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Disgraceful exit for India
Sri Lanka fight off spirited Ireland
IHF, Hockey India to merge
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Indian eves up against Lanka
Men’s Junior Hockey WC
Paldi boys lift soccer trophy
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Disgraceful exit for India England edged out India by a margin of three runs in a thriller that went to the wire. 19 runs were needed by the Indians in the ultimate over sent down by Ryan Sidebottom. They could only procure 15. England have thus improved their chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. India, even if they beat South Africa, will not be able to match the four points the winners of the England-West Indies match are bound to obtain. 46 in 27 balls from Kevin Pietersen, aided by a run-a-ball 37 from Ravi Bopara set India a target of 154 to win. Reduced to 87 for five, India fell behind in their run rate. An imposing though not impossible 60 runs were required off the last five overs. Yusuf Pathan clobbered his second six in the final over to top score for his side with 33 off 17 balls. He and Mahendra Dhoni remained un-separated after realising 63 runs off 36 balls. But even this proved to be too little too late. The new ball swung in the early overs of both innings. In anticipation, England brought in left-arm medium pacer Sidebottom into their side in place of leg-spinner Adil Rashid. The moved worked as Rohit Sharma played across the line to drag on; and Suresh Raina played too early to be athletically caught by Luke Wright at midwicket. An onerous responsibility was placed on young Ravindra Jadeja’s shoulders by sending him at 24 for two. On a spongy pitch and in a twilight zone before the floodlights took effect, forcing the pace wasn’t easy; he and Gautam Gambhir put on 38 in seven overs before the latter paddled straight into the hands of short fine leg. Off-spinner Graeme Swann introduced to toss the ball up in the tricky period, first had Jadeja mistiming to long on and then Yuvraj Singh stumped. Yuvraj had announced himself by hitting the first ball he received for a six to long on, as Dimitri Mascarenhas stared haplessly. He followed this by smashing Swann for a straight six. Yusuf Pathan followed suit with a half a dozen to long on. Glorious sunshine emblazoned an immaculate arena and jam packed stands, bar the galleries in the pavilion – where only a smattering of spectators dotted vintage white benches. Traditionalist members of the Marylebone Cricket Club, founders of the game and owners of Lord’s, have conspicuously ignored what they probably perceive to be an upstart event. Irfan Pathan’s friendly medium pace merited a rethink on his continuity in the XI; indeed, Rudra Pratap Singh’s sharper deliveries not only restricted runs, but extracted an early wicket – Wright caught hooking. With figures of one for 13 in three overs, RP was the most economical of the Indian bowlers. Pragyan Ojha’s exclusion was more debatable; but any reservations in this respect were promptly silenced by Jadeja removing England’s two most dangerous batsmen – Bopara bowled by a quicker ball as he shaped to cut and Pietersen trapped leg before wicket attempting to sweep. When the Saurashtra left-arm spinner erred with a full toss, Pietersen predictably clubbed him for six to midwicket. But in conceding no more than 26 runs, Jadeja was overall quite inexpensive. The fulcrum of the English batting was, in fact, the 2nd wicket partnership of 71 between Bopara and Pietersen. Dimitri Mascarenhas, promoted to number four, failed to produce the muscular exhibition expected of him. He was forced into an unfamiliar role of anchoring the innings. England managed a worthwhile 53 runs off the last five overs. In the 18th over, his third, Harbhajan Singh lured Owais Shah into a top edge to deep midwicket; and in the final over had James Foster caught and bowled and Swann’s stumps disfigured off consecutive balls. The Sikh deservingly claimed a bag of three for 30. The disappointment, again, was Ishant Sharma, who leaked 36 runs without capturing a wicket. Bopara hooked him for the first of two sixes in England’s venture. Yuvraj went for 20 in his two overs. One of these could have been bowled by RP. Scoreboard India:
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Sri Lanka fight off spirited Ireland
London, June 14 The Irish reached 87 for one in pursuit before Sri Lanka’s potent bowling trio of Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis took control. Mystery spinner Mendis dismissed the O'Brien brothers Niall and Kevin in the same over and Malinga bowled Trent Johnston and Andre Botha with successive yorkers. Ireland needed 18 from the final over but it was always too high a target against the pace of Malinga. The Irish surpassed themselves in the field at the home of cricket after looking no more than a club side against New Zealand in their opening Super Eight game. Man-of-the-match Mahela Jayawardene, with 78 from 53 deliveries and the only six of the innings, stroked the ball sweetly but only two other batsmen reached double figures. Wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien gave a splendid performance with three catches and a swift stumping off Australian-born medium-pacer Alex Cusack, who took four wickets from nine deliveries. —
