Birmingham, August 26
English media went ecstatic about the silken grace of Yuvraj Singh's batting in India's successful campaign against England in the second one-dayer at Bristol.

But 40 off is inadequate. Singh, particularly, as well as Dinesh Karthik need to be consistently reliable so as to reduce the burden on Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly and affect a smooth transition to the stage when the last three - in their mid-30s - may not be around.

With the series level score 1-1, a vital ODI appears to be on the cards in this, Britain’s second biggest city in the English West Midlands, with a significant number of immigrants from Punjab.

The form book suggests, England have so far played the superior cricket. They outflanked India in the first encounter by 104 runs and were adrift by only nine runs in targeting 329 for seven in the second.

There is a bubble in the English camp even without the heavy hitters Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff clicking, although the former has looked threatening and the Lancastrian’s accuracy and bounce has troubled the Indians.

But Flintoff has an inflamed right knee and swing bowler Jon Lewis has been summoned as cover. Ryan Sidebottom, originally in the squad, is out of consideration until after Monday’s match.

England might not retain an all pace attack after Paul Collingwood was fined 50 per cent of his match fees and the rest of players 15 percent for overrunning their allotted bowling time by 40 minutes in the last match.

In any case, a re-inclusion of Monty Panesar should clock up a faster over rate, lend variety to the attack and draw appreciation from the battalion of English supporters known as the “Barmy Army”.

Most British Sikhs at India-England matches appear to fail the “Tebbit Test” of loyalty to their adopted country and align with India, but Birmingham, not far from Panesar’s home town of Northampton, could be an interesting test.

Zaheer Khan is said to have recovered from his virus infection and, therefore, either Ajit Agarkar or Munaf Patel could warm the benches. It would be surprising if India abandoned their five-bowler formula or for that matter the two-spinner combination, without which they may not have defended their score on Friday.

And the lesson from the batting clearly is, seven specialists will rarely accomplish what six cannot.

India’s quandary, of course, is that those who can decently bat or bowl are sometimes not the best of fielders. Movement in the air - only to be expected in England - has befuddled Mahendra Dhoni and his wicket-keeping has simply not coped with this challenge.

Bristol was, in fact, a grand opportunity for him to catch up with Jack Russell. One wonders if the Jharkhandi, even if briefly, spoke to the last great Englishman with the gloves.

Unlike the first two matches, the next is a day meeting. Thus, factors like evening dew on the pitch or a wet ball can be ruled out. But conditions could be coolish with perhaps cloud cover. And India must win so as not to lose the slight initiative gained in the previous game. Indeed, India beat England here in the 1999 World Cup.

Lahore, August 26
In a volte face, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has started the rescue mission to bring back ace batsman Mohammed Yousuf from the rebel ICL fold by offering huge financial incentives.

The News quoted sources in the PCB saying ''All the indications are there that Lawson and the Board might have a discussion with him about his decision and some financial incentives might be given to induce him back into official cricket.''

The PCB has earlier said that it will not consider players who will join ther ICL for selection in the national team.

Four Pakistani cricketers Mohammed Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat had recently gone over to the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Some former players have suggested that the Board should allow players to play for both the ICL and the national team.

''It is not so easy because even if the PCB adopts such a policy it can't do it alone. Because this would have an effect on the policies of the Indian board and others.

Things have got complicated with the ICL now going to court against the Indian board and its policies,'' source said.

Pakistan manager Talat Ali has admitted that discussions were on to chalk out a strategy to convince Yousuf and bring him to the team.

Pakistan's newly-appointed coach Geoff Lawson has already made a move by requesting Mohammad Yousuf to reconsider his decision to join the rebel League. — UNI

Colombo, August 26
Dashing Sri Lanka all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya has virtually shutdown all doors on the controversial Indian Cricket league (ICL) saying, he will not be 'a part of any unofficial set up'.

A local report here said that Jayasuriya, the world's most capped ODI player, has made his position clear when he re-confirmed his priorities with his employer Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

''My contract is with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and I will be playing in tournaments approved by SLC only,'' Jayasuriya was quoted by 'The Sunday Times' as saying.

There were unconfirmed reports in the local media that Jayasuriya was offered a lucrative amount and had requested his employer SLC to release him from his contract for a specified period.

