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Yuvraj engineers victory
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Giving Irfan new ball a ploy to contain Afridi: Dhoni
Dropping Yuvraj cost us match: Malik
Gambhir, Afridi in a war of words
Shahid Afridi (R) argues with Gautam Gambhir during the third one-day international match in Kanpur on Sunday. — Reuters
Steyn’s 10-wkt haul sinks Kiwis
South Africa's Dale Steyn appeals successfully for the wicket of New Zealand's Scott Styris during the fourth day of their first Test cricket match at Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday. Dale Steyn picked up Test-best figures of 10 for 93. — Reuters
ZAHEER ABBAS WRITES
Vandort leads Lanka fightback
Nadal, Ferrer win Masters openers
David Ferrer hits a return against Novak Djokovic in the second match of the Masters Cup in Shanghai on Sunday. — AFP
Gurmit Hockey
Tennis player banned for betting
Ghei, Jyoti disappoint
Birsa Munda post win
Nine-wicket win
for DMW
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Yuvraj engineers victory
Kanpur, November 11 Chasing a stiff target of 295 for victory, the 23-year-old Butt very nearly took his team home with a career-best 129 but the visitors lost steam in the end to be bundled out for 248 in 47.2 overs at the Green Park stadium. The Pakistani run chase largely centered around the left-handed Butt who notched up his fourth ODI hundred, all of which has come against India, but a spate of wickets in quick succession in the last few overs turned the scale in the home team's favour. Both the spinners Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik not only choked the run flow to some extent but chipped in with useful wickets. Earlier, put into bat, the Indians rattled up a competitive 294 with the in-form Yuvraj Singh (77) and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (49) being the top scorers and their 100-run fourth wicket stand being the highlight of the innings. Paceman R P Singh was the pick of the Indian bowlers scalping three wickets for 62 runs. Chasing the stiff target, Pakistan sent in the explosive Shahid Afridi (12) to open with Butt, perhaps hoping the buccaneering right-hander to repeat the magic of 2005, when he had slammed a demonic 45-ball century at the same venue. However, history did not repeat itself as Irfan Pathan, with the new ball after a long time, cleaned up Afridi's off-stump in the fourth over. The hosts got rid of another India nemesis when Younis Khan (21) shoulder-armed an RP Singh delivery only to lose his off-stump. Butt propelled Pakistan to 100 in 99 balls but Yuvraj cut short Mohammad Yousuf's (16) stay with a direct hit as Pakistan lost their third wicket at 104. Yuvraj shone with the ball as well as he struck with his third ball in the 28th over to trap Shoaib Malik (12). Kartik dismissed Misbah-ul-Haq (34) in the 42nd over to trigger a batting collapse as Kamran Akmal (2) fell to RP, while Sohail Tanvir (0) returned after an almighty mix-up with Butt. From 214 for four, Pakistan slumped to 231 for seven in 44 overs. Harbhajan finally dealt the deadliest blow when he trapped Butt with his penultimate delivery and that dashed whatever hopes Pakistan had of winning the match. Put into bat, Sourav Ganguly (39) and Sachin Tendulkar (29), particularly the left-hander, survived some torrid moments before giving India a good start via a 68-run opening stand. With the duo on song, India cruised to 68 in the 11th