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Indian batting worries NZ
Match practice |
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India rally to beat NZ 2-1
Hard-fought draw for Anand
Jaya, Samaraweera in record stand
KP was ‘uneasy’ with Stanford deal
Rana wins Desert Storm
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Christchurch, February 22 New Zealand are scheduled to play Twenty20 matches and one-day series against India first but they have already started planning for the later Test series, thanks to a deadly middle-order, which adorns the visitors batting line-up. Vettori, Moles and explosive batsman Bredon McCullum discussed the strategy to tame the awesome foursome in a recent team meeting. "Guys, it's important we start well, bowl good lines, hit the seam. There's some good players in that line-up. Let's have a look at some. Virender Sehwag - any thoughts," Moles asked in his conversation with key players. Vettori replied, "Dangerous player. If we don't get him early, he could take the game away from you." "Rahul Dravid? was the next query from Moles and McCullum said "Great player. If we don't get him early, he'll happily bat all day. What about Sachin Tendulkar asked Moles and Vettori said, "Top, top player. If Queried about the wrist Laxman, McCullum said, "Fantastic player. If we don't get him early, we could be staring at a total of 500-plus." After listening to such praise of the rival players, Moles' suggestion was: "Simple then - if we don't get them early, we're in the s***." The Test series will be played from March 18 after the five-match one-day series. Kirsten unfazed by seeming
pitches
He said that his team was well prepared to adapt to the situations that they may encounter during the tour. Kirsten said India had
plan in place for every challenge which they could face during the 47-day tour and it was just the question of doing the planning and basics right. "We are aware of what to expect and are planning for that. Every wicket around the world might well be different. You are not going to find two wickets that are exactly the same. "So we are not really focusing on the wickets. But we are doing the work we need to do. We are looking to adapt to the situations that we are confronted with. The team is well balanced and our seamers have done particularly well in the last year," Kirsten told reporters today. "Everyone's talking a lot about the wickets, but the wickets I saw in the games against West Indies seemed to play really well. It is not something that will concern us too much," he added. The former South Africa opening batsman chose to downplay India's miserable show during the previous tour in 2002-03 saying, "The last tour here was six-seven years ago. We don't focus on the past. We are focusing on the future and the tour that we are on. In our team meetings we are certainly not talking about what happened here six years ago." Kirsten attributed India's improved show to formulation of proper strategy followed by its implementation. “We played 17 games of cricket since September last year and lost one. So we are happy with the way the performances have gone. But this team doesn't focus on performances. We focus on what we need to do on a daily basis. If we plan well enough, we will give ourselves the best chance of winning. But we know this game and that anything can happen out in the middle," he said. "The balance is good. But the game of cricket is designed such that any time you can have a bad hour or bad couple of hours. We spend a lot of time on game awareness, strategy and how we are going to set up a win. "You don't just walk out onto the park and just because you have a good side on paper win a game of cricket. Someone's got to work hard out there. Everyone wants to be a game breaker and make a contribution. It is very satisfying to see this attitude in the players," Kirsten added. "We don't operate as a bunch of individuals. We are very much focused on what we can do as a team. We know that someone's going to have to step up to the plate and do something that is not easy to do. "It's really just adapting to the situation. The ball holds in the wind a little bit and from a batting perspective you feel like you need to hold your shape for a bit longer. And bowling with the wind you know that the ball is going to get to you a bit quicker and you prepare for that.
