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Windies peaking at right time: Lara
Comfortable win for Kiwis
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Top women cricketers for Quadrangular Series
Ranji Trophy Plate final
Corus loses sheen after Topalov scandal
Delhi to host world junior archery meet
Sunil storms into semis
Sridhar advances
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Pathan set to return
Vadodara, January 30 The Baroda left-arm seamer was sent back from the South Africa tour after the first Test to regain his form by playing in domestic matches and missed the first three ODIs against the Windies. The Indians, who have an unbeatable 2-1 lead, left out Gautam Gambhir, S. Sreesanth, Suresh Raina and Ramesh Powar from the 16. Indian skipper Rahul Dravid stressed that he was looking forward to sealing the series against the West Indies with a 3-1 margin and said Robin Uthappa and Sourav Ganguly, who was rested for the previous match at Chennai, would open the innings tomorrow. “It will be great to win the series against the West Indies who are a very good and dangerous team in the World Cup. They have a good balance and fine all-rounders. They will be tough competitors. It will be nice to finish with a 3-1 series win going into the World Cup”, he said. “Robin and Sourav will open the innings. We have left out Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Ramesh Powar and S. Sreesanth from the 16 named for tomorrow’s game,” he said. Sreesanth’s exclusion means Zaheer Khan would handle the new ball with Ajit Agarkar. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is back in the squad who would fancy his big hits on a pitch expected to be benign and true. Dravid said the Indian fans and media needed to be more patient with the younger players rather than judge them hastily and pointed out the example of West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels who was persisted with despite a string of failures before he played a match-winning innings at Chennai. “Sreesanth is inexperienced and he will learn from bowling on these flat wickets. We need to be patient with our younger players and not expect instant results from them. It does not happen as there’s a big gap between our domestic cricket and the international one. The West Indies have given a lot of time for Marlon Samuels (to come good),” he said. The Kerala youngster gave away a lot of runs in the matches he has played so far in the series. The Indian think tank would also be eager to see Anil Kumble strike form after his expensive spell in Chennai while the return of Harbhajan Singh, who sat out the third ODI, would be keenly watched. For the West Indies, the return of in-form batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul would be a huge plus after he was rested in the third ODI. But the West Indies, looking for a series-levelling win, have a couple of injury worries. Marlon Samuels was sent for a precautionary X-ray after hurting his left index finger during the last match at Chennai, which the visitors won by three wickets. Weather pundits have predicted some cloud cover for tomorrow following the forecast of unseasonal showers today after the city recorded steady drizzle yesterday. If that happens, new ball bowlers can get some swing going their way.
— PTI
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Windies peaking at right time: Lara
Baroda, January 30 “Australia are the only team I feel can guarantee that they are going to be in the semifinals,” the 37-year-old veteran of four World Cups told a news conference today. “And it is at that stage we hope that they will falter,” he added, on the eve of the fourth and final one-day match of a series that hosts India lead 2-1. West Indies, World Cup winners in 1975 and 1979, reached the ICC Champions Trophy final in India in November after reaching the final of a tri-series also featuring Australia and India. Australia, who beat the Caribbeans to win their maiden Champions Trophy, are aiming for a hat-trick of World Cup titles. Lara said he felt more confident of his side’s World Cup chances in March/April than in the past four he has played in. “I always thought we had the team to do pretty well, (but) we did not,” he recalled. “In those four World Cups, we only got into one semifinals,” he added, referring to the 1996 edition. “I think our form and what we have done in recent times, I think I can safely say we have got the game to be among the top four teams. “We’ve done pretty well in the ICC tournament against all the top playing countries and I expect that to carry on. “We are forming a very good team and we are quietly confident about our capabilities.” Lara was keen to sign off the brief Indian tour with a victory to square the series. His team won in Chennai by three wickets after losing the first two matches. “It is also very pertinent moving forward, especially with this being our last international game before our (World Cup) opening match against Pakistan,” Lara said.
