Guangzhou, November 19
Bajrang Lal Takhar stole the limelight with a historic gold in men's singles scull as Indian rowers notched up three more medals while the shooters chipped in with a bronze on the seventh day of competitions in the 16th Asian Games here today. Apart from Bajrang Lal's gold, which is first for an Indian rower at the Games, the Indian men's eight team grabbed silver and the women claimed the pair bronze to make it a very fruitful day at the International Rowing Centre here.

The shooters, who have been a pale shadow of themselves at the Aoti shooting range, accounted for a bronze with Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh and Zoravar Singh Sandhu finishing third in the men's team trap event. With the addition of four medals in the morning session, India's medal tally climbed to two gold, eight silver and ten bronze. India had finished tenth on the medals table in the last Asian Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26.

The 29-year-old Bajrang Lal, an army man, gave India the second gold in the ongoing Games after Pankaj Advani had clinched the yellow metal in billiards on the second day of competitions. Takhar led the 2000m race from start to finish and rowed his way to the gold with a few lengths of boats to spare in 7 minutes and 4.78 seconds.

The gold, that followed the two silver medals won in the men's light weight 4s and 4s event yesterday, took the medal haul from rowing to five. Rajasthan-born Bajrang Lal, who won Asian championship gold last year in Korea and was the pre-event favourite, was followed across the finish line by Chinese Taipei's Wang Ming Hui (7:07.33), who took the silver, and Iraq's Haeider Hamarasheid (7:10.10), who won the bronze.

“I won silver in the 2006 Asian Games. I had prepared for four years to fight for the gold medal today. I knew I would make it,” Takhar said.

Later the women's duo of Pratima Puhana and Pramila Minz, both in their teens, grabbed the pairs bronze in 7 minutes and 47.50 seconds, well behind gold medal winners China, who crossed the finish line far ahead in 7:22.06.

The rowing event came to an end with the Indian men's eight team clinching the silver, by clocking 5:49.50, way behind hosts China who timed 5:37.44, but well ahead of bronze medal winners Uzbekistan (5:55.96).

The Indians - Lokesh Kumar, Satish Joshi, Saji Thomas, Jenil Krishnan, Anil Kumar, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Manjeet Singh and Girraj Singh - finished more than a boat and half length ahead of the third-placed team. — PTI

Guangzhou, November 19
Sania Mirza toppled sixth seed Chinese Shuai Zhang to seal a quarter-final berth in the women's singles while Somdev Devvarman and Karan Rastogi routed their rivals to move to pre-quarterfinals of the men's singles in the Asian Games here today. Unseeded Sania, a silver medallist at the 2006 Asian Games, scored a 6-2 6-2 win in the second round at the Aoti Tennis Centre.

Contrary to what the scoreline suggests, Sania was quite rusty during the one hour and 17 minutes match and had to battle hard against her Chinese opponent. However, for Somdev and Rastogi it was just a stroll in the park as they demolished their rivals easily.

Seventh seed Rastogi took the court first and crushed Myalikkuli Mamedkuliyev of Turkmenistan 6-0 6-0 in just 45 minutes. Second seed Somdev then thrashed Jabor Mohammed Al Mutawa of Qatar with an identical scoreline in just 37 minutes.

In the men's doubles matches later, Somdev combined with Sanam Singh to beat Johnny Arcilla and Ruben Gonzales of Philippines 6-4 6-2 and advance to the quarter-finals. Rastogi was not lucky when he took court for the second time as he and Vishnu Vardhan withdrew from their match against Jun Young Kim and Min Jae Seol of South Korea. After splitting the first two sets, the South Koreans were leading 1-0 when the Indian pair opted out of the match. — PTI

But none of the threesome won an individual medal, including Asian record holder Manavjit, who stormed his way back from eighth to third position and qualified for the final only to finish fifth with an aggregate of 136, including 119 in the qualifying round. Manavjit's qualification sequence was 23, 24, 23, 24 and 25 and he shot 17 in the final.

