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Pacers put India on top
India ‘A’ enforce follow-on
Dalmiya vows to prove ‘innocence’
India head CEAT team ratings
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Asian
Athletics Championship
Parveen hat-tricks in JCT Academy’s win
Manav pips Ajeetesh for title
Korea, Japan clash for bronze today
Deutsche Bank Golf
Sania stuns Golovin
Sania-Peer in semis
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Pacers put India on top Nearly 170 years ago, William Clarke, an enterprising Englishman, saw potential in the meadow beside an inn on the banks of the river Trent. He married the landlady, Mary Chapman, and proceeded to create a cricket ground, which has developed into one of the finest anywhere in the world. Now, on this hallowed green has arisen a promise for India in the current series, as their pace bowlers, spearheaded by Zaheer Khan, who finished the day with three for 50, reduced England to 169 for seven after a delayed start to the second Test. Only the budding Alastair Cook, with an innings of 43, redeemed himself amidst the ruins. Weeks of almost incessant rain had rendered the outfield so soggy that play could only get under way at 3 pm local time, thus accommodating only 55 of the scheduled 90 overs. Indeed, it was a excellent toss to win, and wise of Rahul Dravid to put England in on a greenish wicket. Predictably, it fetched immediate dividends. The Zaheer-Sachin Tendulkar combination proved to be the nemesis of Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan. Running in from the side of the white pavilion, built in 1886, Zaheer swung one away from the left-hander and then made another leave the skipper to have both comfortably caught at first slip. The double strike inflated his tally of Test wickets to 150. Dravid, then, rested his seasoned seamer and replaced him with Rudra Pratap Singh to reap instant success. The danger man, Kevin Pietersen, was trapped lbw with an incoming delivery. RP Singh, though, was otherwise expensive, while Sreesanth, entrusted the new ball with Zaheer, kept the batsmen quiet more with a negative line than a positive manifestation, though he later improved. At 47 for three, England were obviously in some distress. While conditions warranted a utilisation of quicker bowlers, given his track record and ability to skid the ball, the introduction of wrist-spinner Anil Kumble at this point may have set the cat among the pigeons. His dismissal of Matt Prior with a sharply turning leg break, when he was given a proper spell, merely testified to this. While wickets fell, a technically correct Cook looked relatively untroubled. Sourav Ganguly, bowling his best spell of the tour, was not only economical, but beat the bat often. And he duly obtained his reward when he jagged one in to Cook and convinced umpire Simon Taufel with an lbw shout. Scoreboard Strauss c Tendulkar b Zaheer 4 Cook lbw Ganguly 43 Vaughan c Tendulkar b Zaheer 9 Pietersen lbw RP Singh 13 Collingwood b Sreesanth 28 Bell lbw Zaheer 31 Prior c Dravid b Kumble 11 Tremlett not out 16 Sidebottom not out 0 Extras (b-4, lb-7, nb-3) 14 Total (7 wkts, 55 overs) 169 Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-24, 3-47, 4-101, 5-109, 6-147, 7-157. Bowling: Zaheer 16-3-50-3, Sreesanth 12-7-16-1, RP Singh 10-1-56-1, Ganguly 8-4-11-1, Kumble 7-0-16-1, Tendulkar 2-0-9-0.
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India ‘A’ enforce follow-on
Harare, July 27 Replying to India's 489 all out, Zimbabwe were dismissed for 338, just two runs short of avoiding a follow on, with overnight not out Taibu doing bulk of the scoring at the Harare Sports Club. The hosts will have to do a lot of work on the last day to avoid an innings defeat and their cause was not helped as they lost opener Tinotenda Mawoyo for a duck in the second innings just before the close of play. Resuming on 129 for 4, the Zimbabwe side lost two early wickets to slump to 136 for 6, still trailing by 353 runs. Then began a fine rearguard action with captain Prosper Utseya joining former national skipper Taibu to raise hopes of making the visitors bat again. The duo defied the Indian bowlers for close to three hours and added 128 runs for the seventh wicket. It was leg-spinner Piyush Chawla who broke the partnership when he caught and bowled Utseya with Zimbabwe still needing 76 runs still to avoid follow on. Taibu took his side's score within six runs of 340 needed to avoid follow before he was ninth out, bowled by Chawla between bat and pad. Last man Christopher Mpofu couldn't handle Chawla's leg-spin for long and the Indians dismissed the hosts for 338 to enforce the follow-on. Chawla was the star performer for India 'A' snapping up 4 for 40 off 22 overs. Irfan Pathan and Yo Mahesh picked up two wickets apiece for 80 and 67, respectively, while Rajesh Pawar and VRV scalped one wicket each. After this game, the two sides square up in another four-day match at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, starting on Monday. Brief scores: India 'A' (1st Innings): 489 all out (Robin Uthappa 88; Parthiv Patel 67; Mohd. Kaif 63; Rohit Sharma 66; S Bandrinath 62; Piyush Chawla 58; Mpofu 3-90, Rainsford 3-82) Zimbabwe Select (1st Innings): 338 (Tatenda Taibu 123, Prosper Utseya 53, Hamilton Masakadza 38; Piyush Chawla 4/40, Irfan Pathan 2/80, Yo Mahesh 2/67) and 15 for 1.
