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India-SL-b’desh
Dilshan scripts easy win
Randhir backs Hockey Punjab
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Holder Cilic breezes past Kunitsyn
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India-SL-b’desh
The youngsters in the Lankan team, especially the bowlers, have shown in the one-day series in India that with a bit of experience they will be hard to get away. Lakmal, Welegedera and Randiv have bowled well in patches in the just concluded series in India and Sangakkara will be hoping that another confrontation with the Indians will give the finishing touches and make them better bowlers for the future. With Muralitharan not looking to go beyond 2011 the Lankans will need to look for bowlers who can pick wickets on any surface as the magician Murali used to do. They also are missing the canny bowling of Chaminda Vaas who swung the new ball and also used the slower delivery well in the limited overs format and was also pretty handy with the bat. Like the Lankans the Indians too are without their most experienced player in limited overs cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, but they have the services of Yuvraj who was not fully fit for the series against Sri Lanka. The Indians still have a formidable batting line-up and in the bowling too they have lots of experience and wickets behind them in Zaheer, Nehra and Harbhajan Singh. It is their fielding that is the worry though with the likes of Yuvraj, Raina and Rohit Sharma in the squad it can be electrifying too. The pitch at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium has some grass on it and with the winter having settled in there is scope for the new-ball bowlers to use the seam well whether it is bowling first or later under the lights. It won’t be the flat pitches that were on offer in India but pitches where bowlers can get something. The winter air will also mean not as much energy expended as in India, so all told the bowlers may not feel hopeless as they were in India. Still it’s a limited overs tournament and the game can change in a matter of overs. India will be the favourites because of the experience that they have in both batting and bowling, but limited-overs cricket has made fools of all the pundits in the past too. — PMG Yuvraj practices at nets, but not certain
Mirpur: Fit again after recovering from a finger injury, Yuvraj Singh sweated it out at the nets today but the team management remained mum on whether the dashing left-hander would be available for India's ODI tri-series opener against Sri Lanka here tomorrow. Yuvraj batted for quite a while at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium nets this morning when the team had a two-hour long optional practice session here. The middle-order mainstay, who sat out of four one-dayers of the home series against Sri Lanka last month, faced direct throws from coach Gary Kirsten and he did not have any apparent problems while wielding the willow. He later bowled to Rohit Sharma but looked slightly guarded during the fielding practice. The team's Administrative manager Arshad Ayub refused comment when asked whether the explosive batsman will be available tomorrow. "I can't say anything," was all Ayub said when asked whether Yuvraj will play tomorrow.
— PTI |
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Mirpur, January 4 Dilshan's knock, his sixth one-day century, came off 122 balls with 12 boundaries as he almost batted through the innings. He fell when Lanka needed just 19 runs to win. It was Dilshan's third hundred in the last six innings he has played and sounded a warning for India against whom the Lankans will play the next match of the tournament tomorrow. Dilshan's 148-run second-wicket partnership with skipper Kumar Sangakkara (74) laid the foundation for the easy win as the duo took the match away from the host with their by their solid batting. Earlier, Mohammad Ashraful struck a responsible 75 and shared two vital partnerships with Mushfiqur Rahim (35) and Mahmudullah (45) to help Bangladesh reach a competitive 260 for seven after being put into bat. Sri Lanka were off to a breezy start, rattling up 35 runs in the first four overs but Upul Tharanga (14) could not last long and was caught behind off Ruben Hossain. — PTI Scoreboard Sri Lanka:
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Randhir backs Hockey Punjab
New Delhi, January 4 “You cannot deny affiliation to a State body by a national body if it has fulfilled the guidelines laid down by the IOA, and which has been endorsed by the concerned State Olympic Association”, Randhir said, in reference to Hockey Punjab’s bid to seek affiliation to Hockey India. He said Hockey Punjab cannot be denied affiliation to the apex body as it had fulfilled all the norms for merging of the four hockey bodies in the State. Randhir said he had been president of Pepsu, which had now merged with Hockey Punjab, being headed by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. "Hockey Punjab has to be automatically recognised by the national federation (Hockey India), as it has been recognised by the Punjab Olympic Association (headed by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa), which is an affiliate of the IOA", said Randhir, who is also the vice-chairman of the Organising Committee of 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. He said the IOA was very keen and determined to ensure transparency in the functioning of the national federations for the healthy working of the sports bodies. Randhir said if transparently constituted State sports bodies had any problem getting affiliation to the national federations, they were free to contact the IOA secretariat for the redressal of their grievances. Randhir said though he could not speak about Sukhbir Singh Badal's complaints against Hockey India and Suresh Kalmadi, he was of the firm view that elections to any apex sports body should be held in a transparent and democratic manner. He said 60 per cent of the population of the country comprised of youth, "who are looking toward us for support from the sports bodies, and we cannot let down their hopes and aspirations." Randhir said Hockey Punjab had been constituted in a transparent and democratic manner and therefore, it was the right of the State body to get into the Hockey India fold, before elections to the apex body was held. "The IOA stands for total autonomy for the transparent and independent functioning of the national federations. In the same way, we cannot stifle the functioning of duly constituted State bodies by denying them their just status", added Randhir, who is also India's member in the International Olympic Committee.
