 |
|
|
Honours even on Day One
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dravid rues losing wicket at crucial stage
Andrew Symonds (L) is congratulated by Stuart Clark after he took the wicket of Rahul Dravid in Perth. — Reuters
I didn’t get sledged even once: Hussey
Tanmay, Shukla steady UP innings
Sania, Bopanna advance in doubles
Anand plays 3rd successive draw
Not too bad, says Fisichella
Delhi soccer: 1st semis today
|
|
Honours even on Day One
Perth, January 16 But this failed to nail an advantage, as Australia, with only the hitherto unconvincing Mahendra Dhoni remaining among the recognised Indian batsmen, had rather stolen the initiative. A master-class from Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, who was brilliantly inventive in his innings of 71, and a 139-run association between these two for the 3rd wicket laid a platform for dominance on a pitch touted as too hot for Indian batsmen to handle. But the foundation was frittered away by the failure of Sourav Ganguly - cutting to gully - and the late exit of VVS Laxman to the second new ball - hooking without getting over or behind a bouncer from Brett Lee, Australia’s “standout bowler” as Dravid rightly put it. Dravid, restored to number three, was 11 when Michael Clarke dropped him at 1st slip off Stuart Clarke. Thereafter, cover drive after cover drive off the front foot uninhibitedly flowed from his ample blade against the thunderbolts of Shaun Tait as well as a straight drive off Mitchell Johnson, which was a connoisseur’s delight. He posted his 50 with a stimulating inside-out cover drive off Andrew Symonds that threaded a narrow gap between extra cover and mid-off. But in attempting an encore holed out at extra cover. “It was disappointing,” he admitted later. While Dravid simply erected a wall in front of the bowlers, Tendulkar impishly improvised. Using the pace of the wicket, he repeatedly upper cut or swatted over the slips against Brett Lee and Tait, not to mention square cutting them fiercely and driving Clarke through the covers. His 128-ball stay was tragically terminated by an umpiring error. A promising effort in the first hour was squandered in the next. Virender Sehwag played and missed, but juxtaposed this with cracking cuts and cover drives - mainly at the expense of Lee - and a crispy clip off the toes off Johnson to the midwicket fence. Wasim Jaffer, more cautious but technically correct, followed suit with a stylish on-drive and then a peach of an off-drive for boundaries in Johnson’s first over with the wind. At 56 for none in 12 overs, India were galloping. But Clarke stemmed the run rate, following which impatiently Sehwag slashed at a rising ball from Johnson to pay the penalty. Bowling against the breeze suited Lee’s outswingers more; and he promptly had Jaffer edging to the ‘keeper. Fiftyseven runs for the 1st wicket was India’s best showing in the series so far, but 59 for two was distinctly discomfiting. Dravid and Tendulkar played the classic waiting game. If Johnson’s pace was close to 150 kph, Lee and Shaun Tait were well in excess of this mark. The wicket was fast, but not disconcerting; though, it might quicken on the 2nd and 3rd days under a hot sun. Indeed, with Australia having to bat last, India will be hoping that the scorching spell makes it crack - the WACA of old being notorious for this. With a four-pronged pace attack, the Australian sent down eight overs short of the prescribed 90. It would be another travesty of justice, if the International Cricket Council ignored this. Appeals turned down evoked good humoured cries from a near capacity crowd of “Bring back (Steve) Bucknor”, the umpire sacked after the Sydney Test. But should umpires Asad Rauf and Billy Bowden countenance the use of a four-letter word by Symonds and Johnson, respectively, on being rejected appeals for lbw? Cricket is no longer an Anglo-Saxon affair, but an international sport spawning different cultures. Co-ordinated, theatrical appeals, even from fielders square to the wicket, are pressure tactics adopted by modern-day cricketers. Rauf appeared to succumb to one such in adjudging Tendulkar lbw to a delivery that hit him above the knee-roll on a bouncy track. But after a controversy-ridden Sydney Test, the start of this succeeding encounter was incident-free. The only hullabaloo was between a section of Indian journalists and Australian officials in a cramped press box. Scoreboard India (1st Innings): Jaffer c Gilchrist b Lee 16 Sehwag c Gilchrist b Johnson 29 Dravid c Ponting b Symonds 93 Tendulkar lbw b Lee 71 Ganguly c Hussey b Johnson 9 Laxman c Tait b Lee 27 Dhoni batting 8 Pathan batting 8 Extras (lb-18, w-9, nb-9): 36 Total (for 6 wkts, 84 overs): 297 Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-59, Bowling: Brett Lee 19-3-64-3, Mitchell Johnson 21-5-61-2, Stuart Clark 15-3-44-0, Shaun Tait 13-1-59-0, Andrew Symonds 10-1-36-1, Michael Clarke 6-1-15-0.