— UNI
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Dalmiya vows to prove ‘innocence’
New Delhi, July 27 “It (the vendetta) has never happened before. They have done it, it is very unfortunate. They have made a ‘tamasha’ out of the BCCI. If I have to prove my innocence, then more dirt will come out. Invariably, the board will suffer,” Dalmiya said in an interview. “Sometimes, I think I should leave it, forget it, but then I ask myself, why should I go with a black spot? The truth has to come out. They have gone too far. I am not doing it for vendetta. But what else can I do? If you were in my place, what will you do? I have got no choice,” he told The Week. Dalmiya also tried to drive home the BCCI’s “vendetta politics” on the PILCOM funds issue. “Has someone from Pakistan asked about the so-called PILCOM funds? Has Sri Lanka said anything? In India, did anyone say anything for 11 years? The demand for all these documents came out of the blue. Even after the cases, has anybody from these countries demanded money,” he said when asked about the BCCI’s allegations that he did not furnish all documents or vouchers.
— UNI
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India head CEAT team ratings
Chandigarh, July 27 Rahul Dravid’s team heads the CEAT team rating with a tally of 27 points. Three points behind them are the Sri
Lankans, who have made mincemeat of their Bangladeshi opponents. England, who beat the West Indies in the Test series, but lost to the same team in the one-dayers, are third with 22 points. CEAT player rating is headed by the Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene. Jayawardene leads the overall rating with 38 points. Jayawardena (38) heads the list of top five batsmen. Following him are team-mate K C Sangakkara with 34 points, West Indian Chanderpaul (30), England batting mainstay Kevin Pietersen (28) and India’s former captain Sachin Tendulkar (24). Muralitharan, who finished the previous CEAT Year (1st May 2006 - 30th April 2007) as the highest point-getter, heads the CEAT bowling table with 32 points. Trailing him by only three points is England’s pride Monty
Panesar, who took 23 wickets in four Tests against the West Indies. West Indian Fidel Edwards (20), England’s R Sidebottom (16) and Sri lanka’s lanky fast bowler Dilhara Fernando (14) are next in line.
