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India’s Tour of Australia
Indians have hectic net session
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Shooters gearing up for Asian meet
Super Series confirms Indian drivers
Club World Cup: Final pits Messi against Neymar
Randhawa sizzles
Usha Ladies Golf
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India’s Tour of Australia
Melbourne, December 17 "I think it's going to be a really good contest between youth and enthusiasm versus some old wise heads in the Indian team," Clarke wrote in his column for 'The Daily Telegraph'. Clarke admitted that the Australians have been going "one step forward and two steps backwards" in the rebuilding process that has brought with it some very disappointing results in the past few months. "All of us feel we're playing inconsistent cricket at the moment. We're showing so many great signs when we're playing well, but then we have episodes like Cape Town (shot out for 47) and the second innings against New Zealand at Bellerive that let us down," he said. "There definitely has been improvement in this group. We're heading in the right direction. We have to be more consistent, but we've shown recently the depth of talent in Australian cricket. The Border-Gavaskar series gives us an excellent chance to start moving that way," he added. Talking about the Indian challenge, Clarke said handling the formidable batting line-up of the visitors would be quite a task but his batsmen should not find the inexperienced bowling of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men too hard to deal with. "The Indians are a very strong team currently ranked second in the world on the ICC Test ladder behind England. In Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag (to name a few) they have a lot of batting experience, knowledge and runs," he said. "But their bowling lacks experience and they're dealing with injuries as well. They'll have concerns there. Zaheer Khan is a big player for them," Clarke explained. Clarke also assured that the bitterness of the 2008 series, due to the infamous 'monkeygate scandal', won't be there this time. "I am 100 per cent confident there'll be no repeat of the unpleasantness the last time Australia played India in a Test series at home. You'll see really hard fought cricket on the field because both teams are competitive and want to win. "But off the field, there is tremendous mutual respect between the two sides," he said. Clarke said the Aussies have been practising hard against seaming deliveries and having a batting camp before the series has turned out to be a good idea. "We're doing a lot of practise against the moving ball. We're facing two-piece balls in the nets so we've got the ball swinging and seaming. "...I think the pre-Test batting camp is a positive initiative. It gives all batters a chance to come together and prepare really well for what will be a great test of skill against India," he said. "We're going to Melbourne a couple of days early to train as a batting unit and to talk about our plans against India's bowlers. "Obviously, it doesn't guarantee anything but it shows we're going to do everything in our power to improve. I'm confident we can make amends against India," he added. — PTI
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Indians have hectic net session
Canberra, December 17 The three other Indian players present for the optional nets were all batsmen — Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They all had been practicing against "throwdowns" from the support staff but apparently the balls were not new. Laxman's query was understandable. With Australia likely to crank up the pace during the Tests and pitches, with or without grass, containing that inherent bounce, the red cherry with lacquer could have offered a better preparation. It's a point that is well-supported by Australia, who are presently practicing with "two-piece" new balls in order to prepare them better for seaming and swinging deliveries in a three-day batting camp in Melbourne to shape up their batsmen. Former Australian captain Greg Chappell is also due to address the Australian team and offer insight on the Indians whom he coached for three years in the last decade. Young batsmen such as Phil Hughes are spurning the riches of Big Bash cricket and opting for low-key three-day practice match against the Indians in order to be ready. India, on their part, did send seven of their Test specialists — the trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and bowlers Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, besides reserve wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha — almost a week before the rest of team members arrived on December 14. They have also squeezed in an extra game as a matter of preparation. Young Indians on the present tour need to make most of the extra time that has been afforded to them. The bowlers need to find the right length to be successful. Young Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma among batsmen and Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar and R Ashwin among bowlers could do with extra nets. Rahul Dravid, the most senior batsman of the side in terms of age, is a case in point. He was the first one to pad up at Saturday's nets. Indians have their best chance ever to win a series in Australia. It's a feat which has never been managed by the Indians over nine visits, 36 Tests and 64 years. It's a feat which would befit the status of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, who are on their final tour to this part of the world. — PTI
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South Africa storm to innings win
Centurion, December 17 Sri Lanka crashed to 150 all out in their second innings, with Philander taking five for 49 after taking five for 53 in the first innings. Wicketkeeper Mark Boucher took six catches to equal the South African record for the fourth time. The Sri Lankans could not cope with South Africa's pace attack on a pitch of uneven bounce and extravagant seam movement. They lost their first six wickets for 70 runs and only some desperation hitting by their tailenders enabled them to reach their eventual total. Sri Lanka were 38 for four at lunch. Fast bowling discovery Philander took two wickets and Dale Steyn one before Sri Lanka lost Mahela Jayawardene to a needless run out when he was one run short of becoming the first Sri Lankan to score 10,000 runs in Tests. Philander made the first breakthrough when he had Sri Lankan captain Tillekeratne Dilshan caught behind by Mark Boucher for six.
