Johannesburg, September 23
Having conquered much-fancied rivals, resurgent India and Pakistan will clash here tomorrow in a high-voltage duel for the Twenty20 world title with not much to choose between the two youthful sides without their ageing stalwarts.

On the way to the final, both teams have inflicted defeats on ODI World Cup champions Australia and roared past other favourites like hosts South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Their successes have surprised the pundits but thrilled the subcontinent’s cricket-hungry masses still recovering from the inglorious exit of their teams from the World Cup in the West Indies barely six months ago.

There is no Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly in the Indian line-up, and no Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Yousuf in the Pakistan team. But both sides have discovered new stars en route to the summit clash.

India have a new captain in Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is a refreshing contrast to his predecessors with straight thinking and a focus on the basics of the game.

“I told the boys, ‘go out and do your best after which I don’t care what happens,’” he said after humbling mighty Australia at Durban last night.

Vice-captain Yuvraj Singh has stunned the cricketing world with explosive knocks in this tournament and will be the key batsman for India.

But besides Dhoni himself, the team has found new stars such as Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa and a thinking bowler in RP Singh, who has joined the ever-aggressive S. Sreesanth, comeback player Irfan Pathan and the veteran Harbhajan Singh to deal telling blows to the opposition.

Pakistan, too, have a new captain in Shoaib Malik, who has found match- winners in rookie batsman Misbah-ul-Haq and bowler Sohail Tanvir.

Then there is the prodigious talent of speedster Mohammad Asif, all-rounder Shahid Afridi and veteran batsman Younis Khan.

In the end, which of the team runs away with the gleaming trophy will depend on who plays well about three hours of cricket on the day. Both teams are surprise finalists and undoubtedly both will give their best on the final night of a tournament that has caught the fancy of cricket lovers everywhere.

Even Australia’s stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist felt that tomorrow’s summit clash would prove a humdinger with two evenly matched sides with a fierce cricket rivalry between them would go all out to establish their superiority.

“Both teams are playing with a high level of skill. The Indian batting is so dangerous - and Pakistan are bowling beautifully ... so I can’t pick a winner because it’s that type of game,” Gilchrist said after his side lost to India in the second semifinal last night.

“A little bit of luck does help teams get over the line in the big game. I’m sitting right on the fence,” he added.

Dhoni has been insisting that he is not worried about the outcome as long as his team-mates gave their 100 per cent. Looking ahead to the final, he said the intensity would be there but the team would not put itself under any unnecessary pressure.

“I know it’s the biggest stage and the biggest match, but taking additional pressure doesn’t help anyone. We’ll just take it like another India-Pakistan match. And it helps that we’ve been playing each other more regularly recently.

“The pressure will be immense, but not on us because I don’t believe in taking pressure and neither does my team. But we need to play with intensity and we are ready to do it,” said Dhoni.

“It should be a great match. You can look forward to healthy rivalry and a great game of cricket,” he added.

His deputy and batting mainstay in the tournament, Yuvraj, however, was candid in his view that the summit showdown between the arch-rivals promised to be a see-saw thriller.

“India vs Pakistan is always a big game. It’s a dream to get that match-up,” he said.

Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik, meanwhile, is hoping that the team would pull off their second World Cup triumph in the holy month of Ramzan.

“In 1992, Pakistan won the World Cup in the holy month of Ramzan after beating New Zealand in the semifinal,” Malik pointed out.

Squads (from): India: MS Dhoni (c), Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Joginder Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, S Sreesanth and Robin Uthappa.

New Delhi, September 23
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, business tycoon Vijay Mallya and BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla will join hundreds of fans to cheer for Team India during the final tomorrow.

Shah Rukh, who played a hockey coach in his latest release "Chak De India", earlier made a surprise visit to the India-England third Test at the Oval last month.
Shah Rukh, Mallya and Shukla will leave by the liquor baron’s private jet. — PTI

Chandigarh, September 23
An agonisingly long wait — 13 years, to be precise — has ended. It was in the 1994 Australasia Cup at Sharjah that India and Pakistan last clashed in the final of a major limited-overs tournament.

Before that, they had a title showdown in the 1985 World Championship of Cricket as well as the 1986 Australasia Cup (Incidentally, the arch-rivals have never squared off in the decider of the ODI World Cup and the Champions Trophy).

In their three biggest summit clashes in one-dayers, Pakistan have a 2-1 lead. Here’s a recap.