|
|
Dravid rues losing wicket at crucial stage
Perth, January 16 Dravid, who struck form after struggling in the first two Tests, negotiated the Australian pace attack well to notch up a well-knit 93 before succumbing to a big hit off Andrew Symonds. "It's disappointing to get out at that stage, especially the timing was not good. In the last half hour me and Laxman were trying to be there when the new ball was taken," Dravid said. The former captain, however, drew some satisfaction from the fact that he played a good knock after a lot of hard work. "I am happy with my effort. I had worked hard and fought my way back to score the runs. But it's not about me (missing out on a hundred), but the team situation," he said. Dravid said the team think-tank was never in any confusion about what to do if India won the toss. "We were very clear about batting first on this wicket. Yesterday, we saw the wicket and knew the first couple of hours would be crucial. But it is a good wicket, a flat and firm one. We had no real second thought. "It's better to bat in the first innings on this wicket and use Anil Kumble later (in bowling). It could be enjoyable to bowl in the fourth innings," Dravid said. He said there was no fear in the minds of Indian batsmen that the wicket could be fast and bouncy. "Such a wicket gives you a chance to play. If you get set and play well, you get value for your shots. There is something for the bowlers and something for the batsmen," he said. Recalling the bad memories of the controversial Sydney Test, Dravid said the first day at WACA passed off quite smoothly.
— PTI
|
|
|
I didn’t get sledged even once: Hussey
Perth, January 16 "I didn't get sledged once while I was batting, and I didn't sledge anyone throughout the first two Test matches," Hussey was quoted as saying in the 'Sydney Morning Herald'. The left-hander also brushed aside the perception that tempers have been running high after the Sydney furore, asserting that it has been a case of just one incident - Andrew Symonds-Harbhajan Singh spat - overshadowing everything else. "Apart from one major incident, I don't feel there has been much heat, as in Sreesanth-Symonds sort of stuff, going on at all," he said, referring to the on-field run-ins between Symonds and Indian pacer S Sreesanth during the one-day series in India last year. Hussey felt the controversies of the past week, which ranged from umpiring blunders to racial rows, will not affect the relationship between the two sides, which, according to him, has been cordial. "I don't expect that to change, particularly in the aftermath of what's happened. I think the players will be very aware of their actions and just get on with the game." Hussey, who scored a hundred after surviving a close caught behind appeal in the ill-tempered Sydney Test, said he rated the innings as the most satisfactory of his career. "I probably rate it as my most satisfying because there is a perception out there that Western Australians don't play spin very well, and to score a hundred on a fourth and fifth-day pitch against two quality spinners was very, very satisfying," he said. Hussey said he was nervous about facing Kumble in Sydney after having fallen cheaply to the leg-spinner in the first Test. "I was pretty nervous against him (Kumble) initially because his record is unbelievable," he said.
— PTI
|
|
|
Ranji final
Mumbai, January 16 At stumps, Ravikant Shukla was batting on 80 and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar on eight after Delhi elected to bowl on the Wankhede track, which had a tinge of grass. Bowlers toiled all through the day. Medium pacers Pradeep Sangwan and Sumit Narwal picked up three wickets each.
