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World champs sink without fight
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Ponting stands by Symonds
Haul up Procter for bungling: Vengsarkar
Batting let us down: Dhoni
Fed Cup
Akhil qualifies for Olympics
Women’s Hockey
Punjabi University cyclists shine
Mahilpur school champs
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World champs sink without fight
Melbourne, February 1 A young Indian side - as compared to the seasoned Test unit that performed so impressively in the recently concluded series - but more or less the one that had rendered service in the World T20 in South Africa, other than the notable absence of Yuvraj Singh, were humiliatingly bowled out for 74 runs in 17.3 overs. Australia, then, reached their destination in just 11.2 overs. Adam Gilchrist, after hitting two sixes - where the Indians previously struggled to muster either distance or elevation in their shots - virtually threw away his wicket - attempting a third. But he (25) and stand-in skipper Michael Clarke (37 not out) at least provided some entertainment to a crowd, perhaps disheartened by the sheer one-sidedness of the contest. It was hardly value for the money they had paid. As international cricketers the Indians ought to have realised the moment Gautam Gambhir played too early to be caught at mid-off that it was a slow wicket, where the ball was stopping and, therefore, one in which a batsman had to get accustomed to its pace before venturing into stroke-play. It is a poor reflection on the team’s think-tank that they miserably failed to do so. The International Cricket Council have been concerned that Australia, undisputed world champions, weren’t taking T20 seriously. Indeed, their captain, Ricky Ponting had gone on record as not being too enthusiastic about it. However, stung by Indian belligerence after they twice beat the Aussies in cricket’s latest innovation, they hit back with a young, hungry-for-success line-up. The inspiration was initiated by a direct hit to the non-striker’s end from point by Clarke (deputising for an injured Ponting) in the very first over to run out Virender Sehwag. It was, thereafter, inexorably downhill. None of the specialist batsmen reached double figures. Nathan Bracken’s clever slower deliveries to compound a sluggish pitch were particularly deceptive. After Gambhir, Robin Uthappa was also duped by such change of pace. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik missed a fast full toss from Brett Lee, before Rohit Sharma was also bowled, but by a slower ball from James Hopes. The Australian spinners, then, took charge; and the left-arm orthodox Adam Voges (who finished with figures of two for five) was even on a hat-trick until Ishant Sharma, despite being surrounded by a close-in cordon, prevented this. Mahendra Dhoni’s indifferent run with the willow continued. An indiscreet heave from him to midwicket ended his endeavour. Only Irfan Pathan batted sensibly amidst the devastation. He was caught behind, though, before he could inflate India to respectability - becoming Bracken’s third and final victim, which wrapped up the innings. Bracken, left-arm fast medium, conceded a mere 11 runs. Indeed, it required the 10th wicket pair of Pathan and Sharma to avert the ignominy of being bowled out for the lowest total in international Twenty20 - this dubious distinction being held by Kenya against New Zealand in the World T20. Twenty20 was originally conceived as entry level spectacle for people otherwise not attracted to cricket. It repels the connoisseur, but provides mass excitement. In it, a test of skills is limited and less sustained. It’s a game of chance, where upsets are a high probability. But today was no flash-in-the-pan outcome. It was a shrewdly planned and succinctly executed showing, which clearly caught India on the hop. In fact, it, again, testified that the Board of Control for Cricket in India care tuppence about the country’s prestige. They persist in exposing the national side to official international engagement under-cooked. This time, five of India’s 11 representatives were playing their first match on Australian soil. Scoreboard India: Gambhir c Hopes b Bracken 9 Sehwag run out 0 Karthik b Lee 8 Uthappa c D.Hussey b Bracken 1 Rohit b Hopes 8 Dhoni c Lee by D.Hussey 9 Pathan c Gilchrist b Bracken 26 Parveen c Voges b Noffke 6 Harbhajan c Clarke b Voges 1 Sreesanth c Hodge b Voges 0 Ishant not out 3 Extras:
(w-3) 3 Total: (all out, 17.3 overs): 74 Fall of wickets:
1-5, 2-12, 3-20, 4-20, 5-32, 6-49, 7-60, 8-63, 9-63, 10-74 Bowling:
B Lee 3-0-13-1 (w-2), N Bracken 2.3-1-11-3, A Noffke 4-0-23-1, J Hopes 3-0-10-1, D Hussey 3-0-12-1 (w-1), A Voges 2-0-5-2 Australia: Gilchrist c Gambhir b Kumar 25 M Clarke not out 37 Hodge not out 10 Extras:
(b-1, w-1, lb-1) 3 Total: (for 1 wicket, 11.2 overs): 75 Fall of wicket:
1-57 Bowling: I Pathan 3-0-18-0, S Sreesanth 3-0-25-0, Praveen Kumar 2-0-15-1, Ishant Sharma 1.2-0-8-0 (w-1), Harbhajan Singh 2-0-7-0 Result:
Australia won by 9 wickets
