London, July 21
The 1st Test of India’s tour of England is tantalisingly poised — England 174 runs ahead with eight wickets in hand. But whatever the outcome of the home side’s second venture, it will require a superior batting effort from the Indians than the 201 all out of the 1st innings for the tourists — who conceded a 1st innings lead of 97 — to pose a threat.

Ryan Sidebottom... 4-wkt haul

India’s adversity was caused by James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom, who with a thoroughly professional performance, intelligently exploiting the helpful environment, successfully contained the paper tigers.

The notorious English weather has transpired to be less conducive than forecast. 74.4 of the scheduled 270 overs of play have been lost in the first three days; 43 of them on Saturday. The prediction for Sunday is worse and for Monday the worst.

India, of course, don’t know whether to take this glumly or with glee. A normal amount of action from here onwards could still result in defeat; whereas rain could be a saviour. But what if — and this is a big if — England fail to drive home their advantage and India cope better with the conditions in their second venture?

Lancashire’s Anderson has promised much ever since he destroyed Pakistan in the 2003 World, but delivered only moderately. Injuries and erratic performances affected his career. He struggled to initiate his outswingers from off and middle stumps — generally necessary to trouble batsmen.

Indeed, it’s doubtful if he would have played this test had Mathew Hoggard and Steve Harmison been available. But having got a break, he made the best of his opportunity by carving out five wickets.

He added Sourav Ganguly to his tally on the 3rd morning with one that viciously swung in to the left-hander. But Mahendra Dhoni was an easy picking as he is yet to demonstrate that he has the technical ability to cope outside the subcontinent (even as a wicket-keeper he has made seemingly easy takes look difficult). Yet he was persevered with ahead of Yuvraj Singh. The latter has an impressive enough record in ODIs in England to warrant a look in.

Interestingly, the ball continued to swing throughout India’s innings of 77.2 overs. This was not entirely surprising as it has so far been one of the wettest summers, with unusual residual moisture underneath the surface. Consequently, whenever the sun shines, it only triggers evaporation and therefore a heaviness in the air, which propels the ball to bend.

India, up against better swing bowlers, like Anderson and Sidebottom — who duly finished with four wickets — than the South Africans they had faced at Belfast three weeks ago, were mostly at sea against such movement.

While the extended rain breaks were frustrating for spectators, a long queue snaked away from the entrance to the Lord’s Shop within the premises, where books and merchandise are on offer aplenty. Overhead atmosphere in the afternoon fluctuated like a needle on richter scale recording an earthquake.

It was most challenging for batting. The light deteriorated sharply and the ball wobbled alarmingly. Sreesanth, flummoxed by two left-handed openers, again bowled an inconsistent line. But the more experienced Zaheer Khan first trapped Alastair Cook lbw and then had Andrew Strauss caught at 1st slip. The decision against the former was a little harsh, but he had earlier survived a confident shout from the same bowler, as did Michael Vaughan against Rudra Pratap Singh. But the England skipper hereafter produced an off-drive at the expense of Khan, which was quite sublime.  — Reuters

Scoreboard

RP Singh c Anderson b Sidebottom 17

Laxman c Prior b Sidebottom 15

Dhoni c Bell b Anderson 0

Kumble lbw b Sidebottom 11

Khan c Strauss b Anderson 7

Sreesanth not out 0

Extras (b-4, lb-7, nb-4) 15

Total (all out in 77.2 overs) 201

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-27, 3-106, 4-134, 5-155, 6-173, 7-175, 8-192, 9-197.

Bowling: Sidebottom 22-5-65-4, Anderson 24.2-8-42-5, Tremlett 20-8-52-1, Collingwood 3-1-9-0, Panesar 8-3-22-0.

England (2nd Innings)

Strauss c Tendulkar b Zaheer 18

Cook lbw Zaheer 17

Vaughan batting 16

Pietersen batting 15

Extras (b-9, lb-1, w-1) 11

Total (2 wkts, 27 overs) 77

Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-43.

