Mohali, October 16
One had never heard of Gajinder Singh. But the unheralded left-arm spinner laid bare the vulnerability of the Australians facing spin in the tour-opener versus RCA Centre of Excellence in Jaipur. Similar was the case in the second tour game against Board President’s XI in Hyderabad, where Ricky Ponting & Co looked out of sorts facing the leg-spin of Piyush Chawla, giving rise to the speculation that the Australian batsmen would be easy meat for the spin duo of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh during the Test series.

But, as it turned out, Australians looked a different outfit altogether, facing the famed spin duo during the Bangalore Test, proving why they are the reigning world champions for so long. Kumble was rendered ineffective on account of a shoulder niggle and went wicket-less in the match, while Harbhajan failed to distinguish himself. The offie had the lone scalp of Ponting to show even after bowling a marathon spell of 41 overs in the first innings, while he did marginally better on the crumbling track in the second innings, claiming two wickets.

While Ponting brushed aside all the talk of his dismal record in India by scoring a resolute century, Michael Hussey did even better, notching up a brilliant 146. The Australian domination at one stage was so compete that danger lurked that the Indians would be batted out of the match.

Had it not been for the spunk shown by Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, who both notched up half centuries, and some flashes in brilliance by the Fab Four, and never forget the inclement weather on the last day, India would have straightaway found themselves in a hole in the four-Test series.

Now having turned the tables on the hosts, the Australians will be hard to stop as the two sides prepare to renew battle in the second Test at PCA Stadium in Mohali tomorrow. The form of towering Matthew Hayden should be a matter of concern for the Australians. The burly Queenslander has had an indifferent start to the series. With scores of 16, 20 and 14 in the tour games and 0 and 13 in the first Test, Hayden has been laid low by the Indians so far. But he is too good a player to be kept quite.

It is the bowling resources of the visitors, which look a bit thin. There has never been any doubt about the efficacy of spearhead Brett Lee. Mitchell Johnson, though not too experienced, has a good track record against India. But the absence of Stuart Clark, who has the capability to bowl with unerring accuracy, will be a big blow to the visitors. Clark failed to overcome his elbow injury and has been replaced by seamer Peter Siddle in the Mohali Test. Besides, absence of a quality spinner could also prove to be a handicap.

With Australians, more or less, having settled down after the Bangalore Test, the onus will be on Kumble and Co to lift their performance dramatically if the harbour any chances of wining back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

For that to happen, openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag will have to at least blunt the new-ball attack. If both the openers are able to see off the new ball threat, the experienced middle order batsmen will have to bring all their experience into play and put enough runs on the board.

It is the performance of their bowlers that would be a crucial factor for India in the outcome of the match. Though Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma did a great job for the skipper, the form of rest of the bowlers was a matter of concern.

With the pitch expected to have a carry for quick bowlers, chances of India playing a third seamer look bright. If that is the case lanky Munaf Patel may get the nod in the playing eleven. But the dilemma for the think-tank will be whom to leave out. Munaf has fond memories of Mohali where he had a dream spell (7 for 97), the best performance by an Indian fast bowler on Test debut, against England two years ago.

Though drizzle before noon today threatened to play spoilsport, the weather cleared later, leaving the stage set for an engrossing contest on the morrow.

Teams: India: Anil Kumble (c), Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir Sourav Ganguly, S. Badrinath, M.S. Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, V.V.S. Laxman, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma and R.P. Singh.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson Simon Katich, Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin (wk), Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Shane Watson, Cameron White and Bryce McGain.

Hours of play: 9.30 to 11.30 am, 12.10 to 2.10 pm and 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm.

Mohali, October 16
In a major setback to Australia, seamer Stuart Clark has been ruled out of the Test slated to be played here tomorrow. The lanky seamer had sustained an elbow injury and failed to bowl his normal quota of overs in the Bangalore Test. He failed to recover well in time and has been declared unfit for the tomorrow’s game.

Disclosing this, a spokesman of the Australian team revealed that Clark was made to bowl 30 deliveries yesterday. “He experienced some discomfort in the elbow. So it has been decided not to risk his injury further, rendering him unavailable for the Mohali Test. Right arm seamer Peter Siddle will make his Test debut in place of Clark,” he revealed.

“Team physio (Alex Kontouris) will continue to monitor his injury and access when he is fit,” he said.

Referring to Siddle, skipper Ricky Ponting said the 23-year-old was an impressive pace bowler who enjoyed bowling. Siddle, he said, will enjoy the challenge of bowling to the top-order Indian batsmen.

“There are some very good batsman in the Indian middle order and I hope Siddle will be up to the challenge,” he stated.

Referring to verbal exchanges between some players of the two teams, Ponting said, “Though Indians are doing all the talking, we would like to focus on the game. Our focus, at the moment, is to play good cricket.”

