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Chandigarh to host PHL from Dec 20
Vengsarkar’s explanation sought |
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Sachin made all the difference
Ranji Round-up
Goel, Dharmani lead Punjab reply
Shiv Kapur tied 12th
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Chandigarh to host PHL from Dec 20
New Delhi, November 16 Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president KPS Gill said here today that seven teams would play in a league-cum-knockout format. He said the seven teams, who were in the fray last year too, will first play in a round-robin league to decide the semifinalists. The semifinals will be a knockout affair followed by a best-of-three finals. In all, the PHL will feature 26 matches this time. Gill said the format had been shortened as the foreign players would be available only in December due to their preoccupation with the European Championship and the European League. India and some other teams will also be busy with the Olympic qualifying tournaments in early 2008. India will play their Olympic qualifiers in Chile. The seven PHL teams are Orissa Steelers, Sher-e-Jalandhar, Chandigarh Dynamos, Chennai Veerans, Maratha Warriors, Bangalore Hi-Fliers and Hyderabad Sultans. Gill said the team captains and the players were finalised by the respective state hockey associations in consultation with the IHF. He said for the first time, 21 talented players from India’s under-19 and under-21 teams had been distributed among the teams. Gill said there would also be 21 foreigners, but they would be named in December. He said the Chandigarh stadium was chosen “as it is a fantastic venue and the crowd response was excellent”. He stated that other venues were also considered, but since the matches would be telecast live by ESPN-Star Sports, one of the stake holders, the PHL could be held only at a stadium with floodlights and Astro-turf. He said from next year, the IHF would have the option of rotating the PHL as hockey stadiums were being floodlit at Jalandhar, Rourkela and Guhawati. When asked whether Rick Charlesworth would have any role to play in the PHL, since the former Australian Olympian will be engaged with the Indian team for their Olympic qualification process, Gill said, “We are in the process of making Chandigarh as the headquarters of Charlesworth’s operations.” Gill said after feedback from technical consultant Maurits Hendriks, “we have decided to carry on with the shootout, instead of the penalty strokes, during the tie-breaker. All other rules remain the same.” ESPN chief operating officer Vijay Rajput said the total prize money will remain the same as last year - Rs 75 lakh - with the winners pocketing Rs 40 lakh and the runners-up Rs 20 lakh. The losing semifinalists will earn Rs 5 lakh each. Orissa Steelers: Dilip Tirkey (capt), William Xalxo, Jitendra Saroha, Prabodh Tirkey, Roshan Minz, Bruno Hadrian Lugun, Sunil Yadav, Damandeep Singh, Sunil Ekka, Birendra Lakra, Gurupreet Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Amardeep Ekka, Eliazar Lakra and Ajitesh Rai. Officials: Ramesh Pathania (chief coach), Pranab Kishore Pattnaik (asst coach), Sailendra Prasad Berma (physical trainer) and Pratap Satpathy (manager). Sher-e-Jalandhar: Kanwalpreet Singh (capt), Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Kulwinder Singh, Jarnail Singh, Davinder Singh Bath, Harpal Singh, Prabhdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Yudhvir Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Pradeep Kumar, Ranjodh Singh, Gagan Ajit Singh, Gurwinder Singh, Jugraj Singh and Sarvanjit Singh. Officials: Balwinder Singh, Sanjiv Kumar, Mohan Singh and SS Sodhi. Chandigarh Dynamos: Rajpal Singh (capt), Baljit Singh, Surinder Singh, Sandeep Singh, S.S.Gill, Gaurav Tokhi, Jaswinder Singh, Sanjeev Kumar, Irshaad Ali, Deepak Thakur, Inderjit Chadha, Prabhjot Singh, Ravi Pal, Sher Singh and Dharamveer Singh. Officials: N.S. Sodhi, Devinder Kumar, Mohan Singh and Amarjit Singh. Chennai Veerans: Adam Sinclair (capt), Sanawar Ali, Sreejesh P.R., Isaac, Muthuselvan, Sivabalan, Kumar, Senthil Kumar, Innocent Kullu, Mahendra Singh, Raja V, Ashwin, Raghunath, Sommanna, Danish Mujtaba and Vikramjit Singh. Officials: C.R. Kumar, Ramaswamy, Srikanth and Sampath. Maratha Warriors: Viren Rasquinha (capt), Adrian D’Souza, Suraj Kanta, Kuldeep Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Vikram Pillay, Amjer Singh, Girish Pimple, Tyrone Pereira, Dhananjay Mahadik, Bharat Kumar Chikara, Shivender Singh, Alden D’Souza, Hardeep Singh and Mirza. Officials: Clarence Lobo, P.L.Murugappan, H.S.Cheema and Mukul Pandey. Bangalore Hi-Fliers: Tushar Khandekar (capt), Bharat Kumar Chhetri, Len Aiyappa, P.T. Rao, Ajay Kumar Saroha, V.S. Vinaya, Bimal Lakra, Arjun Halappa, Vikram Kanth, Cheeyanna, Hari Prasad, Sandeep Michael, S.V.Sunil, K.A.Nilesh and Kamarjit Singh. Officials: Ashish Ballal, A.E.Brient, C.S.Poonacha and Kannan Krishnamurthy. Hyderabad Sultans: Sardara Singh (capt.), Dinesh Ekka, Samir Baxla, Jasbir Singh, Diwakar Ram, Johnson Ekka, Anand Tirkey, Nitin Kumar, Didar Singh, Pramod Kumar, Bikas Toppo, Pawal Lakra, Veersingh, Kulbhushan and K.M. Chengappa. Officials: Madhukaran, Alphonse Lazarus, C.R. Bheem Singh and P Kanthaiah. Names of foreign players will be added later
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Hobart, November 16 Jaques followed up his century in Australia’s first Test innings victory over the Sri Lankans in Brisbane last week with 150. Hussey scored a last-over hundred after his 133 in Brisbane as the Australians powered to 329 for three at close of play. Scoreboard Australia (1st innings) Jaques c Fernando b Jayasuriya 150 Hayden c P Jayawardene b Fernando 17 Ponting c M Jayawardene b Murali 31 Hussey not out 101 Clarke not out 8 Extras (b-5, nb-17) 22 Total (3 wkts, 90 overs) 329 Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-133, 3-285. Bowling: Malinga 22-4-97-0, Maharoof 23-4-82-0, Fernando 13-2-65-1, Muralitharan 25-3-62-1, Jayasuriya 7-1-18-1.
— AFP
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Vengsarkar’s explanation sought
Mumbai, November 16
Vengsarkar is continuing to write a column “Cover Drive” in some newspapers, notably the Marathi daily Sakal owned by Sharad Pawar’s brother.
Earlier, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah had said, “He has been told not to write his column. If it’s brought to our notice (that he’s still writing his column), we will look into it”.
The BCCI, at its office-bearers meeting on Tuesday, had taken the decision not to allow the chief selector to speak to or write in the media.
