Mohali, November 1
Good show overall, except for the failure to deliver the KO punch in the first ODI at Vadodara. The highest-ever score against Australia and the resultant imposing 99-run win in the second ODI at Nagpur and a happy ending again in the third ODI at Ferozeshah Kotla last night.

Heartening performance from the Team India so far in the series notwithstanding, Indians would do well to guard against any complacency creeping in as they prepare to take on Australia in the fourth day/night ODI at the PCA Stadium in Mohali here tomorrow.

Fresh from the 6-1 rout of England just before the India series and after winning back-to-back Champions Trophy titles in October, Australians must be finding themselves in an unpalatable situation. Already depleted due to injury to pace spearhead Brett Lee and the unexpected blow in the form of injury suffered by opener and wicketkeeper Tim Paine, they have been further thrust on to the back foot with all rounder James Hopes having been ruled out for the series. It would, however, be naive to take the Kangaroos lightly, as they have proved on numerous occasions, they can strike back with vengeance.

And if Ponting & Co have to reverse the trend and get back to the winning ways, the PCA wicket provides them the best chance. Quickies Mitchell Johnson and the ever-improving Peter Siddle would surely be drooling over the prospect of making first use of the PCA wicket with a fair sprinkling of green in the middle and having the reputation of proving enough lift and bounce to those willing to bend their backs.

Having shown the ability to generate disconcerting pace, easily touching the 150-kmph mark, the India batsmen would be required to be on guard while facing the duo on a wicket whose behaviour could well be in contrast to way the Kotla track behaved yesterday.

The purple patch struck by skipper Dhoni, which saw him strike a superb century in the second ODI and then unbeaten 71 at Kotla must be comforting for the Indian camp. It would have been a perfect riposte to those who had begun to question the lack of aggression shown of late by the Indian skipper while batting.

Fresh from the Man of the Match award under his belt in the previous game, local hero Yuvraj Singh would be expected to do an encore. The dashing southpaw once again proved yesterday that on his day he is the biggest match winner India has.

With Sachin Tendulkar 47 runs shy of unprecedented 17,000 ODI runs, the batting great would like to achieve another milestone when he is out there in the middle tomorrow.

Not many batting worries to contend with, the India bowlers under the lanky spearhead Ashish Nehra would be required to bowl with nagging accuracy. Any indiscipline while bowling to the likes to Ricky Ponting, in-form Mike Hussey, hard-hitting Shane Watson is bound to prove detrimental to the Indian cause. Though the Indian seamers have bowled with discipline and claimed important breakthroughs at crucial times, they lack the same aggro as shown by their counterparts.

Thankfully, dip in the form suffered by Harbhajan Singh, the most experienced Indian bowler in the side, has been offset by the adequate show of rookie left-arm spinner Ravinder Jadeja. With part timer Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh also chipping in with crucial wickets, the team’s cause has been served well.

Back into the squad on the strength of some solid domestic performances last month, it would not be a bad idea to blood in seamer Munaf Patel. Having the abilities to extract awkward bounce hitting the deck hard and getting the ball to deviate either way, Munaf, if he is able to get into his groove, could be handful on this track. Munaf has a good record here, having taken 7 for 97 against England in the 2006 Test.

Teams (From): India: MS Dhoni (c), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma and Sudeep Tyagi.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Cameron White, Moises Henriques, Shaun Marsh, Graham Manou, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, Jon Holland, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges.

Jalandhar, November 1
Indian wrestlers dominated the men’s show by winning five gold medals while the women registered an impressive outing too, by clinching four gold medals on the concluding day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Wrestling championship held at the PAP Indoor Stadium at Jalandhar Cantonment here today.

The winners were awarded cash award of $2000, 1000 and 500 as prizes, respectively.

Results: Men’s category :

55 KG Men Free Style: Vinod Kumar (first), Jaideep (second) and Anil Kumar (third), 60 KG Men Free Style: Rajnish (first), Rahul Mann (second) and Hardeep Singh (third), 66 KG Men Free Style: Sushil Kumar (first), Arun (second) and Amit (third), 74 KG Men Free Style: Ncube Cleopas (Canada, first0, Mohammad Bagehjal-P (Iran, second) and Sumit (third), 84 KG Men Free Style : Amini Ehsal (Iran, first), Rajiv Sharma (second), and Weisen Berger (Germany, third), 96 KG Men Free Style : Mausam Khatri (first), Amir Saeid (Iran, second), Park Min-Jin (Korea, third), 120 KG Men Free Style : Joginder Kumar (first), Rajiv Tomar (second) and Hitender (third).

