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Herath spins Sri Lanka to victory
India-South Africa clash in one-off T20 today
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Kohli: Sachin is the reason I started playing cricket
No plan to boycott Olympics: Maken
Milan hold Barca
Tamim signs for Pune Warriors
Target is to score more goals at Olympics: Sandeep
Paes-Stepanek in semis of Miami Masters
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Herath spins Sri Lanka to victory
Galle, March 29 Off-spinner Suraj Randiv lent admirable support with a match haul of six wickets as Sri Lanka went 1-0 ahead in the short two-match series. Jonathan Trott kept the tourists afloat with a defiant 112 before the last five wickets fell for just 12 runs in front of 8,000 bitterly disappointed English fans in the southern coastal town. It was only the second win in 18 Tests for Sri Lanka since the retirement of world bowling record holder Muttiah Muralitharan in 2010. They lost six while the rest were drawn. Trott, who notched his seventh Test century, hit 10 boundaries in his patient 266-ball knock, but he fell when he flicked at a Randiv delivery and was snapped up by a diving Tillakaratne Dilshan at backward short-leg just before tea. Trott had a lucky break when Herath failed to take a return catch when the batsman was on 62 in the morning session. Wicket-keeper Matt Prior helped Trott add 81 for the fifth wicket before he was dismissed by Herath for 41 as Lahiru Thirimanne clung on to a full-blooded sweep at forward short-leg. Debutant Samit Patel made nine before his uppish drive off Herath was caught by Dilshan at short cover. Tailenders Graeme Swann, Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar fell in the space of five runs to hand Sri Lanka victory with a day to spare. England, who will slip to number two behind South Africa if they lose the series, lost Kevin Pietersen in the day's third over after just seven runs had been added to the overnight score of 111-2. Pietersen, on 30, attempted to on-drive spinner Randiv and only managed to spoon an easy catch to Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene at short mid-wicket. The sloppy dismissal ended a valuable 70-run partnership for the third wicket with Trott after England had been reduced to 48-2 late on yesterday afternoon. Accurate Sri Lanka bowling tied down the tourists to just 34 runs from 15 overs in the first hour of play, 22 of them coming from the bat of Trott. Bell, who top-scored with 52 in the first innings, missed a sweep shot off Herath and was given out leg-before by umpire Rod Tucker. Bell immediately asked for a review, but he did not earn a reprieve from TV umpire Bruce Oxenford and England slipped to 152-4. England played positively after lunch, scoring 51 runs from 15 overs as Sri Lanka handed Herath the new ball that was claimed as soon as it was due in the 81st over. The second and final Test will be played at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo from April 3.
— AFP Scoreboard Sri Lanka 1st innings 318 England 1st innings 193 Sri Lanka 2nd innings 214 England 2nd innings (overnight 111 for 2) Strauss c Dilshan b Herath 27 Cook c J’rdene b Herath 14 Trott c Dilshan b Randiv 112 Pietersen c Mahela b Randiv 30 Bell lbw b Herath 13 Prior c Thirimanne b Herath 41 Patel c Dilshan b Herath 9 Broad not out 5 Swann lbw b Herath 1 Anderson c J’rdene b Randiv 5 Panesar c Dilshan b Randiv 0 Extras: (lb-6, w-1) 7 Total: (all out, 99 ovrs) 264 Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-48, 3-118, 4-152, 5-233, 6-252, 7-256, 8-259, 9-264. Bowling: Welegedara 13-2-40-0, Lakmal 10-5-22-0, Herath 38-9-97-6, Dilshan 12-1-25-0, Randiv 26-2-74-4.
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India-South Africa clash in one-off T20 today
Johannesburg, March 29 The match is being organised to commemorate 150 years of the settlement of the Indians in South Africa but its scheduling did raise a lot of eyebrows. The match is happening just after the Asia Cup, of which India was a part, and a few days after the Proteas hosted New Zealand for a long tour, involving T20s, ODIs and a Test series. In a cramped international calendar, the game does seem like an oddity given that the Indians would be travelling all the way for just over four hours slam bang action before getting busy with their respective IPL franchises. Only five days separate the match and the beginning of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League. The long journey means that several players will miss initial practice camps with their respective franchises and that would certainly add to the physical strain. However, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has ruled out the fatigue factor. "All happy. I don't think fatigue will be a real factor. We all enjoy playing the IPL...that's one format where you are not representing your country, and the span of the tournament is slightly longer so you play quite a few games," Dhoni said after arriving with the team. The Indians are not heading into the match in the best of form given the poor form the team has endured in the past few months. As if the disastrous Australian tour was not enough, India failed to qualify for the recently-concluded Asia Cup final as well, thanks to a shock defeat against hosts Bangladesh. On the contrary, the Proteas are in good touch as they had an extremely successful tour against New Zealand. They won the Twenty20, one-day and the Test series against the injury-ravaged Kiwis. The hosts though have retained only eight players from that tour in the Twenty20 squad. Almost all the seniors have been rested with the exception of all-rounder Jacques Kallis, who will be honoured after the match. India, though, are almost full strength, opener barring Virender Sehwag and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan as the duo has been rested. All the players, who were part of their Asia Cup campaign, are in the squad except for veteran Sachin Tendulkar, who does not play international T20s. He has been replaced by the hard-hitting Robin Uthappa. Since the highly-popular IPL is beginning exactly five days after the match, the game would help the players get into the slam-bang mode, although the conditions would be different from India.
— PTI |
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Kohli: Sachin is the reason I started playing cricket
Mumbai, March 29 At a felicitation function organised by industrialist and IPL team Mumbai Indians' owner Mukesh Ambani, Kohli was asked to give his thoughts on the 39-year-old, who completed the incredible feat during the recent Asia Cup in Bangladesh. The 23-year-old right-hander, who is in the form of his life having scored three hundreds in his past four one-dayers, said as a child he only dreamed of catching a glimpse of Tendulkar in person. "He is the reason why I have started playing cricket. Like me I think most of the youngsters in the India started playing cricket because of him," Virat said as Tendulkar looked back at him smiling. "Now it is just a great honour to share the same dressing room with him. I remember when I was small, my only dream was to see him in real life and to play with him now is just a great honour for me. I couldn't have asked for anything more," he added. Tendulkar too is quite impressed with the spunky batsman and has stated that he could be the one breaking the 100 centuries record apart from another promising name — Rohit Sharma.
— PTI |
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Kohli, Rohit can break my record: Sachin
Mumbai, March 29 Salman's speech peppered with humour was the high point of the event where he goaded Tendulkar into predicting who he thinks will break the seemingly unshatterable record. "Kya lagta hai aapko? seedhe seedhe bolo nahi tod payega (what do you think of this, ok say that no one can do it)," the Bollywood star said. Unable to control his laughter, Tendulkar rose from his front-row chair and said, "I think those who can, are sitting in this room only." "Chance hi nahi (no chance)," retorted Salman. "I can see those youngsters. Virat and Rohit are the ones. As long as an Indian breaks it, I don't mind," said Tendulkar, drawing a round of applause from the celebrity guests. Salman while referring to Tendulkar's feat said, "I hope, this record is broken very soon because records are meant to be broken...Sachin yaar, how does it feel to be praised all the time? Don't you feel that 'ok, I know all this, that's enough'." This remark left Tendulkar and everyone around him in splits. The actor didn't stop at that and much to everyone's amusement said, "how about 200 buddy, how's that? 100 are already there, another 100, how much time does it take?" Then came the googly that had the entire gathering in laughs, "It's been heard that it's impossible to break Sachin's record and it's not Don, it's me who is saying this. I can say this because my father wrote this film. Amit ji (Amitabh Bachchan) acted in it." Addressed as 'Sachin Sir' by the evening's master of ceremonies, actress Priyanka Chopra, Tendulkar — flanked by Mukesh and Nita Ambani — mostly sat laughing as witty tributes came his way from top Bollywood stars. The master blaster was showered with praise by the who's who of the Indian film industry, former and current cricketers besides politicians. — PTI |
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No plan to boycott Olympics: Maken
New Delhi, March 29 In a written reply to N.K.Singh, the Sports Minister clarified the Government’s stand, though the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has been blaming the Ministry for leaking news to the media about India’s boycott plans, as despite repeated pleas by the Olympic body, the Sports Ministry had not given a clear picture about the country’s participation in the Olympics. Regarding the steps taken by the Government to register a protest with the International Olympic Committee over the Dow Chemicals sponsorship, Maken said the matter had also been taken up through diplomatic channels with the U.K. While the UK Government has taken the position that the sponsorship by Dow was an arrangement between the IOC and the Dow Chemicals Company, the IOC as well as the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) have indicated their inability to drop Dow as a sponsor. The Sports Minister said in view of the response so far, it has been decided that the matter should continue to be taken up to create wider awareness about the strong and legitimate view on this issue through the Indian diplomatic missions in countries, which are members of the IOC to the host Government(s) as well as the Olympic Association of the host country. “This would help raise diplomatic awareness on this subject and create a wider understanding of our position”, he stated. He added: “It would also serve to remind the rest of the world that the (gas) tragedy of Bhopal lingers on and evokes deep public sympathy in the country for the innocent victims”. Maken said the Government will continue to press to make other countries aware about India’s justified grievance on this issue “and reiterate our support to the strong public sensitivities”. He said the Government had advised IOA to take up the issue of Dow's sponsorship of the London Olympics emphatically with the IOC to draw its attention to the sensitivities of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984. “It was pointed out to the Indian Olympic Association that the association of International Olympic Committee with Dow Chemicals militates against the fundamental ethical principles represented by the Olympic movement”. Maken said the Ministry also took up the matter directly with the IOC, urging it to “go beyond lesser considerations, and in the larger interests of the ideals of human rights, compassion and solidarity, cancel the sponsorship of Dow Chemicals for the London Olympics, thereby assuaging the feelings of millions of people, and send a strong message the world over, for upholding the noble ideals of the Olympic Movement”. |
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World Series Hockey
