Santiago, March 5
India maintained their goal-scoring spree and hammered Mexico 18-1 for their third consecutive win in the hockey Olympic qualifying tournament at the Prince of Wales Country Club here.

Mexico showed early promise when they forced three penalty corners in the first five minutes, but the Indians kept their composure and hit back with a vengeance.

Rajpal Singh and Prabhjot Singh did the star turn for India scoring six and four goals, respectively, including a hat-trick apiece.

Drag-flick specialist V Ramachandra Raghunath, who doubled up as a forward, struck four, three of them from penalty corners, while Shivendra Singh (2), Tushar Khandekar (1) and Sardara Singh (1) rounded off the scoring for India who led 8-0 at the break.

The Mexicans drew some consolation from their only goal that came on the stroke of full-time when Pol Moreno scrambled the ball home following a mix up in the Indian defence.

While India, who had beaten Russia 8-0 and Austria 7-3, thus have nine points while Mexico, beaten 11-0 by Great Britain and 4-0 by Chile, are virtually out of contention for the lone Olympic spot available in this tournament.

"Our aim today was to get into a rhythm and score as many goals as possible so that our forwards would maintain their form. More than the number of goals, I was pleased with the manner in which some of them were struck," said chief coach Joaquim Carvalho.

India were also keen on creating penalty corners so as to provide Raghunath opportunities to get going with his drag-flicks.

"Raghunath did not get to play for long periods in the previous two games and so, we wanted to create opportunities for him. In the end, I thought he came up with a few quality conversions," Carvalho explained.

India, in fact, received 10 penalty corners of which three were converted, a couple of them were placed wide and Mexican goalkeeper brought off a few good saves.

Carvalho asserted that not much should be read into the three penalty corners early in the match and also the goal that Mexico scored in the last minute.

"When you are up against a weak team, you tend to lapse in concentration. The Mexicans did surprise us early on, but once we settled down, it was a different story. In the end, we dropped our guard when leading 18-0 and it led to us conceding a goal. But I will not attach much significance to these blemishes, since in a tough match we will be on top of our game," he opined.

Mexico's lady coach Edith Ramirez admitted that her team was totally outclassed. "We all know how good this Indian team is. Yet, we attacked in the beginning and forced a few penalty corners in the first five minutes. But we have not trained enough to convert our chances as the team got together only in January," she said.

Haminton, March 5
The prized wicket of New Zealand's big-hitter Brendon McCullum just before stumps gave England a slight edge on the opening day of the first Test here today.

New Zealand's Jamie How plays a shot during the first day of the first Test against England in Hamilton on Wednesday. — Reuters

New Zealand ended the day at 282 for six after an 86-run partnership between McCullum and Ross Taylor had lifted them out of a middle-order hole.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, New Zealand never fully exploited a wicket which offered the potential for a run-fest.

Recalled opener Jamie How top-scored with 92, easily surpassing his previous Test score of 37, but was unable to push on for a maiden Test century.

Ross Taylor, also on the comeback trail, was unbeaten on 54 at the close with Daniel Vettori on four.

However Stephen Fleming, the former New Zealand captain and now playing his final series before retirement, posted a commanding 41 before falling to an exceptional catch by Alastair Cook.

The left-hander had slashed at Ryan Sidebottom for Cook to take a one-handed catch diving to his right in the gully. 

Scoreboard

Brisbane, March 5
A day after Australia's humiliating tri-series defeat against India, Ricky Ponting's continuance as captain came under scrutiny with critics bluntly telling the beleaguered leader to take a break from the game and sort out his batting woes.

The critics blamed Ponting's poor form for the defeat and said the team could have benefited if the captain had stood aside following the prolonged lean patch.

"The last thing Ponting needs is more cricket," asserts well-known cricket writer Robert Craddock in an article in 'The Daily telegraph'.

Craddock said Ponting should back out of the Indian Premier League and stay away from the game for a while to recharge his batteries.

