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India’s Tour of England
3rd Test: Day 4
Not seen an Indian
team like this in last 10 years, says Ganguly
Thrilled to have scored 294: Cook
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Bradley leads on day of surprises; Atwal, Woods out
Vidit moves to 4th position
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India’s Tour of England
3rd Test: Day 4
Birmingham, August 13 On the fourth day today, India were bundled out for 244 in their second innings as James Anderson ripped apart the famed Indian batting line-up with four wickets. Captain MS Dhoni was once again amongst the runs, remaining unbeaten with 74, but that was not enough to avert defeat. The worst defeat for India till now has been by an innings and 336 runs against the West Indies in Kolkata in 1958 and this one was just as humiliating. Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar who looked in good touch, was unfortunately run out for 40. England sent all the top six Indian batsmen back in the pavilion in a matter of 32 overs. The two overnight batsmen, Gautam Gambhir (14) and Rahul Dravid (18), failed to add any run to their total this morning as Anderson ran riot in overcast conditions. Gambhir departed to the first ball he faced — tamely guiding an outswinger in the hands of Graeme Swann at second slip. Rahul Dravid went inside the pavilion at the start of Anderson's over to attend to some urgent matter but his return lasted no more than two deliveries. He let go a wide delivery outside his offstump and nicked the next one to a delighted Matt Prior behind the stumps. TV replays however showed that Dravid has not nicked the ball but surprisingly the veteran batsman did not opt for a referral. Sachin Tendulkar, hit a boundary almost as soon as he came in hitting a loosener from Stuart Broad to the cover fence. He then took three fours off Anderson as he first flicked and straight drove and then guided the swing bowler past the slip cordon. VVS Laxman, at the other end, was doing little better than defending against England bowlers. Broad in particular tried to dig it in short to him and one searing bouncer in particular had the right-hander jumping on his heels. Laxman returned to the pavilion soon coming forward in defence to Anderson but doing no better than nicking yet another chance to Prior behind the stumps. It took the new man Suresh Raina 10 balls to get off the mark and the sight of off-spinner Graeme Swann was the signal for him to get some cheap runs. He once drove the off-spinner down the ground and later hit him through covers to move into double figures. But the left-hander was to depart in the same over, playing forward to Swann and as the ball rapped him on the pads, umpire Steve Davis had no hesitation in ruling him out. — PTI Scoreboard India 1st innings 224 England: India 2nd innings Gambhir c Swann b Anderson 14 Sehwag c Strauss b Anderson 0 Dravid c Prior b Anderson 18 Tendulkar run out 40 Laxman c Prior b Anderson 2 Raina lbw b Swann 10 Dhoni not out 74 Mishra c Broad b Swann 22 Praveen c Bopara b Broad 40 Ishant lbw b Broad 0 Sreesanth c Pietersen b Bresnan 5 Extras (b 6, lb 6, w 7) 19 Total: (all out) 244 Bowling: Anderson 18-3-85-4, Broad 12-4-28-2, Bresnan 10.3-3-19-1, Swann 13-1-88-2, Pietersen 2-0-12-0. |
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Not seen an Indian
team like this in last 10 years, says Ganguly
Birmingham, August 13 Indians have looked completely off-colour in the Test series so far and particularly in the third Test — dropping catches, bowling without menace and letting England take a lead of 486 runs. After getting bundled out for 224 in the first innings of the on-going third Test, India allowed England to score a massive 710 for seven to pose a huge challenge to the visitors to save the match, the series and their number one Test status. "I agree (with the criticism), and let us accept we were very ordinary. The worst day was Thursday (second day of the match where India could take only three wickets for 372 runs from 90 overs). I have not seen an Indian team like this in the last 10 years," one of India's most successful captains told BBC's Test Match Special programme in an interview. Trailing 0-3 in the four-match Test series, the Indian team has been criticised of suffering from fatigue, a lack of interest in Test cricket from players who can, and do, earn much more money through playing in the Indian Premier League ( IPL). But Ganguly believes that it was the lack of preparation which has resulted in India's dismal performance in the series. "You cannot just turn up and win Test series against good sides," said the cricketer-turned-commentator. “I've felt that when we guys from the subcontinent went to England, Australia or South Africa we needed two warm-up games (India had just the one practice match before this series). And look at England in Australia a few months ago: they had three proper warm-up games and had other guys out there as well on standby," he added. Insisting that the end of The England series would not be the end of the careers for the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, the former Test cricketer said, "We have a tour of Australia this winter and really need to take the likes of Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman there. "This is the first series we have done poorly, home or away, for the last seven or eight years. It is just one of those series that haven't gone well for India." He, however, admitted that it was disappointing that players of the calibre of Tendulkar, so far, has looked so ordinary. "But, yes, it is disappointing because I can tell you that, as Indians, we really look forward to this tour. People like Dravid and Tendulkar take a lot of pride in performing over here. "Test cricket matters to us. Indian people still want their team to be No 1 in Test cricket. The World Cup is special for any country. But Test cricket is the format of the game," he insisted. — PTI |
