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Odds stacked against Oz Irfan Pathan celebrates after taking the wicket of Australia’s
Phil Jaques during the third day of the third Test at the WACA Stadium in Perth on Friday. — AFP
photo
‘Hosts will be under pressure’
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Australia have to defy history
Ranji Final
64-square wizard dies at 64 Asked who was the greatest chess player in the world, Fischer once replied: “It’s nice to be modest, but it would be stupid if I did not tell the truth. It is Fischer.”
Gulmarg gears up for Winter Games
CGF official calls for more accommodation
Punjab shuttlers win U-14 title after 15 years
Jeev, Jyoti miss the cut
Delhi Heroes enter
final
Sridhar crashes out
Another 6-1 win
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Odds stacked against Oz
Perth, January 18 India recovered from a precarious 125 for five to post 294 in the second innings, thanks to Pathan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and RP Singh chipping in with invaluable supporting roles. Persisting extra bounce in the pitch should prove useful to the Indian bowlers. There is a considerable difference between the highest winning fourth innings total at the WACA — the one against India in 1977, when Bobby Simpson’s second string Australia compiled 342 for eight — and the present target, which has been reached only once in 131 years of Test cricket. But for the Australians presently experiencing a halcyon period in their history, the outcome would have been a foregone conclusion. It was mostly overcast and windy; and therefore, ideal for swing bowling. The breeze was such that Stuart Clark, a Glenn McGrath clone, got assistance for his inswingers, while the leader of the attack, Brett Lee, obtained help for his away going ball. It served the purpose, for this duo and Mitchell Johnson virtually decimated the much vaunted Indian middle order. Having reached a well-made 43, Virender Sehwag was bowled through the gate by Clark. Meanwhile, Lee was already on overdrive; and in a superb spell either side of drinks, took out the two diamonds — Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar — in the Indian batting chain. The former he defeated with an outswinger, the latter with just an opposite delivery. Johnson rested Clark at the southern, Lillee-Marsh end. Night-watchman Pathan, growing in confidence, steered him for four and then magnificently off-drove to the boundary to secure 10 off an over. But the left-arm slinger hit back by inducing Sourav Ganguly into an edge to first slip before he had opened his account. The tourists, thus, lost four precious wickets in only 22 overs, but managed to maintain a run rate of over 4.80 an over. Pathan, who’s made a sterling comeback, promised much, but disappointed by chasing a wide ball from Clark in the very first over after the break to make his exit. It was, now, make or break for India, with the last pair of recognised batsmen at the crease, one of whom — Dhoni — yet to convince in Australian conditions. But the one-day dazzler negotiated the quicker bowlers with assurance, converting himself into a stroke-less wonder. Rather than risk Johnson or Shaun Tait, both of whom had proved to be expensive, and because of the shambolic over rate, Ponting turned to Michael Clarke’s left-arm spin. Dhoni gleefully jumped out of his crease to smack him to long-on for six. The reveller from Ranchi also despatched Andrew Symonds’ medium pace over long-off. But once the latter switched to off-spin, he was beaten by the bounce to top-edge a sweep to the leg slip area, where a flying Adam Gilchrist gloved an acrobatic catch. Symonds struck again in the same over, deceiving Anil Kumble with a straighter delivery, which meant India went into tea at an uneasy 245 for eight, which, though, included a six by RP Singh at the expense of the long-haired off-spinner. Scoreboard India (1st innings) 330 Australia (1st innings) 212 India (2nd innings) Jaffer c Hussey b Clark 11 Sehwag b Clark 43 Pathan c Ponting b Clark 46 Dravid c Gilchrist b Lee 3 Tendulkar lbw Lee 13 Ganguly c Clarke b Johnson 0 Laxman c Gilchrist b Lee 79 Dhoni c Gilchrist b Symonds 38 Kumble c Clarke b Symonds 0 RP Singh c Gilchrist b Clark 30 Ishant not out 4 Extras
(lb-14, nb-8, w-5) 27 Total (all out, 80.4 overs) 294 Fall of wickets:
1-45, 2-79, 3-82, 4-116, 5-125, 6-160, 7-235, 8-235, 9-286. Bowling:
Lee 20.4-4-54-3, Johnson 10-0-58-1, Clark 19-4-61-4, Tait 8-0-33-0, Clarke 13-2-38-0, Symonds 10-2-36-2. Australia (2nd innings) Rogers c Dhoni b Pathan 15 Jaques c Jaffer b Pathan 16 Ponting batting 24 Hussey batting 5 Extras
(lb-3, nb-1, w-1) 5 Total (2 wkts, 15 overs) 65 Fall of wickets:
1-21, 2-43. Bowling: RP Singh 5-1-24-0, Pathan 6-1-22-2, Ishant 3-0-10-0, Anil Kumble 1-0-6-0.
