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Ganguly fires as Asia clinch Cup
Windies need 455 for win
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Sachin, Jaffer miss camp’s first day
Ford wins coach race
Channy to head Punjab handball body
No duty on arms for shooters
Cagers qualify for elite division
Vijender lone Indian finalist
Black Elephant win by 99 runs
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Ganguly fires as Asia clinch Cup
Chennai, June 9 Chasing Asia’s 337 for 7, which included half-centuries by Ganguly, Virender Sehwag (52) and Mohammad Yousuf (51), Africans were in the hunt till the 36th over, before Fernando broke their back with a four-wicket haul. The Africans collapsed from 217 for four in 36.1 overs to 263 for nine in 44.1 overs before they were bowled out for 306 in 49.5 overs. Mohammad Rafique and Mohammad Asif claimed two wickets apiece, while Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh took one wicket each. Asia XI won the first match by 34 runs at Bangalore on June 6. The series-clinching win in the second match here tonight has reduced tomorrow’s final game to merely of academic interest. After the early exit of AB de Villiers (13), Vusi Sibanda (35) and Boeta Dippenaar (67) steadied the innings with a 60-run second-wicket stand in 62 balls. The twin strike by Fernando, who got rid of Sibanda and skipper Justin Kemp (0) in a space of three balls, pegged the Africans back. Notwithstanding the double blow, Dippenaar and Boucher (73 off 71 balls) kept them in the hunt with a calculated assault on the bowlers adding 79 in 84 balls for the fourth wicket. After the exit of Dippenaar, Boucher added 58 in 51 balls with last match’s centurion Shaun Pollock (35). But both fell trying to up the run rate, hitting to Asif at long on off Fernando and Sehwag, respectively. Amid the mounting run rate, their exit virtually ended the hopes of the Africans, who threw in the towel and fell short by 31 runs. Earlier, Ganguly top-scored with 88 after Asia XI skipper Mahela Jayawardene elected to bat on a flat wicket. Indians contributed 203 runs of the team’s total. Ganguly, who had a life on 67 when Sibanda dropped him off Elton Chigumbara, was associated in useful stands with Jayawardene (80 runs for the fourth wicket), 84 with Yousuf for the fifth wicket, 57 with Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the third wicket, and 40 for the second with Sehwag. Scoreboard Sehwag c M. Morkel Jayasuriya c Dippenaar b Odoyo 11 Ganguly c sub b Chigumbara 88 Dhoni b A. Morkel 33 Jayawardene run out 45 Yousuf c Boucher b M. Morkel 51 Yuvraj not out 30 Rafique c De Villiers b M. Morkel 1 Zaheer not out 0 Extras (lb-8, nb-4, w-14) 26 Total (7 wkts, 50 overs) 337 Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-77, 3-134, 4-214, 5-298, 6-331, 7-333. Bowling:
A. Morkel 6-0-49-1, M. Morkel 10-1-48-2, Odoyo 8-0-60-1, Chigumbara 10-0-84-2, Botha 10-1-51-0, Sibanda 6-1-37-0. Africa XI De Villiers c Dhoni b Asif 13 Sibanda c Dhoni b Fernando 35 Dippenaar c sub b Yuvraj 67 Kemp b Fernando 0 Boucher c Asif b Fernando 73 Pollock c Asif b Sehwag 35 A. Morkel c Ganguly b Rafique 13 Chigumbura c sub b Rafique 7 Botha b Fernando 13 Odoyo not out 12 M. Morkel b Asif 25 Extras (lb-4, w-8, nb-1) 13 Total
(all out, 49.5 overs) 306 Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-80, 3-80, 4-159, 5-217, 6-234, 7-247, 8-263, 9-263. Bowling: Asif 9.5-0-82-2, Zaheer 2.4-0-9-0, Jayawardene 2.2-0-19-0, Fernando 10-0-36-4, Rafique 10-0-62-2, Yuvraj 7-0-43-1, Ganguly 3-0-14-0, Sehwag 5-0-37-1.
