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More pain for already hurt India
‘Bell-like Sachin dismissal would’ve caused uproar’
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Time India’s famed batting line-up fires
Someone will be disappointed, hope not me: Tim
Tintu wins Gold at Karlstad Grand Prix
Kashmir Premier League
concludes
Indian boxer Vijender Singh.
Pinegrove to host soccer tourney
Don’t beg HI to play: Pillay
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Bhajji, Yuvi ruled out of Test series Harbhajan has abdominal strain Yuvraj out with fractured finger Ojha, Kohli named as replacements
Nottingham, August 3 While Harbhajan has suffered a grade I abdominal muscle strain, Yuvraj has fractured his left index finger during the second cricket Test against England which the visitors lost by a massive 319 runs. "The All-India Senior Selection Committee has picked Virat Kohli and Pragyan Ojha as their replacements. Both players will join the Indian team at the earliest," BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement. Yuvraj, who struck a half-century in the second Test, injured his finger when he got hit by a Tim Bresnan snorter during an improbable 478-run chase at Trent Bridge. Harbhajan, who has struggled to find form in the series so far, also picked up the injury during the second Test. The off-spinner bowled just 13.4 overs in the second Test and has been woefully out of form in the series. The tweaker grabbed 1 for 69 in the second Test after his 1 for 218 in the first at Lord's. Yuvraj's injury may take around four weeks to recover, while Harbhajan is likely to get back to full fitness in three weeks' time, which leaves a question mark over their participation in the first few matches of the five-match ODI series starting September 3. The Indians have been besieged by injury concerns even before the start of the series. Virender Sehwag, who joined the team today and is expected to play in the third Test at Edgbaston, had to pull out of the first two matches owing to a shoulder injury. The Indians were struck another body blow when pace spearhead Zaheer Khan suffered a hamstring strain on the first morning of the first Test. Gautam Gambhir picked up an elbow injury after being hit by a full-blooded sweep shot by Matt Prior at Lord's. He missed the last Test but is set to play at Edgbaston. On the verge of losing their world number one status after suffering crushing defeats in the first two Tests, India will have to play out of their skin to salvage their reputation. — PTI
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‘Bell-like Sachin dismissal would’ve caused uproar’
London, August 3 "We didn't think sitting in our changing room and fuming quietly to ourselves was going to do any good," Flower told reporters at Trent Bridge. "We thought communicating like that would be the way to go. We felt that Bell wasn't attempting to take a run and therefore we wanted to ask the Indian side to reconsider their appeal," he said. — PTI
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Time India’s famed batting line-up fires
Northampton, August 3 If not anything else, the visitors should be fired up after Kevin Pietersen's comments where he said that the Indians cannot play swing, even as the rest of the world wonders how good are they when faced with short-pitched stuffs. Although the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and VVS Laxman have fared pretty well over the years in the land where swing is the king, they are yet to live up to their huge reputation this time around. Tendulkar began his journey of century-making in international cricket in England itself in 1990 and, over the past 21 years, have played 15 Tests, scoring 1420 runs with four centuries and five half-centuries at an average of 56.80. And that record in itself must stifle the murmurs about his lack of mastery over James Anderson yet. Rahul Dravid, if anything, has done better with 1177 runs from 11 Tests, striking five hundreds and four fifties at an average of 69.24. By his own admission, he likes visiting England and there's no prize for guessing why. VVS Laxman, however, has only 528 runs from nine Tests at an average of 40.62 and, without a century to show. Meanwhile, Virender Sehwag, who is all set to join the squad for the remaining Tests after missing out on the first two because of a shoulder injury, has 239 runs from four Tests with a century and half-century at an average of 39.50. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, facing the heat for the first time in his career, has 258 runs from five Tests at 32.25 and is without a century, while Gautam Gambhir has just the Lord's Test under his belt. So, apart from a couple of them, the Indian batting scoresheet isn't too inspiring. And it gets even more daunting when one takes a look at England's present attack - it has never been so good in the past. The pace quartet of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan have had a withering effect on the Indian batting so far in the series. It's well documented that playing from the crease does not help against swing bowling. So, in that context, it is noticeable how prepared Dravid has been to come completely forward at times, if required, to neutralise a swinging delivery. Whereas batsmen with minimal footwork like Sehwag and Laxman been relatively unsuccessful here in their otherwise astounding Test careers. Indians, now, are left with little choice but to sort out their batting woes at the earliest. Considering that they have only one warm-up game besides a few intense net sessions with simulated help from the bowling machine before the remaining two Tests in Edgbaston and The Oval, it seemed an uphill task for India. — PTI
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Someone will be disappointed, hope not me: Tim
Nottingham, August 3 "It's up to the selectors, the captain or whoever is going to make the decision to pick the side for the next game. It's going to be a tough decision, someone is going to have to miss out and someone is going to be very disappointed, and I hope it isn't me," he was quoted as saying by 'The Daily Mirror'. Bresnan was called in after Chris Tremlett was ruled out due to back spasm and he performed exceptionally well scoring 90 second-innings runs along with his first ever five-wicket haul in a Test. Bresnan said he hopes to be picked for the third Test starting August 10. "It's a good position for English cricket really and I've said this all along, if you've got a stable of bowlers to choose from then it's going to give the selectors a headache and thankfully that's not my problem and I don't have to worry about that." — PTI
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Tintu wins Gold at Karlstad Grand Prix
New Delhi, August 3 Egle Balciunaite of Lithuania was second in 2:02.72 while Melissa Bishop of Canada bagged the bronze in 2:02.80. Tintu has already crossed the World Championships 'B' standard when she clocked 2:01.25 to finish sixth in the CWG last year. Another Indian, Ghamanda Ram finished fifth in men's 800m with a timing of 1:47.25. The race was won by Mukhtar Mohammed of Great Britain in 1:45.90. Beijing Olympics silver medallist Ismail Ismail Ahmed of Sudan was second in 1:46.09. — PTI
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Sunny Fit-again Sehwag can lift India By sunil gavaskar India were totally outplayed by England in the second Test so much, so that it looked like a contest between a professional team and a schoolboy’s team. The gap between the two teams at the end of the Lord’s Test did not look that much, but after the Nottingham Test it does appear that India are simply not good enough for this England team. The batting has failed to get to 300 in four innings and the bowling in both Tests has faded away after a bright beginning. Yes in both Tests India lost the services of their premier bowlers Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh and that left them with just three bowlers, which was never going to be enough against an England side that bats deep. That is a huge advantage that even if England have lost their top order early for not too many, they still have the batting depth where they can come back and finish with a decent score. Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann are all capable of batting and adding valuable runs and frustrating the opposition. India’s lower order is just not technically good enough and if a player knows he is technically struggling then mentally too he stops fighting. Not that the top order has shown any great technique, especially the youngsters who plunder millions of runs on Indian pitches getting onto the front foot and then suddenly find that when it comes to overseas pitches and the quicker bowlers, they just don’t know how to play off the back-foot. The guys scoring the runs are those who have honed their technique on the longer version of the game, the three or four day Ranji Trophy matches. Those others who are destroyers of bowling where the ball does not come above the waist are finding how tough Test cricket is. There will be talk about preparation etc, but even if this Indian team had five first class games before the Test series they would have struggled simply because the technique is not quite there. Even in domestic cricket a bowler of decent pace causes problems when he bowls a bouncer to the heavy scorers, but they know that it’s a question of just surviving him and then they can plunder thousands of runs. At the international level fast bowlers hunt in pairs or threes and there is not much time to escape to the other end. That is why no praise can be too high for Rahul Dravid. Sehwag joins the team and even if he fails in the two-day warm up game he must play in the next Test. He can lift this team up and can just be the tonic this team needs. Yes India are two down but a hurricane start from Sehwag can help turn it around. India must believe they can salvage this series for then only will they be able to do so. — PMG
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Kashmir Premier League
concludes
Srinagar, August 3 Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah, who is also president of the J&K Cricket Association, was the chief guest on the occasion. Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir was guest of honour while Minister for Youth Services and Sports R.S. Chib presided over the function. Abdullah complimented the organising departments, winners, runners-up and participant teams. He said such tournaments provide a platform to youngsters to show their talent and groom it for much tougher competition. The minister said similar tournament would also be organised in Jammu Division from October. He said champions of the tournament at divisional level would play final in May 2012, adding that the winning team would be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh. Chib said the KPL T-20 tournament is a starting point to exploit the sports talent in the State, adding that similar events would also be organised in future. |
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Boxer Vijender backs tainted athletes
Mumbai, August 3 Insisting that doping might not have been deliberately done by the athletes, Vijender said, "It happens by mistake. It is wrong and should not happen in sports. But I'm with the athletes." Vijender also said that he is aware of how hard working these athletes are. "When they won medals in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games they had to undergo doping tests and they were found clean then. I know how hard they work." Quartermilers Ashwini Akkunji, Sini Jose, Priyanka Panwar, Mary Tiana Thomas, Mandeep Kaur and Jauna Murmu tested positive for anabolic steroids. Long jumper Hari Krishnan Muralidharan and shot putter Sonia were the other two who also tested positive for the same substance. — PTI
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Pinegrove to host soccer tourney
Chandigarh, August 3 The tournament will be played on league-cum-knock-out basis under the aegis of the All-India Football Federation and the Himachal Pradesh Football Association. The executive director of the School, Capt. A.J. Singh, stated that the tournament will raise the standard of soccer among students and will also provide an impetus to young players. It will, additionally, give them the correct exposure required for a sport in the initial years. |
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Don’t beg HI to play: Pillay
Mumbai, August 3 The five seniors - Arjun Halappa, Sandeep Singh, Adrian D'Souza, Sardara Singh and Prabjot Singh - left the camp in Bangalore to attend a media conference by rival body IHF and Neo Sports regarding the WSH. — PTI |
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Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and middle-order batsman Virat Kohli were today called up to join the injury-hit Indian team as replacements for Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, both of whom have been ruled out of for the Test series against England.
Trailing 0-2 and with their world number one ranking at stake, India are left with no option but to bat out of their skin to salvage their reputation in the four-match Test series against England. After suffering the two crushing defeats at Lord's and Trent Bridge, India's revival now squarely depends on their batting engine.
An injury replacement who almost scored a hundred and got his maiden five-wicket haul in the second Test win over India, England pacer Tim Bresnan says despite the superb performance he can only hope not to be left out of the third match. "I think I definitely grabbed my chance with both hands. And that is pretty much all I can do now," said
Bresnan.
Srinagar Sher Dils lifted the first-ever Kashmir Premier League (KPL) T-20 Chinar Cup-2011 defeating Srinagar Shah Jahans by 17 runs in the final played at the Delhi Public School grounds here today. As many as 14 teams from all 10 districts of Kashmir Valley participated in over 300 matches during the tournament, organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports in collaboration with the State Sports Council and the Army’s 15 Corps and J&K Cricket Association.
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and middle-order batsman Virat Kohli were today called up to join the injury-hit Indian team as replacements for Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, both of whom have been ruled out of for the Test series against England.
