S P O R T S

Big boys take centrestage
New Delhi, February 26
Indian captain Rajpal Singh and coach Jose Brasa put on a confident front and asserted that they were ready to take on the challenge.
Left to Right: South Korea’s captain CH Jong Vok, Australia’s Jamie Dwyer, England’s Barry Middleton, Canada’s Ken Pereira, Germany’s Maximillian Muller, India’s Rajpal Singh, Pakistan’s Zeeshan Ashraf, Spain’s Pablo Amat, Argentina’s Matias Vila, New Zealand’s Phillip Burrows, South Africa’s Austin Smith, Netherlands’ Teun de Nooijer pose with the World Cup Trophy in front of India Gate in New Delhi on Friday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

India eye clean sweep
Ahmedabad, February 26
The series as well as the number two spot in ICC rankings in their grasp, India would aim for a rare clean sweep while South Africa have nothing but pride to play for in their third and final cricket one-dayer here tomorrow. The home team will be without more than half a dozen key players in the dead rubber, some missing from action from the start of the series and others - including champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar — skipping the tie.

Sunil Gavaskar Writes...
Tendulkar the greatest
The wonderful aspect about sports is that whenever a sportsperson raises the bar the rest of mankind feels taller, stronger and healthier. When Usain Bolt sprinted like the wind and obliterated the 100 metres record at the Beijing Olympics, even the old felt that they could run faster. The young, of course, have dreams in their eyes and no limitations in the minds but the older ones with age and experience on their side also felt a burst of energy. It is such a feel good factor as nothing else and even man’s walk on the moon or a medical and scientific breakthrough would not excite as much as a sporting record being broken.

C’wealth C’ship
Samaresh shoots 2 more gold
New Delhi, February 26
Samaresh Jung shot down two more gold medals while Gagan Narang and Joydeep Karmakar combined to shatter a meet record as the Indians continued to rule the roost in the Commonwealth Championships here today. Samaresh, who has already picked up two gold medals, won the top honours in both the 25m air pistol team and individual events while Gagan and Joydeep won the 50m rifle prone pair event as India’s medal tally swelled to 42 - including 22 gold - on the event’s penultimate day.

Liverpool through as Roma crash
Paris, February 26
Liverpool survived a big scare against Romanian underdogs Unirea Urziceni before securing a 3-1 victory that takes them into the Europa League round of 16. Serie A giants Roma, however, crashed out of the competition after losing 3-2 at home to Greek side Panathinaikos last night, while defending champions Shakhtar Donetsk were eliminated by English Premier League side Fulham.


Steven Gerrard (down) vies for the ball against Antonio Semedo on Thursday. — AFP

Big boys take centrestage
M.S.Unnikrishnan
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 26
Indian captain Rajpal Singh and coach Jose Brasa put on a confident front and asserted that they were ready to take on the challenge of Pakistan in their opening match on an even keel as the atmosphere warmed up for the Hero Honda FIH World Cup Hockey Championship to be held at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium here from February 28 to March 13.

“The match against Pakistan is a crucial game for India. But we are not overawed. We hope to make the semifinal lineup,” said Rajpal Singh. The big boys took the centre stage as all the 12 captains and coaches assembled here for the 12th edition of the World Cup freely interacted with the media, giving their assessment of the chances of the respective teams in the blue-riband hockey event.

With the captaincy issue having been firmly settled for good in his favour, the 27-year-old Rajpal Singh was confidence personified. He said it was good that India would be meeting Pakistan first, so that the team could fully focus on the rest of the matches. Rajpal admitted that an India-Pakistan hockey contest evoked strong passions among the spectators, but the team’s focus would be to play the best game possible to put it past the visitors from across the border. He said pressure would be on both the teams. “But we would try to focus on the game on hand, instead of getting pressurised”, he noted.

‘Keep emotions out’

Coach Brasa said the team would try to put on improved performance in every match. “We try to improve in every match. Every team tries to improve”, said Brasa. The Spanish coach said the Indian team members were fully united and focused to put their best foot forward, and the match against Pakistan would be “a normal match, but a tough one”. He said Indian fans should do away with the emotional aspect when assessing an India-Pakistan match.