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Ponting stands by Symonds
Melbourne, February 1 "I think any sort of character assassination on Andrew Symonds as a result of this would be completely unfair. He is someone that doesn't want this stuff happening obviously, it's the second time, with what he had to go through with India as well... It's the last thing in the world he wants," Ponting was quoted as saying by The Age Friday. “What I do know is he's a terrific bloke, he's a very honest bloke and he's a great team mate of mine and I'll stick up for him at every opportunity. “Anyone of you guys here that knows Andrew Symonds knows he is a pretty genuine, very honest sort of person," the Australian captain added. Harbhajan's three-Test ban for his alleged racial comments on Symonds was revoked by New Zealand Judge John Hansen in a fresh hearing Tuesday. Justice Hansen also pointed out that it was Symonds who provoked Harbhajan to make a verbal abuse. Hansen also went as far as to say that Symonds' evidence in the case was not as credible as that of Indian batting sensation Sachin Tendulkar. Ponting is confident Symonds would use the controversy to sharpen his focus and resolve to play even better cricket. "Andrew, right the way through this, has had a fairly amazing knack actually of when things have gone against him or gone bad that he has been able to play some of his best cricket," the captain said. "Pretty much in India when some of this stuff happened, he was the man that really stood up and won us a few games over there. And I have got no doubt he will be able to do exactly the same thing as this summer wears on. "There is no doubt it has taken a toll on him. As we know, playing any sport at the highest level, you need to be 100 per cent switched on mentally to be able to play the best you can. Andrew's still been able to maintain pretty high standards right through this last month," said Ponting.
— IANS
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Haul up Procter for bungling: Vengsarkar
Mumbai, February 1 "He will have some answering to do to the ICC," said the former India captain while reacting to the three-Test ban on Harbhajan imposed by match referee Procter which was later revoked by Appeals Commissioner John Hansen who reduced it to a simple monetary penalty. Slamming former South African cricketer Procter for failing to perform his duties properly, Vengsarkar recalled the ICC official's errors in the past and said the latest incident was only a reflection of his bungling ways. Vengsarkar referred to the Oval Test fiasco between England and Pakistan that led to the first-ever forfeiture in Test cricket's history and the on-field spat between Australian speedster Glenn McGrath and West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan in Antigua. He said the Sydney experience has made "the team stronger" when queried about his own experience of sledging by Australian cricketers during his playing days. "Australia are known to be sledgers, but this experience has made us stronger," he said after launching the Polycom Cricket Fest 2008 here at a suburban hotel. Vengsarkar, praising the progress made by the Indian team on the ICC rankings table, also sounded optimistic that soon it would rise up to be number one Test team in the world. "At the start of the series in Australia we were no. 7 and now we are no. 2 and very soon we will be no. 1," Vengsarkar said. Vengsarkar was also critical of Harbhajan Singh for abusing Symonds for which he was slapped a penalty of 50 per cent of his match fees. "He's a fine bowler and has done well in the series. But whatever be the provocation (from Symonds) one should not use bad words on the field,"
he felt. — PTI
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Melbourne, February 1 While Dhoni could not hide his disappointment at India's batting collapse which saw them bowled out for 74 in 17.3 overs, Clarke was marvelling at his team's ruthless performance that made captaincy so much easier for him. Dhoni said the only good thing that his Twenty20 world champion side managed in today's match was winning the toss. "That's the only good thing that we did. There are 11 players in the side and every guy has a responsibility. But unfortunately some of our guys failed in that today," a disappointed Dhoni said after the nine-wicket thrashing handed out to his team by ODI world champions. The Indian skipper did not want to make Yuvraj Singh's absence an excuse for the loss but admitted that the hard-hitting left-hander was crucial for the side. "Yuvraj is important for us in Twenty20," he said.
— PTI
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Fed Cup
Bangkok, February 1 After successive defeats to Indonesia and New Zealand, India were once again missing Sania Mirza as Australia gave them a sound thrashing. Isha Lakhani wasted a one-set lead to go down 6-3, 4-6, 1-6 to Jessica Moore. US-based Sunitha Rao was swept aside 3-6, 5-7 by Casey
Dellacqua. Dellacqua and Rennae Stubbs beat Sunitha and Shikha Uberoi 7-6, 6-0 to complete the rout.
