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Sl Tour Of India 5th ODI: Delhi
Liberals hockey tournament
national b’ball
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Somdev, Yuki and Paes serve it right
New Delhi, December 27 Somdev gave India a new identity on the Tour by excelling in singles and old warhorses Paes and Bhupathi proved they are still a force to reckon with in doubles by winning three more Grand Slams. Sania Mirza continued adding firsts to her name as she became India’s first female tennis player to win a Grand Slam title when she triumphed at the Australian Open along with compatriot Bhupathi in the mixed doubles event in January. And it all started with the sensational arrival of Somdev on the big stage in the first month when the US Collegiate champion created ripples by reaching the final of the Chennai Open. When he mowed down the bigwigs like Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic, it became crystal clear that the winds of change had started blowing in the Indian tennis. He jumped to world number 126 in ATP ranking from 204 and with him Indian tennis also took a giant leap forward. Suddenly in a week’s gap, from a mere participant he was seen as a contender on the Tour though a prolonged lull followed after his stellar Chennai Open show. Tour. He had to wait till the last Major of the year to make his debut at a Grand Slam and his entry into the singles main draw of the US Open ended India’s seven-year long wait to see a player competing at that stage. Sania followed up her maiden Slam win by reaching the final of Pattaya City event next month but struggled the remainder of the year to repeat that. Surprisingly, she chose to play on the ITF Challenger circuit and also landed one title from two finals. Her most memorable win came against Shahar Peer of Israel and Marion Bartoli in the Osaka event but since the French player had retired it took away sheen from the win. At the Grand Slam stage, Sania again came a cropper, not moving beyond the second round in any Major. If Somdev was making waves on the ATP circuit, Yuki Bhambri was also busy writing his own success story. The Delhi teen began with a bang by capturing the junior Australian Open title, becoming only the fourth Indian to capture a junior singles grand slam title. He also became the first Indian singles winner of the junior Australian Open at the young age of 16. In a seven-month period - from April to October - the tall Delhi player won five ITF Futures title, becoming the youngest Indian player to win a Futures title. Yuki then made a dream Davis Cup debut when he defeated Izak van der Merwe in India’s impressive 4-1 win over host South Africa. With this win, India entered the World Group after 11 years and credit goes to both Somdev and Rohan Bopanna for playing excellent tennis. Paes and Bhupathi continued to swell their Grand Slam tally. Paes won two titles - French Open and US Open — along with Lukas Dlouhy to take his tally to 10. Bhupathi won his seventh mixed doubles Slam title at Australian Open to take his overall tally to 11 and also ended runners-up along with Mark Knowles in the men’s doubles events of the Australian Open and US Open, where he lost to old pal and partner Paes and Dlouhy. Harsh Mankad and Bopanna won three men’s doubles title each and Poojashree Venkatesh did well on the women ITF circuit by winning four Futures titles. Her success reflected in her ranking as well as the Karnataka player is now placed at 330 after starting the year at 943. — PTI
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Ranji Trophy
Mysore, December 27 Karnataka made 42 for one in their second essay before the match was stopped an hour before scheduled draw of stumps. Sunny Sohal (89), Mayank Sidhana (50) and Uday Kaul (86) scored half centuries in a listless performance by Punjab. The wicket did play flat and true even on the fourth day of the match, but it was disappointing that Pankaj Dharmani’s side not to make any effort to put Karnataka under pressure. Evidently, the players went through their motions, even driving away the motley crowd that had come to watch Rahul Dravid. Vinay Kumar bagged two wickets to take his season’s tally to 38. Karnataka will play Uttar Pradesh, who beat a fighting Assam, in the semifinals in Bangalore from January 3-6. Defending champions Mumbai advanced to the semifinal by virtue of their first innings lead after their quarterfinal match against Haryana ended in a draw at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium at Mumbai today. Resuming at 119 for three, Mumbai piled up 334 for seven and finished the final day with a huge 570-run overall lead over Haryana, thanks to a classy unbeaten 101 by Ajinkya Rahane. Earlier, the visitors scored 400 in their first essay and then skittled out Haryana for a paltry 164 to take a 236-run first innings lead. Mumbai now face Delhi in the semifinal. Rahane adorned his 172-ball innings with seven fours and a six to help his team swell the lead, while Ajit Agarkar remained unbeaten on 25. Sahil Kukreja, resuming at personal 63, could add just 18 runs before falling prey to paceman Dhruv Singh and becoming the first batsman to depart this morning. Iqbal Abdulla then added 51 runs to the Mumbai total before being deceived by an Amit Mishra's turning delivery. — PTI
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Sl Tour Of India 5th
ODI: Delhi
