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League to hold camp from
August 29
Lalu’s Googly
Gibbs guides SA to series win
World Athletics Championships
Mahesh-Zimonjic, Sania-Mara in final
Liverpool keep a clean slate
Atwal climbs to tied 13th
Massa takes pole position
Pak recall Warsi for Asia Cup
Baljinder wins 10 km walk
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India draw level with 9-run win
Bristol, August 25 India managed to square the seven-match series 1-1 thanks to a sublime 99 from a flu-stricken Sachin Tendulkar and an even better innings of 92 not out off merely 63 balls from captain Rahul Dravid, not to mention the subsequent dismantling of the English middle order by 18-year-old wrist spinner Piyush Chawla. For the fourth time on the current tour of the British Isles, Tendulkar lost his wicket in the 90s — the second time to an umpiring error. But with 11 fours and a six, Dravid flayed the English attack in a manner not normally associated with the Wall. The venue of the match was once home to WG Grace, cricket’s 19th century father figure, Gilbert Jessop, a thrilling stroke player at the turn of the 20th century, and Wally Hammond, the pre-World War II batsman whose cover drives were reputedly more handsome as Cary Grant’s looks. As a tribute to such heroes in Gloucestershire’s heritage, Tendulkar had earlier nailed two centuries at this ground, one of them immediately after his father died during the 1999 World Cup. This time, too, he made his intentions clear with a spate of flicks and drives in the arc between square leg and midwicket, glorious cover drives, delicate steers to third man, whips off the hips, inventive sweeps, not to mention a straight six at the expense of Chris Tremlett. He and Sourav Ganguly comprise the most successful opening pair in ODI history. Now they took their hundred stands for the first wicket to 18 and for all wickets to 23. Ian Bell, with 64, was again the mainstay of the English batting after Matt Prior and Alastair Cook realised 76 for the first wicket in 11 overs. But with only his second delivery, Chawla bowled Kevin Pietersen with a flipper and then skipper Paul Collingwood with a googly, before forcing a false stroke from Bell, who was dropped by Powar when only on one. What took India by surprise was a 36-ball 50 from Dimitri Mascarenhas, which included five sixes, and an unbeaten 29 from Stuart Broad. Earlier, in one over that typified India’s clumsiness, Pietersen was spilled twice — behind the wicket by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and by Ganguly off his own bowling. Scoreboard India Ganguly c Collingwood b Flintoff 39Tendulkar c Prior b Flintoff 99 Yuvraj c Collingwood b Broad 49Dravid not out 92 Dhoni c Tremlett b Anderson 21 Karthik lbw Flintoff 1 Agarkar c Prior b Flintoff 1 Powar c Prior b Flintoff 1 Chawla not out 1 Extras (lb-8, w-9, nb-8) 25 Total (7 wkts, 50 overs) 329 Fall of wickets: 1-113, 2-180, 3-243, 4-302, 5-310, 6-324, 7-326. Bowling: Broad 9-0-54-1, Anderson 10-1-56-1, Flintoff 10-0-56-5, Tremlett 9-0-73-0, Mascarenhas 4-0-31-0, Collingwood 4-0-24-0, Bopara 4-0-27-0. England Cook c Dhoni b Patel 36 Prior c Dravid b Patel 33 Bell c Patel b Chawla 64 Pietersen b Chawla 25 Collingwood b Chawla 27 Flintoff c Agarkar b Powar 9 Bopara lbw Patel 17 Mascarenhas c Agarkar b RP Singh 52Broad not out 29 Tremlett not out 0 Extras (b-1, lb-6, w-15, nb-6) 28 Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 320 Fall of wickets: 1-76, 2-76, 3-134, 4-176, 5-185, 6-220, 7-240, 8-299. Bowling: Agarkar 9-1-67-0, RP Singh 10-0-56-1, Patel 8-0-70-3, Ganguly 3-0-17-0, Chawla 10-0-60-3, Powar 10-0-43-1.
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England fined for slow
over rate
Bristol, August 25 His team-mates are each fined five per cent of their match fee for every over they failed to bowl in the time allowed and will thus have to pay 15 per cent of their earnings. Match referee Roshan Mahanama imposed the fines after Collingwood’s side was ruled to be three overs short of its target at the end of the Indian innings.