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Chitra Soman bags
gold;Anju settles for silver
Qatar’s Samuel becomes the fastest man in Asia Amman, July 27 Chitra clocked 53.03 seconds, ahead of Japanese Asami Tanno (53.20s) and Sri Lankan S. Mgnaka (54.11s) in the final. The Indian’s effort was just a fraction of a second lesser than her season’s best of 53.01s which she achieved in the Guwahati leg of the Asian Grand Prix last month, though much below her personal best of 52.48s. With the gold won by Chitra, India’s medal tally swelled to six with one gold, four silver and one bronze. Star long jumper Anju Bobby George had to be content with the silver medal, leaping 6.65m. Though she cleared the World Championship qualifying mark, the exceeding wind speed of 4.1s meant she did not qualify for the mega event. Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova jumped 6.66 in her last attempt to win the gold. Earlier yesterday, Sinimole Paulose had won a silver in women’s 800m, while JJ Shobha and Sushmita Singha Roy added a silver and bronze, respectively, in heptathlon. Paulose clocked 2:06.15 behind Truong Thanh Hang of Vietnam (2:04.77), while another Indian, Sushma Devi, was fourth with a timing of 2:10.63. Ayako Jinnouchi (2:08.75) of Japan got the bronze. Paulose’s effort was well below her personal best of 2:02.02 and her season’s best mark of 2:04.65 during the National Combined Events and Jumps in Pune last month. In women’s heptathlon, Shobha scored 5,356 points, while Sushmita totalled 5,154. The gold in the seven-event discipline was won by Irina Naumenko of Kazakhstan with 5,617 points. On Wednesday, the first day of the championship, national record holder Preeja Sreedharan had won a silver in women’s 10,000m race. Joseph Abraham and Kuldev Singh qualified for men's 400m hurdles final after finishing second and fourth in their respective heats. Joseph clocked 50.91s to finish second in heat number two while Kuldev ran 51.92s to finish fourth in heat number one. First four finishers of each heat move into the final. In men's 10,000m final, Surendra Singh and Santosh Kumar finished fifth and sixth, clocking 31:05.68s and 31:16.43s, respectively. The gold was won by Ahmad Hassan Abdullah of Qatar with a time of 29:45.95s. The talking point of the second day of the championship though was the record-breaking effort of Francis Samuel of Qatar in 100m sprint. Samuel became the fastest man in Asia and the first Asian athlete to break the 10.00 sec barrier. The Qatari clocked 9.99s to erase Japanese Koji Ito's Asian Record of 10.00s set in 1998. In the women's 100m, favorite Susantika Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka won the title of the 'Fastest Women Athlete' of the championship with a personal best timing of 11.19s though with more than legal wind speed of 3.1metre per second. — UNI, PTI
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Korea, Japan clash for bronze today
Jakarta, July 27 The Koreans and Japanese are expected to field teams full of fringe players for the playoff in Palembang, on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, despite the carrot of automatic qualification for the 2011 Asian Cup for the winner. For Korea’s coach Pim Verbeek, it may be a parting gift. The Dutchman, well liked and respected by the players and staff, has been hounded by the Korean media for months and put his job on the line before the tournament by guaranteeing a semifinal place. While that objective has been achieved, Verbeek still may opt to stand down rather than live under constant criticism. “I’ve made my decision already but I’m not going to tell you what it is,” Verbeek said in the aftermath of Korea’s penalty shootout loss to Iraq in Wednesday’s semifinal. “I’m not thinking at all about World Cup qualifiers, I’m just disappointed about what we tried to achieve here.” Japan coach Ivica Osim, meanwhile, does not seem the type to fall on his sword. The fire-brand Bosnian was furious after they were beaten 2-3 by Saudi Arabia in the game of the tournament so far and accused his players of “going soft”. Despite being the competition’s joint top scorer with four goals, striker Naohiro Takahara is likely to find himself on the bench tomorrow following a hugely disappointing display against the Saudis.
Getting back in Osim’s good books will be no easy task. — Reuters
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Jeev, Ghei tied 40th
Hamburg, July 27 Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur shot one-under 71 each and were tied 61st. While Jeev, Randhawa and Kapur hold full playing card, Ghei is starting this week on a sponsor's invite. Simon Khan putted like a dream to take the first round lead at Gut Kaden. Jeev had a fine start with three birdies on the front nine, but he began his return journey from 10th with three successive bogeys as he dropped to par. But two late birdies on 15th and 18th saw him finish at 70. Ghei, playing in Europe for the first time this season, had birdies on the second and third and fifth, but a bogey on fourth meant he was still two-under after five holes. He added another birdie on eighth, but bogeys on 10th and 13th set him back. He ended with a birdie on the 18th and can look forward to a decent weekend. Kapur had just one birdie on the 11th and the rest were pars in a steady round, while Randhawa had three birdies on front nine but gave away two bogeys on back nine. Among Asian Tour players, South African Anton Haig carded a three-under-par 69 as he was in tied 22nd spot. Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee was even-par for the day in joint 82nd spot alongside Singaporea's Mardan Mamat. — PTI
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Stanford (USA), July 27 The 20-year-old Indian, for whom the US hardcourts have become a happy hunting ground, was ecstatic about her first win against Golovin, who had a 2-0 head-to-head record going into the match. “Beating a top-20 player is always good, especially beating someone you have never beaten before,” the Sania said after the match. Sania, who reached the semifinals at Cincinnati last week, next faces last year’s finalist, Patty Schnyder of Switzerland. The fourth seed downed Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5, 6-2. Meanwhile, Sania and her Israeli partner Shahar Peer rallied from to get past unseeded Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan and Angelika Bachmann of Germany 5-7, 6-3, 10-6 and storm into doubles semifinals.Sania-Peer will now meet Hsieh Su Wei (Chinese Taipei) and Alla Kudryavtseva (Russia) for a place in the final. New Delhi: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi scored a thrilling win to enter the doubles semifinals in the Nottingham Challenger, but Prakash Amritraj suffered a heart-breaking loss to bow out of Granby event. Third seeds Rohan Bopanna and Qureshi overcame a tough challenge from Olivier Charroin and Thomas Oger of France 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-8 to reach the last-four stage of the $25,000 ATP grasscourt event in the UK on Thursday. Amritraj went down fighting 6-7 (6), 5-7 to home qualifier Milan Pokrajac in the singles second round at the $50,000 hardcourt event in Granby, Canada. — UNI
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Sania-Peer in semis
Stanford (USA), July 27 The third-seeded Indo-Israeli pair failed to find the coordination and rhythm in the first set but rallied in the next two sets to clinch the one hour, 20 minute
contest. Sania-Peer will meet Hsieh Su Wei (Chinese Taipei) and Alla Kudryavtseva (Russia) for a place in the final.