New Delhi, December 27 Coming in for Ashish Nehra from the far end in the 17th over, Sudeep generated enough pace and bounce to trouble the Sri Lankan batsmen. And off the last ball of the over, he induced Kumar Sangakkara to attempt an uppish cover drive, which was well taken by Suresh Raina to atone for his lapse of dropping Tillakaratne Dilshan, off Nehra, in the second over, when the batsman had not opened his account, and Lanka were down one wicket for no run. But the third ball of Sudeep's fourth over sounded the death knell of the match as the ball whizzed past the face of Thilina Kadamby and the Lankans refused to carry on with the match. Sri Lanka were 83 for 3 in 23.3 overs when the match was abandoned, though India had already clinched the series with a 3-1 scoreline. Sachin Tendulkar opted out of the tie to give way for wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthick while Sudeep Tyagi filled the slot vacated by Ishant Sharma. On a green-tinged wicket, Indian captain Mahender Singh Dhoni preferred to chase, after winning the toss, and his decision proved to be apt when Zaheer Khan got his very first ball to swing in and bowl Upal Tarange neck and crop. With two wickets down for 10.5 overs, Lanka pinned hope on veteran Jayasuria, who was promoted after the fall of the first wicket. Though Jayasuriya cracked five pleasing boundaries in his 51-ball knock of 31, he was caught napping with a clever ball from Harbhajan Singh, which kept low to get him trapped. Samaraveera was run out by Suresh Raina and Sangakkara was scalped by Sudeep as the visitors slumped to 5 for 63 in 18 overs. With the odd ball rearing up to scare the batsmen at the crease Kadambi and Pushpakumara, Sudeep’s shooter was the last straw in Sangakkara's patience armour, who then threw a gauntlet about the dangerous nature of the pitch, and refused to relent. The match was stopped at 11.20 a.m and formally called off at 2.15 p m. Both the Lankan batsmen remained not out on 7 each. Members of DDCA pitch committee resign The entire pitch and ground committee of DDCA resigned today owing moral responsibility for the pitch fiasco. The chairman of the committee Chetan Chauhan, convener Sunil Dev and curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra were among those who resigned after a meeting of top DDCA functionaries. The BCCI has also disbanded its grounds and pitches committee with immediate effect for the pitch fiasco. —
PTI |
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Liberals hockey tournament
Nabha (Patiala), December 27 This in essence sums up the performance dished out by North Eastern Railway (NER), Gorakhpur who put up a cohesive effort to rout BEG, Pune 3-0 through the sudden death on day one of the 34th All India Liberals hockey tournament which commenced at the government Ripudaman college ground here today. The tourney commenced on a sombre note with the organisers paying tributes to their founder member and Senior vice president of theorganising committee M Dugala who passed away recently. If the Railmen put up a unified effort, BEG were guilty of playing a totally disjointed game although the goalless tie at the end of regulation time may tell a different story altogether. NER could have gone up in the first half itself but Mohammad Kaleem’s reverse flick was well saved by a diving goalkeeper Jhirga Minz. The Gorakhpur outfit enjoyed territorial advantage in a major part of the second half but poor shooting by their forwards ensured that they could not take the all important lead. Tied goalless at the end of regulation time, the railmen won the contest in the tie breaker with custodian Akhilesh Singh holding his nerves . In the other match of the day, Dhudike XI packed enough power and punch to down a solid looking SAI, Patiala 2-1, with Sangram Singh scoring a peach of a goal in the dying minutes to take his team into the second round. SAI, were well served by their forwards Bachitar Singh and Sukhdev Singh, both of whom did duty for the country in the junior Asian championship held at Macau last month, but fell by the wayside due to a totally inept performance in the second half.
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national b’ball
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Ludhiana, December 27 Punjab players seemed to be having wrong perception that Karnataka will be just pushovers. The home team gained five point lead at the end of the first quarter (25-20) but in the next quarter, the team from the South proved hard nut to crack as they closed the gap to two points (43-45). In the third quarter too, both the teams fought a pitched battle and Karnataka tricked to gain the upper hand but the lead was shortlived as Punjab managed to take two points lead (64-62) at the end of third quarter. Punjab players kept their tempers in control in the deciding quarter and went on to wrap the contest 93-78. Punjab skipper, Talwinder Singh led from the front, netting 33 baskets, followed by Jagdeep Singh (21) and Mahesh (11). For Karnataka, Kaushal R K and Sanjay Raj chipped in with 29 and 15 points, respectively. The match played in the men's group A, between the last year’s runners up, Tamil Nadu and Uttrakhand turned out to be a fierce battle in which the latter managed to squeeze past with 77-72. However, it was a cakewalk for the defending champions, Indian Railways in the women’s section as they recorded a thumping 96-50 win over Chhattisgarh to begin their campaign on a sound note. For Chhattisgarh, L Deepa fought valiantly scoring 14 points. Other results: Men’s section: Group C: Kerala beat Jammu and Kashmir 73-42; Rajasthan beat Gujarat 84-63; Jarkhand lost to West Bengal 78-83. Group E: Chandigarh beat MP 73-50 and Maharashtra beat Tripura 73-35. Women’s section: Group A: Karnataka beat UP 69-30; Indian Railways beat Chhattisgarh 96-50. Group B: Maharashtra beat AP 80-52. Group C: Kerala beat J&K 83-36. |
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New Delhi, December 27
sensational debut when he struck with the last ball of his first over to remove Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara and the third ball of his fourth over stoked a major controversy about the dangerous nature of the pitch, leading to the abandonment of the fifth and final One-Day International match between India and Sri Lanka at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here today.
Ludhiana, December 27
