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Career-best knock by Gambhir
‘They were desperate to get me out’
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India-Australia Test series
Symonds’ omission puzzles Moody
Heroes win thriller
Anand retains world chess title
Indian archers shine
Jones’ tell-all interview to Oprah
Pugilists Balwinder, Nanao in quarters
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Career-best knock by Gambhir
New Delhi, October 29 With back-to-back hundreds in the current series, Gambhir scored his third Test century, and was going strong at close of play. The new ball was taken after 85.1 overs, with India on 289 for three. Gambhir was then on 144 and VVS Laxman on 53. Though they could add only 10 runs in the remaining 3.5 overs, both Gambhir and Laxman tried not to get rattled by the pace of Brett Lee, who was easily the pick of the fast bowlers. With Anil Kumble back in the saddle after mending his sour shoulder, India rested off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, nursing a toe injury. Amit Mishra has been retained as a reward for his seven-wicket haul on debut in the second Test at Mohali. Though India will have the luxury of having two leg-spinners in the playing eleven, they look certainly better off than the visitors in the spin department. Kumble won the toss and opted to bat. The pitch was expected to be of low and slow bounce, which would give the home batsmen a lot of leverage. But the hosts were in for a huge shock when Virender Sehwag was rapped on the pad by a shooting Brett Lee delivery to be adjudged lbw with just five runs on the board. Sehwag fell for one run, made off two balls, on his home turf. Rahul Dravid joined Gambhir and played the waiting game. But in a moment of relapse, he played a careless shot and paid for it. He glided Mitchell Johnson to a four to the point fence off the first ball of the bowler in the tenth over. But he then needlessly fiddled with the third ball, moving away, got only a snick and Matthew Hayden snapped up a fine catch in the first slip. Dravid batted for 36 minutes and faced 31 balls to make 11, and his exit, with just 27 runs on the board, put India under tremendous pressure. Sachin Tendulkar came, surveyed the scene for a while, and then got cracking to scatter boundaries, and quickly overtook Gambhir, in the run stake. Australian captain Ricky Ponting, keeping an aggressive, attacking field, posted a virtual ring around the wicket when Sachin and Gambhir were together. But the Little Master found enough gaps to send the ball to the fence whenever he got a chance, though the slow outfield did not help in easy run-gathering through boundaries. Sachin, who hit Johnson to cover for this first boundary, spared none of the Australian quickies, thumping the ball to square leg, point, mid off, third man, cover, mid-wicket etc to gather 11 fours. Ponting, alarmed at the consolidation of the Indian innings by Sachin and Gambhir after the hosts lost two quick wickets, employed all his speed bowlers, and they kept the run-flow restricted, and cramped the fluent-stroke making of Gambhir. But when right-arm spinner Cameroon White was introduced from the pavilion one hour after lunch, Gambhir cut loose to take ten runs off him, which took him past Tendulkar. Poor White was taken off the bowling after he conceded 27 runs in four overs. But before that, Sachin had completed his 50, steering Stuart Clarke to point. He did not last long as he edged one, off Mitchell Johnson, into the hands of keeper Brad Haddin for 68 (68, 189m, 124b, 11x4). However, the 130-run stand between Gambhir and Sachin took India to a safe 157 for 3 off 51.5 overs. Gambhir displayed a better chemistry in the company of Laxman, as their running between the wicket was quick and spontaneous, though they nearly came to ruin a couple of times, once even the matter going for referral. But Gambhir and Laxman showed so much assurance and staying power that pace or spin, they stonewalled the astute bowling changes by Ricky Ponting to remain together till close. With the pacemen calling the shots for most part of the day, the match stretched to 5 p.m before the visitors could complete their day's quota of overs. Australia must have felt the absence of a quality spinner as Cameroon White and left-armers Michael Clarke and Simon Katich, made no impact on Gambhir and Laxman, not that the pacers made any great impression either, despite adopting a negative line of bowling at times in a bid to scare the hosts.