— PTI
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ICL concerned with profit, not cricket: Bindra
Mohali, August 25 “The sole motive of such bodies is to earn profit. As soon as these fly-by-night groups stop making money from the game, they will wind up their operations immediately,” said Bindra after the annual general meeting of the Punjab Cricket Association at the PCA Stadium here today. Terming the BCCI as a proactive entity, PCA president Bindra said the income being earned by it was being used for the promotion of the game. “Besides its own tournaments, the BCCI gives patronage to over 40 tournaments by different groups or organisations, thereby ensuring that profit being earned by them should go to the game’s promotion”, he said. Showing some concern for the rebel players, the PCA president sought an amnesty period for these players from the board to keep options open if someone wanted to return to the BCCI. “Many young players have been dazzled by the apparent greener pastures being shown by the league. I would ask the board to give some grace period in case players want to return,” stated Bindra. Talking about the six cricketers from Punjab who have joined the ICL, Bindra said the players were like members of a family, so their exit definitely pained him. He also admitted that the exodus of the senior players would affect the performance of the state team. Claiming that the planned Premier Cricket League (PCL) was not an answer to the ICL, Bindra said, “We are just following the Cricket Australia pattern to make the game thoroughly professional. Our competition is with Cricket Australia. The idea of PCL came up in 1996 from Lalit Modi and Madhav Rao Scindia but somehow it got delayed. You can’t depend on the bunch of 15 players. As the process is on, a formal announcement will be made very soon,” said Bindra. Meanwhile, the PCA is set to become the first association in the country to give retainership to its players irrespective of age. An announcement in this regard was made at its 58th AGM today. “Now we hope that other associations will also follow suit for the benefit of cricketers,” said Bindra. The prize money of every tournament has also been doubled. “With the enhancement of the prize money, the Ranji players will earn more than Rs 35 lakh per session,” said MP Pandove, BCCI joint secretary and PCA secretary. The prize money in junior age groups would also go in crores as the PCA would contribute the equal amount as given by the board, added Pandove. The association today distributed awards among the best performers of the session. Chandigarh got Rs 1 lakh by winning the best district title, while Karan Goel bagged Rs 50,000 for the best senior player. Mandeep Singh and Sidhharth Kaul were declared best junior players, pocketing Rs 25,000 each.
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League to hold camp from August 29
Chennai, August 25 Confirming this to UNI, former India and Tamil Nadu stumper Bharat Reddy, who is involved with the ICL for spotting talent, said 54 players who had signed up for the league would be attending the camp. He also indicated that in addition to six Tamil Nadu players who had signed up with ICL, some more would also be roped in. Essel has signed a deal for its training and practice facilities with Mayajaal complex, about 25 km from the city. However, according to sources, the details of the deal are likely to be revealed once the stock exchanges are furnished with the details in a couple of days. Pentamedia Graphics, which owns the Mayajaal complex, is a listed company, we will have to furnish the details to the Mumbai Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange, the sources added. The complex houses two cricket grounds, besides an indoor cricket training facility. The ground is now hosting some of the league matches of the ongoing All-India Buchi Babu Invitation cricket tournament. — UNI
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Lalu’s Googly
Varanasi, August 25 “The Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Indian Cricket League should organise competitive tournaments, pitting their players against each other in order to improve the skills of the cricketers,” he told reporters at Sarnath, near here, today. Lalu also suggested that the best cricketers irrespective of whether they were with the BCCI or the ICL should represent the country. The BCCI has barred players having aligned with the rebel group from playing for their state units and the national team and also withdrawn financial benefits from those former and present players who have joined the ICL. Lalu said the Railways was examining the possibility of signing a 25-year contract with the ICL. He said the railway authorities had no problem with renting its stadiums to any organiser, if paid the fees for utilising sports facilities.
— PTI
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Harare, August 25 Gibbs made 111, his 17th ODI century, off 100 balls with 16 fours and two sixes at the Harare Sports Club as the tourists took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. South Africa, set 248 to win, reached their target in the 40th over. Zimbabwe had made 247, with Sean Williams (54) top scoring with former skipper Tatenda Taibu, playing his second match since ending his international exile, hitting 43. Stuart Matsikenyeri hit a valuable 52. Smith put on 174 for the first wicket with Gibbs. Smith missed out on a seventh ODI hundred when umpire Russell Tiffin ruled he got glove on an attempted sweep but Gibbs reached his 17th century with a flurry of boundaries, including a massive six to move to 102. South Africa won the first match also by eight wickets on Wednesday. — AFP
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India eye place in final
New Delhi, August 25 Houghton said there was no plan to play for a draw, though in a bid to bolster the defence, he has already made up his mind to field Renedy Singh in place of Clifford Miranda in the starting line-up. Renedy Singh in the midfield is an asset both in attack as well as in defence, though he had been kept away in the crucial match against Syria on Thursday. Kyrgyzstan require a victory over India to pip the hosts to the final against Syria on August 29, and they do have the firepower to get the better of India. The Central Asian team have so far knocked in eight goals and conceded seven, and India would be looking to exploit the chinks in the Kyrgyzstan defence to knock in a goal or two to go for an outright victory tomorrow. However, the Indian forwards have so far not been very successful with their shots, particularly captain and star striker Baichung Bhutia. But Houghton said he had asked the players to go for the goals and not squander their chances, as he knows that if the regular strikers fail, he has crackshots like N.P. Pradeep and Ajayan Nair to deliver, as both are credited with a spectacular goal each. “I think we are capable of reaching the final, and if we do not make it, I will be very disappointed,” Houghton said. Meanwhile, in the penultimate league match of the tournament, Syria pulverised Cambodia 5-1 to to record their fourth straight victory. Syria, who had already qualified for the final, are the only team with an all-win record, while Cambodia suffered their third crushing defeat. The latter’s consolation goal was scored by Teab Vathanak. Syria opened their account through Mohammed Alzeno while Zyad Chaabo added the second goal to lead 2-0 at half-time. On resumption, Meher Al Sayed scored the third and fifth goals, while Aatef Jenyat slotted home the fourth goal. The man-of-the-match award, however, went to Mahmoud Al Amena for his tireless work in the middle to play a big part in the goals.
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Ghei takes sole lead
Chandigarh, August 25 After spending several years on the sidelines with injuries, Ghei came back after a title drought of 11 years to register victories at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters last year and the Pine Valley Beijing Open in April this year. With three seasoned golfers trailing him one stroke behind, it will be a tough final day tomorrow. Gaganjeet Bhullar carded his best round of one-under 70 to climb up the ladder from tied 36th position to tied 14th slot. Winner of the World Junior Masters Championship in 2005, 19-year-old Gaganjeet struck birdies on the second and fourth holes and bogeyed the eighth, in which he had sunk an eagle on the second day, for a two-under 34 after the first nine. On the return nine, he shot birdies on the 10th and 16th. But then he bogeyd the 13th, 14th and 18th to finish with a one-under card for a two-over tally of 215. An off-colour Gurbaaz Mann paled into insignificance as he played a string of bogeys on the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth holes. He following this up with a double bogey on the 11th for a eight-over card of 78 for a 12-over tally of 225 after the third round. He occupied the joint 65th place with Chiragh Kumar, who also played an eight-over card today. Harmeet Kahlon, who was three-over in the first nine after teeing off from the 10th hole when the second day’s play was suspended due to poor light, played a miserable triple-bogey on the par-three third hole this morning and subsequently missed the cut. Also missing the cut after the second round were SSP Showrasia, Vivek Bhandari, Digvijay Singh, Naman Dawar, Amardip Malik, Uttam Singh Mundy and Amritinder Singh.
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World Athletics Championships
Osaka, August 25 Joseph clocked 49.64 seconds in heat number five to finish fifth but still advanced to the next stage. The first four athletes of each of the five heats plus four fastest times qualified for the semifinals. Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic ran fastest in the heats, clocking 48.70 seconds. Shot putter Navpreet managed a best throw of 19.35m, which was good enough for only the 11th place in Group A. Only a qualification mark of 20m or at least the best 12 qualify for the final. Rutge Smith of the Netherlands was the best thrower in the heats with a best effort of 21.04m. Americans Reese Hoffa (20.89m) and Adam Nelson (20.81m) followed him. Two competitors - Miran Vodovnik of Slovenia (19.97) and Russia’s Pavel Sofin (19.92m) - got into the top 12 for the final with sub-20m marks but their efforts were considerably higher than what Navpreet managed. The Indian has a personal best of 19.93m, which would have seen him just making the final. But his best in 2007 is only 19.70m and today he finished well below that. Powell, Gay head for showdown
Jamaica’s Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay stayed on course for an epic 100m showdown by cruising through the heats. World record holder Powell exploded from the blocks and slowed dramatically before the finish but his time of 10.01 seconds was still the quickest of the evening’s quarterfinal heats. Gay adopted similar tactics in winning his heat in 10.06 seconds following a false start from lane six after both he and Powell had run conservatively during the morning session. The American sprint king had stuck to his assessment that Powell’s world record of 9.77 could fall in tomorrow’s final when they are scheduled to clash for the first time this year. Neither of the two red-hot favourites for the gold have won a world title, Powell missing the 2005 championships in Helsinki through injury and Gay finishing fourth in the 200m. Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis, the 2003 world champion, scraped into the semifinals with the slowest qualifying time of 10.30 seconds. Kenya’s Kibet
wins marathon
Luke Kibet ended Kenya’s 20-year wait for a men’s world marathon title with a comfortable victory in the first event of the championships today. The 24-year-old prison guard overcame searing heat and high humidity to clinch the gold in two hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds. Kenyan-born Qatari Mubarak Hassan Shami took the silver, more than a minute behind his former compatriot in 2:17:18, and Swiss Viktor Roethlin came through to finish third in 2:17:25. Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba became the first woman to defend her world championship 10,000m title. Dibaba won in 31 minutes, 55.41 seconds. Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse took the silver in 31:59.40, with American Kara Goucher finishing third in 32:02.05.
— Agencies
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Mahesh-Zimonjic, Sania-Mara in final
New Delhi, August 25 Though it was a straight-set victory for Bhupathi and his Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic, the going was not easy for the top seeds who managed a 7-5, 7-6 win to book their berth in the men’s doubles summit clash. In the final, the Indo-Serbian pair will face the Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski. Fourth-seeded Fyrstenberg and Matkowski defeated Jordan Kerr of Australia and Jamie Murray of Britain 6-2, 6-3. Sania and Italy’s Mara Santangelo pipped second-seeded Kveta Peschke of Czech Republic and Rennae Stubbs of Australia 2-6, 6-3, 10-5 in the semis. The third-seeded Indo-Italian combination will take on the top-seeded Zimbabwean Cara Black and Liezel Huber of the USA in the title clash. Sunitha misses
US Open berth
New York: Indian hopes to see two women players competing in the main draw of the US Open ended with Sunitha Rao’s third-round defeat in the singles qualifiers. Sunitha lost 4-6, 4-6 against second seed Zi Yan of China. Pakistani Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi failed to get a ticket to the US Open main draw as he withdrew from the third round qualifying tie against American Scoville Jenkins. Qureshi, after pocketing the first set 7-6, lost the second set 2-6 and then retired. Indian girls to
clash for title
Karachi: India’s Chandril Sood and Summet Shinde bowed out in the boys’ singles semifinals of the ITF juniors ranking tennis tournament here. Chandril was upset by local challenger Nasir Mushtaq 3-6, 6-7, while Shinde was thrashed 2-6, 0-6 by Thailand’s Nuttorn Tanchainant. The girls’ singles final will be an all-Indian affair between the top two seeded players, Inayat Khosla and Soniya Dayal. Khosla accounted for Spanish fifth seed Carol Benito 6-2, 6-2 in the first semifinal, while Dayal whipped compatriot Ratnika Batra 6-1, 6-4 in the other. Chandril and his brother Lakshit Sood entered the boys’ doubles final beating Thangarajah Dineshkanthan and M Abid 6-2, 6-2. Another Indian pair, Gugan Varma and Nehal Kapoor, lost to the Pakistan’s Yasir Khan and Tanveer Ashiq 6-3, 2-6, 3-6 in the semifinal. — Agencies
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Liverpool keep a clean slate
London, August 25 Sissoko opened the scoring after 37 minutes with his first goal in any competition after two years at the club, sending in a fierce low drive which eluded the outstretched arm of Sunderland’s goalkeeper Craig Gordon. Voronin, who joined Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen in the close-season, scored in the dying minutes. Promoted Sunderland, who picked up four points from their opening two matches have now lost their last two games. The victory was not without cost for Liverpool, however, ahead of their Champions League qualifier against Toulouse next week. Defender Sami Hyypia was an early casualty with a broken nose, while Jamie Carragher was taken to hospital with a suspected broken rib.
