs) 46 Bowling: Anderson 4-0-12-0, Harmison 5-1-13-0, Mahmood 1.5-0-18-0.
— AP
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The last hurrah
Sydney, January 5 “I’m pretty excited actually,” Warne told Australian television. “To win 5-0 is a fantastic achievement by this group of guys. This team’s played some sensational cricket during the summer. To finish off the way we have today, 5-0, is a sensational way to do it.” McGrath, who took the final England wicket, paid tribute to his team-mates. “I don’t think we’ve ever played team wise as we’ve played this series,” he said. “The time’s ripe. It would have been nice to knock the stumps out but I can’t complain.” Langer was at the crease when his partner Matthew Hayden hit the winning runs. “To win 5-0, we’ve been so determined to win this series and win it so well ... it just can’t be any better than that,” he said. “My prime emotion is just that we’ve won the series 5-0. To have played a Test like this ... it’s the perfect time to let go of it. “The parting word is that the baggy green cap means a lot to a lot of people. To wear it 105 times has been an absolute pleasure and an honour.”
— Reuters
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Pathan takes Baroda into Ranji semis
Baroda, January 5 Chasing 172 runs for win, Baroda were tottering at 52 for four at one stage when Pathan came to their rescue and struck an unbeaten 82, consisting of six sixes and three fours, to script a deserving victory. Resuming at their overnight score of 17 for one, the hosts’ misery piled up with regular fall of wickets. Rajesh Pawar (15), who was caught brilliantly by wicketkeeper Amir Khan off seamer Pravin Kumar, was the first to go and veteran batsman Conor Williams and skipper Jacob Martin also made early exits. Pathan shared a valubale unbeaten 72-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Himanshu Yadav (21 not out) to see his side home. Pravin Kumar and Ratnesh Mishra captured two wickets each for UP. Haryana lose to Saurashtra
Rajkot: Saurashtra registered their second consecutive win, comprehensively defeating Haryana by seven wickets on the final day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Division match here on Friday. Chasing 184 for a win in remaining 59 overs, the hosts overwhelmed the target off 49.1 overs losing only three wickets on the back of a splendid knock by Sagar Jogiyani (92). Sitanshu Kotak 37 and skipper Jaydev Shah 17 remained undefeated. Saurashtra started the chase confidently as openers Prashant Joshi (27) and Sagar Jogiyani added 68 runs to lay a firm ground for victory. Jogiyani, who was looking in fine touch and middling the ball well, added another 86 runs with Kotak for the second wicket before falling in nervous nineties. Jogiyani failed to complete his well-deserved maiden century when he offered a simple catch eight runs short of the three-figure mark. His solid 92 was punctuated with 18 cracking fours and came off 133 balls. In-form batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara (5) did not last long but Shah’s nine-ball 17 guided Saurashtra to a comfortable win. Earlier Haryana, resuming at 82 for seven, added another 61 before being all out for 143 in 64 overs. Skipper Joginder Sharma was the top scorer with unbeaten 38. The visitors, who made 308 in first innings and took a 40-run lead, however, caved in meekly in their second edition against the spin of Ravindra Jadeja and Rakesh Dhruve. Jadeja was the chief destroyer for the hosts, taking five for 45, while Dhruve bagged three for 59.
— PTI
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Russia clinch Hopman Cup
Perth, January 5 World No. 6 Petrova gave the top seeds the momentum with a 6-0, 6-4 demolition of Anabel Medina Garrigues before Tursunov sealed the tie with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over world No. 7 Tommy Robredo. Since losing their opening pool match against Australia, the Russian duo have
PHOTO improved as the tournament progressed, beating France in their final group tie by the required 3-0 margin to ensure they qualified for a debut appearance in the final. Petrova, showing no signs of the side strain injury which troubled her earlier in the week, rattled off the first set against Medina Garrigues in 30 minutes helped by some pinpoint groundstrokes. Medina opened her account in the second set but the Russian broke again to take a 4-2 lead. The Spaniard managed to level at 4-4, but Petrova secured two match points on her opponent’s serve while leading 5-4 and sealed the win in an hour and four minutes at the second attempt when Medina Garrigues’s lame forehand drifted wide. Tursunov, ranked 22 in the world, always looked the sharper against Robredo, who appeared jaded after Spain’s final pool match ended in the early hours of Friday morning. The Russian claimed the opener in 38 minutes with ferocious power hitting from the baseline but Robredo hit back to serve for the second set at 5-4. Tursunov clinched victory with another break in the 12th game, sealed with a crunching forehand service return winner only called in after a referral to Hawk-Eye.
— Reuters
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Nadal, Malisse in semis
Chennai, January 5 In a lop-sided quarterfinal on centre court, the 20-year-old Spaniard literally had a stroll in the park against the 34-year-old Italian, who just played into the hands of his famed rival. Nadal will now meet third seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium in the semifinals. Malisse defeated sixth seeded Fabrice Santoro of France 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in an hour and 40 minutes in the first quarterfinal. Considering the age difference, one did not expect a fight from Sanguinetti, who just kept the ball in and allowed Nadal to go for the kill. The power-packed double-fisted returns and lovely down the line forehand winners from Nadal brooked no response from the Italian, who caved in meekly. It was the easiest match so far for Nadal, who was stretch a little even by India’s wild-card entrant Karan Rastogi, especially in the first set, yesterday. The 110th ranked Italin had to face shouts from the crowd “Thatha Thatha” (meaning grandfather), though in a language he did not know, as he could not match the Spaniard in speed or groundstrokes.