Mansher secured 113 points (22, 23, 22, 24, 22) to finish a poor 17th from 37 starters while Zoravar was even more pathetic, ending a distant 28th with qualifying score of 109. He commenced with a very modest 19 before improving to log 22, 23 and 24 before going off the boil again with his last shot which was a 21. The first bronze from the shot gun events took India's meager tally from shooting to six. — PTI

Advani, the last edition's gold medallist in the Billiards singles, lost tamely to Junhui 11-100 86-0 1-84 0-88 7-88 to bow out of medal contention. However, another Indian in the fray, Mehta displayed fine potting skills by occupying the cue table for most of the time to win the best of seven frames pre-quarterfinal 4-2 against Chinese Taipei's Yu-Lun Wu. — PTI

Guangzhou, November 19
Commonwealth champion Dinesh Kumar became the second Indian boxer to assure himself of a medal at the Asian Games by advancing to the light heavyweight 81kg semifinals after out-punching Korean Jinho Heo here today. The 23-year-old beat his rival 10-6 in a lopsided bout during which Heo went off-balance several times due to the sheer power of the blows thrown by the Indian.

Paramjeet Samota was the first Indian to assure himself of a bronze by reaching the semifinals of 91+ weight category. Although Heo opened the scoring, it was Dinesh, an Arjuna awardee, who dominated with a power-packed performance that left the Korean dazed.

Heo had the footwork and speed to dodge Dinesh initially but once the Haryana-lad began connecting his trademark jabs and hooks, his rival could only scurry for cover. Leading 5-2 in the opening round, Dinesh never really allowed Heo to claw back despite the Korean's several valiant efforts at countering the Indian's power.

Dinesh will take on Nepalese Deepak Maharjan who stunned Thailand's Kriangkai Sukkhum 4-0. In the other Indian bout, 18-year-old Vikas Krishan (60kg) too inched closer to the medal round, advancing to the quarter-finals with an 8-1 triumph over Amangeldi Hudaybergenov of Turkmenistan. Vikas will now take on North Korea's Kim Chol Song who defeated Abdulla Mohammed 7-5 in his pre-quarterfinal bout. — PTI

Guangzhou, November 19
Captain Surinder Kaur pumped in four goals to power India to a thumping 13-0 victory over minnows Thailand in the Asian Games women’s hockey round robin league to keep themselves in the reckoning for a bronze medal here today. India, who were tied on points with Kazakhstan going into the must-win match, improved their chances by logging three points from their second victory in four matches to boost their tally to six and in fourth position.

The other goal-scorers for India in the one-sided match, in which they were 7-0 up at half time, were Rani Rampal (3) and Subhadra Pradhan (2) while Chanchan Devi, Anjum Saba, Poonam Rani and Joydeep Kaur scored once each. All but five of the goals came from the field, while the set-pieces were converted by Subadhra (2 penalty corner), Rani Rampal (penalty corner), Joyddeep (penalty corner) and Surinder Kaur (penalty stroke).

India, champions in 1982, have lost 0-1 and 0-3 to South Korea and Japan and defeated Malaysia 4-0 earlier in the tournament. For India, the goal-glut began when Chanchan Devi fired into the rival goal in the 12th minute which was increased by one when Saba Anjum three minutes later.

Five more goals followed in the later part of the first half with Rani, Subadhra, Surinder - who pushed home from the spot before adding another through a field effort in the space of three minutes and Poonam. After crossing over, Rani converted a penalty corner in the 42nd minute to make it 8-0.

India had to wait for another 15 minutes to add to that tally and then pumped in four more goals in the last ten minutes. They earned as many as a dozen penalty corners but could convert only three of them which, coach Sandeep Somesh, said was because the plans were not implemented properly. — PTI

Lifters end miserable campaign

India ended their miserable campaign in the weightlifting competition with Geeta Rani and Sarabjit Singh coming a cropper in the women's +75kg and men's +105kg events in the Asian Games here today. Geeta produced a below-par performance as she lifted 227kg (95+132) to finish last among six lifters in her weight category. She had lifted 235kg (100+135) in last month's Commonwealth Games in which she had finished fourth. South Korea's Jang Mi Ran and China's Meng Suping were tied at 311kg but the former won gold by virtue of her lesser body weight on the final day of weightlifting competitions. Jang lifted 130kg in snatch and 181kg in clean and jerk while Meng had 135kg and 176kg. Kazakhstan's Mariya Grabovetskaya won the bronze with a total lift of 290 (135+155).