over before Sohail Tanvir's double strike pegged India back as the hosts lost both the openers in a space of 14 runs. Tendulkar edged Tanvir as Akmal redeemed some of his lost reputation by pouching a smart catch and in the 15th over, Ganguly lost his off-stump. This was a record 44th half century opening partnership between the duo, who eclipsed Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrists' record of 43 fifty-plus stands. Yuvraj announced his arrival with a crisp flick off Tanvir but run rate took a nosedive and then Gautam Gambhir (25) fell to Abdur Rehman. Yuvraj broke loose with two sixes in Rehman's fourth over clearing the mid-wicket and long on ropes and it proved contagious as Mahendra Singh Dhoni responded in equal measures, sending his counterpart Malik soaring over the sightscreen and then landing one on the roof, clearing the long on rope. Yuvraj swept Afridi for his seventh fifty against Pakistan and celebrated it with a six over long off but Dhoni fell tantalisingly short of the mark as he dragged a Shoaib Akhtar delivery onto the stumps. The captain-vice captain added 100 runs in 15 overs and they paced their partnership well. India's first 50 came in 43 balls, while the second and third the consolidation period took 80 and 86 balls. Once the boat has been steadied, the Yuvraj-Dhoni pair needed just 33 balls for the fourth 50 of the innings. Scoreboard India: Ganguly b Tanvir 39 Tendulkar c Akmal b Tanvir 29 Gambhir b Rehman 25 Yuvraj c Misbah b Rehman 77 Dhoni b Akhtar 49 Uthappa b Gul 19 Pathan not out 17 Harbhajan not out 10 Extras:
(6b, 3lb, 3nb, 17w) 29 Total: (for 6 wkts in 50 overs): 294 Fall of wickets:
1-68, 2-82, 3-129, 4-229, 5-260, 6-265. Bowling: Shoaib Akhtar 10-1-40-1, Umar Gul 10-0-70-1, Sohail Tanvir 10-1-26-2, Shahid Afridi 7-0-57-0, Shoaib Malik 6-1-34-0, Abdur Rehman 7-0-58-2. Pakistan: Butt lbw b Harbhajan 129 Afridi b Pathan 12 Younis Khan b R P Singh 21 M Yousuf run out 16 Malik lbw b Yuvraj Singh 12 Misbah b Kartik 38 Akmal c Harbhajan b R P Singh 2 Tanvir run out 0 Rehman b R P Singh 2 Akhtar c sub (R Sharma) b Khan 1 Gul not out 2 Extras (LB-1, WD-12) 13 Total
(all out in 47.2 overs): 248 FoW: 1-27, 2-72, 3-104, 4-134, 5-214, 6-226, 7-231, 8-244, 9-246 Bowling: R P Singh 8-1-62-3, I Pathan 10-0-61-1, Zaheer Khan 7.2-2-25-1, Harbhajan Singh 10-0-32-1, M Kartik 6-0-38-1, Yuvraj 5-0 18-1, S Tendulkar 1-0-11-0.
— PTI HIGHLIGHTS
*
India registered their seventh win in 10 matches at Green Park - their first in two matches against Pakistan. *
Sachin has now aggregated 1298 runs in 30 innings, including one century and 12 fifties at an average of 46.35 in 2007. Only Austalia's Matthew Hayden has aggregated more runs than him this year - 1555 in 28 innings at 62.20, including five centuries and six fifties. * * * *
Butt is now the second batsman from Pakistan to post a hundred at Kanpur. Shahid Afridi had made 102 off 46 balls against India at this venue on 15.4.2005. *
Yuvraj has now recorded 75 or more five times against Pakistan - his highest being 107 not out off 93 balls at Karachi on 19.2.2006. *
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (1034 at an average of 43.08 in 31 innings, including one century and seven fifties), became the fourth Indian batsman to have aggregated 1000 runs in the calendar year 2007, joining Sachin Tendulkar (1298), Sourav Ganguly (1235) and Yuvraj Singh (1184). *
Yuvraj got his 15th Man of the Match award - his second against Pakistan.