— UNI |
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Mohd Sporting stun JCT
New Delhi, January 5 After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the championship, JCT set the ball rolling in earnest and came very close to scoring a few times before they hit the mark in the 28th minute through Renedy Singh, whose right-footed free kick from the left of the goal-box landed in the net near the right post, taking custodian Gopal Das by surprise (1-0). JCT were awarded the free kick when Sunil Chetri was pushed by rival defender A.S.Firoze. JCT held on to the lead till the 25th minute of the second half when Mohammedan Sporting drew parity through K Kuluthungan, who chipped the ball over the head of custodian Kalyan Chaubey and into the corner of the net after receiving a chipped pass from Noel Wilson near the half-line (1-1). But the goal that took three points off JCT was Habibur Rehman’s pin-pointed header which crashed into the net to leave custodian Kalyan Chaubey under the JCT bar totally flabbergasted (2-1), just two minutes before the final hooter. The move was initiated by Jatin Singh Bisht from the midfield before relaying the ball to Bijen Singh near the right flag post. Bijen lobbed the ball into the box, and Habibur Rehman sprang on his feet in a trice to head home to surprise the taller JCT defenders. Habibur Rehman was deservingly adjudged the man of the match, and was presented a cash prize of Rs 5,000 by Delhi Soccer Association president Subhash Chopra. It was an unexpected reverse for JCT, who would have been better off even by sharing the points, as they seemed well on course for a victory after making a promising start. They should have, in fact, forged ahead in the sixth minute when off a Renedy Singh free kick, medio Adebayo Tokundo Adewusi turned on his heel to effect a powerful header which, however, rose high to kiss the cross bar. A few minutes later, Sunil Chetri rattled the Mohammedan citadel with a rasping drive from the top of the box which custodian Gopal Das, with a spring-heeled action, tipped over. In fact, for the first 20 minutes, JCT were virtually inside the Mohammedan half and the Kolkata outfit rarely got a chance to have a close look at the Punjab goal, save for a few feeble long shots by their lone-ranger, Bijen Singh. But strangely, JCT failed to capitalise their territorial domination into goals, despite making some close calls. Captain Chidi Edeh’s angled header, off a corner kick, narrowly missed the mark, and after JCT gained the lead, Mohammedan assigned captain Madhab Das to mark Sunil Chetri and Subhashis Roy to police Chidi Edeh. Mohammedans, who massed up their defence and resorted to long clearances to keep at bay the JCT forwards, however, changed tactics from the last quarter of the first half when they played the short balls and used the wings to split open the JCT defence with speed and penetration.
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ONGC rewards
Asiad medallists New Delhi, January 5 Of the 18 ONGC sportspersons who represented the country in the games, 10 returned home with medals. But the most remarkable feature of ONGC’s triumph was that of the 10 gold won by India, eight were bagged by ONGC sportspersons. The ONGC medal winners were introduced to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the opening ceremony of the 11th National Football League at the Ambedkar Stadium here today. Jaspal understandably led the group by securing an E-5 level promotion — chief manager at the middle level, the youngest to have such a position in the blue chip ONGC — and Rs 7.5 lakh in prize money. He won three gold — two individual and one team gold — and one silver at Doha. Grandmaster Humpy, the world No. 2 and India’s No. 1, who won an individual gold and a team gold with K.
Harikrishna, came in for praise from the top brass of the ONGC, including chairman and managing director R.N. Sharma. Super Grandmaster
Harikrishna, who recently reached the 2700 ELO rating mark to be the second Indian to achieve the feat after Viswanathan Anand, was promised an out-of-turn promotion after being presented a cheque for Rs 2 lakh. Another star attraction was billiards gold medallist Pankaj Advani, who had joined the organisation three years ago as an 18-year-old colt, to be the youngest member of the ONGC. The company top brass felt that he could have won the snooker gold, too, had he been fielded in the event. He is the world champion in both billiards and snooker. The gold winners were awarded Rs 2 lakh each, while the silver medallists were richer by Rs 1.5 lakh. The eight other members of the ONGC team who did not win any medal at the Doha Asiad were given cash prizes of Rs 25,000 each. The other sportspersons honoured were Chetan Anand, Rupesh Kumar and V Biju (badminton), Alok Kumar (billiards and snooker), Mousumi Pal (table tennis), Karan Rastogi (tennis), Tejinder Singh (hockey), Y Subba Rao (volleyball), Bhupender Singh and P Shankar (4x400m relay), Chitra K Soman and Mandeep Kaur (4x400m women’s relay), Manpreet Singh (kabaddi), Sweta Choudhary (shooting) and Anil Kumar. |
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Jarnail does it for Shers Chennai, January 5 In a match totally dominated by the Jalandhar outfit, the all- important goal came in the third quarter off a penalty-corner variation. After a dummy from Kanwalpreet Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon pushed the ball only to be baulked by dynamic Dynamos custodian Baljit Singh. As the ball rebounded, a melee ensued and the ball rolled on nicely to Jarnail, who unleashed a fierce reverse flick, the ball landing on the roof of the net. Dynamos made some sporadic moves in the last quarter, but the Jalandhar defence withstood the onslaught and trooped out deserving winners. Jalandhar gained three points for the winner and were on a par with Chennai Veerans at the top of the table. Veerans defeated former champions Hyderabad Sultans 4-1 yesterday. Lions triumph Thanks to two penalty-corner conversions by Len Aiyappa, defending champions Bangalore Lions defeated Maratha Warriors 2-1 via silver goal to start their campaign on a winning note here this evening. The Lions forged ahead in the 13th minute when Aiyappa converted a penalty corner. Maratha Warriors restored parity in the 25th minute through a field goal by Gurbaj Singh. Both teams fought hard in the next two quarters but success eluded them, stretching the contest to the extra-time. Aiyappa did the trick once again scoring in the fifth minute of the first half to help the Lions gain two points. Maratha Warriors got one point. — UNI, PTI
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