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upside down
Match on, Brett Lee gone
Kings XI take on Daredevil
might
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Priyanka comes, luck does not
India finish 8th
Kiwis down spirited Proteas
Spain through to Champions Trophy
World Cup Diary
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upside down
Mumbai, March 12 Sri Lanka's experienced bowler Chaminda Vaas (2/22) used the swing to devastating effect and sent back opener Manoj Tiwary (0) and captain Sourav Ganguly (0). Tiwary was out to the first ball, clipping Vaas to Rohit Sharma, while former India captain Ganguly lasted only three balls before edging a superb out-swinger off the left-arm bowler to first slip fielder Anirudh Singh. Vaas grabbed two wickets in his opening over without conceding a run to give Chargers a splendid start to their campaign. —
PTI
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Match on, Brett Lee gone
Chandigarh, March 12 Before leaving, the pacer maintained that he was taking a break for a while and would be back in a day or two, said the sources. The Australian also did not join the final practice session, held today at PCA stadium today morning. |
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Kings XI take on Daredevil might
Mohali, March 12 Though Brett Lee, Yuvraj Singh and Pathan have taken part in the practice sessions, uncertainty persists regarding their match fitness. “Injuries are part and parcel of the game. Yuvraj played a practice match yesterday and notched up 63 off 39 balls. He looks in a fine nick. As far Irfan, he is a fine all rounder, but he needs to get a couple of games under his belt to get going,” said Mahela Jayawardene, falling short of commenting whether the players will be ready for the key game against dangerous Delhi Daredevils. The former Sri Lanka captain and the key KXIP middle order batsman, however, felt that induction of ICL players like Reetinder Sodhi, Love Ablish, Manvinder Bisla and others would add depth to the side. “There is a lot of talent in the ICL players, which has increased our depth. These really, are exciting times and I am looking forward to it,” he observed. In sizzling form, Ablish’s current form could well be timely boost for Punjab in view of the suspect fitness of seamers like Lee, Pathan, VRV Singh. Wiry Ablish has been in sparkling form finishing this Ranji Trophy season as the most successful bowler from Punjab. The induction of Mohammad Kaif should strengthen the middle order, which already has a solid look due to the presence of Jayawardene, Yuvraj and Ravi Bopara. “Delhi Daredevils have in their ranks six explosive batsmen. We will be required to stick to the basics, try to concentrate and force the things our way,” Jayawardene observed. “It’s better not to bowl to him,” he replied in jest when quizzed about the sparkling form Sri Lanka opener Tillakaratne Dilshan is in. |
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Priyanka comes, luck does not
New Delhi, March 12 India lost its last match 2-4 to Argentina as Priyanka Chopra remained mobbed by her fans. Only this morning The Tribune had mentioned in its World Cup Diary that none of the Bollywood stars, cricketers and other prominent sports stars that featured in the Dhak Dhak Go pro had failed to keep their appointment with the Word Cup matches here. Priyanka sat through the entire game. Meanwhile, the Union Sports Minister Dr MS Gill reiterated that elections to the Hockey India will be free, fair and held in a transparent manner as the Ministry has assured the International Hockey Federation chief, Leandro Negre that an independent presiding officer will conduct the elections to be held by secret ballot. Talking to a select group of newsmen here this afternoon, he revealed that he has impressed upon Leandro Negre that since more than 50 per cent of the revenue of the International Federation comes from India, the country should be adequately represented on its referral and management committee. He ruled out that anyone from the ad hoc committee or the Indian Olympic Association would be allowed to be associated with the conduct and supervision of elections. Same, he said, was true for Pakistan as these two countries of the subcontinent were the major hockey playing nations who generate enough revenue for the sport. Hockey has changed and India and Pakistan have to keep pace with other major hockey playing nations. The union Ministry of Sports was keen to have at least 50 synthetic surfaces throughout the country while countries like Australia and the Netherlands have almost 500 synthetic surfaces each. Another significant announcement made by MS Gill was about the coach. Expressing satisfaction over the performance of the players and the coach, he said everyone has done its best. The Sports Minister said that in spite of security concerns, holding of the World Cup has been successful and even the FIH chief has expressed his compete satisfaction over the facilities. |
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India finish 8th
