Belfast, June 29
The old firm of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, rendered redundant for nearly two years before being revived this week, emphatically announced they are back in business. With an opening partnership of 134, they laid the foundation of a six-wicket Indian victory. Tendulkar (93) was dismissed in the 90s for the second successive match, even though he became the first batsman in ODI history to reach the 15,000-run mark.

Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni fell cheaply, with the latter’s technique clearly found wanting. Indeed, India looked vulnerable, having only six batsmen at their disposal. But Yuvraj Singh (49 n.o.) and Dinesh Karthik (32 n.o.) managed to disperse the butterflies in a tight finish. Sunday’s third and final encounter will now decide the series.

Earlier, the South Africans, the second-ranked side in the world in one-day internationals, were restricted to 226 for six. They were, of course, without two of their mainstays — Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock — as they, like India, are in the midst of reconstructing for the future.

There was enhanced evidence of Tendulkar’s old touch as he timed the ball with a pleasantness reminiscent of his prime. He pulled and square drove with an authority and once pirouetted with lightning speed to hook the menacing Andre Nel for a six over long leg. Then, with a fortuitous five runs from an overthrow, he posted his 79th ODI 50 as well as 15,000 runs in this format of the game.

By comparison, Ganguly was less convincing against the extra bounce and movement generated by tall fast bowlers operating in helpful conditions. But he persevered with a gritty determination — conspicuous since his comeback last winter — occasionally freeing himself with a thump through the covers, before dancing down the wicket to loft the off-spinner, Thandi Tshabalala, for six to long-on. He eventually perished at point.

By this stage, Tendulkar had exquisitely helped himself to 14 off a Tshabalala over — a six to long on and two fours. The young bowler, though, got his revenge, as the Mumbai master played on, casually attempting a cut.

Unarguably a bowler short in the previous engagement, India, with Dhoni returning to the fold after a bout of influenza, audaciously dispensed with a batsman in favour of five specialist bowlers, with Ishant Sharma, Delhi’s lanky seamer, awarded an ODI debut.

Indeed, with three fast medium exponents in the pack, it was no surprise that Dravid invited South Africa to bat after prevailing in the spin of the coin on another cold and cloudy morning. But neither Rudra Pratap Singh nor Zaheer Khan produced the banana swing the elements encouraged, though the former was noticeably brisk and captured the important wicket of skipper Jacques Kallis, when he curled one in to shatter the stumps off an inside edge.

The potentially dangerous Herschelle Gibbs filled the breach. He baptised Ishant with an ondrive and a whip past midwicket for two sterling boundaries. But in trying to slap a short-pitched ball from Zaheer, he was surprised by the bounce and deviation to hole out at extra cover.

This made it a palpably uncomfortable 46 for three in the 14th over for the men from the southern hemisphere, but they robustly realised another 85 runs before a wicket fell. 28-year-old opener Morne Van Wyk and 23-year-old left-hander, Jean-Paul Duminy gleefully seized their opportunities. Van Wyk produced a career-best 82, which was also the top score for his side before he was brilliantly caught low down by Dhoni.

Ironically, India’s recognised leather merchants did not reap the expected reward; and Ishant, Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar were, in fact, quite expensive. But Yuvraj Singh, an occasional left-arm slow bowler, compensated with three victims, that, too, quite economically.

Scoreboard

South Africa

Van Wyk c Dhoni b Yuvraj 82

De Villiers run out 0

Kallis b RP Singh 2

Gibbs c Karthik b Zaheer 17

Duminy c Dravid b Yuvraj 40

Boucher not out 55

Hall b Yuvraj 17

Nel not out 1

Extras (lb-5, w-5, nb-2) 12

Total (6 wkts, 50 overs) 226

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-7, 3-46, 4-131, 5-168, 6-220.

Bowling: Zaheer 9-2-29-1, RP Singh 6-1-21-1, Ishant 7-0-38-0, Chawla 8-0-41-0, Powar 10-0-46-0, Tendulkar 1-0-10-0, Yuvraj 9-0-36-3.

India

Ganguly c Gibbs b Langeveldt 42

Tendulkar b Tshabalala 93

Dravid c&b Langeveldt 2

Yuvraj not out 49

Dhoni b Ntini 0

Karthik not out 32

Extras (lb-2, w-7) 9

Total (4 wkts, 49.1 overs) 227

Fall of wickets: 1-134, 2-140, 3-140, 4-142.

Bowling: Ntini 10-1-37-1, Langeveldt 10-1-43-2, Nel 10- 0-41-0, Hall 10-0-54-0, Tshabalala 8-2-42-1, Kallis 1.1-0-8-0. 

London, June 29
Paul Collingwood made a rapid half-century, but could not prevent his reign as England one-day captain beginning with a defeat as the West Indies won the first Twenty20 international by 15 runs.

Collingwood was easily the pick of the England batsmen yesterday, hitting 79 off 41 balls before being run out from the penultimate ball in an innings that included four sixes, but he stood alone in his defiance as no other batsman made more than 25.

The West Indies made 208-8, a target England never really looked like chasing down. England lost their first wicket in the fifth over as Alastair Cook, having made 15 from 16 balls, skied Dwayne Smith to Dwayne Bravo with the total on 40.

Matt Prior, having made 25 from 14 balls, hoisted the same bowler to Daren Powell at long off, and England were stuttering.

For West Indies, Devon Smith had struck a magnificent 61 and Marlon Samuels a rapid-fire 51.

Smith, whose innings lasted just 34 balls, added 84 for the second wicket with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made an inventive 41 off 27 balls. Denesh Ramdin and Samuels gave the innings a second burst of momentum. Samuels's half-century, which included four sixes, came up off just 25 deliveries, the second fastest 50 in Twenty20 international history.

London, June 29
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman David Morgan was today officially named to take over as the next ICC President in 2008, while Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sharad Pawar will succeed him in 2010.

The International Cricket Council’s Executive Board also announced that Pawar would become the vice-president to Morgan.

“Morgan will serve as ICC President from 2008 to 2010 and Pawar will serve from 2010 to 2012. In the meantime, Morgan will become the ICC President-elect and Pawar becomes the vice-president,” the ICC Board said at a press conference at the Oval following its two-day meeting.

“The two candidates originally nominated to take over as President in 2008, Morgan and Pawar, will follow each other in the role once the current President Ray Mali steps down in June, 2008,” it said.

Morgan will succeed acting ICC President Ray Mali after a compromise deal struck with Pawar, who was his only rival for the top post of the world governing body, that the two would hold the hot seat when England and India host major cricketing events.

England will host the Twenty20 World Championship in 2009, while India will co-host the 2011 World Cup along with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

When Pawar, who was also present at the meeting, becomes the ICC President-elect, the ICC said he would be expected to relinquish his role within the BCCI.

The ICC Board also said two “icon series” between India-Pakistan and Australia-England will take place every two years.

On another crucial matter of volume of cricket, it was decided to ask the ICC management to formulate a new international programme under which a limit to the number of Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20 matches in a series would be introduced.

A team can play maximum seven Twenty20 international in a years, excluding in ICC events, it added.

The ICC Board also decided that Zimbabwe was still not ready to return to Test cricket and an independent audit of Zimbabwe Cricket’s accounts would be conducted by an internationally recognised team. — PTI

New Delhi, June 29
Observing that football in the country is trapped in a club-versus-country conundrum, national coach Bob Houghton today sought cooperation from the domestic teams to revive India’s fortunes in the game.

A few weeks after he had talked about clubs putting their interests above that of the national team and trying to get their players at national camps for domestic games, Houghton said the national coaching staff and professional clubs needed to work in tandem for the benefit of Indian football.

“Clubs need to do good work and supplement what we are are doing as the players spend most of the year with them,” the Englishman said at a press conference here.

The All-India Football Federation has decided to hold fortnight-long training camps before every international assignment, apart from the get-together at the start of the year, Houghton stressed that as players were at the clubs for almost nine months of the year, they had a significant role to play.

“That is why we are having a meeting with the coaches of the National Football League clubs on July 7 during the national camp in Gurgaon,” Houghton said.

“If they want any assistance from us in terms of physical training of players, we will be eager to help,” he added.

India start off their international season with the ONGC tournament in the Capital, which will see teams from Syria, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan and, maybe, continental powerhouses Iran.

That will be followed by the South Asian Federation Championship in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and the AFC Challenge Cup, meant for national teams ranked below 15 in Asia. — PTI

When you play a top-10 quality player you have to raise the level of your own game up a few notches. I was not able to do that in my 2nd round match against Nadia Petrova and had to pay the price. The Russian has one of the biggest serves in the game and when it is functioning well, she is a very dangerous player to handle.

I think I did not cash in too well on Petrova's second serve and that cost me dearly. I had three break-points, but did not convert any of them. Petrova had eight, and she converted four. That made the difference. I thought I matched her in terms of ground-strokes, but her serves were awesome.