However, the secretary of SLC K Mathivanan vehemently denied that the 38-year-old all-rounder had made any such requests to the cricketing board.

Jayasuriya's decision came couple of weeks after the SLC issued a strict warning of a possible life ban on the national cricketers who joins or intends to join the private league.

Meanwhile, former skipper Marvan Atapattu, who earlier requested the SLC to exclude from the central contracts with the board, has reportedly chosen to continue his cricketing career in South African league.

Earlier, Atapattu's name was prominently tagged with the breakway league. But now it seems that the stylish batsman has decided otherwise and is likely to play Provincial Cricket in South Africa as a coach-cum-player. — UNI

Chandigarh, August 26
After it suffered a setback when several of its key players like Dinesh Mongia, Rajesh Sharma, Munish Sharma, Reetinder Sodhi and others joined the breakaway Indian Cricket League a few days ago, Punjab is set for another jolt.

Luv Ablish, Punjab’s key seamer, and at least three other players are likely to jump on the ICL bandwagon soon, reliable sources revealed to TNS here today.

Besides Ablish, two young spinners and a seamer have also decided to align with the ICL. The sources said the spinners had completed the formalities and the deal was likely to be finalised soon. As for the seamer, he has also made up his mind to join the Essel-group league, though he is yet to complete the formalities.

When contacted, Ablish agreed having jumped the fence. “But I am still undecided whether to go ahead or not,” he said.

The 24-year-old Ablish was a tremendous success last year in Ranji Trophy matches. He rocked Gujarat batting in his only fifth game at the green top in Mohali and completed a five-wicket haul as the visitors were bowled out for 206. Ablish eventually emerged the most successful bowler from the side.

Ablish was currently part of the squad playing the Buchi Babu cricket tournament in Chennai. Sources revealed that he did not play today’s match and left the squad early.

Already crippled by the desertion by a host of players, Punjab Cricket Association president I. S. Bindra had made a fervent appeal at the annual general body meeting at the PCA Stadium in Mohali yesterday to those who had turned “rebels” to come back, saying that he would seek amnesty for such players from the BCCI.

If the current developments are any indication, Punjab could well be the biggest sufferer following the ICL’s jumping into the fray. With the domestic season a little over a month away, a new-look team for the Ranji Trophy looks very much on the cards. 

Chennai, August 26
Mumbai will take on Baroda and Australian Institute of Sports will meet Combined Districts in the three-day semifinals of the Buchi Babu Memorial Cricket tournament of Tuesday.

With the Aussies having made the grade yesterday itself, Baroda beat Madhya Pradesh by 107 runs in their third and final preliminary league round to top Group B and make it to the knock-out stage.

Mumbai, Group A winners with 19 points, scored a 10-wicket win over Assam while Combined Districts defeated Hyderabad by 51 runs to tally 21 points in Group C.

Sunny Sohal cracked 101 to help Punjab defeat Andhra by 267 runs.

Brief scores: Punjab 314 and 272 for 5 in 45 overs (Sunny Sohal 101, Mayank Sibena 60, Gaurav Marwah 46; V Balasaraswati Reddy 3-53) defeated Andhra 161 and 158 for 5 in 45 overs (A G Pradeep 84, Manpreet Singh 2-14) by 267 runs. — PTI

New Delhi, August 26
India’s Joseph Abraham set a national record but failed to advance to the final of the men’s 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan, today.

Abraham clocked 49.51 seconds in the race, improving upon his own national record by 0.01 seconds, but finished seventh out of eight runners in heat 1.

The two top finishers from each of the three heats plus the fastest two among the rest made it to the final.

Abraham finished 18th overall among 24 athletes in the semifinals.

Poland’s Marek Plawgo, with a season’s best of 48.18 seconds, won heat 1 ahead of American James Carter (48.30 secs).

Earlier in the day, discus thrower Vikas Gowda failed to make it to the final after managing 61.22m in the qualifying round.

Gowda threw way below his personal best of 64.96m to finish ninth in Group A.

Had he come up with his best, he would have easily qualified as the last qualifier in his group cleared 62.68m. Those who cleared the qualification mark of 64.50m or at least best 12 qualified for the final round.