— Reuters
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Comfortable win for Kiwis
Sydney, January 30 Lou Vincent, Ross Taylor and Jacob Oram blasted half-centuries to help New Zealand post a record total of 318 for seven on a perfect batting pitch at the WACA in Perth. England could manage only 260 for eight in reply after their middle-order collapsed again. They need to win their final two matches against Australia on Friday then New Zealand next week to have any hope of making the playoffs and salvaging some pride from a desperately disappointing tour. “We’re still in it,” England skipper Andrew Flintoff told the BBC. “We have got to play out of our skins on Friday. We have got to beat Australia. We scored more points than in our last two games, so that has got to be a plus point.” England’s position would have been even worse had they not managed to scrape past 250 and avoid giving the Kiwis, who dropped three catches in the final few overs, a bonus point. “We were extremely disappointed not to get the bonus point, from a fielding standards point of view we shelled a couple and got a little bit desperate to do it,” New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming told a news conference. “It would have been nice to win the game emphatically and get another point from it, so it is bitter-sweet.” Makeshift England opener Ed Joyce top-scored with 66 while wicketkeeper Paul Nixon made 49 when the game was as good as over. Ian Bell (31) was the only other player to score more than 20. New Zealand were always in control after Vincent made 76, Taylor 71 and Oram 54 not out to help the Kiwis pile up a record score against England, eclipsing their 298 for six at Leeds in 1990. Paceman Liam Plunkett captured three wickets at a cost of 54 runs from nine overs while left-arm spinner Monty Panesar was England’s most effective bowler, finishing with two for 35 from 10 overs. Vincent and Taylor shared a third-wicket partnership of 137 after Plunkett dismissed Fleming and Peter Fulton (both for 15) to steady the innings and allow Oram to finish it off by smacking his unbeaten 50 off 33 balls. Oram scored a century off 71 balls in his team’s narrow defeat by Australia on Sunday and continued his brilliant form with four sixes and three fours. Scoreboard
New Zealand Vincent c Dalrymple b Plunkett 76 Fleming lbw Plunkett 15 Fulton c Nixon b Plunkett 15 Taylor c Panesar b Collingwood 71 McMillan st Nixon b Panesar 11 Oram not out 54 McCullum c Strauss b Panesar 19 Franklin c Plunkett b Tremlett 9 Vettori not out 11 Extras
(lb-12, w-22, nb-3) 37 Total (7 wkts, 50 overs) 318 Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-53, 3-190, 4-213, 5-219, 6-246, 7-268. Bowling: Plunkett 9-0-54-3, Tremlett 10-0-72-1, Flintoff 10-0-66-0, Panesar 10-2-35-2, Dalrymple 5-0-43-0, Collingwood 6-0-36-1. England Joyce run out 66 Loye c Fleming b Franklin 15 Bell c Fleming b Patel 31 Strauss st McCullum b Vettori 12 Collingwood c Fleming b McMillan 18 Flintoff b Vettori 13 Dalrymple c Franklin b McMillan 14 Nixon c Oram b Bond 49 Plunkett not out 25 Extras (b-1, lb-2, w-8, nb-6) 17 Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 260 Fall of wickets:
1-27, 2-99, 3-123, 4-136, 5-156, 6-160, 7-184, 8-260. Bowling: Franklin 8-1-45-1, Bond 10-0-58-1, Oram 5-0-23-0, Patel 10-0-53-1, Vettori 10-0-40-2, McMillan
7-1-38-2. — Reuters
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Top women cricketers for Quadrangular Series
Chennai, January 30 Each of the four teams will play the three other line-ups twice in the second edition of the Quadrangular Series. The inaugural series was held in Lincoln, New Zealand, in 2003. Australia had beaten New Zealand in the final to win the title while England had finished third ahead of India. Australia captain Karen Rolton would be a star attraction and she will be returning to India after she collected the inaugural ICC Women’s Player of the Year at the ICC Awards in Mumbai last year. The 32-year-old Rolton holds the record for most centuries in ODIs (7), the highest individual score in Tests (209 not out), besides being one of the six batswomen to average 50 or more in ODIs. New Zealand’s Rebecca Rolls, a 32-year-old right-handed top order batswoman, will be targeting two personal milestones in the series. She needs just 17 runs to become the 12th batswoman to complete 2,000 ODI runs, and is only two ODIs from joining the elite group of eight cricketers who have played 100 or more ODIs. The Series will also see England skipper and top order batswoman Charlotte Edwards re-establish her status as an all time great. Edwards, the Player of the Year award winner in 2004 and 2005, had a quiet Quadrangular Series four years ago, but was at her brilliant best in the 2005 Women’s World Cup where she finished with the highest aggregate of 280 runs at 46.66 average. Hosts India, the 2005 World Cup runners-up, would want to improve their last edition’s fourth position. Apart from some brilliant players, Mithali Raj’s team looks in great shape for the Series after clinching its second Asia Cup title in 12 months, against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in Jaipur in December.