— IANS Scoreboard Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): Rohit lbw b Narwal 6 Tanmay c Dhawan b Sangwan 105 Raina lbw b Sangwan 16 Kaif c Chopra b Nanda 16 Shukla batting 80 Chawla c Jain b Narwal 20 Amir Khan c Chopra b Sangwan 1 Praveen c Manhas b Narwal 8 Bhuvaneshwar batting 6 Extras (b 1, lb 13, w 1, nb 5): 20 Total (for 7 wkts in 90
overs): 292 Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-60, 3-99, 4-200, 5-231, 6-274, 7-285 Bowling: Pradeep Sangwan 21-5-73-3; Amit Bhandari 17-3-60-0; Sumit Narwal 20-4-66-3; Rajat Bhatia 16-3-34-0; Chetanya Nanda 15-2-37-1; Mithun Manhas 1-0-8-0
|
|
|
Melbourne, January 16 He yielded only 10 points while racing through the first set in 22 minutes, committing just four unforced errors. Serra got a loud ovation when he held serve for his first game while already down a break in the second set. Champion Serena Williams rolled into the third round with a routine 6-3, 6-1 win over Chinese qualifier Yuan Meng today. The seventh seed was well short of her best but still proved far too strong for the world number 121, easing to victory in 71 minutes. Russian Maria Sharapova produced a scintillating display to end the run of comeback mum Lindsay Davenport today, hammering the 2000 champion 6-1, 6-3 in the second round. In a highly-anticipated battle of the two former world number ones, fifth seed Sharapova blew Davenport away in the first set and held off the American in the second to take her place in the last 32. The American lifted her game in the second set but Sharapova broke twice, in the seventh and ninth games to progress to a clash with compatriot Elena Vesnina. Justine Henin had a little more difficulty closing for her 30th consecutive win. Top-ranked Henin needed four match points to clinch a 6-1, 7-5 second-round win over Russia's Olga Poutchkova. She was broken at love when serving for the match at 5-3, then set up double match point with a curling forehand winner in the next game, but Poutchkova ran off four points to level at 5-all. The defending French and US Open champion next faces 25th-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Germany's Angelique Kerber. Amelie Mauresmo, who won when Henin pulled out of the 2006 final, needed 10 match points to beat Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia. Patty Schnyder, seeded 15th and a semifinalist here in 2004, went down to Australia’s Casey Dellacqua, 4-6, 7-5, 8-6.
— Agencies
|
|
|
Sania, Bopanna advance in doubles
Melbourne, January
16 Sania and her Australian partner Alicia Molik, seeded sixth, won a two-hour battle against the unseeded Greco-German pair of Eleni Daniilidou and Jasmin Woehr 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to advance to the second
round. Bopanna, on the other hand, teamed up with American-Indian Rajeev Ram to oust British-American duo of James Auckland and Sam Querrey 6-1, 7-6
(4). Bopanna and Ram will next be up against the winners of the match between fifth seeded Indian-Australian team of Leander Paes and Paul Hanley and Luis Horna of Peru and Austrian Stefan
Koubek. Sania and Molik, meanwhile, will take on Russians Nadia Petrova and Elena
Vesnina, who breezed past local favourites Sophie Ferguson and Trudi Musgrave 6-3, 6-4.
|
|
|
Anand plays 3rd successive draw
Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands, January 16 Grand Master Parimarjan Negi continued with his good form as he defeated Chinese GM Li Shilong easily for his second straight win in Group C. Harikrishna beat Wouter Spoelman (Holland) to emerge joint leader in Group B. Harikrishna is now in joint lead alongside Jan Smeets (Holland) and Etienne Bacrot (France) on three points. The other Indian in the fray, Koneru Humpy drew with English Nigel Short. Anand drew with the English Grandmaster Michael Adams in Group A. Playing the black side of a Queen pawn opening Negi won a pawn with a tactical move and finished the tie quickly. Arik Braun (Germany) won his fourth match in a row to remain the leader of this group.
— UNI
|
|
|
Jerez, (Spain) January 16 ''Not too bad today. The circuit was damp in the morning, but by midday it was getting better,'' Fisichella said. ''We did most of the programme, but unfortunately we had some minor mechanical issues. At the end with the new tyres there was a possibility to have a faster time,'' he added. ''But unfortunately there was traffic and then I made a mistake, but it's quite encouraging. I think we can improve quite a lot as we are going in the right direction.'' The 35-year-old Italian, who completed 76 laps today, continued the team's programme of set-up work and integrating the 2008 standard electronic control unit. Although the track was damp in the morning, the team was able to make up for yesterday's limited running and complete the greater part of its programme. Adrian Sutil will take over for the third and final day of the test tomorrow.
— UNI
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Perth, January 16
