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Twenty20 World Cup
Gambhir, Karthik prop up India |
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Windies win series
Gandhi Ground set for revamp
Anand routs Ponomariov, enters final
VFI recalls three seniors
Hamilton on pole
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Twenty20 World Cup
Mumbai, July 7 The three stalwarts, in their 30s, made their decision known to the BCCI before the national selection committee met to choose a list of 30 probables, which included out-of-favour players such as Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Mohammad Kaif. Suresh Raina and Munaf Patel, who have also been out of the team for some time now have been named among the probables announced by the BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah here. Yousuf Pathan, brother of Irfan, has also found a place in the preliminary squad for the September 11 to 24 event. While most of the current India players have expectedly found a berth in the provisional squad, the national selectors also included a number of young players who have performed consistently at the domestic level. Gujarat batsman Neeraj Patel, Punjab opener Karan Goel, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (Bengal), batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara of Saurashtra and S Anirudha of Tamil Nadu, all rounders Niranjan Behera of Orissa and Praveen Kumar of Uttar Pradesh were some of the youngsters chosen in the list. The final squad for the championship would be selected on August 6 or 7, Shah said. National selection committee chief Dilip Vengsarkar said Dravid called him from Hove to inform that the three senior players were opting out of the twenty20 World Cup. "I got a call from Rahul today morning who said on behalf of all the three players that they were opting out of the Twenty20 World Cup," Vengsarkar said. Asked why the trio, who have played tremendous amount of cricket at the highest level, had opted out, the 'Colonel' said "I think they wanted to give chance to youngsters". With the big three opting out and two other seniors - Anil Kumble and V V S Laxman - not in the running, the selectors had the option to induct a number of youngsters. "I am sure the youngsters chosen for the Twenty20 tournament would do well," said Vengsarkar. The selectors also chose the India A squad for the month-long tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya starting later this month. Kaif will lead the team while Gujarat wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel would be his deputy for the tour starting July 21. Asked why Raina and Munaf Patel were not chosen in the 'A' team squad, Vengsarkar said "I don't think they are 100 per cent fit. Let them play in tournaments like Buchi Babu and Atreya Trophy". Twenty20 probables: Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, Yousuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Neeraj Patel, Karan Goel, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Joginder Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar, Niranjan Behera, S Anirudha, Praveen Kumar. India A team: Mohd Kaif (capt), Parthiv Patel, Robin Uthappa, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Rajesh Pawar, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Piyush Chawla, Arjun Yadav, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, V R V Singh, V Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh and Neeraj
Patel. — PTI
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Gambhir, Karthik prop up India
Hove (Brighton), July 7 Karthik fell in the final over before tea when he was beaten by flight and turn, and was bowled by former Pakistan offie Saqlain Mushtaq for 76 off 177 balls with 10 fours. Wasim Jaffer was the lone wicket to fall in the first session when he edged Robert Martin-Jenkins to wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd for 12 in the 17th over. Both Karthik and Gambhir matched each other stroke for stroke as they enjoyed perfect batting conditions — bright and sunny afternoon, a placid pitch and an attack that was at best friendly. Karthik took a heavy toll on Martin-Jenkins, hitting him for three fours in an over, in the process getting past his fifty. It took him 115 balls to reach the 50 mark. Scoreboard
India (1st innings) Karthik b Saqlain 76 Jaffer c Hodd b Martin-Jenkins 12 Gambhir c&b Yardy 81 Dravid not out 57 Laxman not out 37 Extras (b-11, lb-5, w-1, nb-1) 18 Total
(3 wkts, 90 overs) 281 FoW: 1-37, 2-166, 3-206. Bowling:
Lewry 14-5-38-0, Kirtley 18-6-56-0, Martin-Jenkins 13-2-29-1, Liddle 15-1-48-0, Saqlain 19-4-47-1, Yardy 9-1-33-1, Rayner 2-0-14-0. — Agencies
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Windies win series