— Agencies
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Manchester, June 9 Cook, who had also scored a hundred in the drawn series opener at Lord’s and 60 in the first innings of this match, shared a third-wicket stand of 122 with Kevin Pietersen, who made 68. Pietersen was out hit wicket in an unlucky fashion. Trying to hook a short ball from Dwayne Bravo, Pietersen’s helmet fell off, despite being attached to a chin strap, and hit the stumps. England scored 370 in the first innings, while the West Indies replied with 229. Scoreboard England (1st innings) 370 West Indies (1st innings) 229 England (2nd innings) Strauss lbw Edwards 0 Cook lbw Gayle 106 Vaughan c&b Sammy 40 Pietersen hit wkt b Bravo 68 Collingwood c Ganga b Sammy 42 Bell c Ramdin b Sammy 2 Prior c Ramdin b Sammy 0 Plunkett c Bravo b Sammy 0 Harmison c Morton b Sammy 16 Sidebottom not out 8 Panesar c Gayle b Sammy 0 Extras (b-2, lb-6, w-6, nb-12, pen-5) 31 Total (all out, 85.3 overs) 313 Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-99, 3-221, 4-265, 5-272, 6-272, 7-272, 8-300, 9-313. Bowling: Edwards 12-0-54-1, Taylor 10-0-42-0, Collymore 7-2-24-0, Sammy 21.3-2-66-7, Chanderpaul 11-1-43-0, Bravo 8-2-14-1, Gayle 16-0-57-1.
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Sachin, Jaffer miss camp’s first day
Bangalore, June 9 “Tendulkar will arrive tomorrow evening and will attend the camp from Monday. He has already secured permission from the BCCI,” said camp coordinator Ramesh Rao after the opening day’s indoor session. Also missing from the first day’s action at the National Cricket Academy here was Tendulkar’s Mumbai mate and India Test opener Wasim Jaffer, who is down with viral fever. The four batsmen who are doing duty for Asia XI against Africa XI in the Afro-Asia Cup - Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni - would also join the camp on Monday. The nine batsmen who called for the camp today, including India captain Rahul Dravid, and pace bowler S. Sreesanth, went through fitness training and core and shoulder stability exercises. “The players did yoga in the morning and then underwent beep test, did some vertical jumps and workouts in the gymnasium,” Rao said. “Sreesanth will be here tomorrow also and then would leave the camp. He’s been asked to be here in the batsmen’s camp as he could not attend the first two days’ of the bowlers’ camp at Mysore,” Rao said. The Kerala pacer missed part of the June 4-8 bowlers’ camp to play an Afro-Asia Cup Twenty20 tie. Physical trainer Gregory King is overseeing the camp conducted ahead of the team’s tours of Ireland and England. Also present is Indian team’s fielding coach Robin Singh. Players who attended the camp today were Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Mongia, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Mohammad Kaif, S. Badrinath and S. Sreesanth. VRV recovering from fever
Lanky Punjab pacer VRV Singh is recovering from a bout of viral fever in the Wockhardt Hospital here on his return from Mysore where he attended the bowlers’ camp. “VRV is much better now. He was admitted to the hospital yesterday and is expected to be discharged tomorrow. He will then proceed to his home,” said Ramesh Rao, who is coordinating the batsmen’s camp that started here today. VRV took ill on the last day of the camp in Mysore and was admitted to a hospital there but was brought back to Bangalore along with the other players who attended the fitness-specific sessions on the Infosys campus.
— PTI
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Ford wins coach race
Chennai, June 9 “The seven-member special committee headed by BCCI president Sharad Pawar has decided to appoint Ford as the Indian team coach initially for one year,” board treasurer N. Srinivasan told reporters here. Ford’s appointment came after a marathon two-hour meeting of the special committee, which also interviewed former England spinner John Emburey. “Ford will intimate the BCCI before its Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on June 12 as to when he would be able to join the team,” Srinivasan said. “No ratification of the committee’s decision is necessary as the board president himself is its chairman,” he said. Ford, 46, was the coach of the South African team between 1999 and 2002, having taken over from the late Bob Woolmer. He then joined Kent County Club in 2004 as Director of Coaching where he has a contract running till 2008. The special committee had earlier invited Ford and Emburey to make a presentation after its June 4 meeting in Bangalore when it also rejected an application by former Sri Lankan and Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore. Ford had an edge over Emburey as he was the favourite among the senior members of the Indian team. Ford, respected for his cricket nous and “behind the scenes” work culture, could prove to be the right choice for the team post-2007 World Cup. He is an anti-thesis to his predecessor Greg Chappell, whose poor man management skills had left the team’s unity and players’ morale severely damaged. Ford was Proteas’ coach during and after the match-fixing scandal and his motivational skills would be put to good use as the Indians embark on the rebuilding process. Having worked with the likes of Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock and Lance Klusener, not to forget the late Hansie Cronje, Ford has the standing to advise the Indian “stars”. Graham Xavier Ford was born in the Gandhi-land of Pietermaritzburg in Natal on November 16, 1960. As a sportsperson, he was multi-faceted, having represented Natal in cricket and soccer besides being a qualified rugby union referee. In cricket, Ford had a brief, ordinary first-class career of seven matches for Natal B, but he climbed the rungs steadily in his coaching career. Soon after his playing days ended in 1990, he got employed as Sports Union Officer with University of Natal. A commendable performance there landed him the Natal job and he guided his home province to domestic success in 1994-95 and 1996-97. From there, the national duty was only a matter of time. Ford was appointed coach of the under-24 team for the tours of Sri Lanka in 1998 and months later he was working as assistant to Woolmer. After Woolmer’s exit at the end of the 1999 World Cup, he was an automatic choice as the senior team’s coach.
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Clash of titans
Paris, June 9 If Federer wins a first French Open, he will become only the third man, after Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962 and 1969), to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time. Should Nadal triumph, the 21-year-old Spaniard will emulate Bjorn Borg by winning three successive Paris titles and become just the second man in 93 years to achieve the feat at the sport’s most demanding Grand Slam. Federer already has 10 majors in his collection but has known nothing but heartbreak here with Nadal beating him in the semifinals in 2005 and in the final last year. Furthermore, Nadal has never lost in Paris, racking up 20 wins in 20 matches. He has also looked the more impressive this time round, reaching his third successive final without dropping a set. By contrast, the world number one has been stretched by Tommy Robredo, who won a set in the quarterfinals, as well as a gutsy Nikolay Davydenko in the last four. “I don’t want to talk too much about having the four titles in a row,” said Federer. “I want to be focused on this very specific match. I have never achieved such a thing so I don’t know how I’ll feel. But I want to do my best, focus on the match and win Roland Garros.” Victory would also put him at the halfway stage of winning the calendar Grand Slam with his Wimbledon and US Open title defences to come. Federer won the first set in last year’s final before being swept aside and the omens for the 2007 Roland Garros were not looking good earlier in the clay court season. The Swiss lost again to Nadal in straight sets in the Monte Carlo final and suffered an embarrassing early exit in Rome at the hands of unheralded Italian Filippo Volandri. He then split with coach Tony Roche as his clay season threatened to implode. But in Hamburg, Federer finally got the better of Nadal for the first time on clay and brought to an end the Spaniard’s record 81-match winning streak on his favourite surface. It was his fourth career Hamburg win, proving to himself again that he can win on clay. He has carried that renewed hope with him into Paris where he will be playing in a record eighth successive Grand Slam final, passing the previous best of seven in a row set by Australia’s Jack Crawford in 1934. “That shows consistency,” said the Swiss who reached the final with a 7-5, 7-6, 7-6 win over Davydenko. — AFP Live on Star Sports 5.30 pm
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Just Justine
Paris, June 9 In what was an embarrassingly one-sided 65-minute final, the 25-year-old Belgian became just the second woman in the post-1968 Open era to win three in a row after Monica Seles in 1990-92. It was also her fourth win in five years in Paris and the sixth Grand Slam title of her career taking her past both Martina Hingis and Venus Williams. Only Serena Williams with eight titles has a better record among players still active. All her wins in French Open finals have come in straight sets and this was no exception as the 19-year-old Ivanovic, playing in her first Grand Slam final, failed to reproduce the sparkling form that saw off Maria Sharapova in the semifinals. Henin had crushed Ivanovic’s compatriot elena Jankovic in the semifinal on Thursday. Clad in the same all-black dress with a pink horizontal stripe that had seen her win six in a row in Paris, Ivanovic did get off to an encouraging start. She blasted a forehand winner down the line to open the final and broke Henin’s serve when the Belgian double-faulted on break point. Ivanovic then had three points at 40-0 on her own serve to go 2-0 up but she started having problems with her toss allowing Henin to get into the match and break back, thanks to a soul-destroying net-cord. Two games later and still struggling to relax, Ivanovic again had game point on her serve, but again she failed to convert it and then a double fault gave Henin a second straight break of serve to go 3-1 up. Against a player who had won 20 matches in a row at Roland Garros, the last 16 in straight sets, that was a luxury that Ivanovic could ill afford. Henin grabbed control of the rallies switching the play intelligently from side to side to move around her much bigger opponent. The Belgian rattled off the next three games to take the first set 6-1 in just 34 minutes. The agony continued for Ivanovic as she dropped her serve in the opening game of the second set and she was rapidly 2-0 down and left with a mountain to climb. The Serb did manage to stop the rot of eight games in a row lost by winning her next service game, but two games later Henin put her under pressure and once again she crumbled. That left Henin 4-1 up and all but home and dry and she showed no mercy clinching her fourth French Open title on her own serve pushing away an easy volley at the net. Henin will next go on to challenge for her first Wimbledon title to complete her Grand Slam set having also consolidated her position as the world No 1. For Ivanovic, the consolation is that she will rise to sixth in the world rankings having established herself as a genuine contender at Grand Slam tournaments.
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Channy to head Punjab handball body
Chandigarh, June 9 Raja K.S. Sidhu, secretary-general of the Punjab Olympic Association (POA), and Kehar Singh, joint secretary, Punjab State Sports Council, attended the meeting as observers of the POA.
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No duty on arms for shooters
New Delhi, June 9 From now on, all competitors who shoot the minimum qualifying score (MQS) specified in the NRAI rulebook at the National Shooting Championship Competitions will be exempted from customs duty on import of equipments. “It has been decided that all the shooters who have participated in the National Shooting Championship, whether through qualifying tournament or from wild card entry, will be treated as ‘renowned shooter’ provided they attain minimum qualifying score,” the sports ministry said in its letter to the NRAI. The NRAI, which was pursuing the matter at various levels in the sports as well as home ministry, has welcomed the decision with full enthusiasm. “The ministry of youth affairs and sports has finally accepted the recommendations of the NRAI and opened the import policy to the participants of NSCC,” the NRAI said in a statement today. “As per the policy, any shooter participating in NSCC will be allowed to import arms and ammunition, duty free, subject to achieving the minimum qualifying scores as laid down under rule 17.6 of the NRAI. On the rider that the exemption would be given to only those who shoot minimum qualification scores, NRAI spokesperson Rajiv Bhatia said it was to avoid misuse of ammo. The ministry has instructed the directorate-general of foreign trade, department of revenue and ministry of home affairs, to “modify their notifications concerning import of arms and ammunition by renowned shooters and provision of custom duty exemption thereon”. The shooters can now import 15,000 rounds of ammunition per year. — PTI
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Cagers qualify for elite division
New Delhi, June 9 After topping level II with a five-match all-win record, India led the Malaysians in all the four quarters of play to book a berth in level I for the next edition of the biennial event. The win against Malaysia also secured an overall fifth place finish in the championship which is far better than the 10th-place finish in 2005. India had earlier beaten Singapore (111-32), Vietnam (111-67), Uzbekistan (67-63), Hong Kong (88-61) and Sri Lanka (105-56) in the level II matches. Geethu Anna Jose was the star performer again, scoring 47 points. Jose now leads scorer’s tally in the championship with 197 points from six matches, according to a Basketball Federation of India release. She and Divya Singh have received invitations from Basketball Association of Chile to play in their national professional league, the release added.
— UNI
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Vijender lone Indian finalist
New Delhi, June 9 Vijender beat Thailand’s Suriya Prasathinphimai on points in the 75kg category to ensure himself a place in the final, where he will take on Uzbekistan’s Rasulov Elshod. However, all other six semifinalist Indians lost their bouts — Commonwealth Games gold medallist Akhil Kumar, Amandeep Singh, Jitender Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Dilbag Singh and Ajay Kumar. — PTI
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Black Elephant win by 99 runs Patiala, June 9 Black Elephant captain Sukhminder Singh won the toss and elected to bat first, in which they managed to score 227 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. YPS all out after making 128 runs in 42.5
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