Elaborating further, the flamboyant batsman remarked, “Cricket is all about executing your plans out there in the middle at crunch moments. We are focused on doing just that.”

“Though there was a little drizzle, I expect the wicket to stay firm and help the seamers. In any case, the wicket here has always had more pace and bounce than that is there at other venues,” Ponting stated.

Not ready to accept that the Indian spinners did not bowl well in the Bangalore Test, Ponting said this was not the case. “Rather, our batsmen applied themselves and batted very well.”

Hailing the brave efforts of Indian pace duo of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma during the first Test, Ponting said that Zaheer, with his control over the old ball of getting it to reverse swing was remarkable.

He said that Siddle won the nod because of his ability to reverse swing the ball.

Ponting also acknowledged the contribution former India coach Greg Chappell was making to the success of Australian team.

About the possibility of Kumble not playing tomorrow, Ponting said,''We know about his injury. We discussed it in our meeting that he may not play but we are also preparing and planning assuming that he will play.”

Ponting made light of the fact that his team lacks a quality spinner saying, “I am happy with the job done by Cameron White in the first Test. Hopefully, with more luck he will get few more wickets here.”

He played down his century in the first Test saying one game does not make a series. There are still three more Tests to go.

Mohali, October 16
Skipper Anil Kumble looks a doubtful starter and uncertainty continues regarding his participation in the Mohali Test tomorrow.

“While bowling indoors, though I felt much better, but there still was some discomfort. But there are still 24 hours to go for the start of the game. I will take a final call about myself tomorrow morning,” Kumble said.

Having sustained a shoulder niggle, Kumble was not fully match fit in the first Test also. Though he soldiered on, the ace leggie went wicketless during the match, only the third such occasion during his otherwise glittering career.

Not belittling the efforts put in by the bowlers in the first Test, Kumble said the bowlers did well to restrict the Australian batting on a wicket which was good enough for much bigger total at that stage of the game.

Quizzed about the team for the Test, Kumble said the playing eleven would be decided tomorrow. "It would all depend on how the pitch looks tomorrow morning. What we saw yesterday was pretty dry but we cannot decide (team combination) it at this point of time.”

Kumble observed that the Indian batsmen had an opportunity to cash in on the thin spin options the visitors had. Australia will sorely miss someone like Shane Warne or Stuart MacGill, who would have been a certain option on the Indian pitches where at some point of time spinner came into play.

“That is something we look to cash in on... I'm confident our batters would join the party,” Kumble observed.

The Indian skipper said everybody in the dressing room was looking forward to Sachin Tendulkar scoring 15 runs which will enable him to overtake Brian Lara as the highest run scorer in the history of Test cricket. A well-set Tendulkar was scalped by debutante leggie Cameron White in Bangalore when the master blaster looked set to get the required 15 runs and was out for 49.

"Sachin is such a great player, we all would love him to get there as early as possible. And I'm sure he'll get it here," Kumble said.

Mumbai, October 16
The International Cricket Council wants its two on-field officials to be totally in charge of the umpires referral system after doing a review of the experiment introduced in the July-August India-Sri Lanka three-Test rubber held in the Emerald Island.

"I know some Indians were not happy with the system with Sri Lanka slightly holding an upper hand. But we were satisfied with the referral system and found out that it led to 98 per cent correct decisions being given," said ICC's manager for cricket operations, David Richardson here today.

Richardson said the ICC was only concerned that the on-field umpires were not totally in charge of the referrals and left it mostly to the third umpire.

"The only disappointment was that the third umpire ruled the roost. We want the on-field umpires to be in total charge of the referrals all the time. It's good for the game and the umpires who carry the stigma for giving wrong decisions throughout their life (in the absence of such a system)," he elaborated.

"It gives the umpires an opportunity to rectify their mistakes. It also eliminates umpiring controversies and brings back the focus (of everyone) on the game," he added while maintaining that a 100 per cent fool-proof system is not yet possible in the absence of similar technological help.

The experiment provides options to the batting and fielding sides to challenge an umpire's verdict three times in an innings and is to be tried out in three future Test rubbers, including the January-February 2009 India-Pakistan series. — PTI

Mumbai, October 16
Jhulan Goswami, newly appointed captain of the Indian women's cricket team, heads the list of Reliance Mobile ICC Women's ODI bowlers' rankings, which was launched here today by International Cricket Council's manager for cricket operations, David Richardson.

"Women's cricket is definitely on the rise and the launch of the ODI rankings is just an indication of this. Since the ICC took over the women's game in 2005, the number of countries playing women's cricket has quadrupled," said former South Africa wicket-keeper-batsman Richardson.

"The women's ODI rankings are exactly similar to the men's rankings. The next year is an important one for the women's game with the ICC World Cup scheduled in Australia in March followed by the T20 Women's World Cup, which is to be held concurrently with the men's T20 World Cup," he said.