— PTI
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Bangkok, February 1 The 27-year-old bantamweight pugilist, who was laid low by a wrist injury that took away more than half of his 2007 season, continued with his devastating form here and advanced today to the final of the first Asian qualifying event, which booked him a Beijing berth. Akhil out-scored his Korean opponent Ryom Chol Jin in the semifinal today. “I was very nervous before the bout because Olympic qualification was on the line. But a bit of tension always works to my advantage and that is precisely what happened today,” Akhil told PTI. Akhil, also an Asian Championship bronze medallist, will face his biggest test in the tournament when he takes on Athens Olympics silver medallist Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand in the final tomorrow. It has been a remarkable comeback for the boxer, who was battling to save his career after picking up a wrist injury at the beginning of 2007. The Haryana lad then found support from the Mittal Champions Trust, which helped him recover from the injury, besides taking care of his training and rehabilitation. “I was going nowhere after picking up that injury but they came in at just the right time and brought my career back on track,” a thankful Akhil said. National coach GS Sandhu was also effusive in his praise for the determined boxer. “He has been in tremendous form throughout and hopefully he would do it one more time to get the gold tomorrow,” he said. AL Lakra (57 kg) is the only other Indian to have qualified for the Olympics so far after he made the quarterfinals of last year’s World Championship in Chicago. However, Akhil’s success was the lone highlight of the day for the Indians as the other three Indians lost their semifinal bouts. In the 48 kg category, Amandeep Singh lost a close bout to Uzbekistan’s Sultonov Rafijon. Amandeep went down 14-17 in an ill-tempered fight which saw the Indian being warned by the referee. Dinesh Kumar (81 kg) was beaten 9-25 by Chinese Xiaoping Zhang. Manpreet Singh (91 kg) was ousted 5-15 by Jasur Matchanov of Uzbekistan. — PTI
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Women’s Hockey
Jalandhar, February 1 Punjab’s Deepika led the goal glut by scoring five times. The other scorers were Amandeep Kaur (three), Vartika Singh (two), Amandeep Kaur and Kirandeep Kaur (one each). In another match, the Orissa girls took the lead in the
second minute through a penalty corner which was converted by Sunita
Lakra. Gwalior girls got the equaliser in the 18th minute through Rena Yadav.
Lalremruati (23rd) and Asem Manorama Devi (31st) consolidated the lead for Gwalior. In the second half, Reena Kataria sounded the board in the 47th and 64th minutes to make it 5-1 for the winners. In another one-sided encounter, Jharkhand crushed Uttar Pradesh 4-0. Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by local
bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia. He announced a grant of Rs 2.5 lakh for the
Punjab Women’s Hockey Association (PWHA).
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Punjabi University cyclists shine
Patiala, February 1 The hosts took the honours in the 1500m team time trial (men) with the foursome of Sarpreet Singh, Kalampreet Singh, Gursharandeep Singh and Iqbaljit Singh winning the gold by clocking 1 minute 50.79 seconds. The hosts were followed by the Panjab University, Chandigarh, quartet of Jagdeep Singh, Satinder Pal Singh, Bakshish Singh and Harpinder Singh who timed 1:56.45. The hosts eves clinched the gold in the 1500m team trial event. The team of Rajwinder Kaur, Ramandeep Kaur, Suman and Sukhpal Kaur timed the race well and clocked 2:16.49 to emerge victors. In the 1 km mass start race for men, it was once again Punjabi University rider Kamalpreet Singh who stole the show by winning the event. Earlier, the meet was inaugurated by S. S. Dhindsa, MP and president of the Cycling Federation of India in the presence of a number of international and national-level sportspersons.
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Chandigarh, February 1 The result was 1-1 at the end of the stipulated time and was decided by tie breaker. In the college category semifinal, Football Academy Mahilpur outplayed G.N. College Phagwara scoring two goals in the first half and one in the second half. J & K Bank entered final defeating Mahilpur Football Club by 2-0 in the first semifinal of the club category. In the second semifinal of the club category, Amity United Football Club got the better of BSF Jalandhar by 2-1.
— TNS
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Indian players look on from the bench as their team is dismissed cheaply during the Twenty20 match at the MCG in Melbourne on Friday. India were all out for 74 in 17.3 overs eventually losing the match by nine wickets. — AFP
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