New Delhi, March 12 India could not blame anybody, but themselves, for the debacle as their unsteady defence and fumbling forwards let them down, despite enjoying midfield dominance in most part. Argentina took the lead in the 28th minute when Tomas Argento Innocente flicked in a pass from Pedro Ibarra. This was after India dominated the first few minutes of the game when they attacked the rival goal relentlessly and earned two penalty corners which were wasted by Sandeep Singh, though he later made amends by scoring off a penalty stroke to account for his fourth goal of the championship. India were denied a third penalty corner by the television umpire after referral in the fourth minute of second half. But three minutes later, India earned the stroke when Vikram Pillay was stick-checked by a defender when he was about to hit at the goal. Sandeep drove in powerfully to equalise, but a minute later, Argentina regained the lead as a blinding counter attack resulted in a penalty corner, which was neatly hit home by Martin Lucas Almada. India could have pulled off the equaliser yet again a minute later, but Sarvanjit Singh’s quick sally was wasted by Gurwinder Singh Chandi. Argentina knocked the wind out of the Indian sails when they struck two goals in the next three minutes, as the Indian defence was caught in a deep slumber. Martin Lucas Vila completed his brace to add Argentina’s third goal when he trapped a back pass from Nicolas Mario Almada to flick in, in the 10th minute and two minutes later Facundo Callioni enhanced the lead to 4-1. Though India were not subjugated by Argentina’s lead, as they mounted attacks down the flanks, they could not give logical finish to their moves, as the rival defenders dispossed them on the top of the circle, or inside the dee. The stands erupted into a big roar when Shivendra Singh guided home a Rajpal Singh pass to get India’s second goal. Ironically Rajpal was guilty of muffing an easy chance when his shot hit the post, with an empty goal mocking at him. Argentina thus avenged their defeat at the hands of India in the Champions Challenge match for the third place a few months ago. Argentina have always been the bugbear of India, and they once again proved to be a needle in the hosts’ flesh. This was the eighth World Cup match between the two teams, and India suffered their fifth defeat. India had beaten the Latin American country twice, and once the contest ended in draw. This was India’s best World Cup finish since 1994 when they took the fifth spot. India had not even qualified for this World Cup, and they made it only as hosts. And for the first time, India played in the 7-8 play off, and finished eighth. Argentina featured for the third time in the play-off for 7-8 positions. In 1978, Argentina lost to England 1-3 to finish eighth and in 1994, Argentina beat Korea on penalty strokes to end up seventh. |
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Kiwis down spirited Proteas
New Delhi, March 12 In an engrossing contest for the ninth and tenth positions, New Zealand fought back from arrears to hold South Africa 4-4 during the regulation period on the strength of a hat-trick by their brilliant drag-flicker Andrew Hayward, who converted three penalty corners in succession to make the score 4-4. Extra time produced no goal and in the tie-breaker too, the teams shared four goals each, to deadlock the score at 8-8. In the sudden-death tie-breaker, Lloyd Madsen flunked for South Africa while captain Dean Couzins made no mistake for New Zealand. In the tie-breaker, New Zealand got off on the wrong foot when Ryan Archibald hit out but it did not prove costly as Wade Paton missed for South Africa. The other strikers all found the mark to make the score level four-all, necessitating the sudden-death in which New Zealand sprang to life yet again to coast home with an overall goal tally of 9-8. For the first time in the 12th edition of the World Cup, a match went to tie-breaker and sudden death. The only other match which witnessed extended play was between Pakistan and Canada which ended in Canada scoring a golden goal in the second half of extra-time to relegate Pakistan to the bottom. And Andrew Hayward was only the second player to score a hattrick in this championship, the first being the Netherland penalty corner expert Taekema. South Africa were indeed unlucky to miss out the 9th position as they had not only struck the lead through Justin Ross-Reid int he 4th minute, but hit back to make it 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4. In the tie-breaker, New Zealand had wasted the opening stroke while South Africa converted their’s and had not Wade Paton missed their third shot, the script would have been different. After South Africa took the lead and maintained it till half time, New Zealand scored two goals in the space of two minutes on resumption, in the fifth and seventh minutes, through Hugo Inglis and Andrew Hayward. Hayward also accounted for their other two goals to setup
a hat-trick. Lloyd Norris, Taine Paton and Thomas Hammond scored for South Africa. In the tie-breaker, captain Dean Couzins, Hayward, Shea Mcaleese ad Nicholas Wilson scored from penalty strokes for the Kiwis. Lloyd Masen, Justin Reid-Ross, Ian Haley and Gareth Carr scored for South Africa. |
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Spain through to Champions Trophy New Delhi, March 12 With a brace from Amat, including tournament’s fastest goal, Spain romped home with 2-0 win in the match for the fifth and sixth position before a virtually empty Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium on the penultimate day of the tournament here. So the Asian teams ended their World Cup campaign on a sad note. Korea took the sixth position, India eighth and Pakistan the 12th and last position. Never before the Asians had their teams performing so badly in this elite tournament. The next edition of the Champions Trophy will also be played without any Asian nation. Interestingly, another distinctive feature of this World Cup has been that all 12 participating teams had recorded at least a win each. Only unbeaten team so far has been the defending champions Germany who will take on runner-up for last two editions, Australia, in the final tomorrow. The Netherlands will play England for the bronze medal. After India had lost its last match to Argentina 2-4, the crowd started thinning out and not many could realise a new record was in the making. Pol Amat had a goal to his credit in the 18th second of the stat of the match against Korea. Fed by Alex Fabregas, he had positioned himself well on the right flank to glide the ball past the Korean goalkeeper. Stung by the reverse, Koreans could never get going in a match that saw their superior opponents outpacing them, both in speed and stamina, besides denying them a clear scoring opportunity. Not content with his brilliant opening minute goal, Pol Amat had another surprise for the Koreans before the teams split for half time. He intercepted another cross, this time from the right flank, and positioned himself unmarked on the left flank, to score with yet another deflection. His amazing brace was clearly the highlight of a match in which a couple of decisions were reversed by the video umpire. In all both Korea and Spain shared five penalty corners between themselves without making use of any. For Pol Amat, it has been an excellent tournament. Only in 2008, he was voted World Hockey Player of the year. Even last time when Korea played Spain, the latter won 3-2. |