Bowling: Zaheer 14-3-36-2, Sreesanth 8-2-25-0, R. P. Singh 5-2-6-0.

London, July 21
Admitting that he had butterflies in his stomach on his maiden Lord's appearance, spunky Indian pacer S Sreesanth said he derived inspiration from Sourav Ganguly before hitting back with a vengeance on the second day of the ongoing cricket Test against England.

Sreesanth was all sound and no fury on the opening day and was clearly a disappointment with the ball. He confessed that he got overwhelmed playing at the historic venue and also by the sense of big occasion.

However, watching Ganguly bowl in the right areas inspired him to come back and redeem himself with a splendid three-wicket haul.

"Yeah, it was a case of nerves, playing at Lord's. That's exactly what happened to me on the first day," he said after polishing off the tail with fine figures of 4-1-11-3 on the second afternoon.

"However, when I was standing at fine leg and I saw 'Dada' (Sourav Ganguly) bowling, he really inspired me. He got (Alastair) Cook out, the first wicket, and showed us the way.

“I'm thankful to him to be honest. He was hitting the right areas and I said 'okay that's the way to go'. I like to make the ball move, make it move away from the batsmen. That's my strength and that's what I followed."

Of course, the three-hour rain delay on the second day helped him to gather his thoughts and work out his game plan.

Since R P Singh bowled a few overs before him, he was pretty relaxed too.

"During the rain break, I was just relaxing, listening to some music and doing some stretching. Since R P Singh bowled a few overs ahead of me, it gave me some more time and collect my thoughts. He got a wicket and was hitting the right areas.

"I had decided in the morning that I would bowl in the right areas and not try too hard, that helped. I kept it simple. I told myself that 'I'll be myself' rather than thinking too much about the game and trying too hard. I just kept it simple and bowled in the right areas," he said.

"I was determined to hit the right areas and not waste the second new ball. That was the thought. Also the confidence level was much higher," Sreesanth said.

Asked for his opinion on the way the umpires handled Kevin Pietersen’s caught behind decision-- the umpires referred the decision to the third umpire, after Simon Taufel had given him out, and the batsmen returned after behind told by his colleagues in the dressing room that he was not out - Sreesanth came up with a witty reply.

"The technology is there...but as long as he gets out next ball that's fine! Zaheer got him once so we were sure he can get him twice."

Then again asked which was the wicket he enjoyed, he said, "I enjoyed taking each wicket. It's an honour to play for the country and I feel very fortunate to be in the Indian dressing room and playing at Lord's. Every moment is very special for me. I'm enjoying every moment of it.

"When I took my first wicket at Lord's, it made me feel happy. The second wicket made me very happy and the third wicket made me feel very, very happy," he quipped. — PTI

Hanoi, July 21
Yuji Nakazawa blasted in the decisive spot kick to lift Japan to a 4-3 victory on penalties over Australia to reach the Asian Cup semifinals today.

Japan's Naohiro Takahara (L) and Australia's Mark Milligan battle for the ball during their quarterfinals match at the 2007 Asian Cup soccer tournament in Hanoi on Saturday. — Reuters

The match finished 1-1 after extra time and Japan goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi saved from Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill before Nakazawa smashed home Japan's fifth penalty to send his side through.

Striker John Aloisi had put the Socceroos in front in the 68th minute, pouncing from close range after Japan's defence had failed to deal with Kewell's fizzing low corner.

But Japan struck back just three minutes later when Eintracht Frankfurt forward Naohiro Takahara smashed a left-foot shot in off the post for his fourth goal of the tournament.

Australia's situation was further complicated when Vince Grella was controversially sent off for catching Takahara in the face with his arm in the 76th minute.

Japan never took full advantage with Celtic's Shunsuke Nakamura going closest to the winner by forcing a superb reflex save from Mark Schwarzer in the last minute of extra time.

Japan play the winners of Sunday's quarter-final between Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan in the last four. The semifinals take place on Wednesday.

Bangkok: Striker Younis Mahmoud scored twice to give Iraq a convincing 2-0 victory over Vietnam in an entertaining Asian Cup quarter-final on Saturday.