— PTI
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Sachin made all the difference
He has been in supreme touch in the series, and it was unfortunate that he missed out on a second hundred in three games. But that’s the way the game goes sometimes. Pakistan simply had no answers to the assault Sachin launched. He was so beautifully balanced when he executed his strokes - and he hit shots to every part of the ground. It was a visual treat. Quite magnificent and a very elegant effort indeed. I think the hundreds he has missed should not worry him too much. He has been around for too long to know that the three figures are only a matter of time. Having said that, I must also point out that Pakistan made things hard for themselves. When you bowl to a batsman of Sachin’s calibre, you simply have no margin for error, but the Pakistani bowlers just could not seem to get things right. There is no way a captain can set fields to bad bowling and not one of the bowlers was really in control, except to some extent Umar Gul. There were too many balls that were short and wide, and with the ball coming on to the bat early on, it helped Sachin get settled very quickly. It was not just the fast bowlers, even the spinners were simply awful, and they bowled all over the place. The way Sachin and the other Indian batsmen treated the leg spin of Shahid Afridi will illustrate what I mean. Afridi kept bowling long hops and I lost count of the number of times he was hit into the off-side boundary, other than the six Virender Sehwag took off him over mid-wicket. Another glaring aspect of Pakistan’s approach that was quite noticeable was the lack of planning. 255 was not a bad score - though ideally another 20-odd runs would have helped - but the way the bowlers went about their job it seemed that no thinking had gone into their lines and field positioning. If a batsman is strong in a particular area, the idea should be to restrain him there. I saw no signs of any thought having been put into how to defend that score. But then, if you have Tendulkar in such a murderous mood, few teams are capable of stopping him. This Pakistan team has fallen short of the Indians on every count in this series. Their batting has not delivered as much or as well as expected and only Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan have achieved some sort of consistency. The bowling and fielding are simply no match for the Indians. India don’t have a great bowling line-up but they have performed far better than their rivals. While both teams continue to be poor in the field, Pakistan have been specially lagging behind. Overall, it has come as no surprise to me that Pakistan have lost a series in India for the first time in 24 years, after 1983.
Like I said, they have been out-matched by the Indians in every department
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Arjun’s Advice
Asked about these surprise failures, Tendulkar laughingly disclosed a solution offered by his son Arjun. “He told me — why don’t you hit a six when on 94?” “What is most satisfying for me is that we won both the match and the series,” Sachin said.
— PTI
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Ranji Round-up
Bangalore, November 16 Brief scores: Karnataka (1st innings): 452 for 9 dec (Thilak Naidu 105, Vikramjeet 3-103, Vishal Bhatia 6-129) Himachal Pradesh (1st innings): 117 for 4 (Munish Gupta 42, Sandeep Sharma 21). Jharkhand struggle
Jamshedpur: Hosts Jharkhand were on the backfoot after scoring 179 for six and trailed by 94 runs in the first innings against Haryana on the second day of the Ranji Trophy match here today. Brief scores: Haryana (1st innings) 273 all out (Vishal Shni 58, Vishwanathan 60, S. Rao 3- 66, Nadeem 2-46) Jharkhand (1st innings): 179 for 6 (A. Hashmi 50, Sunny Gupta 50 batting, Nadeem 39 batting, J. Sharma 2-36, G Vashisht 2-24). J&K strike early blows
Jammu: J&K pacers struck early as MP were restricted to 159 for five against the hosts’ 281 when bad light stopped the second day’s play. Brief scores: J&K (1st innings): 281 (ID Singh 104, M. Dhar 80, Shantanu Pitre 6-60). MP (1st innings): 159 for 5 (D. Bundela 49 n.o., Rahul Bakshi 38, Sameer Ali 2-44, S. Beigh 2- 61).
— UNI
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Goel, Dharmani lead Punjab reply