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World Cup Diary Security agencies may have been inserting advertisements in media, both electronic and print, cautioning people against bringing to Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium when they come to watch the World Cup Hockey matches. The lists of items banned include laptops, handicams and cameras. And the teams need these items the most. Hockey has been keeping pace with the technological advancements. Players on the bench now have available to them laptops that can help them to have a playback of an action, say a penalty corner, so as to counter strategy of his opponents. Many teams not playing the World Cup or have just failed to qualify for the mega event also need to video record some of the matches for the benefit of their teams for their future international engagements. They, too, are allowed to bring in their gadgets. Of course, media, too, is permitted to carry cameras, laptops, pencils and pens into the media box as well as media box but not beyond a point. Teams carry these gadgets on to the play-field; get connected to the video recorder sitting behind one of the goalposts, recording the entire. Video recording is then relayed to the laptop of the team on the ground that is kept aside. Manager, coach and players on the bench can access or replay any of the recorded moments. Head sets are more sophisticated. Team managements have their men in stands for reporting back movement and placement of men on the playfield at strategic moments; say before, during and after award of a penalty corner, free hit from 25 yard line or even a 16 yard free hit. For any good coach or manager, it is important to analyse how each member of the opponents’ team conducts himself on the playfield with and without ball. Needless to say that maximum a player can hold the ball is a little more than two minutes. That is simple mathematics, 32 players in a game of 70 minutes. So how does a player conducts himself or positions himself for the remaining 68 minutes is an important component of strategic planning. Here the audio visual aids are handy as human eye and brain at times cannot take cognisance of each and every movement on the play- field. While the Europeans and Australians are far advanced in the use of the latest technology, teams from the subcontinent - India and Pakistan - appear to be lagging behind. Game is faster. It is why the need for introduction of video umpire was felt for a long time. What could be more stunning that a number of decisions originally taken by umpires had to be reversed? Award of a penalty stroke to the Netherlands that had been originally blown for a free hit for Australia and denial of goal scored by India against South Africa are some of the examples of revised decisions. It is not only players, conduct officials and technical staff but also the spectators turning techno-savvy. Other day Chairman of the Communication Committee of the International Hockey Federation talked about twitting and use of iPods and blackberries by the spectators while declaring big plasma screens inside stadiums as redundant. Watching games and sports from stands has to change. So have the security norms. You cannot keep on revising the banned items upwardly. Some of these items are becoming an all-time necessity. You cannot allow one section to carry them inside the stadium while banning the other section. |
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Akram unhappy at PCB ban
PCB announce T20 WC squad Pawar to boycott IPL opener IPL-broadcasters truce Clarke calls off engagement Sutil fastest in opening practice ‘Felt weird to be near WC trophy’
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Angelo Mathews and Owais Shah struck unbeaten half centuries to rescue Kolkata Knight Riders from a dismal start and steer them to a fighting 161 for four.
Mohali,
March 12
New Delhi, March 12
Security agencies may have been inserting advertisements in media, both electronic and print, cautioning people against bringing to Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium when they come to watch the World Cup Hockey matches.
Mathews struck five fours and four sixes in his 46-ball innings, while Shah hit three fours and as many sixes during his 46-ball stay. Earlier put in to bat, the Knight Riders went off to a dismal start by losing two wickets in the first four balls of the tournament.
Opener Marsh was a revelation in the inaugural edition of the IPL and did bulk and was the batsman largely responsible for Kings XI Punjab making the semifinal grade, while in the second edition his batting average was decent. As for Hopes, he played the role of a dependable all-rounder well, while opener Katich could be a match-winner on his day.
Pace spearhead Lee, however, looks a doubtful starter. “We had a great first season.Unfortunately, we lost in semifinals. In the next, we had some ups and downs, but had a chance to make it to the semifinals. Here also we have some problems to contend with. It will be a challenge to do well.”