The Iraqi captain popped up unmarked inside the area to head Nashat Akram's lofted free kick into the net after two minutes and set the tone for the rest of the match.

Iraq were the more organised team and were always on the attack, spreading the ball around the field and pilling pressure on a Vietnamese defence that never looked comfortable dealing with their taller, stronger opponents.

Vietnam rarely threatened but could have equalised on the stroke of halftime when Chau Phong Hoa darted down the left and cut the ball back to the unmarked Nguyen Minh Phuong, whose powerful low shot was blocked by the Iraqi defence. 
— Agencies

Cincinnati, July 21
Third seed Sania Mirza put up a ruthless display against Belarussian Olga Govortsova to breeze into her first-ever singles semifinal at the $175,000 Cincinnati Open tennis tournament here.

It took the 38th ranked Sania only 51 minutes to dispatch Govortsova 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinal of the WTA Tier III tournament.

This is the first time Sania made it into the last four after being eliminated in the quarterfinals in the last two editions of the WTA hardcourt event.

''You want to win at any stage of the tournament, but it (the score 6-1, 6-1) does give you extra confidence. You're in the quarterfinals, so you're playing the best eight, and you get an easy win,'' the 20-year-old Hyderabadi said.

She now runs into world number eight and top seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia, who is playing in the tournament for the first time.

Chavetadze, who had beaten Sania in staright sets in their only meeting, progressed to the last four after her opponent Elena Vesnina, seeded sixth, retired with a right shoulder strain. Vesnina was trailing 6-7 (3/7), 6-0, 4-1 when she conceded the match.

Sania has been enjoying a dream run in the event, advanced to the semifinals of the doubles too. She booked her third straight quarterfinal berth with a 6-2,6-2 win over Varvara Lepchenko of Uzbekistan. — UNI

New Delhi, July 21
Rohan Bopanna stormed into the semifinals after shocking Pakistani second seed Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in straight sets in the $25,000 ATP Challenger in Manchester, England, today.

Bopanna, ranked 51 places below his partner and rival at 233, won 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the grass court men's tennis event.

It was a sweet revenge for 'Bofors' who had lost to Qureshi on both the occasions they had met before, in a $10,000 ITF event in Chandigarh in 2005 and in the Davis Cup relegation tie in Mumbai last year.

But Bopanna and Qureshi had been strong partners in doubles before and they have renewed their association after a long gap here this week.

And the Indo-Pak combination advanced to the final after beating Australia's Andrew Coelho and Adam Feeney 6-4, 7-5 on Friday.

The duo was to take on the Dutch-Swedish duo of Jesse Huta Galung and Michael Ryderstedt in the summit clash. — PTI

New Delhi, July 21
Punjab is one of the four states - Kerala, Orissa and Assam are the others - who have staked claims to host the Federation Cup Football Championship to be held from September 4.

The All-India Football Federation (AIFF) executive committee meeting, held here, considered the applications of all the four states, but a final decision has been deferred till AIFF secretary Alberto Colaco makes a spot assessments of the facilities in all the four states, including the suitability of the stadiums, and submits his report.

Punjab has never hosted the Federation Cup Football Championship, though Punjab teams emerged winners on three occasions--Border Security Force, Jalandhar, at Cuttack in 1987 and JCT in 1995 (Kolkata) and 1996 (Kannur, Kerala).

Kerala have hosted the Federation Cup seven times, including the inaugural edition at Eranakulam in 1977, while Orissa (Cuttack, 1987) and Assam (Guwahati, 1979) played hosts to the championship once each.

The Punjab Football Association has indicated to the AIFF that if allotted the Federation Cup, it would host the championship at Ludhiana. The last edition of the Cup was held in Kolkata.

The AIFF executive committee meeting also gave the go-ahead to corporate teams to play in the National B League from this season, provided they were affiliated to the concerned state associations and fulfilled all other criteria. The immediate beneficiaries of the AIFF decision would be Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Mumbai Club and Ocean New Delhi Heroes.