Scoreboard India (first innings): Gambhir not out 149 Sehwag lbw b Lee 1 Dravid c Hayden b Johnson 11 Tendulkar c Haddin b Johnson 68 Laxman not out 54 Extras (lb-5 b-4 nb-4) 13 Total (3 wickets, 89 overs) 296 Fall of wickets: 1-5 2-27 3-157 Bowling: Lee 19-1-70-1, Clark 21-8-29-0, Johnson 17-1-69-2, Watson 13-4-41-0, White 4-0-27-0, M. Clarke 9-0-34-0, Katich 6-1-17-0. |
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‘They were desperate to get me out’
New Delhi, October 29 Gambhir had run-ins with spinner Simon Katich and medium pacer Shane Watson. First he had an exchange of words with Watson when the all-rounder got in his way of taking a second run. Gambhir elbowed him out, but insisted that it was not deliberate. Gambhir then got into a heated exchange of words with Katich who, on his follow-through, came in Gambhir's way to prevent him from taking a single. Gambhir was furious and umpire Billy Bowden had to step in even as skipper Ricky Ponting and his deputy Michael Clarke ran in to pacify Katich. "The way we batted, they had no other way and they were desperate to get me out. Under the circumstances it was important for me to maintain my concentration," Gambhir told reporters after the day's play. But the 27-year--old downplayed the incidents, saying that such things happened in international cricket and that the team management is not going to lodge any complaint with match referee Chris Broad. "It has been a hard fought series and such things are bound to happen," he said. Gambhir's unbeaten 149 was his second consecutive Test century and also the first at his home ground. The Delhi batsman admitted that the 104 in the last Test in Mohali helped him to ease the pressure. "My century in Mohali was very crucial. Before the start of the series, there was a lot of talk about my batting and I feel that century helped to take the pressure off me. I was playing at my home ground and I didn't feel any pressure." Gambhir rated his century here better than the one at Mohali. "In Mohali, the century came when we were already 200 runs ahead. But here I had to give a good start to the team and put runs on the board for the bowlers," he said. Gambhir also said since Australian spinners, especially Katich, was able to get some turn out of the track, the job for him and the other Indian batsmen will be to put up a big score. "It is still a good track to bat on. But as the match progresses, the pitch will crumble and there will be inconsistent bounce. So our target now will be to pile up a huge score for the bowlers so that they can take the 20 wickets," he said. — IANS
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India-Australia Test series Gautam Gambhir's second consecutive century has given India the chance of putting up the kind of score that will give his team the chance to put some serious pressure on the Australians. Despite losing his partner Sehwag early and then seeing the dependable Dravid depart without too many on the board the left hander kept going and played an innings that not only all those who watched it but he himself will remember with fondness and pride. It was just the kind of knock that confirmed if confirmation was needed that Gambhir is past his self-destructing phase and is here to stay. Too often in the past he has let himself down by being too ambitious or getting worked up by the opposition but in this game he has realized that the best way to give it back to the opposition is to show them the scoreboard at the end For some strange reason the Aussies don't seem to like Gambhir, maybe they think he is not good enough, in which case the last two Tests should be proof enough that he is more than good for they haven't been able to stop him getting centuries. Maybe he gives them a bit of lip when he is fielding at close positions and however hard the Aussies might try to say that it doesn't affect them the fact that they talk about it is again proof that it does bother them. It certainly hasn't made any difference to Gambhir for he reeled off as good a Test century as one can He was smart enough to take the backseat when Tendulkar was batting and let the little champion dominate their partnership. Then when Tendulkar was out on the stroke of tea he took the leading role in the essay with VVS Laxman as he helped the elegant Hyderabadi get to a half century. It may have looked that the Indians pulled back on the throttle late in the day even as the Australians were tiring but it was important that India did not lose wickets and expose new batsmen to