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Giving Irfan new ball a ploy to contain Afridi: Dhoni
Kanpur, November 11 Dhoni was all smiles as he came for the post-match press conference after his side beat Pakistan by 46 runs to regain lead in the five-match series. And he was only elated as he shared how he had planned not to allow Afridi fire on all cylinders. "We knew they would check the record book and field Afridi as an opener. So we decided to give the new ball to Irfan. He's among the more accurate bowlers and he proved it today," Dhoni said. Two years back, Afridi these days a 'floater' in the Pakistani batting line-up had created a mayhem at the same venue, belting a 45-ball century. Expecting an encore from the flamboyant swashbuckler, Pakistan sent him to open the innings with Salman Butt but the explosive right-hander was castled by Pathan for 12, before he could be dangerous. Dhoni insisted that though Salman Butt was going great guns, at no stage did he fear about losing the match. "In fact, I never really thought they came close to winning. The pitch was on the slower side, ball was not coming to the bat, wicket was assisting the spinners and Bhajji was bowling so well. It was very difficult to score off him. Zak (Zaheer) also bowled well and there really was no stage when I would fear that the match was slipping from us," he said. Dhoni was also effusive in his praise for his deputy Yuvraj Singh, who top-scored with 77, effected a run out and took one wicket as well to win the Man of the Match award. "As I have told before the series, he is our trump card. The kind of shots he plays and the class he shows, it's a pleasure to have a player of his calibre. "It helps when we are batting together. If I get stuck and boundaries are not easy to come by, I know he is there to score those boundaries and take the pressure off me," Dhoni said. Dhoni said it was probably a good toss to lose. "To be honest, it was a bit confusing. All know that the ball would seam here for the first 30-40 minutes, which it did even today. In fact, had I won the toss, we would have fielded first as well." He said Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar provided yet another good start but it was important to carry the good work through the middle overs as well. "Whenever we got a good start, we capitalised on it and it was no different today. Our openers did a good job today. "At the same time, you need to build good partnerships from the 20th to 40th overs before going for that late charge. It's same for any team and same for both batting and bowling. You have to do well in the middle overs." Dhoni said the bowlers did a decent job but they can bowl even better. "I think we bowled better than them but there is still room for improvement in this department. "Fielding, however, I don't think was up to the mark. Overall, you can call it an average day in the office in this department and we should have done better." Dhoni also hinted that Gautam Gambhir's consistency might prolong Virender Sehwag's stay in the sidelines.
— PTI
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Dropping Yuvraj cost us match: Malik
Kanpur, November 11 Yuvraj was batting on 26 when he went for a slog-sweep off Malik as the ball went spiralling up and Salman Butt could not hold on to the catch. Pakistan were made to pay for the folly as Yuvraj went on to slam 77 and add 100 runs for the fourth wicket off 92 balls with Dhoni. "It was a costly drop. It allowed him to join hands with Dhoni and take upper hand. We were pretty much in control till the 27th-28th over but after that, things just went out of hand. The partnership between Yuvi and Dhoni was the turning point of the match," Malik told a press conference. He, however, also had a word of praise for Butt, who fought tooth and nail even though his career best 129 was not enough in the end. "I think if any other batsman could have scored 70-80, we would have won the match. He played well but we did not have partnerships in the middle," the Pakistani skipper said. Malik admitted the team think-tank decided to send Shahid Afridi to open the innings because of his past record at the venue where the all-rounder had hit a 45-ball century in 2005. Akmal injured
Lucknow/Karachi: The Pakistan team has asked for an additional wicket-keeper for the ongoing India tour after out-of-sorts Kamral Akmal aggravated his finger injury during the third one-dayer between the two teams in Kanpur today. "The national selection committee will now decide who to send by tomorrow or Tuesday," a PCB spokesman said.
— PTI
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Gambhir, Afridi in a war of words
Kanpur, November 11 Gambhir, who came at the fall of Sachin Tendulkar, straight drove Afridi for a boundary after which the duo were seen engaged in a war of words. As could be made out from reading their lips, expletives were exchanges between the batsman and the bowler. Gambhir took a single to change ends but there was no let up in the verbal duel. In fact, it got worse as a furious Gambhir headed straight to Afridi to give him a piece of his mind, resulting in a eyeball-to-eyeball encounter, which was eventually snapped by umpire Ian Gould's intervention. Gould took Gambhir aside and told him to control his emotions, while Afridi too was told to mind his business by the umpire at the end of the over.