Gerd Kanter of Estonia was the best in qualification with a throw of 67.45m.

Earlier yesterday, Ranjith Maheswary finished 13th in the Group A qualification round with a jump of 16.38m, which was also below his personal best of 17.04m.

Maheswary cleared 16.33, 16.37, 16.38 in his three jumps. He would also have qualified for the final round had he cleared his best as the last qualifier jumped 16.69m.

Long jump ace Anju Bobby George and discus thrower Krishna Poonia start their campaigns in tomorrow’s morning session by trying to qualify for the finals of their respective events.

The qualifying mark for the discus throw is 61.50m or the best 12 making it to the final. Poonia’s personal best is 61.53m and her season’s best is 58.80m.

Anju won the bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships in Paris but has not reached those levels in the recent past.

The qualifying mark is 6.75m with at least the top 12 making it to the medal round.

Anju’s personal best is 6.83m, which she achieved at the 2004 Athens Olympics but has not gone close to those marks recently. Her season’s best is 6.65m. — Agencies

Osaka, August 26
Tyson Gay edged Asafa Powell to win the 100m world title in 9.85 seconds today as invincible Swedish glamour girl Carolina Kluft retained her heptathlon crown at the World Athletics Championships.

American star Gay was red hot and never looked like being beaten as Jamaican world record holder Powell (9.96) faded to third behind Derrick Atkins (9.91) from the Bahamas.

It was a long-anticipated meeting between two men at the peak of their powers, but despite Gay’s pre-championship predications, Powell’s world mark of 9.77 remains intact.

Kluft cemented her position as the best all-round female athlete of her generation when she clinched an unprecedented third successive world heptathlon title with a personal best tally.

The 24-year-old Olympic champion found her best performances of the season in six of the seven events for a total of 7,032 points to remain unbeaten in the multi-sport event since 2002.

Kluft’s time of 2:12.56 in the final event (800m) also gave her the European record, beating Russian Larisa Nikitina’s 7,007 from 1989, and she became the only woman apart from world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee to pass 7,000 points more than once.

Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Blonska finished second with 6,832 points and Kelly Sotherton grabbed Britain’s first medal of the championships with 6,510 points for bronze.

Ecuador’s Jefferson Perez bagged a hat-trick of 20 km walk world titles today.

The effort it took Perez to win here in stifling conditions was so great that he collapsed and writhed in agony immediately a

Tunisia won its first-ever world championships medal when Hatem Ghoula picked up the silver in dramatic circumstances. — Agencies.

New Haven, August 26
Top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova won her first title this season when qualifier Agnes Szavay retired with a back injury while leading 6-4, 0-3 at the Pilot Pen tennis tournament yesterday.

It was the third consecutive match Kuznetsova won because her opponent quit.

Kuznetsova had lost four other finals this year at Doha, Indian Wells, Berlin and Rome. She is 9-11 in WTA Tour finals.

Her previous title was in September 2006.

“Finally, it feels good,” the Russian said. “I was playing some good tennis the past weeks when I made it to the final, but then I couldn’t make it in the final.”

Szavay was playing her eighth match in nine days, and had been battling back problems most of the week.

Kuznetsova won her third-round match when Francesca Schiavone dropped out with an ankle injury and advanced to the final when Elena Dementieva was hit by a stomach ailment in their semifinal.

Szavay led 5-3 in the first set when Kuznetsova hit a crosscourt shot. Running for backhand, the Hungarian reached back to return the shot and immediately grabbed her back.

Szavay said the pain had been building before that shot.

She took a medical timeout during the next changeover, and received more treatment between sets. But it became clear after three games of the second set that she could not continue.

The 41st-ranked Szavay also retired from doubles competition earlier in the tournament, citing back problems.

Meanwhile, third-seeded James Blake capped his remarkable New Haven run with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over fellow-American Mardy Fish at the $675,000 Pilot Pen tennis tournament.

To the delight of his army of vocal fans, the popular 27-year-old Blake claimed his second title of the season and 10th of his career here yesterday.

In 2007, he was a runner-up finisher in Delray Beach, Los Angeles and the Cincinnati Masters Series.

Blake was tested hard this week, saving three match points in the third-round against Argentine’s Agustin Calleri.

In Friday’s semifinal, France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu gave him all he could handle before succumbing in a third-set tie-breaker.

The American star has had a stellar hard-court summer run this season, winning 16 of 19 matches since Wimbledon. He now looks to carry his form to New York where the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the year, starts tomorrow in Flushing Meadows. — Agencies

New York, August 26
Roger Federer can see the next generation of young rivals quickly approaching, but the world’s top player is not ready to hand over his Grand Slam supremacy just yet.

The 26-year-old Swiss star, who seeks his 12th Grand Slam title at the US Open, said he could feel a host of younger foes closing upon him - and that doesn’t even count French Open nemesis Rafael Nadal.

“He has already been up there too long. He’s a veteran,” Federer said of the second-ranked Spanish 21-year-old who won he third Roland Garros title in a row in June and pushed Federer to an epic five-set final at Wimbledon.

Federer’s worries come from 20-year-old Serbian world number three Novak Djokovic, British 20-year-old Andy Murray, 21-year-old Czech Tomas Berdych, 21-year-old Frenchman Richard Gasquet and 22-year-old Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

“The new generation have announced themselves since a year basically,” Federer said.

“One year ago they were still very young, not just young. But they are all very good.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how well they can do at the Grand Slam events.”

Djokovic defeated Federer, Nadal and then Andy Roddick on the way to the Montreal Masters crown earlier this month, while Gasquet made a Wimbledon semifinal run before falling to the world number one. — AP

London, August 26
Chelsea won by a solitary goal against Portsmouth to go to the top of the English Premier League, while Arsenal ended the perfect start of Sven-Goran Eriksson as Manchester City manager with a 1-0 win.

Cesc Fabregas scored in the 80th minute for the Gunners, who earlier had a penalty saved by Man City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel here yesterday.

Arsenal’s win ended Man City’s three-game winning streak under former England coach Eriksson.

City lost the top spot to Chelsea, with Frank Lampard’s goal giving the Blues 10 points. City are second with nine points.

At the Emirates Stadium, Schmeichel saved a penalty from Arsenal striker Robin van Persie in the 73rd minute.

The 20-year-old son of former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel had not conceded a goal in the first three games, after taking over for injured first-choice keeper Andreas Isaksson.

Late in the match, Schmeichel pushed a shot from Fabregas over the bar, and he also forced Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia to save a header from him in injury-time after he had run up for a City corner.

Frank Lampard gave Chelsea the lead in the 31st minute at Stamford Bridge. After collecting a flick-on from Didier Drogba, Lampard ran clear and struck the ball under Portsmouth goalkeeper David James.

It was Lampard’s fourth goal in as many games, including one in England’s 1-2 loss to Germany in a friendly on Wednesday.

Portsmouth have now failed to beat Chelsea in nine meetings since they returned to the Premier League in 2003.

Fulham scored the opening goal through Clint Dempsey in the sixth minute, but lost 2-1 to Aston Villa and finished with 10 men when Chris Baird was sent off for two yellow cards in the 70th.

Ashley Young leveled for Villa in the 51st minute, with a deflection off Fulham defender Zat Knight, and substitute Shaun Maloney had a 90th-minute winner.

Villa manager Martin O’Neill watched the second half from the stands after an argument with referee Steve Bennett. Fulham haven’t won away from home since September. — AP

Vasco, August 26
India’s Shahbaaz Adil Khan, virtually out of reckoning to make it to the knockout round, had an amazing revival when he shocked China’s Li Zhang 4-2 at the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship here today.

The win over Li, who was No. 3 at the last world meet in Bahrain two years ago, gave Shahbaaz, the top seed in Group D, a ray of hope for moving into the knockout round. He has a 3-3 win-loss record and has one match to play. He will also have to hope that players like Kristoff Vermeiren, John Loh and Marc Davis don’t excel.

About Shahbaaz’s win, coach Subhash Agarwal said, “He played cool, did not hurry with his shots and reaped the reward.” — PTI

New Delhi, August 26
It was double delight for Indian tennis fans with Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi lifting women's and men's doubles titles, respectively, at the Pilot Pen tournament at New Haven, USA.