India beat Japan in volleyball

India defeated Japan in a thrilling five setter in the men's volleyball pre-quarterfinal league in the Asian Games here today. India beat Japan 25-20, 25-19, 21-25, 26-28, 15-13 in a contest which lasted one hour and 56 minutes. For India, Pradeep Guttikonda scored the maximum 16 points while Sanjay Banwari and Sube Singh contributed 14 and 13 points respectively. India play Qatar in their second pre-quarterfinal league match tomorrow.

Squash: Ghosal in semis

Ace racqueter Saurav Ghosal kept the tri-colour fluttering by progressing into the semifinals of the men's singles squash event, even as the women players Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal bow out of the medal contention at the Asian Games, here today. Doha Asian Games bronze medallist and world ranked 25th Ghosal defeated countrymate Siddharth Suchde 3-0 in the quarterfinal here at the Town Gymnasium's centre court. The 25-year-old Kolkata boy overwhelmed world ranked 73rd Suchde 11-6 11-6 11-7 in 44 minutes to book his berth into the last-four stage. It was business as usual for Ghosal, who was classy in his approach, execution of shots and dead drops for winners in all three games, which he won without much resistance.

Pakistan eves win cricket gold

The Pakistan women’s cricket team pose with their Gold medals at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou on Friday. Pakistan won gold, Bangladesh silver and Japan won bronze. — AFP

Sunil Narula
Tribune News Service

Practice makes a man perfect! Sachin Tendulkar hits a tennis ball inside the pavilion after his team practice session was interrupted due to rain showers at the Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur on Friday. — AFP

Nagpur, November 19
Weren’t eighth-ranked New Zealand supposed to be two down by this time? Well, quite frankly, India should have been leading the series at this point in time and the third Test should have been a mere formality, more a game for the statistically minded.

Instead, New Zealand have surprised India big time. They have surprised most cricket followers and experts. And, perhaps they may have also surprised themselves in the process.

Now, as we head into the decider, the series is still very much open with everything to play for. New Zealand may even be harboring thoughts of a series win, something even the most optimistic Kiwi supporter would have desisted from doing at the start of this series.

“We do not want to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have done a lot of hard work till this point in the series. And we will continue with that hard work. We know what a good side India is,’’ said Daniel Vettori on the eve of the third and final Test of the series here.

Dan, as the Kiwi skipper is popularly known, is spot on. Hard work has really been the operative word for his side. They were the underdogs but with grit and hard work they have hung in there.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni though, is not too concerned about his team’s inability to win the first two Tests. Or, even if he is bothered about this fact, he did not show it. He looked quite cool as he talked to reporters here. “We are not thinking too much about the rankings. There is no extra pressure on us to win here just because we are the number one Test team in the world. We just give our hundred percent every time. The rankings will take care of themselves,” stated the skipper.

“Our bowlers have bowled well but we haven’t taken all the catches. Hopefully, there will be more help for them from the pitch here,” added the Indian captain.

“We will miss Zaheer. And the four bowlers (Sreesanth, Ishant, Harbhajan & Ojha) will have to take the extra responsibility,” said Dhoni.

It is a bit curious, but Sachin Tendulkar has still not got to his 50th Test hundred, a landmark that has been beckoning him right from the start of this series in Ahmedabad.

Vettori was asked this question and he was quite candid with his answer. “Well, according to the law of averages, he should be coming good here. He hasn’t made a big one in the two Tests so far. May be a big one is around the corner. But frankly that is not our focus. We will continue to play the way we have in the earlier games,” said Vettori.

The Kiwis are contemplating just one change to their side with left-arm pacer Andy Mckay likely to be included in place of Brent Arnel.

The weather has been a bit of a concern with another sharp shower hitting the area today. But, the skies had cleared by the evening, the drainage system at this ground is pretty good and the forecast for the coming days encouraging.

So, the stadium should be ready for play tomorrow morning. So far in this series, the Indian captain himself has been woefully short of runs. “I have just not been choosing the right ball to hit,” Dhoni said today. A captain’s knock here can secure a series win. Dhoni knows this only too well. Perhaps, he is feeling the pressure too. But, he did not show it.