Centurion, September 30
Defending champions Australia pulled off a dramatic last-ball victory over Pakistan in a low-scoring thriller to romp into the semifinals of the Champions Trophy and bring a pre-mature end to India’s listless campaign here today.

The Australians had to rely on their tail-enders to achieve the two-wicket victory in the very last ball in a nail-biting contest which saw fortune fluctuating from one team to the other till the very end. In a must-win encounter, Australia first restricted Pakistan to a modest 205 for six and then just about manage to scamper home on a spongy SuperSport Park track to knock India out of the tournament.

The Aussies were cruising along comfortably at 157 for three at one stage before five wickets fell in quick secession to completely change the complexion of the game. Needing four runs to win from the last five balls, Brett Lee and Nathan Hauritz took the team home much to the relief of a tensed Australian dressing room.

The Aussies completed their Group-A engagement with five points and moved into the semifinals as the top team from their group. They had earlier defeated the West Indies while their match against India was washed out. — PTI 

Scoreboard

Pakistan
Kamran b Watson 44 (63)

Afridi c Hopes b Johnson 15 (18)

Younis c Johnson b Hopes 18 (49)

Malik c Ponting b Johnson 27 (37)

Yousuf c White b Lee 45 (69)

Misbah-ul-Haq hit wicket b Watson 41 (53)

Umar not out 2(8)

Naved-ul-Hasan not out 7(3)

Extras (w-6) 6

Total (6 wickets; 50 overs) 205

FoWs: 1-30, 2-75, 3-89, 4-123, 5-186, 6-198.

Bowling: Brett Lee 10-0-30-1, Siddle 5-0-24-0, Johnson 10-0-45-2, Watson 8-0-32-2, Hopes 10-0-50-1, Hauritz 7-1-24-0.

Australia
Watson c Kamran b Gul 24 (22)

Paine lbw b Afridi 29 (40)

Ponting c Gul b Shoaib 32 (64)

Hussey b Rana Naved 64 (87)

Ferguson b Ajmal 7 (18)

White b Asif 5 (16)

Hopes c Younus b Asif 1(3)

Johnson b Ajmal 9 (18)

Lee not out 12 (15)

Hauritz not out 9 (18)

Extras: (b-1, w-12, nb-1) 14

Total: (for 8 wkts in 50 overs) 206

FoWs: 1-44, 2-59, 3-140, 4-157, 6-175, 7-176, 8-187.

Bowling: Gul 9-1-38-1, Asif 8-0-34-2, Afridi 10-0-47-1, Naved 9-2-39-1, Ajmal 10-1-31-2, Shoaib 4-0-16-1. 

Johannesburg:In a game that had lost its relevance half way through, Virat Kohli was probably the only one who accomplished something of a feat, as India beat West Indies by seven wicketss here today. Kohli got himself a half century and his highest ODI score, and with a little help from Dinesh Karthik, saw India home.

India started the chase on a slow note, as the match had been rendered a dead rubber due to Australia’s win over Pakistan. Gambhir went early and was soon followed by Dravid. It seemed the Men In Blue were starting to wobble after learning their fate.

But then Kohli and Karthik got together to steady the ship. Karthik chipped in with a 79-ball 34 and when he eventually fell off the bowling of Tonge, the score had already reached 104. Abhishek Nayar then joined Kohli and the two saw India through.

Earlier, Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar picked up three wickets each as India bundled out a depleted West Indies for 129 runs in 36 overs.

Put into bat, the West Indies had a tottering start and lost half of their side inside 17 overs with Darren Sammy, David Bernard and Devon Smith top scoring for the Caribbeans. For India Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra were the pick of the bowlers, picking up three wickets each for 22 and 31 runs respectively, while Harbhajan Singh scalped two victims.