I reckon Petrova has a chance of going the distance if she continues to serve like this. I spoke to Vania King before my match. Nadia beat her 6-0, 6-1 in the first round and Vania believed that there was no way the Russian would be able to serve as well as she had served against her in the 1st round. Well, I can vouch for the the fact, that Nadia continued to serve very big against me. It would be difficult to keep that kind of momentum going for seven matches in a row but if she did then Petrova will be a tough player to beat this season.

For me the focus now shifts to the ladies doubles and mixed doubles. Both games will be played on court no. 18, so there is an opportunity to bring back the smiles on the faces of the Indians who will be seated there again. Shahar Peer, my ladies doubles partner, and I, were reasonably successful when we first played together a couple of years ago. She has a strong backhand, while my biggest strength is my forehand. I think we should do well if we get a good start.

That game will be followed by the mixed doubles clash alongside Mahesh. It is important that we start our Grand Slam partnership on a positive note. Our Afro-Asian win is a thing of the past and the level at a Grand Slam is naturally way above what we had to face in my home town of Hyderabad a few years ago. David Skoch and Janette Husarova constitute a quality pair, and they will come hard at us. Husarova was my partner at last year’s French Open, and I have a fair idea of her pluses and minuses.

There won’t be much time between both the games. The key will be to recharge the batteries as quickly as possible. I will have a shower, take a bite and sit down and focus on the upcoming game. At this level, you cannot afford to take too much time to revert to ‘match mode.’ Neither can you allow yourself to get flustered by the intermittent rains, which have sent the schedules for a toss. You need to be mentally prepared to play anytime on any court as I had to do in my first round singles match. — PMG

London, June 29
Fifth seeds Leander Paes and Martin Damm registered a hard-fought victory over James Auckland of Britain and Australian Stephen Huss to enter the third round of men’s doubles here today. The Indo-Czech pair won 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6.

In the women’s section, Martina Hingis’ luck finally ran out when she lost 6-4, 6-2 to American Laura Granville in the third round.

Justine Henin used her formidable backhand and clever angles to beat Russian Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-3 in the third round today. The world number one, seeking her first Wimbledon crown to complete her Grand Slam collection, has had an easy ride into the second week at the All England Club and has spent less than three hours on court to get there.

She will face more of a challenge in the next round where she will take on 15th seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

Serena Williams overpowered Venezuela’s Milagros Sequera 6-1, 6-0 to reach the fourth round.

Third seed Jelena Jankovic had to work very hard to quell the challenge of Czech Lucie Safarova 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 and reach the fourth round.

In the men’s section, fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile became the biggest casualty of this year’s Wimbledon so far when he lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6 in the third round to Serb Janko Tipsarevic. — Agencies

Karachi, June 29
Pakistan staged a strong comeback to beat India in the second test of an eight match home and away volleyball series here.

Pakistan won the second test of the first leg of the series in Wah Cantt to level the series at one all.

In the first set, the Pakistani spikers started off on a fast note and wrapped up the proceedings by 25-22 while in the second set the home side excelled to win 25-21 with the Indians making 10 unforced errors.

Naseer Ahmed, Kashif Mansoor and Sanullah were in top form for Pakistan.

The Indians won the third set 25-14 with a good combination of defensive play and attacking shots but the Pakistanis took the fourth set to wrap up the match by 25-13.

The Indians have gone into the test series after winning the second Asian central zone championship in Islamabad.

The third match of the series will played on June 30 at Qayyum Stadium. — PTI

Paris, June 29
After having missed the top-10 finish at the BMW Championship in Munich by a whisker last weekend, Jyoti Randhawa continued his fine form into the Open de France Alstom with a strong opening round card of three-under 68 at tied eighth here.

His illustrious compatriot Jeev Milkha Singh, however was slow to get off the blocks, carding an even par 71 to lie three strokes behind Randhawa, at tied 38th spot.

Another Indian in the fray, Shiv Kapur faced the opening day blues as he came up with a horrendous four-over 75 to languish at tied 102nd spot.

If not for a double-bogey on the 13th hole, Randhawa would have been lying inside the top-5 after firing in five birdies including a hat-trick of them from third hole against a lone bogey on the eighth hole.

Jeev, in contrast looked out of sorts as he could gain only three strokes while dropping an equal number of them at the Le Golf National golf course.

Meanwhile, Kapur, who had finished tied 22nd last weekend behind Randhawa and Jeev, had an eventful round, mixing a couple of birdies against four bogeys, along with a double-bogey.