Sania Mirza maintained her sparkling form to shock world number 19 Tatiana Golovin of France 6-4, 6-1 and reach the quarterfinals. New Delhi: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi scored a thrilling win to enter the doubles semifinals in the Nottingham Challenger, but Prakash Amritraj suffered a heart-breaking loss to bow out of Granby event. Third seeds Rohan Bopanna and Qureshi overcame a tough challenge from Olivier Charroin and Thomas Oger of France 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-8 to reach the last-four stage of the $25,000 ATP grasscourt event in the UK on Thursday.
— UNI
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Parveen hat-tricks in JCT Academy’s win
Chandigarh, July 27 Parveen Kumar opened the score in the eighth minute and then made it 2-0 in the 30th minute. In the second half Parveen, getting regular feeding from his colleagues, completed his hat-trick as he booted home his third goal in the 52nd minute. Promoted from Division II, Mahilpur Football Club suffered their third successive defeat.
— UNI
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Manav pips Ajeetesh for title
Chandigarh, July 27 Fatehbir Dhaliwal of Chandigarh and DGC's Saurabh Bahuguna finished tied third after the two finished with an identical score of 300. Dhaliwal played a four-over 76 in the fourth round while Saurabh returned the best card of the day, a par 72. Oil India's Simarjeet Singh finished fifth at 302. Das played a steady game parring the first four holes. Then he birdied the par-3 fifth where he nailed his Six-Iron to within 12 feet from the pin. However, a double bogey on the eighth saw him make the turn at one over. On the back nine, Das double bogeyed the 10th. But then he recovered well to fire birdies on the 14th and 16th to finish at one over 73. Das said: "I played my natural game and was confident of pulling it off." Sandhu bogeyed the sixth, 11th and 12th. But then he set the greens ablaze sinking birdies on the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th. He went into the final hole with a one-stroke advantage. But then Ajeetesh virtually gifted the match to Manav Das after moving to the brink of triumph as he watched his putt for outright victory lip out at the last regulation hole. "On the 18th, I reached the green in regulation but three-putted to gift the match," said the disappointed golfer. "In the play-off hole I duffed my bunker shot and then missed a ten footer par putt," he added. Saurabh Bahuguna shot a birdie on the fourth but dropped a shot on the ninth to finish at level par 72. Fatehbir Dhaliwal had a disappointing day as he carded double bogeys on the eighth and tenth. He birdied the 11 th but dropped a shot on the 16th. Scores (after 72 holes): 297 Manav Das (72, 77, 75, 73), Ajeetesh Sandhu (76, 76, 72, 73); 300 Saurabh Bahuguna (80, 79, 69, 72), Fatehbir Dhaliwal (76, 72, 76, 76); 302 Simarjeet Singh (71, 75, 78, 78); 304 Gagan Verma (75, 81, 75, 73); 305 Mithun Perera (77, 78, 77, 73); 307 Vikram Rana (78, 74, 77, 78), Arshdeep Tiwana (81, 78, 73, 75); 308 Abhishek Jha (80, 76, 74, 78).
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