"Over the next days, Ponting would do well to tear up his contract with the Indian Premier League and book some time at his favourite Sydney golf club.

"The contract fee of $ 400,000 he would have to surrender would be worth it for the peace of mind he cannot get at the moment," he said.

Number three is a vital position in a cricket line-up and Ponting's failures hurt his team massively this summer - an accusation Ponting acknowledges.

"The batting has been very inconsistent and my own form has been awful right through the series," said Ponting in Brisbane after the nine-run loss to India last night.

"When you are batting at number three you need to take up a lot of responsibility and be a consistent scorer that I haven't been in this series," Ponting pointed out.

Critics also felt that Australia are on the verge of losing their dominance in world cricket.

One of the game's most dominant batsman, Ponting scored only 191 runs from 10 innings at an average of 19.10 from the series - and 124 of these runs came in just one innings.

Ponting is on the cusp of scoring 10,000 Test runs - he has 9778 at 58.53 from his 116 Tests with 34 hundreds - and his captaincy record is still numbing - 31 wins out of 41 games -- but Australia's glory days, it is feared, are over.

Craddock says one of the major problems for Australia is to find younger players - something which India has done with ease.

"Indians had just one player over 30 - Australians in contrast had only three under 30. Earlier this week, India won the Under-19 world cup. They are a nation on the rise.

Australia are not tumbling into any sort of abyss but they are in slight decline.

"For much of the tri-series, Australia had little spark.

They were something short of the rampant, hostile beasts we are used to," he said. — PTI 

Melbourne, March 5
Australian media again highlighted off-spinner Harbhajan Singh as India claimed epoch-making tri-series victory at Brisbane and described the young side's feat as having "the last laugh after a bitter summer of explosive tensions".

Harbhajan, who had hit headlines throughout the long tour for being at the centre of off-field controversies, proved to be the nemesis of Australian all rounder Andrew Symonds, claiming him in both the tri-series finals while also cheaply removing another detractor Matthew Hayden at Sydney.

"As cricket became a contact sport, Australia were pitchforked out of the finals in straight sets by an Indian side which had the last laugh after a bitter summer of explosive tensions," said leading newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph'.

Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported the home side's plight under the title 'Australia sunk in straight sets' after Ricky Ponting's men lost to India by nine runs and 2-0 in the best-of-three finals.

"Instead of a fitting one-day farewell for retiring wicketkeeper (Adam) Gilchrist, it was controversial spinner Harbhajan Singh who laughed last and loudest, lapping up the triumph on the Gabba boundary in front of ecstatic expat fans," the paper said.

Heandline of the main article in another national daily 'The Australian' aptly summed up the tour as it said — 'A summer of spite ends in Indian glory'.

"A fresh, young India beat Australia by nine runs in last night's ultimately gripping second final at Brisbane's Gabba to wrap up the competition after winning by six wickets in Sydney on Sunday," the 'Australian' wrote.

"India's wild celebrations matched those of Australia after winning a dramatic second Test in Sydney and India after its historic third Test victory in Perth," it said.— PTI

New Delhi, March 5
P Dogra hit a splendid half-century as Himachal beat Punjab by four wickets to enter the knockout stage of the Ranji Trophy (North Zone) one-day tournament here today.

Punjab, who elected to bat after winning the toss, were off to a slow start as they scored 53 runs for the loss of three wickets in the first 10 overs.

Thereafter, Pankaj Dharmani and Uday Kaul put up a 148-run partnership to take Punjab past the 200-run mark. Dharmani, who top scored with 94, had nine hits to the fence during his 135-ball innings. The rest of the batsmen failed to offer much resistance as Punjab were all out for 255.

J Mehta, who returned with figures of 3 for 42, was the pick of the Himachal bowlers. Himachal suffered an early setback as H Dogra was dismissed by VRV Singh with just seven runs on the board.

VRV Singh and Gagandeep Singh bowled with fire and aggression as Himachal were tottering at 65 for the loss of three wickets.

