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Double delight in Delhi
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Laxman hits back at ‘doubting Thomases’
New Delhi, October 30 Having smashed an unbeaten double ton against his old-nemesis Australia, middle order batsman VVS Laxman today hit back at his critics, saying “all doubting Thomases” should stop advising senior players about their timing of retirement. Watson guilty, decision on Gambhir today
Arsenal held by Spurs
Federer, Nadal advance in Paris
Cairns not involved in match-fixing: Lawyer
Nanao lone Indian left in contention
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Double delight in Delhi
New Delhi, October 30 India declared their innings as soon as Laxman completed his second career double century, with 15 overs of the day’s play remaining. Australia made 50 (15 overs, 64 minutes) with Matthew Hayden batting on 16 (35b, 3x4) and Simon Katich not out on 29 (56b, 5x4) when the stumps were drawn. Though Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma gave a tough time to the Australian openers initially, two successive boundaries off Zaheer by Hayden eased the pressure on the visitors some what. And when captain Anil Kumble brought himself to bowl his leg-spin from the pavilion end after the speedsters had completed four overs each, and Amit Mishra was pressed into service from the far end, Hayden and Katich cut loose to compile some quick runs, to make up for the maiden overs bowled by the Indian quickies. It may yet be too early to predict the outcome of the match, though the huge total put on board by the hosts give them a decisive advantage, assuming that the pacers and spinners will do the trick tomorrow to put the visitors on the mat. Today’s heroes were maiden double centurion Gautam Gambhir and the stylish VVS Laxman. Laxman, who ended a long, lean patch to come good on a fine batting track to compile his second double century.(His first, 281, was hit during a record-setting knock at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata against the Ausssies in 2001). Resuming at 296 for 3, with Gambhir batting on 149 and Laxman not out on 54, India gathered runs at a slow and steady pace, without taking undue risks, to put themselves in a commanding position. So much so, Laxman remained like a scoreless wonder for 11 deliveries when on 99 before getting that elusive one run to complete his century. Gambhir anchored one end with such a composed batting display that when he played on Shane Watson in the bowler’s first over of the day to be finally out, with the total at 435, the fourth-wicket stand had yielded a record run haul of 278 (316m, 438b), which eclipsed the previous best of 268 set almost 60 years ago by West Indians Walcott and Gomez at the Kotla ground. Gambhir, who batted for a marathon 550 minutes and faced 380 balls, scored 206 with 25 boundaries and one six. He was, though, lucky to be reprieved by Hayden at slip off Cameroon White when on 176. He then went onto complete his first Test double hundred and the landmark was achieved by gliding Brett Lee to the third man. His double ton came off 375 balls to create a land mark on his home ground, where he had honed his cricketing
skills throughout. Gambhir and Laxman played as if they were stuck to the wicket like limpets, and Australian captain Ricky Ponting brought himself to bowl with his right-arm gentle medium pace in a desperate bid to end the partnership, in the 121st over. But Ponting made a hasty retreat after his two-over spell cost 11 runs. After Gambhir reached the double century, it was now the turn of Laxman to turn the table on his critics who had often prematurely written off his career, rather unfairly. The Hyderabadi played his strokes with the meat of the blade, and every one of his 19 fours had elegance and class written all over. He had begun his boundary hunt with a cover drive off Shane Watson, and then went onto whip Stuart Clark, Brett Lee, Mitchel Johnson and Cameroon White to display his range of shots, mostly to the mid-wicket region. He reached his 13th century - and sixth against Australia - with a cover drive off White (266m, 171b, 10x4), and lofted Michael Clarke to midwicket for two runs to reach 200 (470, 301b, 21x4). Though former captain Sourav Ganguly failed to get a big score - the stands were full of “Farewell Sourav: DDCA” banners. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and captain Anil Kumble indulged in lusty knocks to push up scoreboard. Dhoni slashed Katich for 14 runs with two fours and one six before falling to Watson for 27 (28m, 4x4, 1x6). Kumble and Laxman put on 98 runs, before the captain was trapped by Johnson for 45 (85m, 73b, 7x4). The skipper was warned by the umpire for “cracking the pitch” with his bat, but he made light of the situation to make his mark in batting. Zaheer Khan came and scored some quick runs, while the Indian camp waited for Laxman to reach 200 before ending the innings. Scoreboard India first innings (overnight 296-3) Gambhir b Watson 206 Sehwag lbw b Lee 1 Dravid c Hayden b Johnson 11 Tendulkar c Haddin b Johnson 68 Laxman not out 200 Ganguly c Ponting b Katich 5 Dhoni c Haddin b Watson 27 Kumble lbw b Johnson 45 Zaheer not out 28 Extras (b-6, lb-8, w-2, nb-6) 22 Total (7 wkts, dec in 161 overs) 613 Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-27, 3-157, 4-435, 5-444, 6-481, 7-579. Bowling: Lee 30-2-119-1, Clark 33-9-69-0, Johnson 32-4-142-3, Watson 20-4-66-2, White 15-1-73-0, Clarke 14-0-59-0, Katich 15-3-60-1, Ponting 2-0-11-0. Australia 1st innings Hayden not out 16 Katich not out 29 Extras (b-4, nb-1) 5 Total (No loss, 15 overs) 50 Bowling: Zaheer 4-2-9-0, Ishant 4-1-9-0, Kumble 4-1-17-0, Mishra 3-0-11-0.
