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India crawl ahead by 285 runs
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Broad surprised India didn't push for win
Mallya in race to buy Honda’s F1
J&K Guv declares open school games
Cash bonanza for wrestlers, coaches
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India crawl ahead by 285 runs
Mohali, December 22 As the action started after at 11 pm due to the prevailing foggy conditions, India dealt one blow after the other. Within no time (10.5 overs to be precise), the England innings folded at 302 runs just before the lunch break. With 151-run first innings lead and enjoying the advantage of being 1-0 ahead in the two-Test series after their come-from-behind victory in the first Test in Chennai, one expected Indian team to pile up pressure on the rivals by batting at a decent pace. But as the things unfolded, one was made to believe that the hosts were content to play for a draw and pocket the series 1-0. Maybe, perhaps the team was pinning hopes on swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag to put the opposition attack to the sword once again. But the dismissal of flamboyant opener with 30 on the board in the 6th over lulled the team into inertia for a major part of the day. After Sehwag was run out after scoring a-run-a-ball 17, the innings lost the momentum, if it had any. What followed thereafter was certainly not the stuff befitting a team aspiring to be the world No 2 in the Test ranking. One has always seen known Gautam Gambhir as an attacking batsman. Sometimes as belligerent as Sehwag. But it was it was an uncharacteristic Gambhir, who went into his shell. Once into it, the southpaw just refused to come out of it. He was just content to defend. For all the drudgery (155 balls, strike rate 28.38), he had 44 runs to show against his name. As is his wont, Rahul Dravid took his time to get his eye in. But after spending 28 minutes and 19 balls at the crease, the “Wall” was breached by a peach of a delivery from Stuart Broad. The batsman had yet to get off the mark. A subdued Laxman was run out after scoring 49-ball 15. The run rate was so tardy that the team progressed from 9 without loss at lunch break to 56 for 3 at the tea break - an addition of 47 runs in 23 over! And this when there was no devil in the pitch. Neither was the bowling hostile. England bowlers were disciplined for most part of the day. Putting the ball in the right areas, they kept the batsmen silent. Gangling Stuart Broad gave was immaculate with his line and length, while Flintoff kept the batsman on the leash with the decent pace and control. But 47 runs in a session and the crawl thereafter is hard to explain. The crawl continued relentlessly even as the sparse crowd was forced to resort to jeering. Arrival of Yuvraj in the middle ended the long spell of inactivity. He warmed up hitting a couple of fours off Monty Panesar before freeing his arms sending the left-arm spinner’s delivery soaring over the mid-wicket fence for a huge six. His 39-ball 40 include five fours and a six. But for the cameo by Yuvraj, India would have barely crossed the 100-run mark in the 50 overs that were bowled during the day! Opener Gautam Gambhir (44) and Yuvraj Singh (39) were at the crease at stumps. Scoreboard India (1st innings): 453 England (1st innings): 302 India (2nd innings): Gambhir batting 44 Sehwag run out 17 Dravid b S Broad 0 Tendulkar c Swann b Anderson 5 Laxman run out 15 Yuvraj batting 39 Extras: (b-4, lb-3, w-5, nb-2) 14 Total: (4 wkts, 50 overs) 134 Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-36, 3-44, 4-80. Bowling: Anderson 15-8-32-1, Broad 11-2-22-1, Flintoff 9-1-16-0, Swann 8-2-20-0, Panesar 7-0-37-0.
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War of words fires me up: Yuvraj
Mohali, December 22 Yuvraj was speaking to the media in the reference to the word “pie-chucker” used by England skipper Kevin Pietersen about Yuvraj Singh’s bowling after the day’s play yesterday. “So if a useless bowler can get Pietersen five times, that means Pietersen is a useless batsman!” Yuvraj retorted, adding that he had scalped the England skipper five times in ODIs as well as Tests. The last time Yuvraj got the wicket of Pietersen was in the second innings of the Chennai Test. What baffled Pietersen, as he told yesterday, was that when someone as good a bowler as Zaheer was bowling , Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni summoned a “pie-chuker” Yuvraj Singh to came and bowl as soon as “I arrived at the wicket to bat.” “Jokes apart,” Yuvraj later said, “Pietesen is a fabulous batsman having 15 Test centuries under his belt. I regard him very highly.” Regarding the little war of words between him and Flintoff or Pietersen on the field, Yuvraj said: “Sometimes it fires you, while at other times it backfires. But, most of the times it makes me more focussed. Me and KP are good friends off the field. On the field, I am not there to make friends.” About his uncertain Test career so far, the swashbuckling batsman said, “I haver never believed that I don’t belong to the Test arena. I have scored three Test hundreds. It is all a matter of getting your eye in. If you are able to spend some time in the middle, runs are bound to come.” Quizzed why English players were always eager to get under his skin, Yuvraj said maybe it had roots in the Twenty20 Championship, which India won in South Africa. Asked to name the knock, he though was best by him, Yuvraj mentioned the unbeaten 85 he made in the Chennai Test. “To score the runs on the last day of a Test on a wearing wicket and go on to win the Test overhauling the 387-run target is something that doesn’t happen everyday. Tendulkar also played very well, but I am very satisfied with my knock as well.” |