— PTI |
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Match practice for Dravid and Co. in jeopardy
Christchurch, February 22 Dravid, VVS Laxman, Murali Vijay, Amit Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni and Laxmipathi Balaji will join the Indian squad late and the Indian board has asked its New Zealand counterpart to provide some match practice. New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said efforts were on to tag the six Indians to the local teams for the state championship but the move now faces opposition from the Players' Association. "If they think they can change the conditions halfway through the competition we would be absolutely against that," Players' Association boss Heath Mills was quoted as saying by the 'New Zealand Herald'. Vaughan had earlier said that the Indian players would play the State Championship round from March 6 to 9. But the association made it clear that it would not support any relaxation of the rules on overseas players, with each major association allowed only one overseas professional for any match. Vaughan, however, told a local newspaper that the NZC had the facility "under the playing regulations to change" the rules surrounding overseas players. Another contentious question is the inclusion of the Indian players. The New Zealand state championship is a three-way race with Central Districts, Wellington and Auckland looking for maximum points. The sides with Dravid, Laxman and Mishra could be at an advantage than others. Putting the six Indians at teams which are not in the reckoning in the championship too met with opposition from the Players' Association. "You can't just go and change the playing conditions because it might be convenient. There is no way we would support that," Mills said. — PTI
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Wellington, February 22 The home side took the early lead with Simon Child sounding the board in the fourth minute. Stung by the jolt, Tushar Khandker restored parity in the 30th minute. Skipper Sandeep Singh produced the match-winner with a penalty corner conversion in the 55th minute to give his side a 1-0 lead in the series. India, who came up with a vastly improved performance as compared to yesterday's 1-1 draw, could have won by a bigger margin but for the profligate forwards who missed chances galore. It was the Kiwis who again jolted the Indians as early as in the fourth minute when midfielder Bradley Shaw sent a nice ball down the left past Indian right-half Gurbaj Singh to Child who pushed home from an acute angle beyond the reach of goalkeeper Baljit Singh. The Indians, however, regrouped immediately and took control of proceedings. They dominated the midfield with Sardar Singh, Arjun Halappa, Khandker and Prabodh Tirkey denying space to the Kiwis. The midfield quartet created several chances for forwards Shivendra Singh and Rajpal Singh but good defence by the New Zealanders thwarted them until five minutes before the breather when Khandker received a free hit from Sandeep Singh, turned and nailed a reverse stick shot from close range to make it 1-1. India missed several chances to break into the lead after interval but their forwards either hit the post or were narrowly off the target. Efforts from Shivendra, Rajpal, Khandker, SV Sunil and Hari Prasad all did not bear fruit. The dominating visitors were, however, not to be denied a well-deserved victory as 15 minutes from the regulating finish Sandeep stepped up for his third penalty corner and finally hit the back of the net with his drag-flick. The Black Sticks got a final opportunity to equalise in the last minute but Richard Petherick's flick flew over the goal. A relieved India coach-in-charge Harendra Singh said that his wards played the best match of the tour so far but was also worried about the poor finishing by the forwards. "The scoreline should have been much bigger," he said. India next play two matches against an Invitational XI side before taking on the New Zealand national side for the third Test in Auckland on February 28. — PTI
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Linares (Spain), February 22 Taking his tally to 1.5 points out of a possible three, the Indian ace remained in the joint third spot in the eight-players double round-robin tournament. The standings remained the same as the other games of the third round were also hard fought draws. Grandmaster Levon Aronian of Armenia and Alexander Grischuk of Russia remained in joint lead with two points after drawing with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine respectively. Wang Yue played a solid game to hold Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the fourth game of the day. Anand shares the third spot along side Dominguez, Carlsen and Ivanchuk while Radjabov and Wang Yue are at the bottom of the tables with one point each. Eleven more rounds remain in the traditional tournament that carries a total prize pool of euro 3,14,000 with euro 1,00,000 reserved for the winner. Playing the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf, Anand faced the English attack from Dominguez but defedned his citadel well. The pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and the players arrived at a rook and minor piece endgame with balance remaining intact. Anand created his counter play on the king side and the position became exciting for a short period with both players having two passed pawns on different flank. However, parity was soon restored by Dominguez as he sacrificed a pawn to reach a safe haven. The draw was agreed to in 41 moves. Aronian and Radjabov were locked in an interesting queen pawn game where the former played white. Taking the initiative early in the middle game Aronian tried to press along the king side but Radjabov was good with his defense. The queens got traded on the 24th move and the result of the game was not in much doubt thereafter. It took 42 moves before the players shook hands. — PTI