P Dogra (64) then took charge as he put up two useful partnerships with MS Bisla (32) and A Mannu (40) as Himachal overhauled the target with four wickets to spare.

Brief scores: Punjab: 255 all out (Pankaj Dharmani 94, Uday Kaul 59; J Mehta 3/42) Himachal: 256 for six (P Dogra 64; S Ladda 2/44). — UNI

Bangalore, March 5
Giant-killer Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan added one more seeded scalp to her kitty as she upset fifth seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary in a tough three-setter in the second round of the $600,000 Canara Bank Bangalore Open at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association today.

The six-foot-three-inch Amanmuradova, ranked 83rd, used her booming serves to battle past the 18-year-old Hungarian sensation 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in little more than two and a half hours to book a quarterfinal berth.

Amanmuradova earlier defeated defending champion Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia in the opening round.

Szavay, ranked 17 in the WTA rankings, started the match in an authoritative manner using her deep backhand volleys to great perfection and opened up the court to set up winners.

Szavay broke the Uzbek as early as in the third game of the opening set to go up 3-1. She later saved a break point on the seventh game of the set with a deep forehand cross-court winner and then held serve to pocket the set 6-4.

The second set started on a similar note with the fifth seed breaking Amanmuradova in the very first game. But that's how far the game went according to the script.

From there on the Uzbek started her fightback. She broke back to restore parity. Games went with serves till 6-6 before the tie-breaker was applied. — IANS

Bangalore, March 5
American world number 11 Serena Williams warmed up after a month-long break by beating Israeli Tzipora Obziler 7-5 6-0 at the Bangalore Open on today.

The former world number one, who was given a first round bye, advanced to the quarter-finals but was far from her dominant self in the opening set of her second-round victory.

Fourth seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder also moved into the quarter-finals with a 6-7 6-4 6-2 victory over Japan's Aiko Nakamura.

Williams, who withdrew from tournaments in February to recover from gum surgery, had trouble with her service games early on against 117th-ranked Obziler, who focused on keeping the ball in play.

Williams will next meet Russian Anastasia Rodionova, who beat sixth-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer 7-6 6-2 in the second round.

In the day's other upset, Uzbek Akgul Amanmuradova, who knocked out defending champion Yaroslava Shvedova in the first round, beat fifth-seeded Hungarian Agnes Szavay 4-6 7-6 6-4.

Amanmuradova will meet world number 12 Schnyder in the quarter-finals.

Left-handed Schnyder was stretched by Nakamura in a match lasting nearly two hours. — Reuters

Brisbane, March 5
Sachin Tendulkar has hailed the "fantastic job" done by India's young players in ensuring the team's triumph in the tri-series against Australia, but has underlined the contributions of players who have been around for 7 or 8 years.

The master batsman, whose unbeaten 117 and 91 in the two finals against Australia was the key to the victories, also cautioned against getting too euphoric about the triumph, saying the team has to take gradual steps towards becoming the world's best side.

"It's important we take gradual steps. So far the youngsters have done a fantastic job," he said after the thrilling nine-run win over Australia that gave India their maiden tri-series win Down Under.

"This young team has done very well but if you look at cricketers who have been around for 7-8 years, they have contributed in a big manner as well," he added.

Tendulkar also downplayed his individual contribution to the team's win and said the triumph was a collective effort.

"I don't want to speak about my performance but my feeling is everyone has done an excellent job," he said.

Tendulkar termed the win as the second biggest after the World Cup. "Other than the World Cup, for me this is the greatest win. Everyone in the team, including the coaching and support staff, need to be complimented for having done an excellent job," he said.

Although busy celebrating, a few other members of the team also spoke about the nerve-wracking final that went right down to the wire.

All-rounder Irfan Pathan talked at length about the final over which he was asked to deliver.

"Mahi, after the first two balls, told me not to worry: you are not as bad a bowler that you would be hit for three fours in as many balls," he said.— PTI