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Laxman hits back at ‘doubting Thomases’
“There are doubting Thomases outside the team and not in the team. There were all sorts of stories built up before the series in the media but we took it positively and the team got together,” he said. “It hurts (to know you are being asked to go). We are not asking people to over respect us. But give us our due and right to decide when to go. Players are responsible enough to take the decision when they stop contributing to the team. After playing for the country for so long you know when to stop playing,” he added. The 33-year-old Hyderabad batsman, who was sacked as the captain of his IPL team Deccan Chargers, said he wanted to just focus on his batting and contribute to the team. “I was disappointed (in earlier matches) and keen to contribute to the team. I was very happy as this contribution was important from the team’s perspective,” he said as India declared on 613 for 7 on the second day of the third Test at Ferozeshah Kotla. “It was a very satisfying knock. I converted my 150 into a bigger score. It was a crucial innings, especially as it came against Australians. It was a big hundred, which I converted instead of throwing it away,” he added. Elaborating on his unbeaten 200, Laxman said he took only calculated risks. “I did not take too many risks. I was also not over-ambitious and I maintained a healthy strike rate which was good,” he said. “They are trying to bowl differently, various lines to our batsmen but full marks to India,” he said. Laxman said there was nothing unusual about so many Indian batsmen playing well in an innings. “We have done well as a batting unit most of the times. This time also we are good as a team,” he said. About Australia, he felt it would be interesting to watch how they come out of the situation. “They have a huge target in front of them. It is a pressure situation for them how they come out of it, we will see. The first session tomorrow will be important as Australia has a huge task at hand but a few early wickets will help us,” he said. — PTI
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Watson guilty, decision on Gambhir today New Delhi, October 30 During a hearing in front of on-field umpires Billy Bowden and Aleem Dar, third umpire Suresh Shastri and fourth umpire Sameer Bandekar, Australia team coach Tim Nielsen and Australia team manager Steve Bernard, ICC match referee Chris Broad found Watson guilty of breaching Level 1 of ICC Code of Conduct during his on-field altercation with Gambhir during the first innings of the on-going third cricket Test between India and Australia at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here yesterday. Watson, however, pleaded not guilty to a Level 1 charge under clause C1 of the ICC Code of Conduct which states that players “shall at all times conduct play within in the spirit of the game as well as within the Laws of Cricket”. The incident, that led to the charge, took place during the 51st over of India's first innings on day one of the Test match when there was a coming-together of Watson and Gambhir. After considering the evidence, Broad found Watson guilty of verbally engaging with Gambhir in a manner that was not in keeping the Spirit of Cricket. — PTI
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Gurgaon, October 30 Earlier in the evening Marvan Atapattu, won the toss and elected to field. The Mumbai side opened with the left- right combination of Jadhav and Paul, who got 19 runs for the first wicket before Bond packed off Subhojit cheaply for 3 in the 3rd over. At the end of the 5th over Mumbai Champs were placed at 32/1 and Jadhav and Taufeeq held together the Mumbai batting. A well disguised slower one from Abid Nabi castled Taufeeq in the 7th over with only 9 runs against his name. The half way mark of their innings saw the Mumbai Champs paced at 71 for 2, making it an intriguing battle between bat and ball in the crucial middle overs stage. Hasan Raza who had so far had an indifferent tournament was determined to put on a good show and was involved in a lovely battle with ICL's premiere spinner Ali Murtaza. Jadhav at the other end was playing the perfect sheath anchor role and bringing his third ICL fifty off 37 balls including seven classical fours to the boundary. Brief Scores: Mumbai Champs: 174 (Jadhav 59, Raza 43; Nabi 2 for 33, Bond 1 for 26)
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I am more relieved than happy: Anand