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Jaya, Samaraweera in record stand
Karachi, February 22 Pakistan were 44 for one in reply, opener Salman Butt (23) edging Muttiah Muralitharan to Jayawardene at first slip after Sri Lanka declared after tea. The home side began to fight back on the stroke of tea, dismissing both the double centurions and Tillakaratne Dilshan in the space of 10 balls. Off-spinner Shoaib Malik and Danish Kaneria shared three wickets after Jayawardene and Samaraweera had broken a 52-year old batting record with their stand. They surpassed the fourth wicket partnership of 411 between Peter May and Colin Cowdrey of England set in 1957 against West Indies at Edgbaston. The partnership of the two batsmen spanned 643 balls and came in 450 minutes. Jayawardene was the first to fall when he had a lapse of concentration. Trying to sweep Malik at the total of 614, he was caught brilliantly by keeper Kamran Akmal down the leg side. His partner Samaraweera, who made his first double century and highest Test score, fell seven balls later at the same score when he was bowled by a flipper from leg-spinner Kaneria. Pakistan got their third wicket at the same total of 614 when Dilshan was caught behind playing defensively at a doosra from Malik. Sri Lanka’s total is their highest against Pakistan and also the highest by any team at the national stadium. The 437-run stand is also the highest for any wicket at the ground by any team. Scoreboard Sri Lanka (first innings): Warnapura c Misbah b Arafat 59 Paranavitana c Misbah b Gul 0 Sangakkara c Misbah b Kaneria 70 M Jayawardene c Akmal b Malik 240 Samaraweera b Kaneria 231 Dilshan c Akmal b Malik 0 P Jayawardene b Kaneria 18 Vaas not out 12 Extras (lb-4, w-1, nb-9) 14 Total (7 wickets, dec; 155.2 overs) 644 Fall of wickets: 1-3 2-93 3-177 4-614 5-614 6-614 7-644. Bowling: Gul 24-2-92-1; S. Khan 21-2-131-0; Arafat 26-2-90-1; Malik 36-3-140-2; Kaneria 46.2-5-170-3, Younis 1-0-6-0, Butt 1-0-11-0. Pakistan (first innings): K. Manzoor batting 18 S. Butt c Jayawardene b Muralitharan 23 Younis batting 0 Extras (nb-3) 3 Total: (one wicket; 22 overs) 44 Fall of wicket: 1-44. Bowling: Vaas 8-2-11-0, Fernando 5-0-22-0, Mendis 6-2-10-0, Muralitharan 3-2-1-1. — Reuters
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KP was ‘uneasy’ with Stanford deal
Pietersen had reportedly signed a productive two-year deal to be an ''ambassador'' for Stanford. Last year, as the Stanford series was appearing to get a green signal from the ECB, Pietersen said he was excited by the money on offer in Twenty20 cricket, and likened it to winning the lottery. However, Pietersen now claimed that he was not in favour of ECB's deal with Stanford that made it seem as if ''the England team had been sold.'' ''I was an ambassador for Stanford - a player face - but that contract has gone,'' Pietersen told the News of the World. ''I was very uncomfortable with the whole Stanford thing,'' he added. The deal with Stanford came with an option to promote the Stanford Twenty20 matches in Antigua and the Stanford-sponsored international quadrangular Twenty20 events in England for another three years. ''It was not that I was captain at the time, it was the uncomfortable situation of everybody thinking the England team had been sold. With the financial state of the world, people were talking about money instead of cricket,'' said Pietersen. ''Those kinds of things just didn't seem right to me, so it's not a bad thing we are not going to have that tournament anymore,'' the former skipper added. However, once the Stanford's alleged fraud came to light, the ECB terminated all contracts with the billionaire this week. — UNI
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Rana wins Desert Storm Xtreme category
Udaipur, February 22 Yogesh Raheja won Xplore category, Gaurav Chirpal held the first position for Ndure and among bikers it was Mohanlal Sharma who topped in their respective categories. Participants started their final leg of the rally from the fringe areas of the Kutch this morning and reached the finishing line here covering a stretch of about 65 kms. The second position holders were Sunny Sidhu in Xtreme, Ajgar Ali in Xplore, Jagmeet Gill in Ndure and Raj S Rathore among the bikers. The route took 170 rallyists through competitive and transport sections. The competitive sections included tough, off-road terrain that had gravel, sand After being flagged off from New Delhi on Feburary 17, the rally started from Shahpur near Manesar
— UNI |
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giving sleepless nights to Kiwi players and their coach Andy Moles.
India's cricket coach Gary Kirsten is not unduly worried about the seeming pitches in New Zealand.
London, February 22