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Gill assures Sukhbir fair polls
New Delhi, January 4 Sukhbir Badal, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, said Dr Gill had assured him of "necessary action" to ensure that free and fair election was held to Hockey India, scheduled on January 9. Hockey Punjab secretary-general and former Olympian Pargat Singh and secretary of Sports, Government of India, Nidhi Khullar were also present at the meeting. Sukhbir apprised Dr Gill that "calculated attempts by vested interests in Hockey India" were being made to deny affiliation to Hockey Punjab "in a deliberate attempt to weaken the nation's hockey nursery, Punjab". Sukhbir Badal later described the ways of Hockey India, the apex hockey body in the country, as "highly discriminatory and illogical, especially towards a State which is not only the birth place of hockey, but has also the proud distinction of giving over a dozen Indian captains and a galaxy of international players to the country". Sukhbir Badal also championed the cause of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, who were also being denied affiliation by Hockey India.
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Arsenal, Chelsea cruise, Man U lose
Leeds, the League One leaders who are 43 places below English champions Manchester United, won yesterday thanks to Jermaine Beckford's 19th-minute goal and will now face Tottenham in the fourth round. Arsenal, who've lifted the FA Cup 10 times, were themselves 12 minutes away from a third round exit against Premier League and London rivals West Ham after Alessandro Diamanti had put the hosts ahead on the stroke of half-time. But two goals in five minutes from teenage midfielder Aaron Ramsey and striker Eduardo stunned the Upton Park faithful as Arsenal won 2-1 to set up another all Premier League Cup clash against Stoke. FA Cup holders Chelsea, who lead the Premier League by two points from Manchester United, cruised through with a 5-0 thrashing of second division Watford at Stamford Bridge and will now be away to another Championship team, Preston North End. Defeat was the first time Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had lost in the third round since he arrived at Old Trafford 24 years ago and marked United's first exit at this stage since losing to Bournemouth in 1984. — AFP
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Cilic breezes past Kunitsyn
Chennai open
Chennai, January 4 Big-serving Cilic breezed through the opening set after breaking Kunitsyn in the third and fifth games and quickly led 3-1 in the second. “I think he didn't have any break points in the match which shows that I was on top of him, especially in the first set," said Cilic, who beat Indian Somdev Devvarman in last year's final. — Reuters Somdev-Sonam win
Indian wild card entrants Somdev Devvarman and Sonam Singh gave enough proof that they are in the same mould like Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi when it comes to doubles, as they won the first round main-draw tie over seasoned Russian-American duo of Rik De Voest and Scott Lipsky in the ATP Chennai Open tournament here tonight The young Indian pair had a strategy and also implemented their game plan to great effects in forcing the more experienced pair to surrender in straight sets 6-2 7-5. In the post match press conference, Sonam Singh concurred that they are not contemplating to replace anyone in playing for the country. "Yes. Today we clicked. There are no feelings of urgency in getting a call for playing for India. Som is already a Davis Cupper. Hopefully, we have done well and looking ahead for positive result match after match," Singh said. The Indians having shown progress ever since they migrated to the US and particularly having to have undergone the grind at the same University perhaps had helped them in their performance today. "Yes. The grind at the same university had helped us a lot. No doubt, I had improved a lot physically too after being understudy as a junior in the same college where Som belonged. The 30 months that I had spent in the University was of great help to me", he said. As for the match, Sonam was the best of the two as he exhibited his abilities in coming close to baseline and score winners. In fact, more points was scored off from Sonam's raquets not to discount Indias top rung Somdev.
— PTI
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New Delhi, January 4
Croatian
second seed Marin Cilic made a confident start to his Chennai Open title defence
when he brushed aside Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-2 6-4 on Monday. World number 14
Cilic needed an hour and 13 minutes to beat his 104th-ranked opponent.
India had a pretty good 2009 if one doesn’t take into account the two ICC tournaments that were played in the year. The defending champions in the T20 format did not even qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament in England and then in South Africa they again struggled to get through the first round. Apart from these hiccups they had a very good year in the bilateral tours and dominated those tours.
They will thus be looking to begin 2010 in a similar fashion and winning the tri-nations tournament would be a good way to get the year off to a rocking start. Having just played Sri Lanka they know that even without the two j's, Jayasuriya and Jayawardene, the Lankans are a good outfit and are always tough opponents.
London, January 4