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Thrilled to have scored 294: Cook
Birmingham, August 13 Cook hit his career-best total to guide England to a massive 710 for seven declared in reply to India's first innings total of 224 all out. "It took almost 13 hours of hard work to get to that opportunity to make 300. When you don't do it, it's going to have a little of disappointment. But I'm thrilled that I actually scored 294 runs rather than the six I didn't get," said Cook. Giving credit to England's batting coach and his mentor Graham Gooch, Cook said, "As a side, we've got six double-hundreds since 2010, which is a tribute to the way we bat. He's quite happy, quite proud”. — PTI
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Bradley leads on day of surprises; Atwal, Woods out
Two of Britain's most recent major winners, Darren Clarke, the reigning Open champion, and Graeme McDowell, the 2011 US Open winner went out with him on a bloody Saturday at Atlanta's beautiful and pristine, but deadly dangerous Highlands course. And so too did Germany's defending champion Martin Kaymer, fellow major winners Angel Cabrera, Vijay Singh, Louis Oosthuizen and Lucas Glover - and equally as surprising, three of the games most exciting future superstars, Jason Day of Australia, Dustin Johnson of the US and Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, who were others to join the long queue to the chopping block. In the meantime with eight contenders within two shots of the front runners among the players who did survive, the 93rd edition of the final major of the year is still wide open. And with Jim Furyk the only major winner among them, there is every chance of a PGA Tour journeyman coming out of the pack on Sunday and grabbing instant fame of the kind that Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel managed in the years gone by. As it is, Dufner, a US PGA Tour journeyman and Bradley, a Tour rookie, lead Furyk, fellow forty-something American Scott Verplank, 34-year-old DA Points and 40-year-old Australia John Senden by a shot with overnight leader Steve Stricker in the four-strong group behind. Stricker, at number five the highest World ranked player on the leaderboard, and Thursday's second-placed Jerry Kelly both had tough Friday's at the office, Stricker slipping down the leaderboard with a 74 and Kelly with a 73. Atwal misses cut
Arjun Atwal missed yet another Major cut as his second card of 73 was not enough to get him past the halfway mark. Atwal had three birdies and six bogeys in a card that gave him a total of 151, one worse than his friend Tiger Woods, who also missed the cut with rounds of 77 and 73. It was Atwal's fifth missed cut in five starts at Majors since 2004. — Agencies |
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Top men march on
London, August 13 Her defeat came at the hands of colourful Taiwanese Cheng Shao Chieh, something of a walking fashion statement. There was joy for an excited crowd at the Wembley Arena when the unseeded sole British survivors Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier reached the last four of the mixed doubles. China's Wang, the All England champion, lost 21-16, 21-17 to effervescent Cheng, the ex-world junior champion who turned in a high-class display to dispose of the tournament favourite. A tiring Wang was yellow-carded at 7-7 in the second game for taking too long towelling and from 11-11 the energetic Cheng moved up the gears. A series of fine winners were accompanied each time by a scream and trademark punch of the air with her left arm. Noted for her cropped, dyed blonde hair, the tiny 25-year-old also sports an arm tattoo bearing her name, a necklace and white broad watch. Cheng, world bronze medallist back in 2005, told reporters, "Maybe, I'm stronger and more mature now." Disappointed Wang said, "I need to go back and study her previous games more and maybe come back with a bit better idea of my tactics against her." — Reuters |
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Chennai, August 13 With two more rounds to go in the prestigious championship, Armenian Grandmaster Robert Hovhannisyan continues to be the sole leader with nine points. Hovhannisyan was held to a draw by Polish Grandmaster Swiercz Dariusz on the top board. Dariusz was unable to breach the Berlin Wall adopted by Hovhannisyan. Though he managed to win two pawns, the game soon petered out into an opposite colour Bishop ending where the two extra pawns did not matter much and truce was declared on 48th move. On the second table, Indian Grandmaster B Adhiban was held to a draw by yet another Armenian, Ter Sahakyan Samvel. Adhiban, though playing black, took some calculated risks in a Sicilian Taimanov and even sacrificed a pawn right out of the opening. But the Armenian Grandmaster took the game into a Rook ending and the game soon drew the game in 31 moves. — PTI
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Atlanta, August 13