Women’s category :

48 KG Women Free Style : Akeo Minori (Japan, first), Nirmala Devi (second) and Neha Rathi (third), 51 KG Women Free Style : Babita (first), Shimizu AI (Japan, second) and Engelhardt-A (Germany, third), 59 KG Women Free Style : Alka Tomar (first), Sakshi Malik (second) and Yurika (Japan, third), 63 KG Women Free Style : Takahashi Marina (Japan, first), Navjot Kaur (second) and Fockel Aline (Germany, third), 67 KG Women Free Style : Suman Kundu (first), IIjima Chiaki (Japan, second) and Ashu Tomar (third), 72 KG Women Free Style : Suzucki Hiroe (Japan, first), Gursharan Kaur (second) and Anmol (third).

Gurgaon, November 1
The millennium city, Gurgaon, will be hosting four (state as well as national level) football championships this month for which the preparations had already begun. This was disclosed by Sunil Bhardwaj, President, Haryana Football Association (HFA) here today. He said, “Three national and one state level football championship will be organized in Gurgaon this month,” and added that Haryana State football tournament 2009 Junior championship will be organized from November 12-15 and sub junior championship will be held from December 10 to 24.

Bhardwaj affirmed that the Haryana team will be selected from this tournament only which will later on compete in national championship. Students who are below 16 years and are born between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 1997 will be qualified for sub junior category and those who are less than 18 years, whose birth falls between January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1994, will be qualified for junior group. The matches will be played at village Gadi Harsaru’s newly built stadium other then Tau Devi Lal in Gurgaon. Those teams who are interested in participating can send names of 18 players along with two officials till November 10 to HFA president.

The city will also be hosting 31st Federation Cup Football tournament from November 20 to 26 at Tau Devi Lal Stadium. Nine teams from all over the country will participate in the same. The city will also witness 32nd Sub jr national football championship for Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy from November 28 to December 7. 

Chandigarh, November 1
Chandigarh’s Team Thunderbolt, led by Sandeep Sharma, continued its superb performance by chalking up its third win in four rounds of the Speed-Indian National Rally Championship. Sandeep and his co-driver Anmol Rampal were declared winners in the Gypsy Cup class at the Maharashtra Speed Rally at Nashik today.

Driving effortlessly without taking any undue risks, 36-year-old Sandeep Sharma made full use of his rich experience in speed driving to achieve yet another win to stay ahead of all other competitors, including Khushwant Singh Randhawa with co-driver Vinay Shekar of Patiala finishing a close second, clocking a minute and 58 seconds more than the winners.

Khushwant Randhawa, who conceded a huge lead yesterday, decided to drive sensibly and maintain his second place position to pick up valuable points that will keep him ahead of Sandeep Sharma in the overall championship standings.

With overnight leaders intent on holding their positions by eschewing risk, the event concluded on a predictable note as Vikram Mathias - co-driver PVS Murthy - of Team Red Rooster Racing emerged overall winner, here today.

For 34-year old Mathias, the reigning National champion, who clocked one hour 23 minutes and 12 seconds, it was the first win of the season following retirements in the previous three rounds. He spared one minute 50 seconds to Arjun Balu (co-driver Sujith Kumar BS) of Team MRF that moved to second place following retirement of teammate Lohitt Urs (co-driver Shrikant Gowda). Arjun Rao Aroor (co-driver Satish Rajagopal) finished a distant third.

Incidentally, there have been four different overall champions this season. Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) of Team Red Rooster Racing, who retired yesterday, won the first round in Bangalore with Balu taking the honours in Bangalore, Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) of Team MRF topping in Kolkata and Mathias triumphing here.

Gill, the championship leader going into the fourth round, retired on the very first day with a broken drive shaft and rejoined the Rally today for Leg 2. He suffered a puncture in the first Special Stage and was fastest in the second, but his charge ended when got stuck in first gear for nearly five kilometers in the day’s concluding stage.

In the 1600cc, Joseph C Jos (co-driver Royce Kizhakoodan) of DDL Sports recorded his second win of the series following his success in Bangalore to finish ahead of championship leader and winner in Kolkata, Sujay Suresh (co-driver Varun Satyanarayan).