Mohali, November 16 In pursuit of Hyderabad’s 379, the hosts were 216 for three at close on the second day of the four-day match. In-form batsman Dharmani carried the day for the hosts along with Goel. At close, Dharmani was unbeaten on a fluent 52, while Goel was the last batsman out in the day after scoring 75. Limitations in the hosts’ bowling attack were exposed in the morning as the visitors started from their overnight score of 310 for 7. The tailenders prospered, helping Hyderabad put a decent total on the board. The inexperienced Punjab attack was made to work hard for 16.3 overs as S M Shoaib and the batsmen following him consolidated the team’s position, much to the discomfiture of the hosts. What was comforting for the VVS Laxman-led squad was that the batsmen scored their runs at a fast clip. Shinde struck six hits to the fence before getting out at 36, while Shoaib unleashed seven boundary hits. A Khader and Ashwin Yadav, the last two batsmen, took a while to be dislodged as Hyderabad added 69 runs to their overnight total before the innings folded at 379. Seamer Manpreet Goni added two more wickets to his kitty to finish with figures of three for 86, while left-arm spinner Ankur Kakkar emerged as the most successful Punjab bowler with four wickets. Ravneet Ricky and Karan Goel led Punjab’s reply with sensible batting. Goel was more enterprising and played some scintillating strokes. The youngster clobbering left-arm spinner and lynchpin of Hyderabad bowling attack Pragyan Ojha for two sixes over the long-on fence. His 75-run knock included 10 fours and two sixes. In-form Dharmani, who was yesterday felicitated for emerging as the highest scorer in the championship for Punjab in the season opener at Amritsar against Andhra Pradesh, made batting look easy with the ease with which he accumulated his runs. Playing authoritative strokes, he crossed another milestone today. When on 42, he achieved the distinction of completing 8,000 runs in first-class cricket. He soon completed his half-century with a slog which raced to the mid-wicket fence. Pankaj consumed just 68 balls to reach 50 and hit 10 fours. At close, he was not out on 52. Keeping his company was left-handed Uday Kaul on 22. Hyderabad skipper Laxman, who was troubled by back pain while batting yesterday, remained confined to the dressing room throughout the day. Scoreboard Hyderabad (1st innings) D Manohar c Madan b Goel 119 DB Ravi Teja b Gony 55 VVS Laxman c Inder b Kakkar 38 SA Pai lbw Kakkar 10 AS Yadav b Birinder Singh 16 Shinde c Madan b Gony 36 Ahmed b Goel 9 Ojha b Kakkar 7 Shoaib b Gony 32 Khader not out 16 Ashwin Yadav c Amanpreet
b Kakkar 17 Extras (b-10, lb-6, w 3, nb-5) 24 Total (all out, 105.3 overs) 379 Fall of wickets: 1-128, 2-203, 3-223, 4-256, 5-256, 6-269, 7-280, 8-317, 9-352. Bowling: Amanpreet Singh 20-5-66-0, Manpreet Gony 28-8-86-3, Birinder Singh 17-1-77-1, Ravneet Ricky 1-0-8-0; A Kakkar 22.3-5-55-4, Sarbjit Ladda 7-1-37-0, K Goel 10-0-34-2. Punjab (1st innings) Ricky c & b Ojha 37 Goel c Pai b Khader 75 R Inder c sub (M
Shakeer) b Ojha 20 Dharmani not out 52 Kaul not out 22 Extras (lb-9, nb-1) 10 Total (3 wickets, 71 overs) 216 Fall of wickets: 1-88, 2-142, 3-150. Bowling: SM Shoaib 13-8-22-0, MA Khader 9-3-29-1; PP Ojha 26-5-86-2, A Shinde 10-3-24-0, Ashwin Yadav 10-3-26-0, Ravi Teja 3-0-20-0.
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Shiv Kapur tied 12th
Chandigarh, November 16 The 25-year-old golfer shot five birdies, but double-bogeyed once for the 67 card. He played a virtual par game in the first nine with a birdie on the sixth. In the back nine, he birdied the 13th and double-bogeyed on the 14th. But then followed a hat trick of birdies in the last three holes. He had a two-day tally of six-under par 134. Twentynine-year-old S.S.P. Chowrasia of Kolkata also fired a three-under card to move up from tied 50th position to tied 33rd position. Chowrasia played a par game in the first nine. The back nine saw him shoot birdies on the 10th, 13th and 15th. His two-day tally was four-under par 136. Another Indian golfer Rahil Gangjee played a two-under par 68 for an overall two-day tally of one-under par 139. Chandigarh’s challenge in the Hong Kong Open ended with Amandeep Johl failing to make the cut by two strokes. He repeated a one-over par 71 for a two day tally of two-over par 142. The cut was applied at part 140. Gaurav Ghei who played a bad five-over par 75 on the opening day withdrew from the Open. Sweden’s Robert Karlsson blasted his second straight six-under-par 64 for a four stroke lead over the elite field on Friday. Karlsson, emulated his opening round performance with a
bogey-free second round.
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It was quite simply a magnificent effort from Sachin Tendulkar at Gwalior and that is all it took to make all the difference between the two teams.
Gwalior, November 16