London, July 7 Runako Morton, who finished unbeaten, and opener Chris Gayle both made 82, while Dwayne Bravo chipped in with a quick-fire 42 as West Indies reached 289 for five in 50 overs. In reply, England were bowled out for 196 in 44.2 overs. England, who lost the toss, thought they had seriously dented the West Indies challenge when in-form Shivnarine Chanderpaul, declared fit after being a doubt with an ankle injury, was out for 33. They had not counted, however, with Morton and Bravo’s stand of 92 off 54 balls. Scoreboard
West Indies Gayle c&b Plunkett 82 Devon Smith c Bell b Anderson 13 Chanderpaul c Pietersen Samuels c Prior b Plunkett 9 Morton not out 82 Bravo b Anderson 42 Dwayne Smith not out 4 Extras
(b-5, lb-6, w-9, nb-4) 24 Total (5 wickets, 50 overs) 289 FoW: 1-16, 2-93, 3-108, 4-193, 5-285. Bowling:
Anderson 10-0-51-2, Plunkett 10-0-59-3, Broad 9-0-71-0, Panesar 6-0-28-0, Mascarenhas 8-0-28-0, Collingwood 7-0-41-0. England Cook c Dwayne Smith b Powell 18 Prior c Ramdin b Powell 1 Bell c Dwayne Smith Pietersen c Devon Smith Shah c Ramdin Collingwood b Bravo 44 Mascarenhas c Gayle Plunkett c Samuels b Edwards 2 Broad c Gayle b Powell 5 Panesar lbw Rampaul 13 Anderson not out 11 Extras (b-4, lb-3, w-8, nb-4) 19 Total
(all out, 44.2 overs) 196 FoW: 1-6, 2-29, 3-33, 4-72, 5-144, 6-162, 7-162, 8-168, 9-171. Bowling: Powell 10-2-40-4, Rampaul 7.2-0-25-1, Dwayne Smith 10-0-60-1, Edwards 10-1-30-3, Gayle 2-0-11-0, Bravo 5-0-23-1.
— Agencies
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It’s Federer vs Nadal again
London, July 7 The four-time defending champion overwhelmed his 21-year-old opponent in a display of sheer brilliance before a mesmerised Centre Court crowd. After unleashing 20 aces and a series of scorching passing shots, Federer clinched victory after one hour and 44 minutes with a forehand winner into the corner of the court. The Swiss will face Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal in the final after Serbian Novak Djokovic withdrew with an injury in the other semifinal. By advancing to his ninth successive Grand Slam final, the top seed has now won 53 matches in a row on grass. Tomorrow, Federer will attempt to join Bjorn Borg by becoming only the second man in the professional era to win five consecutive Wimbledon titles. Borg dropped in a day early to watch the man many believe is destined to become the greatest ever tennis player and the Swede must have been impressed with what he saw. Federer had won five of his previous six meetings against the surprise semifinalist and after teasing the Frenchman for about 40 minutes, he moved in for the kill. He broke Gasquet in the final game of the opening set after forcing the 21-year-old to net a backhand. The 12th-seed had knocked out Andy Roddick in a five-set thriller in the quarterfinals but after coming off court at 8 pm (local time) yesterday, his exertions told. Federer brought up match point with a brilliant backhand passing shot and mercifully did not prolong his opponent’s agony. The Swiss will be gunning for his 11th Grand Slam crown tomorrow but to do that he has to tame his nemesis Nadal in a repetition of last year’s final. Second seed Nadal reached the final on Saturday after Djokovic retired hurt with the Spaniard leading 3-6, 6-1, 4-1. Nadal embraced his opponent afterwards and said he felt sorry for him. “It is tough. In the semifinals, playing good tennis, winning a match like yesterday. That’s tough for everyone. So I am sorry for him,” the Spaniard told a press conference. Djokovic, the first person to retire from a Wimbledon semifinal, called the trainer at the end of the second set to receive treatment on his toe. After being broken twice in the third set following a series of fluffed shots and looking increasingly uncomfortable, the Serb recalled the trainer but then decided he could not continue. Djokovic came into the match after a gruelling schedule of long matches, compounded by many rain interruptions, and had called injury timeouts for a back problem during his last two matches against Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis. He played a five-hour five-set quarterfinal against Baghdatis on Friday and was also engaged in a tight four- setter against Hewitt on Thursday. His total court time at this year’s championships before today’s encounter had been approaching 17 hours. Paes-Meghann lose in quarters
India’s Wimbledon campaign came to an end as Leander Paes and American Meghann Shaughnessy lost 6-2, 3-6, 4-6 to the French pair of Fabrice Santoro and Severine Bremond in the mixed doubles quarterfinals here today. Paes and Shaughnessy, seeded eighth in the draw, had got the better of Australian Todd Perry and Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei 7-5, 7-5 to enter the last-eight stage. The French pair had got a walkover against second seeds Bob Bryan of the United States and Australian Samantha Stosur in the pre-quarterfinals.
— Agencies
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London, July 7 The American, who was only the 23rd seed, added to her 2000, 2001 and 2005 titles with another turbo-charged display of tennis against an opponent who had created one of the biggest surprises in the tournament's history by beating world number one Justine Henin in the semifinal. Bartoli, who had never previously gone beyond the fourth round at any Grand Slam tournament, had come back from a set down in the wins over Jelena Jankovic, Michaella Krajicek and Henin which had carried her to the most unexpected of final appearances. But there was to be no repeat of those heroics against Williams, who reproduced the kind of form she had displayed in demolishing two Grand Slam winners, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova, in her quarterfinal and semifinal matches. The American picked up where she had left off in those matches with an immaculate start to the final. After holding her own serve to love, she capitalised on a nervous opening service game by Bartoli to claim a break and soon had moved smoothly into a 3-0 lead. But the one-sided contest many in the Centre Court must have feared at that stage did not materialise. The nervousness that had afflicted Bartoli in the opening games dissipated and she rallied to level things up at 3-3 with the help of an overcooked Williams forehand which handed her a fifth game break of serve. From then there was little in it until Bartoli double faulted at 4-5 and 15-30 to hand her opponent two set points. She managed to save the first one but there was nothing she could do on the next one when Williams rifled a forehand down the line, followed it in and clinched the set with a swinging backhand volley from mid-court. A stinging cross court backhand clipped the outside of the line and gave her two match points. Bartoli saved the first but there was nothing she could do about the unstoppable serve that Williams hammered down on the second to end the contest after one hour and 30 minutes. — AFP
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Haryana Games from Oct 2
Zirakpur, July 7 The decision was taken at the HOA annual general meeting, held here today. In the absence of HOA’s president Abhay Chautala, who could not turn up due to some personal reasons, the meeting was chaired by the senior vice president Ashok Arora. “Unfortunately, the state games could not be held for the last two years due to some political disputes between the Jindal group and the Chautala group for the control of the HOA. We sent many letters to the state government for the purpose but never got any reply. This year we have decided to hold the games from October 2,” said Arora. “This time no one can play spoilsport as the court, in which matter was taken up, has given verdict in our favour to hold the games,” added Arora. The general house disaffiliated seven state sports associations and boards and corporations, including Haryana State Bowling 10pin Association, Haryana State Swimming Association, Haryana State Modern Triathlon Association, MNSS Rai, HSIDC, HAU and Technical Education while eight other sports bodies were issued warnings. Giving reasons for these harsh measures, M. S. Malik, hony secretary general, HOA, said, “These bodies were not responding to the correspondence of HOA for the last two year and they have not deposited the annual subscription for the last two years.” Criticising the anti-sports policies of the state government, former finance minister of Haryana and member of HOA, Sampat Singh said, “For the Guwahati National Games, the state government did not release funds to us. But according to our information, the funds were given to the Jindal group. As their (Jindal group) players did not reach the venue then what happened to the funds? We demand a proper enquiry on the issue,” Sampat said. Praising the sportspersons of the state, who brought laurels by winning a total of 80 medals (30 gold, 22 silver and 28 bronze) in the National Games, the HOA demanded proper felicitation from the state government for them. “Till date, the government has not honoured any sportsperson, who had excelled during these games. The ‘pick and choose’ policy of the government has been ruining the sports scenario in the state,” alleged Malik. Meanwhile, approving all the agendas of the meeting, including the confirmation of the minutes of the last general council body committee of HOA held in May 2006 at Chandigarh, adoption of secretary general report for the year 2006-07, the HOA passed the sports budget of Rs 1,25,75,000 as well as the sports calendar for the year 2007-08. The HOA will also hold elections in the last week of October.