Brasa said the team had a fine build up, and shifting the camp to Delhi early has helped the team. The focus during camps and practice sessions was to use the width of the field, man to man marking and fitness. .

Home advantage for India: Ashraf

Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf said his team was looking forward to a winning start to the World Cup, though he conceded that the hosts would hold the advantage, having got a firm feel of the stadium and the turf for the past few days. As captain, Zeeshan Ashraf has the worst record. Under him, Pakistan finished eighth at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

One and a half years into the captaincy job, Ashraf’s team have a psychological advantage, having beaten the hosts in their last three meetings, including the Champions Challenge in Argentina. And he would be striving to give the team a soaring start, as it would also be his 32nd birthday.

Germany cautious

Maximillan Muller, captain of defending champions Germany, said his team had only three players from the 2006 title-winning team at home Monchengladbach, which includes two drag-flickers. He said since the focus in Germany was on education, most players drop out to complete their education. Muller said the 2006 squad had very few players from the 2002 team, who had helped Germany lift the World Cup for the first time, in the 10th edition at Kuala Lumpur. 

India eye clean sweep

Ahmedabad, February 26
The series as well as the number two spot in ICC rankings in their grasp, India would aim for a rare clean sweep while South Africa have nothing but pride to play for in their third and final cricket one-dayer here tomorrow. The home team will be without more than half a dozen key players in the dead rubber, some missing from action from the start of the series and others - including champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar — skipping the tie.

Tendulkar, in particular, will be missed after his awe-inspiring and phenomenal knock of 200 not out at Gwalior that shattered the Proteas dreams of winning a one-day series in India for the first time ever. The batting great has obtained a break to recharge his batteries for the upcoming Indian Premier League after becoming the first player in the nearly four-decade-old one-day game to make a double ton at the international level with his unbeaten innings which came off just 147 balls.

Tendulkar’s absence, the back problem to Virender Sehwag and the wrist injury to Gautam Gambhir, have necessitated the inclusion of the uncapped Murali Vijay of Tamil Nadu to open the batting with his state-mate Dinesh Karthik. Vijay, who has played four Tests in his fledgling career, thus gets a chance to show his worth in the 50-over format of the game by default at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera.

Out of form South African middle-order batsman J P Duminy has returned home owing to injuries, making him unavailable for the third and final one-dayer against India here tomorrow. Duminy, who sustained a left hand injury during the second ODI in Gwalior, also developed tooth pain and took the flight back home last night. “He had developed tooth pain and left last night,"”South Africa’s media manager Micheal Owen-Smith said.

Duminy has had a horrendous run in the series and was dismissed for a duck in the Gwalior ODI which India won to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. South Africa’s Kepler Wessels said the injury lay off would help rejuvenate Duminy, an explosive batsman when in prime form.

Teams (from): India: M S Dhoni (Capt.), M Vijay, D Karthik, V Kohli, S Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, R Jadeja, S Tyagi, S Sreesanth, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ashish Nehra.

South Africa: Jacques Kallis (Capt.), Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, H Amla, Mark Boucher, A B de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, M Morkel, Parnell, Petersen, Steyn, Tsotsobe and Roelof van der Merwe. — PTI

Sunil Gavaskar Writes...
Tendulkar the greatest

The wonderful aspect about sports is that whenever a sportsperson raises the bar the rest of mankind feels taller, stronger and healthier. When Usain Bolt sprinted like the wind and obliterated the 100 metres record at the Beijing Olympics, even the old felt that they could run faster. The young, of course, have dreams in their eyes and no limitations in the minds but the older ones with age and experience on their side also felt a burst of energy. It is such a feel good factor as nothing else and even man’s walk on the moon or a medical and scientific breakthrough would not excite as much as a sporting record being broken.

Two days ago, Sachin Tendulkar gave such a treasured moment to the cricketing world. There must not have been one cricket follower who would not have had a smile on his/her face when they would have seen or heard about the master becoming the first man ever to break the 200 barrier in limited overs cricket.

The anxiety on the faces as he neared the mark and the good natured curses being thrown at Dhoni, who seemed to hog the strike in the last few overs, were just manifestations of the way cricket lovers identify with the master.

Dhoni played a blinder himself playing some shots with so much brute force that it looked as if the hard leather ball would break into pieces. On any other day that would have been music to the crowd but this was different, for here was history beckoning the destined one and they did not want even a loved one like Dhoni playing spoilsport, however unintentional it was.