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Dhaka, December 17 Bangladesh were struggling at 43-4 following paceman Aizaz Cheema's three-wicket burst in the morning before reaching 234-5 in their first innings at stumps, thanks to Shakib and Nafees. The left-handed pair applied themselves remarkably well to deny Pakistan any success for 51 overs as they added 180 runs, Bangladesh's highest stand for the fifth wicket in Tests. Nafees looked set to complete his second Test century before falling in the last session, caught behind off his gloves off paceman Umar Gul after hitting 12 fours in his 177-ball knock. — AFP
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Shooters gearing up for Asian meet
Patiala, December 17 Experts believe that Indian shooters will have the best chance in the 2012 Olympics given good form of numerous shooters and the way they have been training hard for the past almost four years. Top Indian shooters including 2004 Athens Olympic silver medalist RVS Rathore, Asian skeet champion Man Singh, Manavjit Sandhu, Mansher Singh and Anjali Bhagwat will all be seen in action in the most important event to grab a quota place. While Manavjit and Mansher will be trying their luck in trap, Bhagwat will look to earn a place in women's air rifle. The Indian team is currently training at the New Moti Bagh Gun Club, Patiala in an official training camp under the supervision of their foreign shooting coach Marcello Dradi. Top shooters including Rathore, Man Singh and numerous others have already arrived in Patiala for the camp. “The conditions in Doha would be tough and since it is a long tour, given that we will be there almost a week before the 10-day competition, the shooters will have to acclimatize and also perform excellently as every shot hit would mean a step closer to the Olympics”, Dradi says. The National Rifle Association of India has also decided to send 28 juniors to the event, which is conducted only once in four years and where 35 quota places for the London Games will be up for grabs. Nine Indian shooters, including Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and multiple Commonwealth Games gold winner Gangan Narang, Ronjan Sodhi, Shagun Chowdhary have already booked their places at the London Games. “We stand a very good chance in the upcoming event as we had almost a decade back when only a handful of shooters were in fray. Now the things have completely changed and we have so many shooters who are good and the competition to get into the national team has gone tougher, thereby raising the standard of shooting in the country”, claims Indian shooting coach Marcello Dradi, who has been associated with the Indian shooting team from over a decade. "The current camp is more of a fitness training camp", he adds.
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New Delhi, December 17 World number four Saina beat number five Baun 21-17, 21-18 in 34 minutes to set up a summit clash tomorrow against China's world number one Yihan Wang, who defeated compatriot and world number three Xin Wang in the other semifinal. Jwala Gutta and V Diju are the only other Indians to have achieved the feat when the mixed doubles pair reached the Super Series Finals in the 2009 edition of the tournament before losing to Christinna Pedersen and Joaquim Nielsen. Saina, who had topped Group B round robin league, could not dominate his opponent in smash and net play and lagged behind marginally. But the Indian ran away winners as she did overwhelmingly better in the rallies from which she won most of the points. The Indian had eight smash winners against Baun's nine and 11 net winners to the Dane's 12. In rallies, Saina collected 23 winners as against 14 by Baun. The first game was a see-saw affair with both the players leading in turns till 14-14. Saina then zoomed ahead with four straight points before pocketting the game 21-17. In the second game, Saina was never behind after trailing 1-2 initially. Both the players were levelled at 11-11 and then 13-13 before the Indian surged ahead again just like in the first game to take 19-14 lead. At this point, Saina seemed to have slackened a bit and that allowed Baun to come back into the match at 18-19. But that turned out to be the last desperate attempt for Baun as Saina wrapped up the second game 21-18 and the match by taking two consecutive points. — PTI
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Super Series confirms Indian drivers
New Delhi, December 17 The young Indian drivers include Aditya Patel, Vishnu Prasad, Amittrajit Ghosh, Parth Ghorpade and Chirag Malhotra amongst others who would be given a chance to prove themselves in the series. This will be the only time the drivers would get an opportunity to drive the Radical SR3 before the series takes off in January. "We have always believed in promoting Indian driving talent and this series will give them international exposure," Darshan said. "The pre-season test would give an opportunity for the young Indian talent to gain a lot of experience from some of the world's finest drivers. We are very excited about the new series and are confident this series would be a huge success with both Indian and International audiences." The Pre-test at the famed F1 venue will also see the unveiling of the drivers, both international and local, who will participate in the first season of the motorsport league. — PTI