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Gandhi Ground set for revamp
Amritsar, July 7 Talking to The Tribune, Mohit Khanna, working honorary secretary of the Amritsar Games Association (AGA), said the BCCI had selected two grounds from Punjab - the Gandhi Ground here and the Dhruv Pandove Ground in Patiala. “Funds for this project would be provided by the BCCI and the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA). We are also sending a list of equipment required by us to the state sports department to provide world-class facilities to players,” he said. The AGA has recently bought a state-of-the-art irrigation system made by international company Toro for the ground at a cost of Rs 12 lakh. The system is installed at Lord’s and other major cricket grounds and it would enable controlled watering of the ground, he said. “We have also bought an automatic bowling machine to provide better practice to the players. We plan to provide fast wickets for the forthcoming Duleep Trophy matches in November,” he said. Earlier, sports minister Gulzar Singh Ranike took a round of the cricket ground and assured the association that the required funds and equipment would be provided for its development. “The state government has recently sanctioned over Rs 2.5 crore for making available sports equipment at various grounds in the state,” he said. Khanna also presented a report of the activities of the association during the past three months to the minister.
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Masters Athletics
Chandigarh, July 7 The event was for men above the age of 40 years. Today, at the Bukit Jalil Sports Stadium Amitabh (41) not only set a new games record of 11.8 seconds, he has also been declared as the ‘Fastest Man of the Tournament’. He beat Lokman B Md Jin of Brunei with a clear margin of over 10 feet with Lokman returning a timing of 12.4 seconds. Elated over his success, Amitabh talked to this correspondent on phone, “I am feeling on top of the world. I owe my success to my elder brother who has always inspired force me.” This is his first foray into athletics at the international level, where athletes from as many 16 countries are participating in this two-day championship. Earlier, he had won the gold in the 4X100 m race in the 35 plus category during the 28 th National Veteran Athletics Championship held at Bangalore, from June 8 to June 10. The success has not come easy. As a young man in his 20s, Chandel suffered from acute, undiagnosed backaches that left him unable to even stand or walk easily. It was Amitabh’s will power and zest to prove his mettle that he followed strict regime of yoga under the supervision of his elder brother Amar Chandel, and took to sports like tennis where lot of physical movement is required. “Possessing good physique was my motto of life. So, I followed strict exercise schedule and never took to oily or non-vegetarian diet. I have never touched alcohol or smoked in my life. It was my disciplined and simple lifestyle which energised me to be a sportsperson,” he said. Amitabh, the managing director of The Fort restaurant at Ramgarh, has also represented India in all the major Satellite and Future tennis tournaments. At present, he is associated with the Sector 11 Total Tennis Academy and is also the convener of the sports cell of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee.
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Anand routs Ponomariov, enters final
Leon (Spain), July 7 The Indian ace, thus, remained on track to score his second hat-trick of victories at the prestigious event. Anand will meet the winner of the other semifinal between Bulgarian Veselin Topalov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan in the title clash. Ponomariov made some tricky attempts to save the endgame, which failed to ruffle Anand. The Indian player kept everything under tight control and obtained a second passed pawn in the king's rook file. Ponomariov resigned on the 50th move when Anand was about to queen the pawn. Anand, looking for a third successive victory, beat Kasimdzhanov in the final here in 2005 and Topalov in 2006.
— PTI
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VFI recalls three seniors
New Delhi, July 7 The three senior players - Setter Kapil Dev of Railways, Sanjay Kumar and Jitender of Haryana - have been told to join the coaching camp in Bangalore in preparation for the Commonwealth Championship in Kolkata from July 29 and the Asian Championship at Jakarta (Indonesia) in September. However, Tom Joseph and R Rajeev have been given the cold shoulder by the VFI selectors yet again. The VFI had taken a tough stand when the six senior players joined the national camp in Bangalore a day later, after playing in the National League, before going to Islamabad.
— OSR
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Hamilton on pole
Silverstone, July 7 McLaren’s double world champion Fernando Alonso qualified third with Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa alongside him on the second row. — Reuters
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