Chandigarh, March 29 With international players like goalkeeper Devesh Chauvan, Arjun Hallappa and Ravipal Singh, the Lions started the match by pressurizing the home team from the right wing. Arjun and Ravi continued to target left full back Robert Green and left stopper Gurjinder Singh, with their speed and soon broke through with success. After some deft stick work, they delivered a brilliant pass to Arjun Antil who had made a run right upto the goal mouth. But Arjun failed to make it 1-0. On other side, the forward line of the Comets started to penetrate the defense and won two penalty corners but specialist Gurjinder Singh failed to avail both chances. After the first quarter, coach Harendra Singh shifted defender Gurjinder to right-flank but the speedy duo continued to target him and won the first penalty corner of the game. Drag flicker Sandeep Singh missed the first chance. But he made up for the miss soon after when, with a power-packed second attempt, he put the visiting side in the driver's seat in the 25th minute. The goal had all the stands up in a roar as the home team continued their fine showing at home. Just before the lemon break the home team, looking in high spirits, made a comeback with Gurjinder Singh covering up his earlier mistake and scoring the leveler through an awarded penalty corner in the 33rd minute while in very next minute Ramandeep Singh scored a field goal. The score remained same throughout the third quarter with both teams giving their best to make a comeback in the game but finding little luck in doing so. Later in the fourth quarter, drag flicker Gurjinder Singh showed his class and scored two goals through penalty corners in the 56th and 62nd minutes of the game. Not only this, the last quarter witnessed more action when Belsajar Horo scored the fifth goal in the 64th minute. He smartly posted the ball into the net after beating the goalkeeper. During the dying minutes, the visiting side again fumbled and gifted a penalty comer to the home team. Taking full advantage of the foul, Gurjinder Singh again struck and scored his third and the team's sixth goal in the 67th minute. |
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Milan hold Barca
Milan, March 29 Barcelona enjoyed their usual two-thirds majority of possession but Milan played in a controlled and calm manner, and even created the best chances on the counter-attack. There were times during the first period in which they looked capable of repeating Inter Milan's famous 3-1 semi-final, home leg victory over Barca in the same stadium two years ago. But by the second half Milan's attacking threat had all but dried up and Barca seemed unable or unwilling to commit enough men forward to break down their stubborn hosts. Instead a close second leg awaits in Spain next Tuesday where Milan will feel confident that progress could hinge on the scoring of an away goal, which Barca failed to do here. Milan almost got off to a dream start following a Barcelona mistake but Kevin-Prince Boateng hestitated a moment too long, allowing Gerard Pique to block his shot. The ball spooned up and Zlatan Ibrahimovic
teed up Robinho but he skied his finish. Barcelona had plenty of possession but Milan were playing intelligently, sitting back and waiting as Barca knocked the ball around while pressing hard when the Catalans were short in numbers around the ball.
— AFP |
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Tamim signs for Pune Warriors
New Delhi, March 29 The left-hander is the second signing from Bangladesh after Shakib Al Hasan in this year's IPL and the fifth overall from that country. "I can gain a lot of experience by playing with greats like Sourav Ganguly and Michael Clarke. I like to talk a lot about cricket so I think I am lucky to be playing with them and look forward to learn new things," Tamim said. "It'll be an extra boost, so it is very important that I do well. More importantly, just like Shakib opened the door for me, I would want that with my inclusion in the IPL, it will let other players from my country to play in this competition," he told ESPNCricinfo. Tamim had scored half centuries in the Asia Cup recently, helping his side reach the final where it lost by 2 runs to Pakistan. "With the T20 World Cup coming up this year, it will be a big opportunity for me to perform in the format," Tamim said.
— PTI |
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Target is to score more goals at Olympics: Sandeep
Bangalore, March 29 He was speaking on the sidelines of a function organised by Hockey India (HI) to felicitate Team India's performance in Olympic qualifiers in February. On playing hockey on the blue turf with yellow balls, Sandeep said his team had not played on it but would know the difference only after playing couple of matches. He, however, said the team was not much worried about the blue or green turfs and they were mentally prepared to take on the field and play for win. "On earlier occasions we have played on various turfs in different countries and performed well," he said. Asked if the present set of coaches and physios had made any difference in Team India's performance, Sandeep said "We are playing attacking and aggressive hockey."
— PTI |
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Paes-Stepanek in semis of Miami Masters
Miami, March 29 The victory means that Paes and Stepanek are on course for a title clash with India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. Paes and Stepanek are up against formidable top seeded Americans Mike and Bob Bryan, whom they had defeated in the Australian Open title clash early this year. Sixth seeded Bhupathi and Bopanna will take on second seeded Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor. In the Paes-Stepanek match last night, saving two crucial breakpoints in the second set served their purpose. They converted one of the two chances to get that decisive break and secure their passage to the last-four stage.
— PTI |
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