Indian pacers exploited the spongy Wanderers track to wreck havoc in the rival camp as Praveen drew the first blood removing Andre Fletcher in the last ball of the opening over of the innings. Comeback man Nehra then dealt double blow, removing Kieran Powell and Smith in the same over. — Agencies

Bathinda, September 30
The Commonwealth games organisers are all smiles as ace sprinter Usian Bolt has confirmed his presence for the sporting extravaganza slated to be held in New Delhi from October 3 to 14. Confirming this Randhir Singh, Secretary General of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), said that Usain Bolt will very much a part of the Jamaican contingent.

Earlier speculation was rife in sporting circles that the ace athlete might give the Commonwealth games a skip. The Iconic Jamaican had actually missed the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth games.

Indian officials realised that having Bolt, who won the 100m and 200m double at both the Beijing Olympics and the World championship in record timings, would generate tremendous excitement. “His presence will also enable Indian companies willing to sponsor him earn tremendous global mileage,” Randhir added.

Preferring anonymity, a games organiser said, “The Indians simply can not afford to have Bolt out of the 1.6 billion dollar games which are likely to outsmart the 1.4 billion dollar Melbourne games.”

A lot of heat and dust was raised a few moths ago when Bolt hinted that he might give the games a go and had left the final decision to his coach Glen Mills. However, Bolt’s Jamaican colleague Asafa Powell may not scorch the tracks of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in defence of his 100m title.

Another top drawer athlete likely to miss the games is world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis of the United Kingdom who has already gone on record as saying that she may skip the games in order to prepare for the European championship slated to be held in Barcelona.

Added Randhir, “The Commonwealth countries, including Jamaica, will be sending their top teams to New Delhi. All the top chaps, and this includes Usain Bolt, will surely come.” Added another IOA official, “When the 71 nations gather for the games competition is going to be stiff. In athletics Bolt will be there and in swimming the Australians have confirmed that they would be sending their top paddlers.” 

Chandigarh, September 30
Uptill now there were two serious obstacles that officials and organisers of motor sports events faced. One, the rather antiquated system of timing the competitors. It involved stop watches, which could not be synchronized with all the marshals. It also involved blowing whistles when the competitor crossed the finish line. When the flying finish was introduced it involved waving flags. All these systems were prone to human error. Little wonder then that there were a lot of disgruntled competitors. The latest in timing technology has put an end to all this.

The timing system, known as the Liege Timing System, was developed on the Liege-Rome-Liege-Rally, hence the name. The equipment is manufactured by Clandy Detry of Belgium and is being handled by Rally Results U.K. who are partnering with Himalayan Motorsport. It is the first time that this exercise is being conducted in India.

To overcome the problem of two, three or more cars entering a Time Control at the same time, it was entirely possible that a wrong timing was entered on the time card. An error of a second could be critical at the end of the day. All this happened because so far all data entered on time cards was done manually.

In essence this is how the Liege Timing System works. The marshal has a special “clock” on a lanyard around his neck. When the cars come in the Marshal presses the timer button on his clock. If half a dozen cars came in the Marshal would press the button half a dozen time. Every timing would be accurate. The competitor has a timing chip embedded in a small card which serves as the ‘Time Card’. Instead of signing the Time Card the Marshal impresses his clock to the competitors card containing the chip and the timing is transferred to the competitors chip and stored. There are two clocks at every Time Control; one for In time and one for Out time.

All clocks are yellow, except the last clock which is blue and is the Master Clock and draws all information from the competitors chip. This information is then downloaded via an inter-face cable on to an awaiting computer where a customised programme gives instant results i.e. less than five seconds.

Vijay Parmar, president of the Himalayan Motorsport is going to do exactly that with 33 of the cars in the X-Treme category. This will enable the organisers to be able to follow the movement of every chip tagged car along the route. The Geo Terrestial Tracking System will be used for the first time in India. At the best of times locating the lost car could take 20-30 minutes. With the GPRS enabled Geo Terrestial Technology locating the vehicle would be instanteous. However, this facility will only be available on leg one of the Raid which terminates in Manali. This is due to the reason that there is no internet connectivity beyond Manali.