Sania and her Italian partner Mara Santangelo, seeded third, crushed top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the women's doubles final in their late night match yesterday.

Top seeds Bhupathi and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia defeated fourth seeds Polish Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 6-3 earlier in the day.

Sania and Mara made short work of the Zimbabwe-South African pair to win the final match in just 53 minutes in the $ 600,000 WTA Tier II event, which was last in the tune-up to the US Open Grand Slam beginning in New york tomorrow.

Bhupathi and Zimonjic, who claimed their first title in four tries at the Pilot Pen event, didn't drop any sets but were put to the test in every single one of three matches leading up to the final of the $ 675,250 ATP event.

Zimonjic praised Bhupathi, saying "Mahesh is one of the greatest doubles players." — PTI

New Delhi, August 26
India, needing only a draw, went for the kill with goals from captain Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chetri and substitute Abhishek Yadav to blank Kyrgyzstan 3-0 and storm into the final of the ONGC Nehru Cup International Football Tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium here tonight.

This is India’s maiden entry into the Nehru Cup final, bettering their semifinal finish in the 12th edition of the event at Cochin 10 years ago.

India take on Syria in the final on August 29. India completed their round-robin league engagements with three wins and one defeat (against Syria), while the Syrians entered the final with a clean slate, winning all their four matches.

Playing before a packed house, which raised the decible level to a crescendo with the beating of drums, clanging of cymbals and hooting of bugles, the Indian team got into an attacking mode right from the kick-off. Bhutia performed one of those rare magical scoring feats to put the hosts in the lead in the 39th minute.

The move began from the Indian half before Renedy Singh floated the ball from the left flank, which was taken by Bhutia on the top of the box. The latter took a couple of steps forward to dodge two defenders before placing the ball into the goal past advancing custodian Agapov Maksim.

India maintained their aggressive approach to protect the lead till half-time, and then came out with renewed vigour on resumption to add two more goals.

Striker Chetri scored the second goal when he left-footed in a floating cross from the right by Steven Dias in the 16th minute. Chetri thus amply atoned for his lapse six minutes earlier when off a similar cross from Dias, he had footed the ball wide.

With two goals up, India took it easy by making the necessary substitutions, and Abhishek Yadav, who came in for Bhutia in the 25th minute, proved to be a worthy successor by slotting in the third goal. He dashed up with a Clifford Miranda centre, who also came in as a substitute, to shoot past the advancing Kyrgyz custodian to bulge the net.

India’s 3-0 win was indeed a surprise outcome as Krygyzstan were no pushovers, and could have given the hosts a run for their money. India played a compact, well-knit game, particularly in the first half, with Pradeep, Renedy and Dias going up and falling back to attack and defend, which made all the difference in the end.

And to India’s glee, Bhutia and Chetri came up with goals when the hosts were desperately looking for ones. With two goals in the kitty, India could relax and afford to make three substitutions, which also turned out profitable with Abhishek Yadav proving a surprise pack.

Dias, whose inspiring presence in the midfield was responsible for India creating many a move, was adjudged the man of the match. Dias not only fashioned moves for the strikers to test the goal, but he himself attempted long-range shots to keep the rival custodian on his toes.

Chandigarh, August 26
Gaurav Ghei slipped from the top of the leaderboard to finish tied fourth in the $300,000 Iskandar Johor Open at the Royal Johor Country Club in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, today.

Ghei’s one-over 72 card on the last day today was his worst in this Asian Tour event. His final tally was 281, including three under-par rounds.

Gaganjeet Bhullar just could not get his putting in order, ending up with four bogeys on the final day to finish tied 26th position.

Gaganjeet conceded bogeys on the fourth and fifth to be two-over 38 on the first nine. He struck a birdie on the 12th but bogeys on the last two holes saw him finish with a poor three-over card of 74.

Gaganjeet said his short game was working well despite the tough conditions on the Malaysian greens. He hoped to do better in the remaining Asian Tour events. “I hope to finish in the top 60 in the UBS Order of Merit to secure my card,” he added.

Two double bogeys found Gurbaaz Mann finish at the tied 61st position. Two other Indians, Rahul Ganpathy and Chiragh Kumar, finished tied 37th and tied 66th.