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Gambhir stars in India’s win
Miandad not ready to work under Waqar
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Revered DGC course will challenge all players
Jeev Milkha Singh at the Delhi Golf Club on
Wednesday. — TNS
Cuban boxing coach may get another term
Beckham claims 2018 bid back on track
‘We still have a lot to win’
ONGC, BPCL win
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Gambhir stars in India’s win
Jaipur, December 1 Gambhir, the stand-in captain led by example carrying his bat through the innings for an unbeaten 116-ball 138, after S Sreesanth's inspired spell at the death helped the hosts restrict New Zealand to 258 for eight in the second one-dayer. Virat Kohli, after his match-winning hundred in the series opener in Guwahati, continued to impress, compiling a neat 64 off 73 balls. But by the time Ross Taylor produced a blinder at short midwicket to send Kohli back, the issue was more or less sealed. This was Gambhir's first century in almost a year, the last one coming in the home series against Sri Lanka on Christmas eve when he smashed an unbeaten 150 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Gambhir's knock was decorated with 18 sweetly timed hits to the fence and a six. During their march to victory, India had two fruitful partnerships - Gambhir and Murali Vijay gave the hosts a solid start putting on 87 runs for the first wicket, before Kohli joined the captain to forge a century stand that made only one result possible: An India victory. Gambhir then, in the company of Yuvraj Singh, completed the task in the 43rd over. Both Gambhir and Kohli got to their personal landmarks with boundaries. Kohli pulled Kyle Mills over square-leg boundary to notch up his eight ODI fifty, and moments later, Gambhir reached his hundred by dispatching McKay over midwicket, his eighth ton in this format of the game. The start was, however, tentative for the Indian captain -- he nearly played a Mills delivery on to his stumps. But that was all New Zealand could manage as Gambhir soon started dealing in boundaries and how. He began proceedings with an uppish drive over mid-off for a boundary. The southpaw then gave himself some room and smashed Mills through point for the same result, before easing into another majestic drive through extra cover and mid-off off the same bowler. Off side turned out to be his favoured area and anything pitched on or outside off was treated with sheer disdain by the Delhi left-hander, who was particularly severe on Mills in the first few overs of India innings. After dominating Mills, Gambhir then turned his attention towards Andy Mckay and Scott Styris and welcomed both with boundaries. While McKay was clipped off his hips over midwicket bound Murali Vijay, meanwhile, sent Daniel Vettori over the midwicket region but the Chennai lad, as is often the case with him, wasted another start getting out to the New Zeland skipper while going for a slog sweep. But, with Gambhir timing the ball to perfection and well supported by an in-form Kohli at the other end, India's hundred was up in the 20th over. With his captain in such dominating mood, all Kohli had to do was rotate the strike but the Delhi youngster was not one to be left far behind and played some delightful shots on both sides of the wicket.
— PTI Scoreboard New Zealand Guptill c Saha b Ashwin 70 How c Saha b Sreesanth 5 Williamson b Patel 29 Taylor c Kohli b Pathan 15 Styris c Saha b Sreesanth 59 Vettori b Sreesanth 31 Hopkins not out 11 N McCullum run out 12 Mills b Sreesanth 13 Southee not out 2 Extras: 11 Total (for 8 wkts, 50 overs) 258 Bowling: Ashish Nehra 9-1-45-0, S Sreesanth 9-1-47-4, Munaf Patel 8-0-34-1, R Ashwin 10-0-52-1, Yuvraj Singh 9-1-48-0, Yusuf Pathan 4-0-23-1, Suresh Raina 1-0-4-0. India Murali Vijay b Vettori 33 Gautam Gambhir not out 138 Virat Kohli c Taylor b McKay 64 Yuvraj Singh not out 16 Extras: (W-8) 8 Total: (for two wickets in 43 overs) 259 Fall of wickets: 1-87, 2-203. Bowling: McCullum 9-0-37-0, Mills 7-0-49-0, McKay 7-0-59-1, Styris 3-0-20-0, Vettori 8-0-32-1, Southee 5-0-33-0, Williamson 4-0-29-0
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Miandad not ready to work under Waqar
Islamabad, December 1 But in the offer letter, the board made it clear to
Miandad, who is also the director general cricket in the PCB that he would work under the supervision of head coach, Waqar
Younis. Sources close to Miandad said that in the offer letter, the former great was told that he would have to work under Waqar and get his approval before working with any player.