Reuters Scoreboard
Ireland:
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IHF, Hockey India to merge
New Delhi, June 14 This decision was necessitated as New Delhi would be hosting the World Cup Hockey and the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The thawing of relationship between the two bodies was evident when IHF president KPS Gill and Hockey India secretary-general Mohd. Aslam Khan shared a dais here today to annouce the decision to elect a fully representative Hockey India body within six months. IHF president KPS Gill had called a Special General Meeting(SGM) of all the 28 State units and 5 Union Territories here today out of which 20 State units and 3 UT bodies attended, which included major hockey playing States like Punjab, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Orrissa. It is learnt that Hockey India took the initiative to mend fences with Mr Gill as Aslam Khan was also the elected vice-president of the IHF. When asked how could he deal with the IHF, when it had been “suspended” by the IOA, Khan would only say that “I am wearing two hats” and his sole aim was to put Indian hockey back on pedestal. The net result of the coming together of the IHF and Hockey India was that the former would ensure that the State units of the men’s and women’s hockey associations merged within 45 days to facilitate a formal election to Hockey India within six months. And the lawyers of both the hockey bodies would give a joint representation to the court about the sorting out of their differences to clear the legal hurdles created on account of the IHF taking legal recourse when the IOA usurped the powers of the hockey federation and vested them with an ad hoc body before the formation of Hockey India. A six-member committee has been constituted to work out the modalities for the merger of the men’s and women’s hockey associations at the State-level. Gill said ten State units had assured that they would ensure the proposed merger of men’s and women’s associations took place within ten days and the other ten State units had assured that they would carry out the job “at the earliest”. The meeting was also attended by IHF secretary-general K Jyothikumaran, who was under a cloud after getting embroiled in a controversial deal. The agenda of the SGM included dicussion on “hockey activities of the Ad Hoc Committee and formation of Hockey India by the IOA”. Gill briefed the house about the agenda and the other relevant matters concerning Hockey India in detail. Thereafter, Mohd Aslam Khan briefed the SGM about the formation of Hockey India vis-a-vis the directive of the FIH (International Hockey Federation), and the IOA’s efforts in the formation of Hockey India. The understandig is that when formal elections to Hockey India is held, there will be a 60-40 ratio of men’s and women’s representatives. Aslam Khan reiterated that “Hockey India is time-bound, and elections would be held within six months”. He said help of the IHF was necessary to formalise Hockey India as all the state units were affiliated to the IHF, and their unification and thereafter merger with Hockey India would serve the cause of Indian hockey better in the long run. The IHF SGM discussed in detail what happened to hockey during the last 15 months when IOA was administering the game, and many questions remained unanswered. But the unanimous opinion of the house was that “hockey should not suffer” on any count. Gill said members of the IHF, who kept the federation afloat despite severe resource crunch all these months, could not be forsaken for the sake of the new dispensation, and they may get a definite say in the affairs of Hockey India. The hockey units, who attended the meeting held at Amby Vally in Mumbai at the behest of Roy of Bengal Hockey Association and Amrit Bose of Indian Women’s Hockey Federation, have been requested to align with the IHF in its bid to merge with Hockey India. |
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Account for Rs 6.50 cr grant: Gill to Punjab