the second new ball. Australia are sorely missing the duo of McGrath and Warne. These two great bowlers exerted enormous pressure on the opposition and made life hard for them. The attack minus them is pedestrian at best. Lee may have the pace but little else. Stuart Clark may have accuracy but nothing more and Johnson still has a lot to learn. The others especially Watson think they are better than they actually are and when all else fails try the weaponry of verbals which is invariably an indicator of the kind of upbringing that they have had. Yes we are told Test cricket is not tiddly winks but neither is it a sport where opposition has to be taunted and abused especially when things are not running smoothly your way. That is simply bad sportsmanship. Gambhir's retort was with the bat when he danced down the pitch and hoisted Watson over long on to reach his century. It was as if to tell the bowler that he is nothing better than a net bowler. Tendulkar has already had a net and Laxman is having a good one too but the best net on the first day was had by Gambhir who with this ton is now a man among men. — PMG
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Symonds’ omission puzzles Moody
Melbourne, October 29 Moody wondered why Symonds, whose explosive batting and part-time off-spin have helped Australia in the past, was left out of the four-match Test series in India and that too for an offence like missing a regulation team meeting to go fishing in Darwin in August. "Without knowing the actual details of what the discipline is, the only thing we know as the public is that Andrew Symonds went fishing and missed a meeting," Moody was quoted as saying by the 'Australian Associated Press'. "So if that's the case he's serving a pretty long penalty. Obviously there must be more there. That's why he's playing for Queensland and not Australia," said the cricketer-turned-coach. "There's obviously underlying reasons why Symonds is still here in Australia but I think if you put aside all the issues that may be underlying and pick your best Australian team to play in the third Test match in Delhi, Symonds would probably be one of the first guys you would pencil in. "He's one player that can take away the game from the opposition with the bat, and his off-spin has proven to be invaluable given the lack of experience we have in that department." Though the 33-year-old Symonds has apologised for the fishing incident, he was not considered for the series against India even after spinner Bryce McGain and opener Phil Jaques were forced to return home due to injury. — PTI
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Heroes win thriller
In the end it was a disciplined effort from the Hyderabad Heroes that saw them scamper home against their opponents from Gujarat by a narrow margin of 3 runs. Ambati Rayudu was declared Man of the Match. Earlier in the evening Damien
Martyn, won the toss and elected to field. Jason Gillespie’s bowling prowess with the new ball was on full view; eventually scalping the opposition sheath anchor Jimmy Maher in the 3rd over, cheaply for 3 & the Hyderabad scorecard reading 10. Rakesh Patel was has impressed one and all throughout the tournament struck the second blow on
Hyderabad, packing back the dangerous Razzaq to leave the defending champions in a bit of a bother at 14/2 in the 4th over. Kemps was Gillespie’s second scalp, smartly caught by Campbell behind the wickets added further misery for the Hyderabadi’s in the 5th over. At the end of the 5th over the boys from Gujarat were right on top as the Hyderabad score read 20/3. Rayudu’s wicket in the7th over brought the pedigreed Binny to the middle, getting into the repair act right away & taking the score to 60/4 with four wonderful boundaries at the half way mark of the innings; ably supported on the other end by dependable Nicky
Boje. Binny was looking in great touch and playing some marvelous strokes under very trying conditions. Brief
Scores: Hyderabad Heroes 166 (Binny 48, Boje 47; Patel 2 for 21, Gillespie 2 fore
22) Ahmedabad Rockets: 163 (Goodwin 59, Sodhi41; Harris 2 for 18, Boje 1 for 26)
Lions hunt down
Tigers
Tejinder Pal Singh scored a delectable 74 to power Chandigarh Lions over Royal Bengal Tigers by eight wickets in the Indian Cricket League at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here last night. Chasing a moderate 141,
Tejinder, who was later adjudged Man of the Match, hammered the Royal Bengal Tigers bowlers mercilessly and left them completely clueless in the middle.