— Reuters
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Atwal climbs to tied 13th
Bridgeport, August 25 Atwal, who had an even-par 72 in the first round, shot seven birdies and one bogey to aggregate six-under 136 for 36 holes. The PGA Tour rookie, who started here because he did not make the PGA Tour playoff for the FedEx Cup, added a four-under 68 to his first round 63 to lead at 13-under 131. He was three shots clear of Asian Tour player Edward Loar of the USA, who carded a 64 and climbed up to lone second spot. Kapur slips
Zandvoort: Shiv Kapur shot two double bogeys in the space of three holes and dropped from a probable top-10 position to be tied 49th at the midway stage of the KLM Open golf tournament in the Netherlands on the European Tour. Meanwhile, Rahil Gangjee shot a superb two-under 68 but his first round of three-over 73 proved costly as he missed the cut by one shot. Chopra bows out
New York: Daniel Chopra crashed out of the Barclays with one of his worst rounds of the season, an 11-over 82 that saw him finish close to the bottom of the field at the first of the four events in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. Chopra had 10 bogeys, one triple and three birdies and just three pars in his 82 at the Westchester Country Club here. At the top, Korean stalwart KJ Choi took a two-stroke lead with a second round of five-under par-66 for outright lead yesterday.
— PTI
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Massa takes pole position
Istanbul, August 25 The 26-year-old Latin American from Sao Paulo managed to hold off a fierce challenge from championship leader British rookie Lewis Hamilton in the final minutes to grab the prime grid position. It was Massa’s second successive pole at the Istanbul Park circuit, situated 30 km out of the capital city on the Asian side of the Bosphorous, and demonstrated his liking for the wide-open attack and the hot conditions. He took the pole and won last year’s race and now has a perfect opportunity to relaunch his and Ferrari’s challenge for the Formula One world championship this year with six races remaining. Hamilton, in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz, was second fastest ahead of Massa’s Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and defending double world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso who was fourth for McLaren.
— AFP
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Pak recall Warsi for Asia Cup
Karachi, August 25 Squad: Rehan Butt (capt), Salman Akbar, Nasir Ahmed, Imran Warsi, Imran Khan, Yousufzai, M. Imran, Kashif Ali, Waqas Zafar, Haider Abbas, Yasir Islam, Mohammad Arshad, Waqas Sharif, Akhtar Ali, Tariq Aziz, Rana Asif, Mohammad Mudassar and Shakeel Abbasi.
— PTI
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Baljinder wins 10 km walk
Sangrur, August 25 Punjab PWD (B&R) minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa inaugurated the championship. He honoured seven athletes with merit certificates and cash prizes for their excellent performance at the national level — Amandeep Singh (110m hurdles), Amit Kumar (10 km walk), Manjinder Singh (200), Rajinder Kumar (shot put), Baljinder Singh (discus throw), Manpreet Kaur (shot put) and Gurvinder Singh (110m hurdles).
— TNS
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Mohali: Hockey Olympian Gagan Ajit Singh has been attached to the SSP, Muktsar, as the Punjab Government ordered fresh posting of 18 DSPs. Earlier, the ace forward was with 4th Commando Battalion in Mohali. — TNS
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