Amritsar, June 14 He added that the remaining sum of about Rs five crore would be released only after receiving a detailed account of the earlier grant. Expressing his displeasure at tardy handling of sports in Punjab, he added if the state wished to regain its glory in the field then it would have to expedite its functioning. He said the grant was meant for development of sports and supporting infrastructure in the state and further announced that subsequently another grant of Rs 12 crore would also be released for the current financial year. In the backdrop of statement of president of the disaffiliated Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) KPS Gill, Gill said the body for managing Indian hockey would be elected democratically as per the guidelines of Indian Hockey Federation. Referring to the shortage of coaches, Gill announced that about 700 more coaches would be hired, in addition to the existing 1,300. However, he emphasised that the coaches would be rewarded strictly on the basis of the results they produce. He also cleared the laying a new Synthetic Turf at the Hockey Stadium of Guru Nanak Dev University today. Gill also took to the field and shared some nuances with the players. |
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Taunton, June 14 India, who suffered a 10-wicket mauling at the hands of England in their campaign-opener, rode on leg-spinner Priyanka Roy’s five-wicket haul and Anjum Chopra’s gutsy batting to bounce back into contention by defeating Pakistan yesterday. Skipper Jhulan Goswami will surely expect another good knock from experienced opener Anjum, whose unbeaten 37 was the cornerstone of India’s win yesterday, but what is giving her sleepless nights is the failure of her batters to fire in unison. Even a paltry target of 76 was looking stiff when India were struggling at 21 for three after five overs and Anjum was candid enough to accept that the batters have to show more responsibility if the team is to qualify for the semifinal. “Wickets were falling like nine-pins, so it was a little tense. Fortunately the score wasn’t too high and you could push it around for singles. You need matches like this - but not too often,” Chopra said. However, bowling is not a concern for India any more especially after the brilliant show in the last encounter. New-ball pair of Rumeli Dhar, who crumbled the Pakistan top-order by scalping three wickets for 13 runs, and Jhulan Goswami is working well, while spinner Gouher Sultana is capable of getting some timely breakthroughs. “We had to win and we did. But no, I’m not happy with the way we played at all. Our final game against Sri Lanka is another must-win. Hopefully we will click against them,” India coach Sudha Shah said. On the other hand, Sri Lanka also have a respectable batting line-up with skipper Chamari Kumarihami coming out with in-form Inoka Galagedara, whose 37 was the cornerstone of their four-wicket win against Pakistan. Their batting line-up consists likes of Hiruka Fernando and Chamika Bandara who have the ability to make themselves count when the team is in trouble. Their bowlers are also performing well as medium pacers Eshani Kaushalya and left-arm Udeshika Prabodhani may pose serious threat to India’s semifinal bid. — PTI
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Men’s Junior Hockey WC
Singapore, June 14 Mandeep Antil (18th and 24th), Mohammad Amir Khan (52nd and 70th) and Victo Singh (58th and 62nd) scored two goals each while skipper Diwakar Ram (11th minute) also chipped in with a goal to give a India a resounding win. For Japan, Harayuki Fujiyoshi (41st) and Kenta Tanata (65th) ensured some respectability to the scoreline at the Seng Kang Sports Complex here. With this victory, India have three points in their kitty and will play Belgium tomorrow. Belgium defeated England 2-0 in another Group G encounter earlier in the day at Johor Bahru, Malaysia. India began the proceedings at a slow pace but soon accelerated to catch the Japanese defence on the wrong foot. — PTI |
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Paldi boys lift soccer trophy
Hoshiarpur, June 14 The Bhagtupura team, though talented, lacked coordination and was dominated by the young Paldi team from the beginning. Chief guest, AIG, Intelligence, Punjab, Ajay Pandey, gave away the prizes. A sports lover, he was impressed by the spectator turnout, which was in thousands. Pandey handed over Parminder Hans Best Player of the Tournament Award to Paldi lad Parminder Singh. He was all praise for the tournament managing committee comprising Gurkamal Bains, Navdeep Bains, Mohammad Akbar and Ali Hasan, among others. |
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England edged out India by a margin of three runs in a thriller that went to the wire. 19 runs were needed by the Indians in the ultimate over sent down by Ryan
Sidebottom.
Sri Lanka repulsed a gallant challenge from Ireland at Lord's on Sunday to win their Twenty20 World Cup second-round match by nine runs. Ireland, the only non-test playing nation still in the tournament, restricted the 1996 world one-day champions to 144 for nine after Sri Lanka had won the toss and elected to bat.
South Africa have a great chance to win. They look the part and they will be difficult to stop.
— Alan Donald