"Miandad has been told that he would be answerable to Waqar and would have to share his ideas and concepts with him and get his approval. Miandad has also been told that he would have no role at all in the selection of teams," the source said. He said that Miandad given his seniority (124 Tests) and position in the board was obviously not willing to accept the terms and conditions of the board.
"Waqar has played under Miandad when he was captain and coach and it was Miandad who groomed him in his early days in international cricket. Clearly it is illogical for the board to expect Miandad to accept such conditions," the source
added. ICC moves forward on leagues
Dubai: Taking another step forward in finalising a new Future Tours Programme for the 2012-2020 period, ICC's Chief Executive Committee has begun the process of drawing up rules and regulations for the Test and ODI leagues. The Committee also agreed to reconstitute its working group comprising David Collier
(ECB), Nishantha Ranatunga (SLC). — PTI |
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Revered DGC course will challenge all players
New Delhi, December 1 McGinley is a golfer of no mean achievement, being part of three European Ryder Cup winning squads, but the DGC course has a strange way of making the mockery of the best of players. Irrespective of how nice the fairways look, or how inviting the greens, the bushes that somehow seem to close in on the these, especially as the money-making rounds approach, have seen many torn trousers, scratched skin and tears of blood. McGinley was however reverent in his appreciation of the course. “The course is one of the best we’ve ever played. I love old fashioned courses. It suits my game and I wish we could play on these sorts of courses every week unlike the modern courses which have water all over the place and are close to 8,000 yards long.” But the year hasn’t been great for him, especially since he missed out the first five months thanks to a left knee injury. The other person to appear before the media today was Daniel Chopra, who has grown up on this course before stepping into the wide world. “I have great memories of this golf course. This is where I got hooked to this great game of golf and learned the ropes,” Chopra says. The Swede has had a pretty horrendous year, not at all helped by tendinitis of the right elbow. “My aim here is to win,” he however says. “If I win here, I can say that 2010 went well. If not, it’s just a bad year.” The other golfer who is being backed to win is Arjun Atwal, but he hasn’t practiced much over the last two weeks. So we have one dodgy knee, one dodgy elbow, some dodgy practice and an extremely dodgy course. That would keep all the other hopefuls interested, and there are quite a few who would be hoping to lift the glittering silver trophy and a hefty winner’s cheque of $198,125. As for McGinley, we hope he stays on till Sunday, and then goes on his way to savour the kaleidoscope of Indian culture and cooking with the good lady. |
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Cuban boxing coach may get another term
New Delhi, December 1 The Indian Boxing Federation, obviously pleased with the rich haul of medals that have been coing India’s way from the ring, including Commonwealth Games, World Championships and now the Asian Games, is expected to ask the Sports Ministry to clear Fernandez’s name for a new contract. “We have spoken to Mr. Fernandez and he is interested in staying on,” IBF secretary-general P.K. Muralidharan Raja said during a felicitation ceremony here yesterday for the Indian boxers who won medals at the Asiad. “We will recommend his name for a fresh contract to the Sports Ministry.” Fernandez reached the end of his term at the end of the Asian Games in Guangzhou. New scoring system: The AIBA, the international boxing body, has decided to adopt a new point scoring system which will ensure that boxers cannot fall back on defensive tactics. The new system would stop the display of points scored while the round is on, and the score would only be flashed on the scoreboard at the end of the round, ensuring that the boxers and their seconds cannot know the tally during the bout. Additionally, the total score after every round would also change. Instead of now, when a point is scored when three of the five judges press the button within one second. But from January 1, 2011, the score would be the mean of the total of points scored by the three judges in every round.
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Beckham claims 2018 bid back on track
Zurich, December 1 Beckham denied that the BBC Panorama documentary alleging ticket fraud by Jack Warner, whose endorsement is key to England's success, and corruption among three further Fifa executive committee (ExCo) members would have a negative effect on the bid. Beckham said: "Basically me, David Dein [the 2018 bid's international president], the Prime Minister and other members of the team sat down with [Fifa] president [Sepp] Blatter and it was one of the topics that we spoke about and something that was cleared away. What we made clear to him and what he already knows is that if we get the World Cup in 2018 our media are right behind us, our media are so positive towards the sport and towards it growing in our country. It is something that could be so big in our country. I think that president Blatter is well aware of the support that we will have for Fifa and the World Cup. "He brought it up within the talks and obviously it was not the easiest of things to talk about. He realised that a lot of it was old stuff. A lot of things go on and it is out of our hands." Beckham, Cameron and Prince William all arrived here yesterday to give England's bid a boost in the final 48 hours of lobbying. A source in the 2018 camp said last night: "We are still in the fight and that is all we can ask for." Cameron had a 30-minute private talk with Warner, who controls all three votes from the Concacaf region (North and Central America and the Caribbean), in a bid to smooth relations. Warner said: "I was pleased with the talks. They were very constructive. Mr Cameron is a knowledgeable man. He knows about football, but not only that he knows about the bidding process as well. I certainly trust his knowledge of football." In contrast, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whose country are still the bookmakers' favourites to win the 2018 vote, has still not arrived in Switzerland. However, four years ago he made a late, unannounced arrival for the International Olympic Committee vote on the 2014 Winter Olympics which was won by the Russian city of Sochi. — AFP
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Barcelona, December 1 This could only compound the Portuguese's frustration after learning of his two match ban and A40,000 fine for the red cards earned purposefully by his players in the Champions League last week. One of those matches is suspended, however, so Mourinho will only have to sit out one the irrelevant Auxerre match. Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos, who earned the late red cards, were also fined A20,000 each, while Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek were fined A10,000 and A5,000 respectively for their roles in the incident. The scorer of the first goal in Monday night's massacre said the victory was a new high but that there was still so much more that a team now being talked about as the best in history could achieve. "We are playing better than in our first season [under Guardiola]," Xavi said. "And although we have won a lot of trophies, there are still a lot left for us to win. But right now we are the best" He swerved questions over his team's place in the all-time pecking order but the 5-0 thrashing has Barcelona fans struggling to think of a better group of players. "The 6-2 win (in May last year) at the Bernabeu was a perfect result but this is even better because of the way we played," Xavi added. "It was an incredible feeling to be so superior to them. It feels great to be a Barcelona fan right now, and they [the Madrid players] must be feeling terrible. " The BarAa midfielder is now favourite to win European Footballer of the Year next month and he added: "If I or Andres (Iniesta) win the award then it will be an award for the philosophy of this fantastic club and for the style of play that we have been practising for the last 30 years." One man who will not be on Fifa's top table is Cristiano Ronaldo who once again failed to score against the Gerard Pique-Carles Puyol combination. When BarAa beat Almeria 8-0 last week Ronaldo was asked if he thought the win would affect the Clasico, to which he replied: "Let's see if they can score eight past us." No one could have imagined how close they would come as they inflicted the heaviest defeat of Mourinho's career. Last night the Portuguese received support from the club's director general Jorge Valdano who said: "We can use the game to learn important lessons and to mature. We have to accept the defeat and carry on and hopefully in the second half of the season when the two teams meet again it will be us giving the exhibition. "He (Mourinho) was impeccable in the way he conducted himself during the match. Madrid is a club of men and we will act as such, all working together - players and coach - to make sure we come out of this." Mourinho's side face Valencia on Saturday and will be without the suspended Sergio Ramos and Ricardo Carvalho and the still-injured Gonzalo Higuain. Supporters have sung Mourinho's name in recent weeks but this weekend's welcome may not be so warm. — AFP
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Brisbane, December 1 England’s fightback was in response to Australia taking a handsome 221-run lead on the first innings. “I’ve never played on a Gabba wicket like that in my whole career. The way it started and how slow it was in the first couple of days was very foreign to me,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying. “Normally it’s quicker and bouncier early on, there’s a lot more wickets caught behind than what there was in this particular game.” “A different wicket I think. The result indicates there was something different about the Gabba this week,” he added. The Australian captain, however, admitted that his team could have bowled a lot better as a group. “It felt like I exhausted every option as far as trying to do different things with fields and tactics and whatever else. We just weren’t able to break their top three players,” Ponting said. Ponting was, however, unsure when asked whether Australia would change the team for Adelaide. — AP
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ONGC, BPCL win
New Delhi, December 1 In a one-sided match, ONGC took a comfortable 3-0 lead before the Bankmen could pull one back through Jalwinder. But just before close, the Oilmen knocked in one more goal to emerge 4-1 victors. Jagwant, Mandeep Antil, Gurwinder Chandi and Pramod scored for ONGC. BPCL faced no resistance from SC Railway as they steamrolled into a comfortable victory. |
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Gautam Gambhir stamped his authority with a majestic century as India romped to a convincing eight-wicket win thereby taking a 2-0 lead in the five-match ODI series against New Zealand, at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here today.
Gambhir, the stand-in captain led by example carrying his bat through the innings for an unbeaten 116-ball 138, after S Sreesanth's inspired spell at the death helped the hosts restrict New Zealand to 258 for eight in the second
one-dayer.
New Delhi, December 1