— PTI
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Steyn’s 10-wkt haul sinks Kiwis
Johannesburg, November 11 Steyn, who took five for 34 in the first innings, claimed five for 59 to finish with match figures of 10 for 93 as South Africa wrapped up victory by 358 runs with more than a day to spare. New Zealand, who needed 531 to win, were dismissed for 172 after lunch on the fourth day. The result marked New Zealand's heaviest defeat, surpassing the 299 runs Pakistan had beaten them by in Auckland in 2001. The visitors resumed on 57 for three and they lost their fourth wicket to the ninth ball of the day when Steyn had Scott Styris caught behind by wicketkeeper Mark Boucher for 16. Steyn struck again eight overs later when Brendon McCullum, who scored 26, flapped at a delivery outside his off-stump and was caught by Herschelle Gibbs. New Zealand slipped to 109 for six when Michael Papps edged a delivery from fast bowler Jacques Kallis and was caught by AB de Villiers at third slip for five. — Reuters Scoreboard South Africa (1st innings) 226 New Zealand (1st innings) 118 South Africa (2nd innings) Gibbs c Papps b Bond 8 Smith b Martin 9 Amla not out 176 Kallis c McCullum b Oram 186 Prince not out 25 Extras (b-9, lb-7, w-1, nb-1) 18 Total (3 wkts dec, 126 overs) 422 Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-20, 3-350 Bowling: Bond 16-1-60-1, Martin 24-6-55-1, Oram 16.4-2-49-1, O’Brien 23-5-91-0, Vettori 37-3-116-0, Styris 6-2-25-0, Taylor 3.2-0-10-0 New Zealand (2nd innings) Cumming c Smith b Steyn 7 Fleming c Smith b Nel 17 Styris c Boucher b Steyn 16 Taylor c Kallis b Nel 4 McCullum c Gibbs b Steyn 26 Oram c Nel b Harris 40 Papps c de Villiers b Kallis 5 Vettori not out 46 O’Brien c Amla b Steyn 0 Martin b Steyn 0 Extras (b-7, w-2, lb-1, nb-1) 11 Total
(9 wickets, 51 overs) 172 Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-34, 3-39, 4-60, 5-90, 6-109, 7-154, 8-170, 9-172 Bowling: Steyn 17-1-59-5, Ntini 13-0-42-0, Nel 12-1-37-2, Kallis 3-0-15-1, Harris 6-2-11-1 Man of the match:
Dale Steyn (SA).
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ZAHEER ABBAS WRITES
All credit to the way the Indian spinners made use of the conditions at the Green Park Stadium today. Their batsmen had set the game up well having got to almost 300, but the bowlers needed to be both smart and spot on, which is exactly what they managed to do.
Harbhajan, in particular, was outstanding and he is such an experienced bowler that the moment he realised the pitch would get slower as the Pakistan innings went on, he adapted his approach. The wily off-spinner may have got only one wicket, but the way he managed to slow the Pakistan innings in the middle overs proved crucial in the 46-run win. The Indians also managed to put in the shade an outstanding performance by Salman Butt. He has always performed outstandingly against India, but this must rank as one of his best. It is unfortunate that he received little or no support from the rest of the batsmen. He loves the quicker bowlers and took heavy toll at both ends of the innings and I can only speculate about the result if only one more batsman other than Misbah-ul Haq had been around to lend Salman some support. Shahid Afridi batting up the order is always something of a gamble because no one knows how many overs or even balls he will play. There have been times his explosive batting has won games for Pakistan in next to no time, but today, the team would have been better served had he been held back for the later overs, as happened at Mohali. His early fall mean that the rest of the batting immediately came under pressure. I thought Mahendra Singh Dhoni did very well with his bowling changes. The wicket was always going to slow up, and the decision to bring Yuvraj Singh on was an inspired one. Yuvraj had batted well and his confidence was high but it still needs imagination to take a gamble like that. It paid off immediately with the wicket of the Pakistan captain as Shoaib Malik was just starting to look dangerous. The Indian win also put in the shade some very fine fast bowling from Sohail Tanvir. Not only is he a wrong-footed bowler, he is also left-handed, which is a very awkward combination for right-handed batsmen, in particular. It was thanks to his efforts that a good start by India was broken and he added the quality wickets of Tendulkar and Ganguly to his bag, which is very creditable. The wicket at Guwahati was disappointing, very dusty and two-paced. The Mohali pitch was a cracker and we saw a top-class cricket match. The track at Kanpur held up well for the Indian innings and well into the first half of Pakistan’s chase before it started to slow up all of a sudden. As I said earlier, it still needed bowlers to exploit the conditions and that the Indians did very well. The series has shown that these are two very evenly matched teams and the next two games should be exciting affairs. Pakistan face a must-win game at Gwalior and I am sure they will come out fighting.
— (News Watch Asia)
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Vandort leads Lanka fightback
New Delhi, November 11 On a day punctuated by spells of rain, the Lankans, who were forced to follow on after being bundled out for 211 in reply to Australia's first innings total of 551 for 4 declared, scored 218 of five. Vandort's 170-ball knock, which was his first fifty against Australia and third overall, included 10 hits to the fence before he became Stuart MacGill's 200th Test victim. Jayawardane also played a patient innings hitting five fours before departing just one run short of his fifty.
— PTI
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Nadal, Ferrer win Masters openers
Shanghai, November 11 The French Open champion recovered from a sluggish start, winning his round-robin opener in a shade over two hours at the prestigious season-ending tournament in Shanghai. David Ferrer made it a perfect day for Spain with an impressive 6-4, 6-4 victory over Serbia's Novak Djokovic in the second Gold Group match. Gasquet, who had lost all three of his previous matches against Nadal, took the first set after securing a break at 4-3 with a forehand rocket down the line. Nadal came to life in the second, the world number two breaking Gasquet to love for a 4-2 lead and levelling the match with a fierce serve to his opponent's body. Gasquet battled gamely to stem the tide but a pumped-up Nadal broke through at the same point in the decider and clinched victory with a textbook backhand volley. “I finished much better than I started,” Nadal told mediapersons. “I finished the match playing more aggressive, going to the net more, serve-and-volley sometimes.” The world's best clay court player pushed Federer to the limit in this year's Wimbledon final but believes he is still some way from catching the Swiss at the top of the rankings. Ferrer produced the first surprise of the eight-man tournament, avenging his defeat by Djokovic in the US Open semifinals in September with a clinical display. World number three Djokovic was strangely out of sorts, committing 41 unforced errors, a brief flurry of winners in the final game proving too little, too late. “I think maybe he was a bit nervous,” said Ferrer. “I'm playing with confidence. Mentally, I am very confident and I'm in great shape physically at the end of the season.” Paes-Damm win The Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Martin Damm stunned defending champions Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in straight sets in their opening doubles match of the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup here today. The fourth-seeded Paes-Damm pair, playing in Gold Group, beat the sixth-seeded Swede-Belarusian duo 6-4, 6-1 to start their campaign in the eight-team event on a positive note. Paes and Damm, who had lost to Bjorkman and Mirnyi in the semis here last year, overcame an indifferent form as they were coming on consecutive first round defeats in the Masters series tournaments in Paris and Madrid.
— Agencies
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Gurmit Hockey
Chandigarh, November 11 Namdhari XI is the other finalist as they drubbed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) 11-10 through sudden death to set up the title clash with IA tomorrow. Showing his class, Sandeep Singh, one of the top drag flickers of the country, converted three penalty corners on the trot that the team earned in the second half thus enabling his team to register victory. Earlier, IA forced three penalty corners in the first three minutes but all were squandered. The first goal came for IOC in the 11th minute. Hamza Mujiaba collected a pass from the left flank and directed the ball into the goal mouth to take a 1-0 lead. Immediately after netting the goal, IOC strikers Didar Singh and Yudhvir Narwal started foraying into the defence area of the rivals. On a pass off Didar Singh, Hamza sent the ball home but the referee Davinder called it a foul. In the 17th minute, the equaliser for IA came through Sandeep Michael. He collected a pass off ace striker Dhanraj Pillay in the ‘D’ area and sounded the board. At half time, the score was 1-1. In the 45th minute, Yudhvir made a good move from the right flank and gave a beautiful pass to Didar Singh in front of the rival goal who made no mistake to extend the lead 2-1. Showing good coordination, IOC strikers ripped apart the weak defence line of IA many a time but could not capitalise on the chances came their way. Not even a single penalty corner (17th, 26th, 41st and 69th minute) could not be converted by the flickers of IOC. On the other hand, the IA team, who rode on three successful conversions in 46th, 49th and 60th minutes by Sandeep, won the match. In the match, Davesh Chauhan (IOC), Kulbhushan Singh and Usaf-ur-Rehman (IA) were shown yellow cards while Khusmeet Singh of IOC and Kulbhushan Singh got green cards for their rough play. In the second semifinal, Namdhari XI beat BPCL 11-10. The scores were level at 3-3 at the end of the stipulated time. Amar Ayamma (3rd min), Pundlik (31st min) and Satbir Singh (38th min) scored goals for BPCL while Gurcharan Singh, Karambir Singh (51st min) and Sher Singh (69 min) struck for Namdharis. Both the teams were held to a 7-7 draw in the tie-breaker. Namdharis clinched the 11-10 win via sudden death. Tomorrow, the final will start at 3 pm at the same venue.
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Tennis player banned for betting
Shanghai (China), November 11 The 124th-ranked Italian was also fined $60,000 (euro 41,000) after being found guilty of making 120 bets with an online bookmaker from November 2, 2006, to June 12. Di Mauro, who faced a maximum penalty of three years, is banned from November 12 to August 12, 2008.
—AP
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Shanghai, November 11 Ghei and Randhawa were simply unable to come to terms with the highly demanding course that saw only a handful of sub-par scores. The Indians, who will be back in China in two weeks for the World Cup in Shenzhen, found the going tough. Even as Ghei shot a modest final round 73, Randhawa struggled for a 79.
— IANS
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Birsa Munda post win
New Delhi, November 11 While the Sundergarh team edged past Indira Priyadarshini Higher Secondary School from Bhopal 4-3, the Rourkela side trounced Government Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, 7-1 at the Shivaji Stadium here. Jeeshan Mailk drew first blood for the Bhopal outfit in the 24th minute, but Mangal Kispotta converted a penalty corner to draw parity four minutes later. Ernees Surin (32nd) then put Town High School ahead. In the second match, Biklash Kujur (52nd, 66th and 69th) struck thrice in Birsa Munda's thrashing of the Ludhiana team while Bhupinder Singh (50th) was the lone scorer for the losers.
— PTI
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Nine-wicket win
for DMW Patiala, November 11 DMW boys chased the total in just 19 over after losing the wicket of Harish (23). Gaurav Malhotra (61 not out in 52 balls) and Sunveer Singh (36 not out in 29 balls) were the main the main scorers for DMW. Brief score: NICS, Patiala: 128 for 8 in 40 over (Shail 29, Vikram 18, Ekjot 15 Aman 13 not out) (Karan 2/17, Gopal 2/21 Tanish Gill 1/16, Subham 1/23). DMW, Patiala: 130 for 1 in 19 over (Anmol Malhotra 61 not out, Harish 23, Sunveer Singh 36, Akash 1/20).
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Kanpur, November 11
Johannesburg, November 11
All credit to the way the Indian spinners made use of the conditions at the Green Park Stadium today. Their batsmen had set the game up well having got to almost 300, but the bowlers needed to be both smart and spot on, which is exactly what they managed to do.
Harbhajan, in particular, was outstanding and he is such an experienced bowler that the moment he realised the pitch would get slower as the Pakistan innings went on, he adapted his approach.
Shanghai, November 11
Kanpur: The followings are the statistical highlights of the third cricket one-dayer between India and Pakistan here today: