|
|
|
|
|
Lanka down Wi
No one can emulate Tendulkar: Kohli
Pakistan clinch ODI series
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Uthappa, Badri lift South
‘Punjab ignoring sportspersons’
Uphill ride for Indian cyclists
Gopal beats Speelman
|
|
The final match will be played on Sunday. Tharanga added 70 for the second wicket with skipper Kumar Sangakkara (20) and 97 for the next with Mahela Jayawardene (48 not out) to ensure his team's comfortable victory. Former captain Jayawardene finished the match when he cut spinner Nikita Miller for his fifth boundary. Sri Lanka were earlier indebted to paceman Lasith Malinga (3-30) and off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan (2-42), who bowled the tourists out for a modest 203 at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. Half-brothers Darren and Dwayne Bravo scored 39 each. The West Indies, put in to bat, put on 45 for the first wicket before losing openers Chris Gayle and Adrian Barath in the space of three balls. Barath, who scored a century in the rain-hit opening match, was trapped leg-before for 12 by Nuwan Kulasekara, while Muralitharan removed Gayle (28) with his first delivery. Gayle played some aggressive shots in his 30-ball cameo, smashing seamer Angelo Mathews for three fours in an over and then hitting Kulasekara for a four and a six off successive balls in the next over. Darren Bravo put on 49 for the third wicket with Ramnaresh Sarwan (21) and 38 with Dwayne, but fell when looking well-set. He hit two sixes off Muralitharan and one off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath before being trapped leg-before by Malinga, who struck again when he bowled Kieron Pollard for four in his next over. The series precedes the World Cup, which opens in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on February 19. — AFP
|
|
No one can emulate Tendulkar: Kohli
The U-19 World Cup winning captain feels that the biggest challenge during the cricketing extravaganza will be to keep the external pressures not affect their game. "Playing World Cup in itself is a huge pressure. There will be people who would expect us to do well. The biggest challenge will therefore be not to get distracted by that and concentrate at the job on hand," the 22-year-old Kohli said. The player who has four centuries from 45 ODIs and enjoys a fantastic average of around 47 said he just tries to keep things simple. "I just try to play according to my strength and not do anything special. With experience of having played international cricket for the past two years, I have learnt that if one tries too hard for something special, one might just spoil the ability to do things that come naturally. "It's hard not to make mistakes but with time you learn from them and the key to success is not repeating the same mistakes over and over again." Kohli dismissed the notion that injury management has been a problem with Indian players of late as the likes of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Praveen Kumar have all been injured in the lead up to the World Cup. "No player likes to get injured. But when you are playing so much of cricket, the body tends to get tired and thus injuries happen. You may be the fittest guy around but suddenly you can twist an ankle and be out of action for six months. But Kohli admitted that the injuries happening to key players ahead of the showpiece event is unfortunate. "It is definitely a bad time to get injured. No one gets injured intentionally and this is unfortunate that some of our players have sustained injuries." Asked about the teams which can do well, Kohli named South Africa, Australia and England as the three sides to watch out for in the competition. When a scribe asked whether India would like to face Australia or Kenya in the final, the cocky youngster replied, "We would like to play in finals. Any opposition is fine with us." Talking about the ODI series in South Africa, he said, "I am lucky that I have been able to pull it off pretty well. The bouncy South African pitches suit my style of play. I like to play a lot upright and the ball came on nicely to the bat. Also when you have the confidence to attack the quicks, it helps." — PTI
|
|
Hamilton, February 3 Umar Akmal made 32, the next-best score, and Misbah ul-Haq (25) and Shahid Afridi (24) - rivals for Pakistan's World Cup captaincy - offered support as Pakistan reached a moderate but competitive total. In reply, New Zealand was bowled out for 227 in 46.5 overs, with stand-in captain Ross Taylor top scoring with 69 and Martin Guptill making 65. The pair put on 69 for New Zealand's third wicket but their separation prompted the steady decline of the New Zealand innings. "We've had to wait a long time for Pakistan to win a series but it's come at the right time, just before the World Cup," said Afridi, Pakistan's current one-day captain. Shehzad provided the thread that held together the top of the Pakistan innings. He batted freely but composedly, taking the senior role in all of his partnerships and eclipsing his previous best one-day score of 43. Umar Akmal tried to steer the latter part of the innings, making 32, but Pakistan fell well short of the total it may have expected when Shehzad was out in the 38th over at 197-4. "I thought we would make 300, but we weren't able to keep up the momentum," Afridi said. New Zealand also restricted Pakistan with its slower bowlers. Scott Styris took 2-51, Jacob Oram 2-49 and Kyle Mills, bowling mainly slow medium pace, took 2-42. New Zealand's run chase suffered an immediate setback when opener Jesse Ryder was run out on the first ball of the innings. Guptill steered the ball to Misbah ul-Haq at wide mid-on, Ryder was backing up too far and Misbah threw down the stumps at the non-striker's end. Guptill worked hard to revive the innings, reaching his half century from 59 balls but he gave away his wicket with a poor shot, offering a catch to Umar Akmal off Shoaib Akhtar. Taylor attempted to guide New Zealand to victory but he wasn't able to score with fluency and the mounting run-rate placed pressure on the lower middle order and tail. — AFP
|
|
Visakhapatnam, February 3 Badrinath and B Sumanth (21) were at the crease when stumps were drawn at the Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium here. Earlier in the day, resuming at 266 for seven, North Zone rounded off their first innings at 337 in 106.1 overs with Pragyan Ojha claiming both the overnight batsmen. Joginder Sharma (30) could add just 26 runs to his overnight score before he was cleaned up by Ojha in the 98th over. Ojha then removed Paras Dogra (167) by having him caught by Sreenath Aravind. Left-arm medium-pacer Aravind then completed the formalities by disturbing S Narwal's stumps. In reply, openers A Mukund (34) and Uthappa (66) gave South Zone a good start, compiling 85 runs for the first wicket before their partnership was cut short by Narwal in the 21st over. Uthappa also didn't stay long and was dismissed by Joginder with 107 on board but Badrinath and Pandey then steadied the innings. The duo added 136 runs for the third wicket to take South Zone close to the 250-mark before Narwal came back to derail the partnership, removing Pandey in the 52nd over. But South are still well-placed needing just 39 runs to surpass North Zone's first innings total. Brief Score: North Zone 1st innings: 337 all out in 106.1 overs (P Dogra 167; P Ojha 3/49) South Zone 1st innings: 298/3 in 70 overs (S Badrinath 97, M Pandey 74, Uthappa 66; S Narwal 2/57). — PTI
|
|
‘Punjab ignoring sportspersons’
Chandigarh, February 3 Appreciating the gesture of the State government to honour outstanding sportspersons with cash awards, Dhanwant Singh said that it was unfortunate that some of the sportsmen and women who had won honours for the State were being ignored while those who belonged to Punjab but never represented the state in any national or international meet were being honoured tomorrow. “My son, Smit Singh, a skeet shooter, who won a gold (team event) in the Asian Clay Skeet Championship held in Rajasthan in 2008 and also won an individual bronze in the SAF Games in Dhaka has been excluded from the list of awardees tomorrow. The Department told me that application of my son was late. “Smit Singh has been representing Punjab for last four years. He will continue to represent Punjab irrespective of the fact whether he is given the cash award for his major achievements,” he said. Dhanwant Singh also said that players of many other sports and games were also not in the list of awardees. Meanwhile, the Punjab Government would disburse cash awards worth Rs 7.5 crores at a special function at Mohali tomorrow. Shooter Ronjan Sodhi, for example, would get a total cash award of Rs 98 lakh while women shooters like Hina Sidhu and Avneet Sidhu would also get handsome cash awards for their achievements in various national and international events, including the last Asian and Commonwealth Games.