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‘Hosts will be under pressure’
Perth, January 18 Laxman tipped India to win, saying that Australia, who ended the day at 65 for 2, would be under tremendous pressure to get another 348 runs in the fourth innings. “They will be under a lot of pressure. The way our bowlers have bowled, getting the target wouldn’t be easy,” he said. “It was important for us to get more than 400 runs, that’s why the partnership with RP Singh was important,” he emphasised. Laxman put on 51 runs with number 10 batsman RP Singh and revealed the planning which went behind the critical stand. “I made a conscious effort to play Brett Lee out. RP was feeling more comfortable playing out Shaun Tait and Stuart Clark,” he elaborated. He also lavished praise on Mahendra Singh Dhoni. “Dhoni played a very mature knock. In the last about eight months, like he did at Lord’s, he has shown that he can adapt himself to situations,” he said. “RP also showed lot of determination and guts that that he could bat against quicks in Perth,” he added. On his penchant for stitching together partnerships with tailenders, Laxman said, “I believe our (lower order) guys are capable batsmen. Of course you need to analyse the situation, like I batted the most against Lee.” Laxman also lauded the team’s young medium-fast bowlers who he thought were maturing rapidly.
— PTI
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Australia have to defy history
Perth, January 18 Except for the West Indies, who hold the record for the highest run chase in the fourth innings, no Test team has ever achieved the feat of scoring so many runs. Australia’s most successful run chase in the fourth innings is 404 for 3 recorded against England at Leeds in 1948 and with the hosts having already lost two wickets the target looks even more daunting. Of the top five successful chases in the fourth innings, the Australians find themselves at three places in the list, 369 for 6 versus Pakistan at Hobart in 1999-2000 and 362 for 7 against the West Indies at Georgetown in 1976-77 being the two other occasions. The West Indies hold the record of 418 runs, achieved against Australia at St John’s in 2002-03, while India are the second in the list with their 406-4 against the Caribbeans at Port-of-Spain in 1975-76. The WACA, where the pitch is regarded as the fastest in the world, has been a happy hunting ground for the hosts. But even here their most successful fourth innings achievement is 342-8 against India in 1977-78. With the WACA track getting a little slower, it will take a lot of effort from the Aussies to prevent their first defeat at this venue since 1997 when they were beaten by the West Indies by 10 wickets.
— PTI
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Ranji Final
Mumbai, January 18 Praveen utilised the second new ball to telling effect to send Delhi crashing from 232 for four to 290 all out, with overall figures of 8-68, before UP plunged to 154 for six in the second innings on an action-packed day. The 21-year-old Meerut-born Praveen’s innings return was the fifth-best in the final of the national championship. Only fellow-UP left arm spinner Rajinder Singh Hans (9-152 v Delhi, 1977-78), Mumbai left-arm spinner Padmakar Shivalkar (8-16 against Tamil Nadu, 1972-73), Mumbai off spinner Manohar Hardikar (8-39 against Bengal, 1955-56) and Delhi left-arm spinner Maninder Singh (8-54 against Haryana, 1985-86) have returned figures better than those of Praveen. His heroics came after overnight Delhi batsmen Akash Chopra (102, 17 fours) and Rajat Bhatia (139 not out, 18 fours, four sixes) added 36 runs to their overnight 196 for four. He was on a hat-trick after sending back Chopra and wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht off successive balls in the very first over with the second new ball before adding the scalps of Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan and last man Amit Bhandari in a devastating spell. But Delhi bounced back superbly despite an attacking knock of 85 by Suresh Raina in 94 balls to leave the tie on a knife-edge at stumps.
— PTI Scoreboard UP (1st innings) 342 Delhi (1st innings) Akash Chopra lbw Praveen 102 Gambhir c Raina b Praveen 0 Shikhar Dhawan b Praveen 14 Mithun Manhas lbw Praveen 0 Aditya Jain c Raina b Tyagi 8 Rajat Bhatia not out 139 Puneet Bisht lbw Praveen 0 Sumit Narwal b Praveen 5 Chetanya Nanda c Raina b Tyagi 0 Pradeep Sangwan lbw Praveen 9 Amit Bhandari lbw Praveen 0 Extras
(lb-7, w-2, nb-4) 13 Total (all out, 98.1 overs) 290 Fall of wickets:
1-1, 2-15, 3-15, 4-36, 5-232, 6-232, 7-244, 8-247, 9-270. Bowling:
Praveen Kumar 32.1-8-68-8, Sudeep Tyagi 24- 5-63-2, Bhuvanesh Kumar 15-5-54-0, Piyush Chawla 13-2-57-0, Praveen Gupta 10-2-29-0, Ravikant Shukla 2-0-7-0, Rohit Srivastava 2-0-5-0. UP (2nd innings) Rohit Srivastava c Bisht b Bhatia 18 Tanmay Srivastava run out 1 Suresh Raina c Bisht b Sangwan 85 Mohd Kaif c Bisht b Sangwan 21 Ravikant Shukla c Jain b Bhandari 0 Chawla c Dhawan b Narwal 4 Bhuvanesh Kumar not out 19 Amir Khan not out 4 Extras
(nb-2) 2 Total (6 wkts, 53 overs) 154 Fall of wickets:
1-1, 2-63, 3-123, 4-126, 5-130, 6-130. Bowling: Pradeep Sangwan 15-3-41-2, Sumit Narwal 12- 5-48-1, Amit Bhandari 11-2-28-1, Rajat Bhatia 8-3-14-1, Chetanya Nanda 7-1-23-0.
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64-square wizard dies at 64
Fischer, a former child prodigy who once said he liked to watch his opponents squirm and who had become an Icelandic citizen, became world champion by beating the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky under the glare of Cold War publicity in Reykjavik in 1972. The brilliant but eccentric American abandoned his title without moving a pawn by failing to meet a deadline to defend his crown in Manila in 1975. World chess authorities reluctantly awarded it to challenger Anatoly Karpov of the erstwhile Soviet Union, who was to hold it for the next decade. Fischer withdrew into himself, not playing in public and living on little more than the magic of his name, although millions of enthusiasts regarded him as the king of chess. He made headlines and fell foul of US authorities when he came out of seclusion to play his old rival Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, at a time when the country was the target of sanctions during Belgrade’s war with breakaway republics. He vanished after the match, for which he won $3 million, and resurfaced only after the September 11, 2001, attacks. In an interview with a Philippine radio station, Fischer praised the strikes and said he wanted to see America “wiped out”. Fischer, who also stirred controversy with anti-Semitic remarks, was granted Icelandic citizenship in March 2005 after eight months in detention in Japan fighting a US deportation order. Fischer always had a high opinion of himself. Asked who was the greatest player in the world, he once replied: “It’s nice to be modest, but it would be stupid if I did not tell the truth. It is Fischer.” It was not an idle claim. Arguably the greatest natural chess genius the world has seen, he was called “the Mozart of chess” when he began winning at the age of six. He was the youngest international grandmaster ever at 15. As Fischer’s fame grew, his temperament became more unpredictable. He walked out of tournaments because of what he considered to be bad lighting or bad air conditioning. He refused to play matches on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. One commentator said there was one constant through his life’s exceptional peaks and troughs — his “running battle with the rest of the human race”.
— Reuters
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Melbourne, January 18 Mauresmo and her fragile temperament succumbed to the tenacity of local girl Casey Dellacqua 3-6, 6-6, 6-4, while Roddick went down to little-known but gifted German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 8-6. Earlier, the day session had proved fertile for the seeds, including Justine
Henin, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal. Top seed Henin advanced by beating tricky Italian Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-4.
Henin meets Hsieh Su-wei for a place in the quarters after the Taiwanese player ousted France’s Aravane
Rezai. Serena eased through with a routine 6-3, 6-4 win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Jelena Jankovic beat Virginie Razzano 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 and Maria Sharapova swatted aside Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-0. Nadal shrugged off a slow start to overwhelm Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.