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Club World Cup: Final pits Messi against Neymar
Yokohama, December 17 The European champions Barca will be clear favourites against the Brazilians, who were sublime going forward but edgy at the back in their semifinal 3-1 defeat of Japanese side Kashiwa Reysol on Wednesday. There was no such trouble in Japan for the Catalans, who thrashed Qatari side Al Sadd 4-0 on Thursday to set up the highly anticipated showdown with the South American champions and their highly rated young striker Neymar. "They are likely to counter-attack and they are dangerous because of Neymar," said Guardiola, also stressing that Santos were more than just their 19-year-old talisman, and were a fast team packed with tall players. "Rather than tactics, we want to control the game and have a good percentage of ball possession," said Guardiola, when asked how the Spanish champions, widely regarded as one of the best club sides ever, would deal with the Neymar threat. "Everybody talks about Neymar, but they have many good players. We must play a perfect game." Midfielder Cesc Fabregas said, "He can play in any team in the world. He may score three or four goals tomorrow. We will welcome him if he plays for Barcelona, but he is an enemy tomorrow." The Spanish and European champions, bidding to win the seven-team competition for the second time in three years, boast arguably the world's best player in Lionel Messi. Yet try as Barcelona might not to talk about Neymar, the name of the 19-year-old Brazil forward so coveted by Europe's biggest clubs keeps cropping up. Barca captain Carles Puyol added: "Neymar can go right or left. He's so quick and unpredictable, he will be very difficult to mark." Coach Pep also added, "I don't know if they will sit deep or come out guns blazing. But I expect us to win. I don't know if it will be 2-0 or 3-0. We just want to take the trophy home." — Reuters
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Randhawa sizzles
Chonburi, December 17 This turned out to be his best effort on Asian Tour this year as he zoomed up the leaderboard from overnight 23rd to sixth at eight-under 208. Other Indians — Jeev Milkha Singh and Gaganjeet Bhullar — battled to even par cards. Playing in the same group, they dropped from tied fifth to tied 13th at five-under 211 at the season-ending $ 1 million event at the Amata Spring Country Club. Randhawa is 11 behind leader Lee Westwood (73) and seven behind second-placed Charl Schwartzel (66) at 15-under 201. Westwood, 20-under after two rounds and 11 ahead after 36 holes, saw his lead reduced to just five. Michael Thompson (US) shot 69 and was 12-under 204 in third. Randhawa, who lost his card in Europe at the end of 2010 and is only 43rd on Asian Money List, said, "It feels like I don't want the season to end. It's a shame really. Hopefully I can carry this form into the new season." Meanwhile, there was a lot of drama around the top, as Masters champion Charl Schwartzel (66), despite a finishing bogey cut down Lee Westwood's monstrous 11-shot lead to a manageable four-shot difference. Westwood, bogeyfree for first 36 holes, four bogeys, including two on the 16th and 17th, while Schwartzel with a 32 on front nine, courtesy four birdies in a row from second, and three more on back nine was seven-under and just three adrift when he came to the 18th. Things were tough for the other Indians, though Rahil Gangjee (73) moved up from tied 64th to 49th, Himmat Rai (80) and Digvijay Singh (82) slipped down to 70th and 74th. — PTI
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Usha Ladies Golf
Chandigarh, December 17 Seventeen-year-old Vani was particularly in great form and played with a lot of maturity to run away a 6&4 winner against Ankita Kedlaya, while 13-year-old Aditi Ashok beat Millie Saroha 3&2. The two teammates from the Usha Queen Sirikit Cup are vying for their maiden All-India Ladies title, the biggest crown in Ladies amateur golf in India. Vani, who is leading the IGU Ladies Order of Merit, dominated the front-nine and by the turn she was five-up. During this stretch she made just one birdie but kept her nose in front with a no-frills display of steady golf. Ankita tried to prolong the match as she pulled one back on the 10th but Vani quickly won the 11th to once again go five-up. Ankita once again fought back to win the 12th. Then Vani quickly closed the match winning 13th and 14th holes with pars as her rival bogeyed. That saw Vani go six-up with four holes left in the match. In the other semifinal, Aditi Ashok had two birdies, but Millie also stayed in the game as both players were all square at the turn after the ninth. Then Aditi forged ahead as she won the 10th, 15th and 16th holes with pars on all three to win the match 3-up with 2 holes to go. A win at the Usha All India Ladies amateur Championships, the flagship event on the women's amateur calendar, will emphatically seal the Order of Merit for Vani Kapoor, who has been very consistent and successful this year. She has twice won the amateur circuit and also grabbed a title on the pro circuit while still being an amateur.
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Australian captain Michael Clarke says the "youth and enthusiasm" of his team would be up against India's "old wise heads" during the eagerly-awaited Test series.
London: