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Kallis leads from front, SA win by 4 wickets
Chris Gayle reprimanded
Hockey: India beat Belgium 4-1
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Invasions of mice and men
Sania in second round
Football camp begins today
Sasikiran slips
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Kallis leads from front, SA win by 4 wickets
Belfast (N. Ireland), June 26 Kallis was unbeaten on 91 as his side reached 245 for six wickets in 49.3 overs. Kallis had also claimed two wickets, besides taking two catches, to be adjudged the Man of the Match. Chasing 243 for win, South African openers AB de Villiers (24) and Morne van Wyk (44) did not set the park on fire but did give the side a decent start, putting together a half-century stand in 12 overs. RP Singh drew the first blood for India, inducing an edge from de Villers and an airborne Kaarthick took a spectacular catch diving on his right. Piyush Chawla then came up with a two-wicket burst-van Wyk was beaten by the turn and Herschelle Gibbs (5) was flummoxed by a straight one that beat his bat to hit the stumps. Not to be left behind, Ramesh Powar scalped Jean-Paul Duminy (11) and Zaheer, in his second spell, trapped Mark Boucher (23) to leave South Africa at 165 with its top half cooling heels in the pavilion. Kallis, however, stood like a rock at the other end, unfazed by the series of setbacks. He saw through the Indian spin attack and went on to produce a cultured, unbeaten 116-ball knock that included six boundaries. The highlight for India was a vintage 99 from Sachin Tendulkar and his 158-run partnership with skipper Rahul Dravid, which extricated India from a precarious 36 for two. Initially, the Mumbai maestro was shrewdly watchful. But thereafter, from his trade mark flick to square leg, effortless drives through the off-side and delectable steers past point, which studded his dozen boundaries, he defrosted a freezing day as only he can. When tragically left short attempting a second run to complete his century, he was 60 adrift of an unprecedented 15,000 runs in one-day internationals. It was a reminder to his critics, there is still some energy left in the tank! Sadly, only a smattering of spectators were present to witness the classic. While Tendulkar spent 143 balls at the crease, Dravid’s 93-ball 74 was no less significant. The duo negotiated South Africa’s six-pronged pace attack with an ease emanating from technical brilliance. They were particularly severe on Charl Langeveldt, who haemorrhaged 59 runs in eight overs and was once fiercely hooked by the Indian helmsman. But the later Indian batsmen failed to capitalise, other than Dinesh Karthik with a brief flurry, which included a resounding six to long-on. Zaheer Khan and Rudra Pratap Singh were rather run-of-the-mill with the new ball, though the latter improved when he changed ends. Conditions demanded inclusion of three if not four faster bowlers. The leg-spin-off-spin tandem of Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar, though, defied the odds. In any case, with eight of the visitors suffering from influenza, they were struggling to cement a healthy XI. Mahendra Dhoni was still unavailable. Baroda medium pacer, Rakesh Patel had been plucked out of the Liverpool leagues to act as cover, Arjun Yadav, Shivlal’s son, was on his way from the Irish leagues, while Ranadeb Bose and Ishant Sharma, selected for the ensuing Tests against England, were expected to arrive from India before the next engagement on Friday. Northern Ireland’s best claim to sporting fame is the late George Best, whose ball control was possibly next only to Pele. Even an airport in this city is named after him. Too gifted for his latent habitat, he crossed the Irish Sea to memorably express himself for Manchester United. The Civil Service ground hosting the match is, actually, a rugby field, which devolves to cricket in the off-season. It’s idyllic, with its salubriously afforested surroundings, magnificently manicured outfield and pitches with a greenish hue. And in the vicinity is the majestic Stormont Castle, where today, Catholic and Protestant extremists at each others’ throats for generations, are now reconciled to running a coalition government. Jacques Kallis, unsurprisingly, inserted India. Makhaya Ntini induced an edge off the second ball of the day, but Sourav Ganguly survived. However, notwithstanding an elegant drive through the covers from the former captain, the towering Andre Nel, introduced first change, had him snicking off his second delivery. This feisty fast bowler soon also removed Gautam Gambhir, who hung his bat out to be consumed in the slips, before collecting Dravid’s scalp in the slog overs. Scoreboard India Ganguly c Boucher b Nel 13 Tendulkar run out 99 Gambhir c Kallis b Nel 0 Dravid b Nel 74 Yuvraj c Kallis b Hall 13 Karthik b Hall 19 Sharma b Kallis 8 Chawla not out 2 Powar c de Villiers b Kallis 1 Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-5, nb-2) 13 Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 242 Fall of
wickets: 1-24, 2-36, 3-194, 4-211, 5-213, 6-234, 7-240, 8-242. Bowling: Ntini 10-2-33-0, Langeveldt 8-0-59-0, Nel 10-1-47-3, Hall 10-1-40-2, Philander 8-2-37-0, Kallis 4-0-20-2. South Africa De Villiers c Karthik b Singh 24 Van Wyk c Sharma b Chawla 44 Kallis not out 91 Gibbs b Chawla 5 Duminy c Sachgin b Powar 11 Boucher lbw Khan 23 Hall c Dravid b Chawla 16 Philander not out 17 Extras (lb-4, w-10) 14 Total (6 wkts; 49.3 overs) 245 Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-99, 3-107, 4-124, 5-165, 6-190. Bowling: Z. Khan 10-1-46-1, R. P. Singh 8-0-45-1, Ganguly 4-0-26-0, Chawla 10-0-47-3, Powar 10-0-39-1, Yuvraj 6.3-0-35-0, Sharma 1-0-3-0.
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Tons rain in Colombo
Colombo, June 26 The Bangladesh bowlers toiled through the day as Michael Vandort (117), Mahela Jayawardene (127), Prasanna Jayawardene (120 not out) and Chaminda Vaas (100 not out) all hit hundreds before Sri Lanka declared on 577 for six. Bangladesh, bowled out for just 89 in their first innings, survived a short three-over session before stumps but were left facing daunting three-day fight to save the match when they start day three on three for no wicket in their second innings. Resuming on 227 for three after taking control on the opening day, Sri Lanka's batsmen adopted an aggressive approach from the outset and continued remorselessly throughout the afternoon. Left-hander Vandort scored his 117 from 189 balls before Jayawardene cruised to his 17th test century, finishing with 127 from 159 balls. Middle-order batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan contributed a positive 79 before wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene and Vaas compiled a record unbeaten 223-run seventh-wicket partnership. Vandort led the charge in the morning session with successive sixes off left-arm spinner Abdur Razzaq as he raced through the 90s to complete his third Test century in only his seventh match. When Vandort was finally caught at bat-pad, Mahela Jayawardene resumed his innings having retired hurt the previous evening on 93 with severe leg cramps. The 30-year-old Sri Lankan captain, who became the second-highest run-scorer in Sri Lankan history on Monday, also rushed to three figures, bringing up his 17th Test hundred with a lofted boundary. Left-arm spinner Mohammad Raffique was the only wicket-taker in the first session, snaring Vandort at short leg to end a 117-run partnership with Dilshan. Dilshan was dismissed just before the interval, run out after a mix-up running between the wickets when Jayawardene rejected his call for a run. Jayawardene fell soon after the lunch break as Mashrafe Mortaza, armed with the second new ball, drew him into a loose drive and he was caught at backward point. However, Sri Lanka further tightened their grip on the game with Prasanna Jayawardene and Vaas, determined to cash in on a tiring attack, scoring freely through the rest of the afternoon. When Jayawardene completed a maiden century shortly after tea a declaration was expected but Sri Lanka instead chose to give Vaas the opportunity to complete his first hundred in his 141st test innings. Bangladesh used eight bowlers as they tried to conjure up a breakthrough on a placid pitch. However, skipper Mohammad Ashraful relied most heavily on his left arm spinners Abdur Razzaq (one for 109 from 30 overs) and Mohammad Raffique (one for 138 from 28.5 overs). Bangladesh have lost all seven of their previous Tests against Sri Lanka. Scoreboard Bangladesh
(1st innings) 89 Sri Lanka (1st innings) Vandort c Nafees b Rafique 117 Warnapura lbw Hossain 0 Sangakkara c Mashud b Hossain 6 M. Jayawardene c Shakib b Mortaza 127 Silva c Mortaza b Razzak 1 Dilshan run out 79 P. Jayawardene not out 120 Vaas not out 100 Extras (b-6, lb-7, w-2, nb-12) 27 Total (6 wkts dec, 135.5 overs) 577 Fall of
wickets: 1-1, 2-14, 3-187, 4-304, 5-321, 6-354. Bowling: Mortaza 19-2-72-1, Hossain 18-0-102-2, Razzak 30-2-109-1, Rafique 28.5-1-138-1, Shakib 16-0-57-0, Ashraful 13-0-52-0, Saleh 3-0-12-0, Bashar 8-0-22-0. Bangladesh (2nd innings) Omar not out 3 Nafees not out 0 Total (no wkt, 3 overs) 3 Bowling: Vaas 1-0-1-0, Malinga 1-0-1-0, Muralitharan 1-0-1-0. — Reuters
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Chris Gayle reprimanded
London, June 26 The WICB statement said: “After lengthy discussions during which Gayle was made aware of the true circumstances surrounding the matters, Gayle was requested to issue a public apology to the WICB”.
— AFP
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Hockey: India beat Belgium 4-1
Boom, June 26 Goals by Sandeep Singh (13th), Prabhjot Singh (18th), Shivendra Singh (31st) and Dilip Tirkey (67th) set up the India victory, their second in three matches. Belgium drew some consolation from Gregory Gucasoof's penalty corner conversion (26th) as they slipped to their second defeat. India next play Argentina on Thursday with the tournament taking a day's break tomorrow. Given the talent and potential, besides the weakness of Belgian defence, the Indians should have won by a far bigger margin but for some unimpressive performance in the midfield and also at the finish. India held the upper hand for much of the first-half but after taking a 2-0 lead, they slacked considerably. Mistakes flowed from the defenders and Belgium were quick to seize the initiative to scramble home a goal. However, the Indians tightened up in the final 10 minutes of the half and a third goal put them in good heart as the teams took the breather. It was Sandeep Singh who opened the account with a drag-flick conversion of the first penalty corner in the 10th minute. The Indians should have been up 2-0 almost immediately thereafter, but Prabhjot's attempt from the right was efficiently deflected to safety by goalkeeper Cedric Degreve. Prabhjot made amends in the 18th with an opportunistic goal as defender Thomas van den Black failed to cleanly stop a Roshan Minz hit from the right. Prabhjot pounced on the deflection and slammed to boards. Hereabouts, the Indians relaxed just a wee bit to allow Belgium to forge a few moves one of which resulted in a penalty corner that Gucasoof converted with a powerful drag-flick to the net. With the match heading to half-time, India came up with a swift counter-attack from the right and Shivendra Singh, having just then come off the bench, dived to deflect the ball that came off Prabhjot's stick to the boards following a terrible mix-up in the Belgian defence. Thus, the 3-1 half-time lead was just the launch pad that India were looking for in their quest for a second win and also to boost their goals tally.
— PTI
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Mauresmo cruises into round 2
London, June 26 The rain that frustrated men’s 2006 winner Roger Federer the previous day stayed away from the Frenchwoman to beat American Jamea Jackson 6-1, 6-3 on Centre Court. Another of the plethora of French players in the singles draw, 12th seed Richard Gasquet, also made smooth progress in the men’s singles, beating Czech Bohdan Ulihrach 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. The fourth seed raced through the first five games against the overawed Jackson and, although the American offered more resistance from then on, the 27-year-old Mauresmo had far too much class and experience. Encouragingly for the graceful Mauresmo she showed no obvious signs of the thigh injury that had raised question marks over her fitness coming into the championships, although she did still wear a protective strapping. In other early women’s action on a chilly day in southwest London there was a harsh lesson for junior world champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The 15-year-old Russian was handed a wildcard in recognition of her Australian and U.S, Open junior titles but was no match for Slovakian 10th seed Daniela Hantuchova, losing 6-0, 6-1. Tim Henman survived a battle of wills completing an epic 6-3, 1-6, 5-7, 6-2, 13-11 victory over Spain’s Carlo Moya. The dramatic first round dual was interrupted by bad light at 5-5 in the deciding set on Monday after 25th seed Moya had staved off four match points. The 32-year-old Henman will take on another Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez in the second round after he beat British wildcard Joshua Goodall. Men’s ninth seed James Blake also kept his promise to restore American pride at Wimbledon with a quickfire 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Russian Igor Andreev in the first-round Marat Safin made sure Rik De Voest’s enjoyed an unremarkable grand slam debut when he beat the South African qualifier 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the first round . Qureshi advances
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi became the first Pakistani player in more than three decades to reach the second round at Wimbledon today. Qureshi sneaked past Briton Lee Childs 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 to follow in the footsteps of Haroon Rahim. Rahim advanced to the last 64 in 1975 and 1976. Ranked 279 in the world, Qureshi won three qualifying matches to enter the main draw and made sure he did not waste his opportunity to raise the profile of the sport in his homeland.
— Reuters
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Invasions of mice and men
London, June 26 Nowadays, though, it is streakers who are the bigger menace, prompting the tournament authorities last year to contemplate putting up a fence between spectators and players. The problem of animal intruders came to a head in 1999 when German players Boris Becker and Nicolas Kiefer were twice dive-bombed from the grandstand roof by pigeons. So the All-England Club gratefully accepted the services of a full-time falconer to patrol the courts with a swooping bird of prey, named Finnegan, acting as a highly effective deterrent. Wimbledon librarian Alan Little, who boasts an encyclopaedic knowledge of tournament history, has compiled for his annual Wimbledon compendium a history of the most intriguing Centre Court invasions. Back in 1949, the Centre Court ball boys had to chase a squirrel off the hallowed turf while the players sat down to await the all-clear. Pam Shriver once had to contend with a swarm of bees. One stung her opponent, Kathy Rinaldi, on the arm and Shriver gallantly went over to remove the sting. John McEnroe and Stefan Edberg had their razor-sharp concentration disturbed in the 1989 semi-final by two sparrows swooping in low. But the humans win the top prizes for the most eccentric interruptions. In the 1957 gentlemen’s final, a Mrs Helen Jarvis invaded the court, shouting and waving a banner calling for a new world banking system. A female streaker first took to the court in the 1996 men’s final and, since then, the publicity-seeking temptation has proved overwhelming on several occasions. Last year, Maria Sharapova was startled by a streaker who leapt on to Centre Court during her quarterfinal against Elena Dementieva. She averted her gaze as he cart-wheeled naked in front of her before being bundled off court by security guards who wrapped him in a red blanket. “I didn’t want to look at all the details,” Sharapova said. But when told that some women spectators had been impressed by his physique, she replied: “Maybe next time I’ll take a look.”
— Reuters
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Wimbledon (England), June 26 The Indian needed less than an hour to trounce her rival 6-0, 6-3. Sania now faces a tough task in the second round where the Hyderabadi is pitted against another Russian, 11th seed Nadia Petrova. Petrova thrashed unseeded American Vania King 6-0, 6-1 in her first round match. — PTI
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Football camp begins today
New Delhi, June 26 The trip to Portugal has received the green signal from the hosts, and the Indian team, who will leave for Lisbon on July 12, will get some expert training and get to play a couple of friendly matches there. The players who would be attending the coaching camp at Gurgaon are: Goalkeepers: Arindam Bhattacharya, Sandip Nandy, Subhashish R Choudhary and Subrata Paul. Defenders: Surkumar Singh, Mahesh Gawli, Deepak Mondal, Syed Rahim Nabi, Samir Naik, Sanjiv Maria, N.S.Manju and Debarata Roy. Mid-fielders: K Ajayan, Climax Lawrence, N. P. Pradeep, Clifford Miranda, Steven Dias, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Renedy Singh, Bungo Singh and Gourmangi Singh. Forwards: Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chetri, Abhishek Yadav, Manjit Singh, Tarif Ahmed and Anthony Periera. Chief coach: Bob Houghton will be in charge of the camp, and he will be assisted by Stanli Rosario of Services, Mark Tatcheco of Goa (goalkeeper coach) and Suresh Babu (physical trainer). The exposure trip to Portual is mainly to prepare the Indian team for the six-nation ONGC Cup international tournament to be held at the Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi from August 16 to 28.
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Sasikiran slips
Yalta, June 26 Shirov, with three points was at the third spot, and in contention for the title as other three games ended in draws and the players retained their standings. On the top board, local hero Sergey Karjakin continued to lead the field with five points after a fine tactical victory over Dutch Grandmaster Loek Van Wely. Karjakin’s compatriot Vassily Ivanchuk scored over Pavel Eljanov to remain within striking distance of the leader.
— PTI
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