— UNI
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Paes to lead new-look team
New Delhi, January 30 Leander Paes has been named the playing captain and will lead a young bunch that also includes Karan Rastogi and Sunil Kumar Sipaeya as the fifth player. The inclusion of Shokeen and Somdev comes in the wake of Rohan Bopanna’s pull out and injury to Prakash Amritraj. “Bopanna spoke to me and expressed his wish to attempt to qualify for the Grand Slams in doubles this year. He has also got a doubles wild card for an event in Delray Beach (in Miami, USA) this week,” Anil Khanna, Secretary-General of the All-India Tennis Association, told PTI following the announcement of the Indian squad here today. With the team already missing the services of Mahesh Bhupathi, the withdrawal of Bopanna, very much an in-form player, is bound to leave a gaping hole since he also would have filled in as doubles partner for Paes. Paes was pragmatic about the turn of events. “Even with Rohan in the team, playing Uzbekistan in Uzbekistan is a tough proposition,” the captain told PTI over phone. “We have a fresh crop of players and my job is to motivate them and give them the best opportunity,” Paes said. “For me, it is not so much about this result as about trying to set up a team that can make it to the World Group in the future. Being near-sighted is not the way to go about it. We have to prepare these players overtime.” Paes said he would decide on who will play the singles and who will be his partner after reaching the venue and the final round of practice sessions. “It is going to be interesting. Whomever I will be playing with, it will be the first time I will be partnering him,” he said. The lead up to the tie has been marred by the spat between Paes and Bhupathi. Bhupathi declared during the Asian Games that he would never player for India as long as the team comprised Paes as captain and Nandan Bal was the coach. Bal has been retained for the Uzbek tie and will have Sandeep Kirtane to assist him. Dev Varman, 22, has been playing collegiate tennis in the US. The Assam-born youngster played one ITF event last year, but came through four qualifying rounds and reached the quarterfinals of a Futures event there earlier this month. Besides, Dev Varman’s favourite turf is also clay, the surface for the Uzbekistan tie. Shokeen, 19, has just progressed from the juniors to the seniors circuit.