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Broad surprised India didn't push for win Mohali, December 22 Broad was clearly the pick of the England seamers who straitjacketed the otherwise free-scoring Indian line-up, which could raise only 134 runs from 50 overs losing key four frontline batsmen in their second essay. Asked if Indias sluggish run rate surprised him, Broad said, "Yes I was surprised that they didn’t push harder. Anyway, our bowlers made it difficult for them to score runs and hope it works out well for us tomorrow. "Bowled out for 302, England clawed their way back into the match riding on the sterling show by its seamers who stemmed the run flow with some disciplined bowling and the 23-over post-lunch session saw only 47 runs beings scored which cost India three wickets. “We were trying to keep the run to a minimum and also they were not pushing harder. But lets be pleased with our performance and it was great to get some reverse swing. “Hopefully we can continue this sort of bowling tomorrow," said the lanky bowler. — PTI
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Back-up venue always there: ICC
Mohali, December 22 He was asked whether the world body had any contingency plan for the World Cup slated to be held in the sub-continent, which could run in jeopardy following India’s refusal to tour Pakistan for the bilateral series in January and the disinclination of some other teams to visit Pakistan as was evident for the Champions Trophy. “We have Australia or New Zealand in mind for the World Cup,” Lorgat said. “The ICC had the Indian tour in mind for the inputs vis-a-vis the Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan later next year. We would have seen how the Indian tour went before deciding about the Champions Trophy venue. Now we would rely on the Sri Lanka trip to Pakistan to take a final decision.” The ICC executive board will discuss the Champions Trophy fate when it meets in January. Asked if it was safe for the Sri Lanka team to tour Pakistan, Lorgat replied; “I’m convinced that the Sri Lankan cricket board will do whatever necessary to see that the players are safe.” Lorgat replied when asked if he thought the Sri Lanka cricket board was risking the safety of its cricketers by sending them to Pakistan. "We will also do our assessment of the situation there before finalising umpires, match referees and observer,” he said. The ICC CEO had words of sympathy for Pakistan which not hosted an international match for a long time now. The PCB was pinning hopes on the Indian tour in January, which was also cancelled by the Indian government on account of security concerns. “I hope international cricket resumes in Pakistan. I would love to see Pakistan back to staging matches as usual.” Regarding the ICC centenary celebrations, Lorgat said they would start from Sydney in January and move over all the member countries. “Hall of Fame is something we are working on,” he revealed. Lorgat was thrilled by South Africa recording one of the greatest cricket triumphs chasing the second biggest target of 414 runs against world champions Australia at Perth yesterday. He also mentioned India scoring an improbable win in the Chennai Test over England saying that it would open the race for the world No 1 Test team. |
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Mallya in race to buy Honda’s F1
London, December 22 Honda put its Formula One team on the block earlier this month as it decided to move out of the racing activities due to the economic slowdown saying that it was looking to sell the team by the end of the year. In a report published today, automotive industry website Motor Authority said Carlos Slim, Force India’s Mallya and UK-based motorsport and auto engineering group Prodrive’s David Richards have emerged as the potential buyers. The other interested parties include a Swiss hedge fund and Greek shipping tycoon Achilleas Kallakis, it added. Force India formula one motor racing team was formed last year after a consortium led by Mallya bought the Spyker F1 team for £88 million. Noting that Prodrive’s Richards “has travelled to the Middle East for talks with investors”, the report said “another serious candidate is Carlos Slim, a Mexican billionaire, who is the second richest man in the world”. “68-year-old Slim, who controls the telecommunications company Telmex, gave the game away when he visited the embattled team’s UK headquarters last week,” it said, adding, “His helicopter, displaying his official crest, was too big to be landed on the helipad, so the team had to clear the carpark.”
— PTI |
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J&K Guv declares open school games
Jammu, December 22 “Cricket is no more merely a gentlemen’s game with women pitching into it in a big way”, Vohra said in a lighter vein while emphasising the need for giving due publicity to women cricket. “How many amongst us know that our national women cricket squad is one of the top three teams in the world”, he asked and hoped that the achievement registered by the women cricketers at the international arena will inspire the young and budding players to make their mark in the game. |
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Cash bonanza for wrestlers, coaches
New Delhi, December 22 The rest of the awardees were: Nirmala Devi (48kg, gold), Kamini Yadav (51kg, silver), Manju (55kg, silver), Alka Tomar (59kg, bronze), Geetika Jakhar (63kg, silver), Jyoti (67kg, silver) and Meenakshi Devi (72kg, silver), Sudesh Kumari (44kg, bronze) and Babita Kumari (51kg, silver). Palwinder Singh Cheema received Rs 1.5 lakh for his bronze in the Asian Championship. Among the coaches, Satpal received Rs 2.5 lakh while Mahabir Prasad also got Rs 2.5
lakh. |
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