During the innings which took just 48 balls, Tejinder struck eight boundaries and sent the opponent bowlers out of the ground twice for the maximum. Earlier, invited to bat first, the Royal Bengal Tigers posted a moderate target of 141. Despite an attacking 57 by opener Hamish Marshall, Tigers failed to cross the 150-run mark as the Chandigarh bowlers drafted a late comeback during the innings. Tigers suffered an early blow when a quick delivery off Daryl Tuffey kissed opener Deep Dasgupta’s willow before wicketkeeper Sarabjeet Singh pouched an easy catch. But the Chandigarh bowlers failed to arrest the flow of Tigers’ New Zealander import Hamish Marshall, who took 20 runs from the fourth over off Tuffey and sent him out of the ground on four occasions, including once for maximum. Chandigarh Lions, who were led by Andrew Hall after ICL Executive Board suspended skipper Chris Cairns, were seemingly ruffled at one point of time when Marshall was wielding his willow, sending bowlers out of the ground at will. Marshall completed his half-century in 28 deliveries, en route 57 off 35 balls, hitting a huge sixer off Chandigarh spinner Karanveer Singh. He paired up with Rajiv Kumar (14) to add 50 runs in 27 balls in second-wicket partnership and adorned his innings with eight boundaries and two
sixers, before being dismissed by Tuffey. Royal Bengal Tigers were 85 for 2 after 10
overs. Chandigarh bowlers put a break on Tigers’ run rate as the Kolkata outfit lost another wicket on 15th over when Love Ablish’s delivery found Andre Adams’ (9) leg in front of the wickets. Tigers’ run rate never soared again as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Brief Score: Royal Bengal Tigers: 140 (Marshall 57, Klusener 18; TP Singh 2 for 11, Hall 2 for 19) Chandigarh Lions: 141 ( TP Singh 74, Manish Sharma 25, Ahmid 1 for 21, Chandana 1 for 34) —
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Anand retains world chess title
Bonn, October 29 The game opened in a Sicilian Najdorf, as Anand was expected to go for a draw and Kramnik was expected to thwart all such attempts to try and force a win to keep himself alive in the match and take it to the 12th game and then force a tie-breaker. The game ended in a draw after 24 moves as Kramnik failed to find a win despite trying to complicate the game. Anand earlier won three games, the third, fifth and sixth and lost the 10th in a match that looked one-sided till Kramnik brought back some life with a win in 10th game. In the 11th game, Anand needing only a draw managed that in a game that had a 1. e4 start and led to a Sicilian-Najdorf, which Kramnik rarely plays. Kramnik went all out for a win and tried to create wild and unstable positions to throw Anand off-guard, but the Indian Grandmaster was upto the task. In fact as Kramnik overstretched in a do-or-die battle, he actually allowed Anand greater play and may well have lost. But in the end the game ended in a 24-move draw. According to the pre-match rules, the two players share the purse of 1.5 million euros equally. — UNI
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Manila, October 29 At the end of the third and final day of the Individual Championship for Men Recurve and Women Compound, the Indian Archery team took the total tally to three golds, two silver and three bronze medals. In the earlier rounds, Bannerjee had defeated Dorji of Bhutan, Dao of Vietnam and Li Fc of Taipei. In the Compound Women section, Jhanu hansda lost to Ngain Aung of Myanmar in the quarterfinals whereas Namita Yadav suffered a narrow loss to J Chan of Phillipines with a score of 109 vs 108 points. Ngain Aung went on to win the gold whereas J Chan won the silver medal. — UNI
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Jones’ tell-all interview to Oprah
Los Angeles, October 29 According to details released in advance by the program, Jones discusses the moment she decided to lie to prosecutors about her use of the once-undetectable designer steroid THG, called “the clear” by clients of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO). It was during the BALCO steroid distribution investigation that Jones ran afoul of federal agents. “And so when they showed it to me and they said this is the substance, and I knew that I had taken that substance, I made the decision that I was going to lie and I was going, you know, try and cover it up,” Jones told Winfrey. Jones, who never failed a drug test, pleaded guilty in October 2007 to two charges of making false statements to federal investigators in 2003. Having denied for years that she had ever taken steroids, a tearful Jones admitted she had started using THG in 1999 and continued using it into 2001. As a result of the admission, Jones was stripped of her five medals, three of them gold, from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. “It wasn’t as difficult to give back the medals because it’s not about the hardware,” the 33-year-old athlete told Winfrey. “It was about that memory. So that memory is what will be tarnished.” — AFP
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Pugilists Balwinder, Nanao in quarters
Guadalajara, October 29 Balwinder, who is the cousin of Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh and a gold medallist at the just-concluded Commonwealth Youth Games, beat Puerto Ricop’s Jonuel Tapia 23-6. Another CYG gold medallist, Nanao Singh, was also equally impulsive thrashing the European cadet champion Mikoya Butsenko of Ukraine 22-4. — UNI
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