|
|
Uphill ride for Indian cyclists
In 2010, when the home team competed in the Commonwealth Games after a gap of 32 years, nothing spectacular was expected. But rather than blaming the athletes, the focus should be on the governing federations. The CWG core campers got their imported bikes only a fortnight ahead of the competition. "A cycle, if imported personally, costs a little over rupees one lakh," claims a Kerala cyclist. "The cost of better cycles is higher and usually Indian youngsters go in for second-hand machines, discarded by the other international cyclists. "We need more support and the federation should try to sort out these issues and make cycles easily available since spending this much amount is sometimes a big problem," she added. Young cyclists still have to do a lot of paperwork before they can get sophisticated machines. "You have to approach the state federation and then run around the Cycling Federation of India to get necessary nods," claimed one athlete, worried after his old cycle developed a snag. The Indian team's run up to the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games was not ideal, with the riders getting their imported cycles only a fortnight ahead of the event. "When we get a cycle officially imported through the federation, we save around 105 percent on taxes and the cost gets cut by almost half," claimed another cyclist, who participated in the Games. Usually the cyclists use bikes which are made of iron or aluminum. At international competitions, cycles boast features like aerodynamics, to help them get accurate balance and gain corner speed on lighter bikes. "The imported cycles are classy and they are faster," claimed another athlete. "I feel that the cyclists are getting better bikes than before. The present set of cycles are appropriate for the level at which the athletes are performing now," claimed 1982 national cycling coach KVS Sidhu. "The national cycling body is presently fighting court cases and once the new body is elected, we would definitely try to make import of cycles easier," he added. Sidhu, who was earlier associated with the Cycling Federation of India, is now with the Punjab cycling body.
|
|
Madrid, February 3 Togo forward Emmanuel Adebayor scored his first Real goal deep in stoppage time to add to an 81st minute strike from German international midfielder Mesut Ozil, as Real won the semi-final tie 3-0 on aggregate and eased the pressure on coach Mourinho last night. The Portuguese now has the chance to win his first trophy with the club by lifting Madrid's first Kings Cup since 1993. The two powerhouses of Spanish football, Real and Barcelona, will face off in the final with Mourinho hoping to fare better than in the league when his side lost 5-0 to Barcelona at Camp Nou. Barcelona defeated Almeria 3-0 to cruise into their second final in three seasons with an 8-0 aggregate win. Real had tasted a shock 1-0 defeat at Osasuna on Sunday to fall seven points behind Barcelona in the league, but had the comfort of home advantage. — AFP
|
|
Karthikeyan sixth fastest in Valencia
Valencia, February 3 The Indian, who returend to F1 circuit after a gap of more than five years, was 12th fastest on the first day of the test on Tuesday. Karthikeyan, who was signed by Spanish outfit Hispania Raching Team for the 2011 season, completed 80 laps during the second day of testing yesterday.
— PTI |
|
Gibraltar, February 3 The victory, coming with black pieces put Gopal in a good position in the 1,26,000 prize money event as the Indian will take on Salome Melia of Georgia in the final round with white pieces. Meanwhile, it continued to be a two-way race for the title as top seeded Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk showcased his superior understanding to beat young GM Fabianoa Caruana of Italy to remain at the helm with a remarkable eight points out of a possible nine. — PTI
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Colombo, February 3
New Delhi, February 3
Ahmed Shehzad hit his maiden one-day international century today to guide Pakistan to a 41-run win over New Zealand in the 5th one-day cricket international, clinching the six-match series. Shehzad made 115 from 104 balls as Pakistan posted 268-9 in its 50 overs after being sent in to bat on a slow pitch.
Umar Akmal made 32, the next-best score, and Misbah ul-Haq (25) and Shahid Afridi (24) - rivals for Pakistan's World Cup captaincy - offered support as Pakistan reached a moderate but competitive total.
South Zone produced a solid batting display to take control of the final against North, reaching 298 for three on the second day of the Duleep trophy match here today. Three South Zone batsmen — Robin Uthappa (66), S Badrinath (97 not out) and Manish Pandey (74) — smashed individual half-centuries.
Limited opportunities and herculean efforts required to import bicycles have hit this sport hard, making it tough for the young talent to compete with world-class bikes. Though cycling as a sport needs much more effort podium finishes, it has developed slowly ever since film actor Janki Das became the first Indian cyclist to compete in the Commonwealth Games at the 1938 Sydney edition.
Colombo, February 3
New Delhi, February 3
Patiala, February 3
NEW DELHI: