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Armstrong’s Tour de Farce is over
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Simply Sunny
Chennai register 4-wkt win over Yorkshire
Sahara Force India drivers Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg pose after a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. — AFP
Ajit
Singh Hockey Sydney Sixers beat Mumbai
International cricket should return to Pak: Jayasuriya
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Armstrong’s Tour de Farce is over
London, October 22 The announcement by the cycling's governing body follows a report by the United States Anti-Doping Agency which revealed evidence that the American cyclist had doped throughout his unparalleled career that saw him win more Tour titles than any other in the history of the race. Speaking at today's press conference McQuaid confirmed the UCI accepted the USADA's findings and had ratified the sanctions they had imposed upon on Armstrong: “UCI will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration and recognise the sanctions USADA has imposed [on Armstrong]. UCI will back the life ban and strip him of his seven Tour de France titles.” The decision means all the results of the Texan since August 1 1998 have been nullified. The USADA stripped Armstrong of the Tour titles he won between 1999 and 2005 and banned him for life after the cyclist announced in August he would no longer fight the charges being brought against him. Armstrong claimed the USADA's investigation was a “witch hunt”, adding “there comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough'”. The USADA sanctions have now been rubber stamped by the ICU. The USADA's report released earlier this month was incredibly damning of Armstrong, claiming he was at the centre of “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.” The 1,000 page report on the activities of Armstrong's US Postal Service team included testimony from 11 of Armstrong's former team-mates and the evidence was “conclusive and undeniable proof” of “one of the most sordid chapters in sports history.” Those 11 cyclists were each banned for six-months for their role, sanctions the UCI confirmed today while also thanking them for speaking out. McQuaid said: “The UCI will also recognise the sanctions imposed on the riders who testified against Lance Armstrong; UCI indeed thanks them for telling their stories.” Support for him dwindled in light of the report, including from Nike, who had defended the American. — The Independent
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It’s a toss among DD, Titans, Aces
by Sunil Gavaskar While the group ‘A’ semifinalists were decided even before the last of their group matches, the other group is still open thanks to the Kolkata Knight Riders win over the local team, the Titans. That means that either the Delhi or the Titans or the Auckland Aces will qualify for the two places from their group for the semi finals. The Delhi and Titan game is the last one so they too will know if the Auckland team has got through or not and for the Delhi team it also gives them the knowledge of how many they should be scoring or restricting the Titans to, in case they lose the game and are tied on points with the Auckland team. The Titans will go through if they win so for them it is a simple matter of winning and not be bothered by the margin. Of course, if the weather comes in the way then the net run rate may also come into play and that is where the Titans will hurt after that heavy loss to the Kolkata team. The Kolkata team did not get off to the starts that are so essential in this form of the game and how dependent they are on Gambhir, was emphasized when their skipper got runs and with it also gave the team the brisk start that was needed. Bisla played in his usual way, but if he can just curb himself especially when he has already taken 20 odd runs from an over then he will get far more than the 20s and 30s he is getting, and in doing so will be a greater threat to the opposition. Brendon McCullum is another who hadn’t quite got going and maybe it was the knowledge that they were out of the tournament that allowed the Kolkata boys to bat freely in the manner that they did. Still it was only towards the end when Debabrata Das blazed away with Manoj Tiwary that the team got the kind of score that demoralizes the opposition. Das has shown he is a good finisher and a few more knocks like this could well get him a promotion up the order and give him more overs to cause mayhem with the bowling. The Titans have a good opening pair and they get off to good starts, but this time it was not as many as they would have wanted despite it being a brisk start. They will have to bat well against the Delhi team which has looked determined and the manner in which Agarkar and Negi kept their cool was very impressive indeed. Their batting is daunting for most bowlers with one smasher coming in to bat after the other. Sehwag playing a waiting game looked good and if Pietersen and Taylor fire then the Delhi team also will be able to put up a score like Kolkata did. It is all a matter of pressure of course and who handles it better and if the semi finalists are to be decided by the winner of their match then it is just the kind of ending of the group stage that the tournament needed. — PMG
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Jalaj strikes early for Central Zone
Chennai, October 22 After the first day's play was called off without a single delivery being bowled, 31.2 overs of play was possible on the second day as the proceedings started only in the final session. At the close of play, Ishank Jaggi was batting on 3 while nightwatchman Iresh Saxena was yet to get off the mark. Off-spinner Jalaj Saxena picked up two for 12 in his nine over spell while Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the other wicket. Central skipper Mohammed Kaif put East Zone in to bat and their opening duo of Dheeraj Jadhav and Natraj Behera started cautiously as Praveen Kumar was pretty economical during his first spell of six overs of which four were maiden. Jadhav and Behera added 44 runs in 16 overs in which the former Maharashtra opener's contribution was 25. He hit couple of boundaries off MP seamer Ishwar Pandey while his first four came off Bhuveneshwar's bowling. Finally, it was Saxena who trapped the left-hander leg-before in the 17th over. Jadhav had faced 60 balls for his 25. Skipper Behera, who opened the innings as Manish Vardhan made way for Ishank Jaggi, was a bit defensive during his knock of 22 from 61 deliveries and he paid a price for getting into a shell. There was a time after Jadhav's dismissal, the two batsmen Behera and Majumdar couldn't score a single run for five overs. Thus when Saxena bowled a full-toss, Behera could only manage to offer a simple catch to Bhuvneshwar at mid-on. Anustup Majumdar was uncomfortable right from the beginning as he got a streaky boundary past the slip to open his account. — PTI Brief Scores: East Zone 64/3 in 31.2 overs (D Jadhav 25, N Behera 22, J Saxena 2/12) vs Central Zone.