New Delhi, October 30 “I’m happy. But at this point probably more relieved than happy because I was undisputed world champion even before this match,” Anand told PTI after asserting his supremacy at Bonn a year after he became the world champion in Mexico. “Obviously, it’s really nice to just have the title. Vlady was really pushing me in the last few games. With White I was really hoping to have the world championship title in the evening but I wasn’t sure, you never know,” he added. Anand thrashed Kramnik 6.5-4.5 in one of the most lop-sided World Championship contest ever played. Anand was poised to reach the target a couple of days back till he lost the 10th game and said the wait was really scary. “It was close to doing it three days ago but Kramnik played a strong novelty to win the 10th game and then there was a rest day. It was a bit scary, the wait was too bad,” he said. About the 10th game which Kramnik won to delay the inevitable, Anand said “this things happen”. “He was extremely sharp with a strong-novelty in that game,” Anand said. The Indian ace, however, described it as a fantastic match. “It was a fantastic match against a formidable opponent. And to win it with a game to spare is really an important thing for me,” Anand said. Asked about what decided the outcome of the match, Anand said he and his team had out-prepared Kramnik to fox him with either colours. “Credit to my team, we managed to prepare ourselves better. He did not expect what we will do with white or what we do with black,” he said about his superb tactics. Anand, who will turn 39 this December, hinted he would not be part of India’s campaign in the Chess Olympiad in Dresden (Germany) starting November 13. “For the next few days I am just going to take rest. I have no commitments to make. I will be in India sooner than I had decided as the match has ended earlier,” he
said. — PTI |
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Arsenal held by Spurs
London, October 30 Spurs, bottom of the Premier League despite beating Bolton Wanderers in new manager Redknapp's first game on Sunday, led with a stunning David Bentley volley but needed late goals by Jermaine Jenas and Aaron Lennon to claim an unlikely point. An inexplicable handball by Portsmouth's Papa Bouba Diop enabled Steven Gerrard to score a late penalty to earn a 1-0 home win that maintained Liverpool's three-point lead. Second-placed Chelsea, beaten at home by Liverpool at the weekend, recovered well with a convincing 3-0 victory at Hull City highlighted by a superb Frank Lampard goal. Manchester United were 2-0 home winners over West Ham United, both goals by Cristiano Ronaldo, while Aston Villa moved into the top four when they came from behind to record a 3-2 home victory over Blackburn Rovers. Liverpool have 26 points from 10 games and Chelsea 23 points. Arsenal, Villa and Hull have 20 with sixth-placed Manchester United on 18. Spurs got off to a stunning start when Arsenal old boy Bentley teed up and crashed home a dipping 40-metre effort. owever, Arsenal soon took charge with headers by centre backs Mikael Silvestre and William Gallas either side of halftime and a third by Emmanuel Adebayor. Darren Bent made it 3-2 but when Robin van Persie banged in Arsenal's fourth after 68 minutes it looked all over. Jenas, though, struck in the 89th and, after a Luka Modric volley came back off the post, substitute Lennon swept home the equaliser four minutes into stoppage time. “It was amazing, a throwback to the old days,” Redknapp told Sky Sports television. “It’s been a good week so far after a good win on Sunday,” said Redknapp, who took over from Juande Ramos at the weekend. Spurs remain bottom on six points but the whole mood around the club has changed in a matter of days. “There are some good players here but certain parts of our game lets us down,” said former Portsmouth manager Redknapp. “The dressing room is buzzing and we go into Saturday's game against Liverpool with some confidence.” Bentley said: “We showed character and spirit, a lot of people have questioned that over our recent games but we showed there that we are willing to fight for every point. Certain things have gone on, we've sorted them out now and are all pulling in the right direction.” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger sank to his knees as Lennon’s goal hit the net. Wenger said: “I’m angry because we produced an outstanding performance but got the minimum result. We were at a level above Tottenham but got only one point. They were there for the taking, could have got five or six but we tried to keep the ball negatively and paid for it. The team has outstanding potential but we are immature and need to be guarded in the decisive moments.”