When Amla stopped what looked like a certain four from Dhoni’s bat there was rare applause for the opposition for it gave the master the strike and the chance to do what had never been done before.

Dhoni once again showed what a mature head he has on his shoulders by not putting his arm around the master as they began the walk back to the dressing room and stayed back a few paces so that the moment could belong to only the master.

It is such little gestures that proves that the captaincy of the Indian cricket team is in extremely good hands. Remember Dhoni himself had got 68 off only 35 deliveries and so had helped India get past 400 runs.

Tendulkar has climbed many peaks and this one will be special because it’s a peak that nobody has reached before and that’s what makes it ultra special. He has been rightly rested for the next game for there is an even bigger peak that he wants to climb next year. The preparation has begun and as he showed at Gwalior nothing is impossible. — PMG

C’wealth C’ship
Samaresh shoots 2 more gold

New Delhi, February 26
Samaresh Jung shot down two more gold medals while Gagan Narang and Joydeep Karmakar combined to shatter a meet record as the Indians continued to rule the roost in the Commonwealth Championships here today. Samaresh, who has already picked up two gold medals, won the top honours in both the 25m air pistol team and individual events while Gagan and Joydeep won the 50m rifle prone pair event as India’s medal tally swelled to 42 - including 22 gold - on the event’s penultimate day.

In the individual competition of 25m air pistol event, Samaresh shot 575, 10 points clear of compatriot Vijay Kumar, who settled for the silver. The bronze went to England’s Michael Gault, who scored 556. Samaresh then combined with Gurpreet Singh to top the team event. The Indian duo shot a score of 1121, way ahead of second-placed Gault and Iqbal Ubhi, who finished with a score of 1097.

Welshmen Steve Pengelly and Alan Green took home the bronze after ending up just a point adrift of English team. Gagan, who already has three gold medals in his kitty at the event, bagged another when he and Joydeep broke the meet record in the 50m Rifle Prone competition.

Gagan and Joydeep combined for a score of 1186, a massive improvement on the 1178 mark set by Australians Ryan and Dennis Taylor in 2005. The silver in this event went to Robert Howell and Warren Potent, who shot 1182, while England’s James Huckle and Richard Wilson clinched the bronze with a score of 1179.

The women too struck gold when Shweta Chaudhary and Pushpanjali Rana took the top honours in the 10m Air Pistol Team event. Shweta and Pushpanjali shot a score of 755 to finish ahead of England's Georgina Geikie and Julia Lydall (743). The bronze in this event went to Danielle Jones and Nicola Wilson of Wales who scored 727. After adding the consolation badges given to the third shooter in a team event, India’s tally swells to 65. England is a distant second with 31 medals and badges followed by Wales (12). — PTI

Liverpool through as Roma crash

Paris, February 26
Liverpool survived a big scare against Romanian underdogs Unirea Urziceni before securing a 3-1 victory that takes them into the Europa League round of 16. Serie A giants Roma, however, crashed out of the competition after losing 3-2 at home to Greek side Panathinaikos last night, while defending champions Shakhtar Donetsk were eliminated by English Premier League side Fulham.

Fulham will play Juventus in the next round after the Turin side drew 0-0 in a drab game at home to Ajax to see out a 2-1 aggregate success. German champions Wolfsburg thrashed Villarreal 4-1 for an aggregate 6-3 win, while Valencia needed two extra-time goals from Spain midfielder Pablo Hernandez to achieve a 3-1 victory against Belgian side Club Brugge.

Liverpool led 1-0 on aggregate following a tense first leg at Anfield and fell behind on the night to a 19th-minute header from Joao Bruno Fernandes, before goals from Javier Mascherano, Ryan Babel and Steven Gerrard took them through. “I think it was a difficult game and the pitch was terrible so we knew it could be tough and very demanding for the players,” said Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez, who also revealed that centre-back Martin Skrtel had sustained a suspected broken toe.

“We conceded a goal and we then had to be calm and just keep playing our game.” Liverpool, five-time European champions, will face French side Lille in the next round, after their defender Adil Rami glanced in an 85th-minute free-kick to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory at Turkish heavyweights Fenerbahce. — AFP