"The T20 semifinals and final of both events are scheduled at the same venue and same day. The ICC centenary celebrations are being held in 2009 and women's cricket forms an important part of the celebrations," Richardson added.

Jhulan, who is to lead the national team to Australia shortly for a series of one-day internationals preceded by a T20 international, said she was greatly honoured to be the world's number one bowler as per the rankings list released today.

The ICC Woman Cricketer of 2008, Claire Taylor, also welcomed the introduction of the official global rankings for women saying the entire lot of women cricketers were "looking forward to this day."

The ICC's Executive Board had discussed the possibility of cricket being part of a future Olympic Games in a two-day meeting earlier this week. — PTI

Hyderabad, October 16
In the eighth match of the ICL 20s Indian Championship, the Royal Bengal Tigers defeated the formidable Delhi Giants by 35 runs at the LB stadium in Hyderabad tonight.

McMillan won the toss and elected to bat. The Tigers opened with their in-form combination of Marshall and Dasgupta.The partnership was broken when Marshall was run out while trying to steal a single of a misfield.

The fall of the second wicket brought the experienced McMillan to the middle.Wickets kept falling but McMillan was not perturbed and with some help from Klusener brought the Tigers to a very competitive 171/7 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Delhi Giants tried to put up a fight but Gunawardene was the only one who could manage to show some resilience as he top scored for his side with 25 runs. J.P. Yadav also made a valiant 24 but ultimately the Giants fell short as they scored 136 runs for the loss of eight wickets, losing the match by 35 runs. — UNI

Scoreboard
Royal Bengal Tigers
D Dasgupta b Murtaza 26
H Marshall run out 23
Jhunjhunwala c Atapattu b Bond 0
McMillan c Atapattu b Bali 69
Klusener c Bali b Srivastava 22
Gavaskar c Bali b Murtaza 12
Adams run out 7
M Diwakar not out 1
Extras (b-1, lb-5, w-3, nb-2) 11
Total (7 wkts, 20 overs) 171
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-37, 3-66, 4-136, 5-155, 6-167, 7-171
Bowling: Srivastava 4-0-34-1, Sudhindra 3-0-22-0, Bond 4-0-23-1, Jai P Yadav 2-0-19-0, A Murtaza 4-0-19-2, A Bali 2-0-36-1, Benkenstein 1-0-12-0.

Delhi Giants
Benkenstein c Klusener b Tarafdar 3
Gunawardene b Tarafdar 25
Atapattu st Dasgupta b Chandana 19
S Abbas Ali c Diwakar b Adams 18
Nixon c Adams b Chandana 5
A Bali c Chandana b E Ahmid 12
Jai P Yadav run out 24
Sudhindra b Adams 12
Bond not out 7
Extras (b-1, lb-2, w-7, nb-1) 11
Total (8 wkts, 20 overs) 136
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-43, 3-71, 4-73, 5-82, 6-89, 7-125, 8-136
Bowling: S Tarafdar 4-0-19-2, M Diwakar 1-0-12-0, Klusener 3-0-17-0, AR Adams 4-0-34-2, Chandana 4-0-24- 2, Eklak Ahmid 4-0-27-1.

Pune, October 16
Lifter Valerie Lefebvre of Canada created a new games record on the way to the gold medal, relegating India's Aruna Rani to second place in the 63 kg women category in the third edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games being held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports city here today.

Valerie lifted a total of 187 kg to clinch the gold easily, while Aruna Rani with a total lift of 168 kgs had to settle for silver.

Josephe Fegue of Cameroon, with a total lift of 154 kg, bagged the bronze.

Valerie was in fine form today creating a new record in the snatch with a lift of 82 kg, while the Indian’s best lift was of only 75 kg.

Pune, October 16
India’s plan to stage the 2020 Olympics received a shot in the arm with the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge saying he expects a strong bid from the country. “I am sure that if India bids then it will be very solid and comprehensive. I have no doubt about that,” Rogge, who was here along with IOA president Suresh Kalmadi for the launch of the Olympic Values Education Programme and Indian National Club Games, said today.

“India has successfully hosted the Asian Games in 1951 and in 1982 and then the Afro Asian Games in 2003. Now they are hosting Commonwealth Youth Games and in two years time they will host the Commonwealth Games. And I know Kalmadi is now thinking about 2020.” The IOC president also lauded India’s performance in the Beijing Olympics this year and said he expects a better show in 2010 Commonwealth Games to be hosted by New Delhi.

“India has been very successful in Beijing and I look forward to see great success in 2010. I expect a lot from India because the country is dynamic and very vibrant with great evolution and therefore represents very important part of mankind,” Rogge said. — PTI

Madrid, October 16
Indian ace Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Mark Knowles moved into the quarterfinals of the euro 2,270,000 Madrid Masters when their opponents handed them a walkover in the second round match.