March 10, 1985: The grand finale of the seven-nation Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket, held at Melbourne, turned out to be a one-sided affair. Pakistan, led by Javed Miandad, won the toss and elected to bat. Indian bowlers, who had been right on top throughout the tournament, delivered yet again.

Pakistan were restricted to 176 for 9 in 50 overs, with Miandad making a typically gritty 48. Kapil Dev took 3-23, dismissing openers Mudassar Nazar and Mohsin Khan, besides castling Qasim Umar with a superb yorker. Leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan was impressive, too, with figures of 3-35.

Krish Srikkanth and Ravi Shastri led India’s cautious but solid reply. The former fell for 67, while the latter stayed till the end with an unbeaten 63, guiding India to an eight-wicket victory. Srikkanth was named the man of the match, while Shastri raced away in a swanky Audi on being declared the “champion of champions”. Captain Sunil Gavaskar, of course, lifted the trophy, which was India’s second in less than two years after the 1983 World Cup.

April 18, 1986: This is arguably the most famous India-Pak one-dayer of them all. Imran Khan put India in to bat on a placid wicket at Sharjah. Openers Srikkanth (75) and Gavaskar (92) put on 117 for the first wicket, while Dilip Vengsarkar, coming at one-down, contributed 50.

The Indian middle order, however, failed to click in the slog overs, thanks to good bowling from Imran and Wasim Akram. India, led by Kapil, finished at 245 for 7 in 50 overs, with Akram (3-42) being the pick of the bowlers.

Pakistan got off to a shaky start. They lost wickets at regular intervals to be reduced to 110 for 4. “Street fighter” Miandad and Abdul Qadir added 71 for the fifth wicket to put their team back on track. Needing 90 runs in the last 10 overs, Pakistan brought it down to four off the last ball with the last pair at the crease.

Chetan Sharma’s “notorious” full toss was despatched over the boundary by Miandad to secure the inaugural Australasia Cup for Pakistan. The great batsman remained undefeated on 116, including three fours and three sixes. Chetan was unfortunately branded a “villain” despite his fine spell of 3-51.

April 22, 1994: Eight years after the historic win, Pakistan got the better of India again at the same venue in the final of the six-nation Australasia Cup. Salim Malik-led Pakistan made 250 for 5 in 50 overs, thanks to fifties from Aamir Sohail (69) and Basit Ali (57). Off-spinner Rajesh Chauhan was the only Indian bowler to keep the batsmen at bay, returning figures of 3-29.

India struggled right from the beginning. Ajay Jadeja, Sachin Tendulkar, captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Navjot Sidhu were back in the pavilion by the time India had reached 83. Vinod Kambli (56) and Atul Bedade (44) began a damage-control exercise, with the latter smashing four sixes. However, the target proved too much for them and the tail-enders as India were all out for 211. Sohail took 2-22 to go with his half-century, and was deservingly declared the man of the match (and the tournament).

The literally million-dollar question is: Can India settle an old score in the Twenty20 final? We will know the answer by 8.30 pm tomorrow.

Dharamsala, September 23
Former cricketer Navjot Sidhu had said that Yuvraj Singh would have been a better choice for captain of the Indian cricket team for one-day matches. He was in town to preside over a function.

While talking to The Tribune here today, he said Yuvraj was more experienced than Mahendra Singh Dhoni and would have dealt with the responsibility better.

Adding that Dhoni was like an FDR in the team, who could have been encashed at any time in the near future, he said that a more experienced player was the need of the hour to guide the team.

“I have no doubts about the credibility of Dhoni but it would have been much better if he had been asked to assist Yuvraj as vice- captain to learn the skills of captaincy and team management,” he added.

Commenting on the performance of the Indian team in the Twenty20 World Cup, he said that the youngsters had performed as per the expectations of the people and it was a perfect team selection for this type of game.

When asked about Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly not being in the Twenty20 team, Navjot said that it was a judicious decision. “Our experienced players needed rest. Their energies needs to be preserved for one-day and Test matches which is the real cricket,” he added.

When asked about who could be his choice for captain of the Test team, he said that Ganguly was the best captain the country had ever produced. No body could match him if he was taken back as captain of the Test team. 

Beijing, September 23
With less than a year to go for the 2008 Summer Olympics, preparations for the world’s biggest sporting event have entered its final and decisive lap of the journey which began nearly six years ago.

There is frenzied activity in the Chinese Capital, which is hosting the games, as the state machinery is working overtime to ensure that everything is picture perfect for the big day when the Games are thrown open on August 8, 2008.

For the Chinese, the Olympics are not just about sports. Having been relegated to the margins for years, the Chinese are using this occasion to announce their country's arrival on the world stage as an economic superpower and a major global player. The event has been widely billed as a coming-of-age party for China with Beijing as the star of the show.

Eager to showcase its modern face, Beijing has gone in for a complete image make-over. Futuristic buildings (the bigger the better) have sprung up all over the Chinese capital. The city's public transport system has been upgraded and expanded. A spanking new airport terminal is being readied while traditional neighbourhoods are being pulled down to make way for new space-age architectural marvels.

Today, however, people in Beijing take pride in pointing out these newly acquired landmarks. The National Olympic Stadium with a seating capacity of 90,000 has been lovingly nicknamed “the bird's nest” because of its lattice-work design while the indoor swimming centre, which looks like a massive block wrapped in bubble paper, is known worldwide as "the cube".

However, as Olympic officials in Beijing will tell you, there is more to the Games than just buildings. Having acquired the dubious distinction of being one of the world's most polluted cities, efforts are on in Beijing to "clear the air" and also ease the traffic congestion in the Capital.

Admitting that pollution is the biggest challenge before them, Sun Wiede, deputy communications director of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games, said the state has been promoting green energy like electricity and natural gas in the run-up to the games. It is estimated that $13 billion has been spent on improving the city's environment and planting 28 million trees.

"At least 200 polluting factories in Beijing have been relocated, forest cover will increase by 50 per cent while 50,000 taxis and 3,000 buses will be replaced with vehicles using clean fuel," Sun said, adding that these measures had shown results as the number of "good air quality days" has gone up from 100 to 241 this year.

While the Chinese have, so far, experimented with creating artificial rain to bring down pollution levels, this time round, weather experts have been asked to ensure that there is no drizzle on the opening day of the Olympics.

"The meteorological office has told us that there is 50 per cent chance of rain on the opening day of the games. We don't want anything to mar the celebrations," Sun said, adding that experts have, therefore, been asked to perfect the cloud-busting technique to ensure clear skies on that crucial day.

If the Chinese are busy putting a world-class infrastructure in place for the great sporting event, they are simultaneously working hard to improve on the image of its people, who have acquired the reputation of being "taciturn and reticent". The locals are being given a crash course in etiquette, have been told to smile more often and to avoid spitting and littering.

With most Chinese not being conversant with the English, communication is proving to be another major challenge for the organisers. Sun said a special committee has been constituted to encourage people to speak in English so that visitors here are not inconvenienced. Special courses and competitions are being held to encourage people to speak in English.

"Local newspapers are publishing a para in English everyday while a minute of spoken English is telecast on television to familiarise people with the language," explained Sun.

Taxi drivers and policemen have been specially been asked to brush up on their English skills.

Mohali, September 23
Punjab-based international shooter Avneet Sidhu is hopeful that Indian crackshots would perform well in the Beijing Olympics next year.

Talking to TNS at the Mohali Shooting Range today, the Olympic-qualified shooter said it was a great honour for Punjab that of the nine shooters who had booked Olympic berths, four were from the state.

“Now it is up to us to live up to the high expectations of the people. For that I have been working very hard. For every sportsperson, the Olympics means lot of hard work and pressure. I am trying to avoid that pressure,” said Avneet, who recently returned from a 25-day Olympics preparatory camp in Germany.

“My ultimate aim is to win the gold at Beijing,” said Avneet, who clinched the team gold and individual silver at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the team bronze at the Doha Asiad last year in 10m air rifle events.

About her preparation, Avneet said she spent at least four hours daily at the shooting range. There is also a camp at New Delhi next month, she added.

“I will participate in the Asian Shooting Championship to be held in Kuwait in December this year and two World Championships next year before the Olympics,” said the shooter.

She felt that the government should help to give top-class facilities to budding shooters. “Setting up a large number of fully electronic shooting ranges is the need of the hour,” said Avneet.

Mohali, September 23
Atinder Singh Garcha clinched gold medals in air pistol (men) and air pistol junior categories in the 43rd Punjab State Shooting Championship that concluded at the Mohali Shooting Range today.

The overall championship won by Jalandhar, while Muktsar finished runners-up.

Chief guest Parminder Singh Dhindsa, PWD (B&R) minister, gave away prizes to the winners. He also announced Rs 1 lakh for the range.

Other results (winners): Air pistol (women): Rubab Kaur Sekhon; Air pistol junior (women): Rubab Kaur Sekhon; Air pistol sub-junior (men): Karanpartap Singh; Air pistol sub-junior (women): Aditi; Sports rifle prone (women): Jotveer K Dandiwal; .177 peep sight air rifle (men): Jogeshwar; Air pistol junior women (ISSF): Lakhbir Kaur; Air pistol junior men (ISSF): Raghav; Air pistol junior women (ISSF): Heena Sidhu; .177 peep sight air rifle jr men (ISSF): Jogeshwar Singh Ghuman; Women: Jasreen Kaur Jr women: Jasreen Kaur; .177 peep sight air rifle (NR) (Jr men): Kunal Mathur; Jr women: Gursimran Sekhon; Sub-jr men: Ashish Pandey; Sub-jr women: Amandeep Sran; .22 open sight standard rifle prone men (Veterans): Rabinder Singh.

Kolkata, September 23
Russia’s Maria Kirilenko won her second career WTA title by beating unseeded Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva 6-0, 6-2 in the final of the Kolkata Open today.

The 20-year-old fourth seed raced through the first set against an erratic Koryttseva and then recovered after losing her serve in the first game of the next set in the indoor event.

Kirilenko, the world number 35, broke back in the fourth game to level at 2-2 and hit a series of powerful winners to end the contest against her unfancied rival in just over an hour.

Kirilenko, who upset second seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in the semifinal, was delighted, having won her only previous title two years ago in Beijing.

“This victory should be a turning point of my career as I’ve been winning good matches,” she said. — Reuters

New Delhi, September 23
After the BCCI’s multi-million dollar Twenty20 championship stole the thunder from the Indian Cricket League, “teething problems” have forced the rebel series to be postponed until mid-November.

ICL executive board chairman Kapil Dev said the tournament, originally scheduled for October, has been moved to November as cricketers would be free from international duty by that time.

“We all sat together and felt mid-November is the right date, because at that time international cricketers should also be free to play,” Kapil told CNN-IBN in an interview.

“I can give you November 17 is the target date but still let us wait till it is officially announced,” he added.

The former skipper admitted that there were “teething problems” but denied that money had anything to do with the postponement.

“I think if there was no money they would not have started. I think business people know that and I hope they have deep pockets. I hope they are ready to spend and they are spending the way we are expecting,” he said.

Kapil also took a swipe at the BCCI’s decision to launch the Indian Premier League (IPL) and said it was nothing short of giving official status to the ICL.

“The board was criticising us six months ago and then within two months they started their own league. I can say they authenticate us and I am proud of it as this is what we were looking for. I wish them success,” he quipped.

Kapil said the ICL was unfazed by the IPL’s launch and was not worried about its players being lured by the BCCI-backed league. — PTI

Belfry (UK), September 23
Three bogeys in the last five holes cost Jyoti Randhawa dear as he slipped to tied 30th after carding one-over 73 in the third round of the Quinn Direct British Masters golf tournament.

Randhawa, tied 18th overnight, birdied the third and the ninth and looked set to position himself well for the final round. But indifferent putting and bogeys on 14th, 16th and 18th saw him end up with a 73 that pushed him down.

The Indian is now one-under 215, seven shots behind the leader.

Defending champion Martin Foster survived a double bogey finish on the 18th hole to shoot 69 and retain the lead by two strokes from six players lurking close to his ten under par 206 total.

Gregory Bourdy of France shot a best of the day seven under par 65 to move up into second spot. — PTI

Faridkot, September 23
The Punjab Government and the BCCI have decided to set up cricket coaching academies in a joint venture in 150 schools of the state.

Disclosing this here today, Sukhbir Badal, acting president, SAD (B) said that while the infrastructure would be provided by the BCCI, the state government would provide the remaining facilities in the academies. He added that 150 schools, where cricket coaching academies would be set up, had been identified.

Badal, who distributed the prizes to the winners and runners-up of All-India Baba Farid Gold Cup Hockey Tournament here, said that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would lay the foundation stone of an international-level cricket stadium at Bathinda on October 14.

He added that stadium, which would be constructed by the BCCI at a cost of Rs 32 crore, would host its first international match within two years. Cricket stadiums would be set up in ten other districts of Punjab as per the party’s election manifesto.