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Chennai register 4-wkt win over Yorkshire
Yorkshire, put into bat, again saw their top-four surrender meekly. Andre Gale (23) and Adam Lyth (11), who replaced Australian Phil Jaques for the opening slot, fell in successive overs. The English side was reduced to 36 for two in the seventh over. David Miller (28) and Gary Ballance (58) rescued their team from a precarious position of 43 for three. They put on a 78-run partnership for the fourth-wicket. Both fell in quick succession as Yorkshire could score only 19 runs in the last three overs. Chennai's problem this tournament has been their failure to get off to a strong start. The problem persisted in this match as well. South African Faf du Plessis (1) was the first to go after being dismissed in second over. His opening partner Murali Vijay (13) also didn't stick around for too long as he fell victim to pacer Olivier Hannon-Dalby. Suresh Raina (31), who has looked good in the entire tournament, again got off to a good start. He and Subramaniam Badrinath (47) strung together a 48-run stand for the third wicket before Raina's dismissal. Captain Dhoni (31) played a cameo taking Chennai to the brink of victory before being dismissed with just one run to win.
— Agencies |
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We’ll try to make Indian GP special: Nico, Paul
New Delhi, October 22 With four races to go, starting with Sunday's Indian Grand Prix, the Indian outfit is placed seventh currently, trailing the Swiss team Sauber by 27 points. "Since this one is home Grand Prix, a big result would be very welcome. We will try to make it special," Hulkenberg said. "Focus never changes, as a team we want both the cars with points," said Paul di Resta. At this stage of the season so far, Force India have fared better on points compared to the last season but the mid-field has been very competitive with Sauber coming up very strong. Sauber can even dislodge Mercedes from the fifth position. Hulkenberg, who is expected to move to Sauber in the next season, said Force India still have hopes of grabbing the sixth place. "It's been a good year, we have been fairly consistent compared to the other teams. We have scored quite a few points on different occasions. Personally, I had good result, some strong performances, I missed on podium (in Belgium)," he said. "On paper we have had better year than last year with more points but our main rivals like Suber have also been very strong. Our target still is to get that sixth place," the German said. Paul knew that it was easier said than done but was not willing to throw in the towel as yet. "Mathematically, it will be difficult, but obviously we won't give up with four races to go," the Scot said. Force India have 89 points till date, 27 less than Sauber and need consistent good results to go one place up. Both Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta achieved their career-best results in this season with the German finishing fourth in Belgium and the British driver getting the same result in Singapore. Asked what it takes to bridge that gap from a podium place, Hulkenberg said, "We need little bit more performance." "We have to bring the strength and the pace from ourselves at the end of the day," he added. At the inaugural edition, it was a full house with close to one lakh people thronging the Buddh International Circuit to watch the Formula One action. Paul di Resta said such overwhelming crowd support is seen only for Ferrari. "Nice to have that kind of support and hope it's bigger. It's a pleasure being part of Force India. Not many teams get that kind of support. Ferrari gets it in Italy," Paul said. Reflecting upon his debut season in a racing seat in F1, Hulkenberg, who had replaced Adrian Sutil, said, "It was difficult in the first four races. It took some time to get into rhythm and after that, I picked up." The two drivers said the financial crisis that has hit their team's co-owner Vijay Mallya has no bearing on them. “It does not affect. It's different business than F1. No consequences for us. We don't feel that," said the German.
— Agencies |
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Ajit
Singh Hockey
Ludhiana, October 22 Indian Oil had three Olympians - Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh and Devesh Chauhan - in their ranks and enjoyed a clear superiority over Indian Air Force. However, it was IAF who took the lead in the 11th minute of the match through Jagroop Singh. Thakur scored the equaliser for Indian Oil in the 23rd minute, and scored twice more in quick succession, in the 25th and 28th minutes, to take his team decisively ahead. In second half, Hamza scored a field goal in 49th minute of the match to make it 4-1 for Indian Oil and eight minutes later Gurjinder Singh converted a penalty-stroke to make it 5-1, Prabhjot Singh was the final scorer of the match, converting a penalty-corner in the 60th minute. The first hat-trick of the tournament came in the previous match, when Joga Singh of Namdhari XI helped his team crush Baba Farid Club 5-0. Joga Singh opened the proceedings with a goal in the sixth minute, got another two minutes later and completed his hat-trick in the 45th minute. Dhian Singh and Dilbagh were the other goal-scorers for the winners. Later in the evening, in the most keenly contested match of the day, Gurjant Singh scored twice for ONGC in the 3-2 win over PNB. Gurjant put his team ahead with a fine field goal in the 24th minute, and consolidated the lead with another goal six minutes into he second half. PNB got one back six minutes later, but Yoginder Singh's goal in the 49th minute put ONGC 3-1 ahead. PNB tried hard to come back, but could only score a consolation goal in the 69th minute. |
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Sydney Sixers beat Mumbai
Durban, October 22 Brief Scores: Sydney Sixers (S Smith 41, M Lumb 28, N Maddinson 27, N Mc Cullum 20, M Patel 2/17, L Malinga 2/36); Mumbai Indians: (D Smith 26, S Tendulkar 22, R Sharma 16, Harbhajjan 22, M Starc 2/32, P Cummins 2/16, M Henriques 2/29).
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Duleep trophy
Durban, October 22