— Reuters |
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Federer, Nadal advance in Paris
Paris, October 30 Federer had the most trouble, saving two set points in the tiebreaker to beat Robin Soderling 6-4, 7-6 (7). “He’s got a big serve, really suits the indoors well,” Federer said. “I’m happy to be through, kind of a relief for me. I was surprised he didn’t return a bit better, but I think I’ve been really serving well lately, basically since the U.S. Open.” Soderling won the Lyon Grand Prix on Sunday but lost for the eighth straight time to the Swiss star. The Swede had set point at 6-5 on serve but hit a forehand wide. He got another chance after the next point but didn’t take it again and his long forehand gave Federer match point. Federer is enjoying the end to a tough season, getting a win at the Swiss Indoors in Basel last week to add to an Olympic gold medal in doubles and the U.S. Open title for his 13th major. “I’m happy the way things have gone this season after kind of a rough start and a rough Wimbledon final,” said Federer who lost that final to Nadal. “So I’ve really been able to turn around, you know, get some emotional wins with the Olympic gold and Basel again and then the U.S. Open.” Also second-round winners were fourth-seeded Andy Murray, sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, 10th-seeded Gilles Simon, 11th-seeded James Blake and 13th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. No. 5 David Ferrer and No. 12 Stanislas Wawrinka were upset. Nadal was looking forward to facing No. 16 Gael Monfils of France for the first time in nearly 2{ years. “(Monfils) is playing very well this year,” Nadal said. “He can play aggressive, sometimes he plays defensive, two meters behind the baseline. He can do something different.” Federer will play Marin Cilic of Croatia, and Nalbandian will meet Juan Martin del Potro for the third time in three weeks. “That is a little bit strange,” Nalbandian said of facing his fellow Argentine. “It’s going to be a tough one, we both know each other very well.” Nalbandian beat del Potro in the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors last week, after del Potro won in the Madrid Masters third round. Murray defeated Sam Querrey of the United States 6-2, 6-4 to stay on track for a record third straight Masters title after winning Cincinnati and Madrid. Davydenko, the 2006 champion, advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia. He will play 2005 champ Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, who beat Wawrinka 6-3, 7-5. Tsonga rallied to beat 2004 runner-up Radek Stepanek 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and next faces No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia. “Stepanek’s difficult to play because he has a very special rhythm,” Tsonga said. “Sometimes he plays fast, sometimes slow, sometimes he changes the pace, and sometimes he plays shots no one would play.” Djokovic beat Tsonga in the Australian Open final, then Tsonga paid him back by winning the Bangkok final. Also, 10th-seeded Simon defeated Igor Andreev of Russia 6-3, 7-5 to keep alive his chances of reaching the eight-man Masters Cup in Shanghai. The Frenchman next faces seventh-seeded Andy Roddick of the United States, who was also vying for a Masters Cup spot. Their hopes were improved when Ferrer lost 6-3, 6-2 to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. Kohlschreiber will play Blake, who kept alive his Masters Cup chance with a 6-7 (10), 6-3, 6-4 win over Simone Bolelli of Italy. Cilic won 6-4, 7-6 (2) over Marcel Granollers of Spain.
— AP |
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Cairns not involved in match-fixing: Lawyer
London, October 30 Cairns, who was leading the Chandigarh Lions team in the Twenty20 tournament, was suspended, along with his team-mate Dinesh Mongia, by the Executive Board of the ICL on disciplinary grounds. South African all-rounder Andrew Hall then replaced Cairns as the Chandigarh Lions’ captain. Asked whether Cairns had been involved in match-fixing, his lawyer, Andrew Fitch-Holland, replied “No. I’ve seen no statement from the ICL to that effect. And I would be very surprised if you could find anyone at the ICL who would say that,” Andrew was quoted as saying by Daily
Telegraph. — PTI |
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Buenos Aires, October 30 Maradona will be confirmed as national coach next Tuesday, a week after the job was offered by Julio Grondona, head of the Argentine Football Federation. But Maradona’s coaching team was running into problems already. He hoped some of his former national teammates could be assistant coaches or trainers, but Sergio Batista, the Argentina Youth coach who led the country to Olympic gold in Beijing, appeared to be backing off. Grondona was reported to have organised a meeting with Batista yesterday to offer him a staff position but Batista implied in an interview with Del Plata radio station that he may reject it. “I have my own coaching team and I’m going to respect it. I’m very happy with the youth squad,” Batista said on yesterday. “It shouldn’t be taken badly if I don’t want to be an assistant. It has to be understood that one has other priorities.” — AP
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Nanao lone Indian left in contention
New Delhi, October 30 Nanao Singh, who won a gold medal at the just-concluded Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, blanked Uzbek Jasurbek Latipov 6-0 in the last-eight stage to enter the medal rounds that start tomorrow after a rest day today. He will now be up against Frenchman Jeremy Beccu. However, it was all over for Balwinder, also a CYG gold medallist and cousin of Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh. The Haryana-boxer lost to German Satula Abdulai 5-16. India, which had sent a seven-member squad for the event, currently stands 11th in the team rankings for the event with 10 points. The points-per-boxer average for the Indians is 1.4. Russia leads the rankings with 21 points with their points-per-boxer average at 1.9.
— PTI |
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New Delhi, October 30