— PTI
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Ajaya, Mukesh put HP in command
Cuttack, January 30 The Orissa bowlers struggled as Ajaya Manu and Mukesh Sharma played fluently to carry forward the foundation laid by their captain Sandeep Sharma who had scored a brilliant 76 yesterday. Both, however, fell short of scoring their centuries and were dismissed in their 80s. Mukesh fell to Sanjaya Satpathy for 84 while Saurav Sahegal dismissed Ajaya for 82 runs. By then, they had carried Himachal Pradesh beyond Orissa’s first innings total. Their rescue act in the form of a seventh wicket partnership had come at a time when Himachal had lost two quick wickets early in the morning. Himachal had started the day disastrously when they resumed at 157 for three and were 161 for five losing the wickets of Paras Dogra and Vishal Bhatia. Barun Sharma also fell cheaply scoring only 12 runs. However, a strong rearguard action by Mukesh and Ajaya saw Himachal secure a lead of 88 runs over Orissa. For Orissa Debashis Mohanty, Saurav Sahegal and Sanjaya Satpathy claimed two wickets each. — UNI
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Corus loses sheen after Topalov scandal
Wijk Aan Zee, January 30 The heroics of Armenian Levon Aronian, who emerged as the joint winner along with Topalov and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, or for that matter, the mediocre show by five-time winner Viswanathan Anand - were all overshadowed by the scandal. International Master Martin Breutigam, a long time contributor to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, accused Topalov of soliciting help from his manager Silvio Danailov through gestures and signals during some of the games. “The behaviour of Topalov and Danailov provided grounds for new speculation. Anyone who watched the two during rounds two and three could get the impression that a process of non-verbal communication was taking place between the two only noticed by those who watched carefully,” reported chessbase.com, a popular chess portal that translated the German text written by Breutigam. In the second round when Topalov was playing six-time Dutch champion Loek Van Wely, “a strange ritual kept repeating itself. As soon as van Wely made a move Danailov rushed out of the hall and pulled his mobile phone out of his jacket,” he said. But van Wely did not think anything “fishy” was going on. “During the game I did not at all have the impression that anything was fishy, but I was also told that Danailov was behaving in a very suspicious fashion,” van Wely was quoted as saying by the paper. Apart from this game, the accusation also extended to the next round when Topalov drew with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine from a difficult situation. However, during the World Championships in Elista last year, Topalov had alleged Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik of cheating by taking frequent toilet breaks. Speculation and accusations apart, Topalov was in his elements barring the momentary lapse of concentration against Russian Peter Svidler who was the lone conqueror of the Bulgarian in the category-19 event. Topalov enjoyed the edge at one time but his brief distraction allowed Svidler to come back into the game. The Bulgarian said he was happy with his performance. “I am happy with my performance. It is fantastic to share the first place in such a prestigious tournament. We witnessed a clash of generations. There is a new one coming Radjabov and Aronian, but they met the resistance from my generation Kramnik and Anand,” Topalov said. As for Anand, the fifth-placed finish must have come as a disappointment but he must be already looking to return next year in search of his sixth title. The Indian ace lost two games in the event that proved crucial in the
end. — PTI
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Delhi to host world junior archery meet
New Delhi, January 30 Archery Association of India (AAI) president Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra said here today that the association had imported equipment worth Rs 1 crore under a 75-25 scheme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in which the Union Ministry bore the 75 per cent cost, to make available the best of equipment for the archers. Lauding the efforts of the Sports Authority of India in opening new archery training centres throughout the country, Prof Malhotra said the SAI centres at Aurangabad and Patiala have included archery as one of their disciplines. He said India would field a strong team for the next World Championship and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as archery was getting support from all quarters. Prof Malhotra equated the bronze medal bagged by the Indian men’s team in the 15th Asian Games at Doha to that of an Olympic medal as the archery standard at the Asian level was the strongest with China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan boasting of almost all the world and Olympic champions. Prof Malhotra, who is also the senior vice president of the Indian Olympic Association, expressed his apprehension about India’s medal prospects in the Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi due to the slack manner in which the sportspersons were being prepared for these events.
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Sunil storms into semis
New Delhi, January 30 Sunil landed a flurry of punches in a fast and furious bout, which forced the referee to intervene and stop the bout in the second round. Another Sunil of India also made it into the semifinal of the 51kg when he pummelled Anmar S Sckar of Iraq. In an interesting bout, Roshan of India so totally dominated Nurmykadov of Turkeministan that the referee had to stop the bout to save the foreigner from further punishment.
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Sridhar advances
New Delhi, January 30 Sridhar beat Alexander 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 to book a place in the second round where he will meet Panfil Grzegorz of Poland who beat young Indian qualifier Sanam Singh 6-4, 6-2, while Rastogi will play against compatriot Vijay Kannan who got the better of Chu-Huan Yi of Chinese Taipei. — UNI
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Sania
strides back into top 50.
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