Paes-Szavay move up Leander Paes and Agnes Szavay rallied to beat the Czech pair of David Skoch and Renata Voracova to advance to the mixed doubles second round today. The Indo-Hungarian pair won 2-6, 6-2, 10-6. In women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and her Australian partner Alicia Molik’s fate was hanging in the balance when rain suspended play after the two pairs split the first two sets. The score stood at 6-3, 5-7, 1-1.
— Agencies
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Gulmarg gears up for Winter Games
Srinagar, January 18 Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is personally monitoring arrangements for the event, said the state would stake its claim for holding the Commonwealth Winter Games at Gulmarg in 2010. The games torch would be taken from Delhi and travel through Auli in Uttar Pradesh and Srinagar before reaching Gulmarg. The events to be held include slalom, giant slalom and snow board in alpine skiing, free style (men and women) in cross country, figure skating and speed skating (men and women) and ice hockey for men in the skating rink category.
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CGF official calls for more accommodation
New Delhi, January 18 He said the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, headed by Suresh Kalmadi and the Delhi Government, would have to devise some dynamic methods to provide accommodation at affordable rates to visitors for the Games. Kalmadi explained the state government’s plans to create more hotel rooms, as well as allowing residential colonies to make rooms available for paying guest accommodation. Robertson said considerable progress had been made since the last meeting of the commission in May 2007. Kalmadi announced the broadcasting agreement for the Games reached between Network 10 Australia and Television New Zealand.
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Punjab shuttlers win U-14 title after 15 years
Panchkula, January 18 Punjab shuttlers beat Maharashtra 2-0 in the final at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex, Sector 3, here today. Karnataka secured the third position. Rupinder beat Varun 13-21, 21-16, 22-20, while Antarpreet and Kawaldeep defeated Shilok and Sudhanshu 21-8, 21-13. It was definitely not Maharashtra’s day as their girls’ team lost to Andhra Pradesh 0-2 in the under-14 title clash. The bronze was bagged by Karnataka. In the under-19 boys’ final, Andhra Pradesh beat hosts Haryana 2-1. Maharashtra finished third. In the under-19 girls’ section, Gujarat won the gold after beating Kerala 2-1. Karnataka had to be content with the bronze.
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Abu Dhabi, January 18 After a nightmarish opening round of four-over 76, Jeev returned a one-under 71 but his two-day total of 147 was just not enough to ensure weekend action for him. Randhawa carded his second straight round of 75 to total 150 and crash out. Kapur stuttered to a horrendous second round of five-over 77 to aggregate 151 to see his hopes of making the cut going up in smoke. Germany’s Martin Kaymer followed up his opening round of 66 with a 65 to take a seven-stroke lead.
— PTI
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New Delhi, January 18 Heroes will meet last year’s runners-up Indian National in the title clash on January 21. Sangha forged ahead when Nigerian Charles Egmore scored in the 20th minute. Heroes equalised through substitute Gyan. Nigerian Tunde put Heroes in the lead two minutes after resumption and added the fourth goal 18 minutes later. In between, Harvinder Singh scored the third goal for Heroes, while Charles Egmore reduced the margin for Sangha. — TNS
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Sridhar crashes out
Kuala Lumpur, January 18 World number 26 Sridhar went down 24-22, 14-21, 13-21 to the Korean ranked two places below him at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil. With Sridhar’s loss, the Indian campaign ended in the top-flight $2,00,000 tournament. Saina Nehwal had crashed out in the first round of women’s singles, going down 21-23, 9-21 to higher-rated Juliane Schenk of Germany.
— PTI
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New Delhi: Drag-flicker Diwakar Ram and Sarwanjeet Singh pumped in two goals each as India continued their victory spree thrashing New Zealand 6-1 in the eight-nation Junior International Hockey Tournament in Kuala Lumpur today.
India had beaten South Korea by an identical 6-1 score in their opening tie yesterday. The other goal scorers were Dharamveer and skipper Gurvinder Singh Chandi (one each).
— PTI
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India need eight wickets to end Aussie winning streak
Perth, January 18
Bobby Fischer (March 9, 1943 — Jan 17, 2008)
Reykjavik, January 18