|
|
|
|
|
Time to exchange friendly fire
Skipper MS Dhoni will look to begin on a fresh note on Tuesday. |
|
|
Let’s play: A chance for peace and a good time for cricket
The pitch area being covered by barricades ahead of the 1st T20 match between India and Pakistan at Bengaluru on Sunday. — PTI
‘Ajmal the X-factor’
Our bowlers can challenge Indian batting: Hafeez
Dhoni rues the end of a One-day wonder
Sachin’s retirement brings relief for selectors: Prasanna
Shiva wins Asian Luge
Cup
Juneja anchors Gujarat innings
Harbhajan XI, Yuvraj XI to lock horns in triangular series
Coach Davinder Arora (centre) and other officials during the launch of triangular series at Jalandhar on Monday. — Tribune photo: Sarabjit Singh
|
|
Time to exchange friendly fire
Bengaluru, December 24 Thus, as India prepared to take on Pakistan in the first Twenty20 match in a fortress-like Chinnaswamy Stadium, Dhoni was not worried about the defeat to England a couple of days ago. “It’s a fresh start... T20 teaches you not to get stuck with the result — every other day or every two days you have a game,” Dhoni said. “Most of the times, in this format, games finish in the last over or even the last ball. We need to keep moving on.” Indian fans need to move on from that defeat to England, for the Indian team already has. India lost the game off the last ball, after all. It could well have ended in a victory for the hosts; Dhoni’s men would then have been hailed as heroes who had crushed England 2-0 in the T20 series. Keep moving on, that’s Dhoni’s mantra. He says he doesn’t get elated when the times are good, or depressed when the times are bad. And the times have really, really been bad — they’ve been quite horrible, actually. Test cricket has been a disaster of late — our record is 1-10 against England and Australia over the last 16 months. The One-day champions haven’t done well in the 50-over game too; and the team got knocked out early once again in the T20 World Cup. Yet, T20 cricket is quite a whimsical creature. The brevity of the format restricts the team’s best players — your best bowler can’t bowl over 24 balls, or the best batsman can’t realistically play over 60 balls. It’s a shootout, and thus it’s a new day every day. That’s what Dhoni means, and we need to follow Dhoni’s mantra most in this format of the sport — least joy or sorrow in victory or defeat in T20s. T20 defies analysis — why was Yuvraj India’s most successful bowler with six wickets in the two matches against England? – but there is no question that Pakistan possess a superior bowling attack. They have Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir in pace, and Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and Hafeez in spin. India’s attack is composed of inexperienced or stagnating pacemen, and jaded spinners. The wily R Aswhin, possibly India’s best bowler in T20s, would expect greater success in this format than he did in the Tests against England. Pressure would be a huge factor. On the basis of the results, India seem to have handled it better in T20Is — two wins and a tie in the three matches the two teams have played. Virat Kohli could be a factor, too. He’s found great success in the few matches he’s played against Pakistan. He made a match-winning 78 in the last T20I between the two teams; and a match-winning 183 in the last ODI against them, at the Asia Cup in Dhaka. Then again, tomorrow is another day, and never more so in the shortest version of the game. Squads: 1ST t20 India: MS Dhoni (C), Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Murali Vijay, Parvinder Awana Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez (C), Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi,Umar Akmal, Nasir Jamshed,Kamran Akmal (Wk),Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Sohail Tanvir,Umar Gul, Asad Ali, Zulfiqar Babar, Ahmad Shahzad,Umar Amin.
|
|
Let’s play: A chance for peace and a good time for cricket
Bengaluru, December 24 This so-called CBM is fragile like glass, hostage to terror or escalation of tension at the border. For it’s impossible to indulge in something as insignificant as sport, or to argue in support of it, when the armies of two countries are sniping at each other at the border, or when terror crosses the border, as has happened in the past. Four years ago, the horror of the Mumbai terror attack, the trail of which led to Pakistan, caused great frostiness in the relations between the two countries. Bilateral cricketing ties were snapped. This had happened several times in the past too, nullifying the happy memories of cricketing teams exchanged. At the turn of the century, when India and Pakistan fought a war at Kargil, the memories of Pakistan’s tour of India in 1999 were erased. But not long after Kargil, the cricket teams from the two countries travelled across the border; there was genuine, unmatchable sense of celebration. It wasn’t war minus the shooting. People reached out to each other, touched each others’ lives, realised that the ‘enemy’ was human, too. That’s the gift of sport. This particular India-Pakistan series is England’s gift to the two countries: this contest has been made possible only due to England’s insistence that their cricket team would go back home for Christmas and return for the ODI series in the new year. England, the colonial power that presided overs Partition, and is thus is party to the continuing problems between the two countries, created a gap in the Indian team’s calendar. The circumstances for the two teams to play, though, were created by the governments of the two hostile twins. Thus, four years and a month after the Mumbai terror attack, and five years after Pakistan last came to India, the two teams are ready for a bilateral series. The cricketing landscape has changed irrevocably in this time. India’s win at the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007, just before Pakistan’s tour of India that year, has given birth to a massive boom in Twenty20 format and club cricket. At the top of the table is the Indian Premier League, then there are T20 leagues in other countries — Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Australia... Now is a great time to be a freelance cricketer, to make money from the game, even as it weakens commitment to your national team, as is evident from the recent histories of Kevin Pietersen and Chris Gayle. IPL is causing conflict between cricket boards and players worldwide. Pakistan, thus, could have reason to be happy that their players are not part of the IPL. However, that is not so. No team has visited Pakistan after the Sri Lankan team was attacked in Lahore in March 2009, and Pakistan’s share of the 2011 World Cup matches had to be moved to the other hosts, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. That was tragic, but not unexpected. The exclusion from the IPL underscores the team’s isolation. Even as the Pakistan team landed here, the news emerged that their cricketers — some of the world’s best in T20 — would not be part of IPL-6. The upshot is that there’s a great sense of grievance in Pakistan, and among its cricketers. The current series, finalised in July, had time only for the lighter formats — two ultra-light T20 games, three more substantial ODIs. The competition, though, won’t be light — the political barometer may indicate reduced pressure, but for the two teams, it’s a ‘fight’ of their lives. The two countries should hope for and facilitate such ‘fights’, rather than the fights with guns and bombs. |
|
New Delhi, December 24 "India have the advantage of coming into the series having played against England while Pakistan will be a bit ring-rusty but Saeed Ajmal is the x-factor that they have and India doesn't," Raja said. "Ajmal has been Pakistan's 'Go-To' man for some time now. He is someone who knows how to pick up wickets and also has a lot of variation in his bowling," Raja further explained. Talk of Ajmal and comparisons with India's Ravichandran Ashwin are bound to crop up, but Raja felt that the burly Tamil Nadu boy needed to work on his variations. "I saw him trying too many things during the Test matches against England. He was trying to come round the wicket. Surprisingly, when he played the T20's, I didn't find him coming round the wicket. "Although he (Ashwin) was being repeatedly hit over the mid-wicket region, he didn't try anything different. His bowling was very disappointing during England T20 Internationals as he got only one wicket," Raja explained. — PTI
|
|
Our bowlers can challenge Indian batting: Hafeez
Bengaluru, December 24 "Indian batting is well known all over the world being extremely good. But winning or losing does not depend only on batting. Bowling will also have a major role. When we see our team, both batting and bowling is very good. So, our bowlers can negotiate the strong Indian batting line-up," Hafeez told reporters at the pre-match press conference here. Hafeez said the team has prepared well for the series and is looking forward to the match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. "We are very much ready and looking for good, positive results for our country," he said. Hafeez said the selectors wanted to give opportunities to youngsters who have done well in the last couple of years at the domestic level. "It will be a good experience for them in India because the crowds are always good. So the pressure is always there, but you have to handle it. Our team is a mix of both experience and youth. We have Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal. It is a mixture of seniors and juniors," he said. On Afridi's poor run with the bat, Hafeez said there is no doubt that in the recent past he has not done well, but added that he is still a match winner. Hafeez said Sayeed Ajmal is bowling very well at the moment and getting the results for Pakistan. "We want him to stay at the peak. We don't want to put too much pressure on him. At the same time, other bowlers also have to do and take wickets to give confidence to him," he said. Hafeez said that Pakistan are looking forward to some good performances from Afridi. In the last couple of practice matches in Pakistan, he has done well with both bat and ball. "I being the captain, would love to see good performance from him," he said. Hafeez said the team couldn't have a final look at the wicket and hence have not finalised the playing XI. Hafeez said there is no injury worries in the team. On pressure factor, Hafeez said all international matches have an element of pressure, and players have to soak it up because expectations are high. "We will try our level best to play without pressure," he said. Hafeez said that this series is a new journey and was made was possible due to the efforts of both the governments and PCB and BCCI chairmen.
— PTI |
|
Dhoni rues the end of a One-day wonder
Bengaluru, December 24 However, it’s also true that Tendulkar hasn’t been part of India’s limited-over scheme of things for quite some time. He had never really had warmed up to Twenty20 cricket at the international level, forsaking the chance to represent India even at the World Cup. He decided before the inaugural T20 World Cup that this format was not worthy of his attention -- not while playing for India at least. He’s played just one T20 International, way back in 2006. In One-day cricket too, he’s been on a retirement of sorts -- he last played for India in March this year, and has missed 29 of India’s last 50 ODIs. But, on the eve of the T20 and ODI series against Pakistan, the sense of loss the team has is unmistakable. “As you all know, Paaji has announced his retirement from ODIs,” MS Dhoni, the captain who revered Tendulkar, said today. “I wanted to say a few words about him. We’re disappointed we won’t see his 50th century in coloured clothing or the 100th half century... He was four short. That’s something we’ll definitely miss. He’s been an inspiration in encouraging thousands and millions of people to take up the sport.” “And at the same time he made us learn a lot of things,” Dhoni went on. “As youngsters when we came into the side, it was important to see how he prepared himself for each and every game. For him, every game was a big game. At the same time, he showed us how to be humble in life, how to digest success — which is one of the most difficult things to do.” Dhoni said that Tendulkar guided each and every one of Indian players who debuted after him. “I personally learnt a lot from him... Whenever I got a chance to bat in the ODI format, how he calculated the innings going along, how he told us which bowlers we could target and what the target in the next four or five overs should be, whom we may bowl... All those things. That really helped me.” “But the good thing is that he’ll play in one of the formats,” Dhoni said. “There’s plenty for the youngsters to learn from him. That’s his decision and we need to respect it.” Coming back to the series against Pakistan, Dhoni said the last-ball loss to England two days ago is a thing of the past, and this series begins anew. “It’s a fresh start. T20 teaches you not to get stuck with the result — every other day or every two days you have a game,” he said. “Most of the times in this format, games finish in the last over or even the last ball. We need to keep moving on.” Dhoni was asked if Pakistan’s bowling strength, both spin and pace, would make them the favourites. “It’s not about how good you look on paper. It’s always about how the individual reacts to the situations he faces – whether he’s a bowler or a batsman,” he said. “I think the teams are evenly placed right now. It will be important to see how the individuals who are part of the sides perform, what kind of a platform they give each other. The part-timers also need to contribute at the same time. Overall, it’s a balanced series and the team that plays better will win it.” How will India play without Tendulkar? That’s a question on everyone’s mind. Dhoni emphasised the need to grasp facts, reality. The reality that Tendulkar has moved on. ‘He’s not played all the series for quite some time now,” he said. “It gave an opportunity to youngsters to get exposed to international cricket. We still had experienced cricketers — Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh — in his absence.” Possibly, but Dhoni is painfully aware that Tendulkar is gone and the game he graced, the team he graced, will never be the same again.
|
|
Sachin’s retirement brings relief for selectors: Prasanna
Bengaluru, December 24 Prasanna said Sachin retired from ODIs possibly to focus on Test matches because he has not done well in the recent past and is determined to perform before he quits the longer version of the game. "He knows people forget one-day and T20 matches. A player is recognised as good with reference to five-day game," he said. Prasanna said Sachin could manage to maintain himself at such a high level for a very long time speaks volumes. "We may talk about Don Bradman, XYZ and what not, but they did not play as much cricket as this boy has played," he said. Former India wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani said Sachin should have retired from the ODI after India lifted the World Cup. "The timing of Sachin's retirement was inappropriate. He should have retired following India's world Cup triumph. If he would have retired then, everybody would have lauded,” he said.
— PTI |
|
Shiva wins Asian Luge
Cup
Nagano, (Japan), Dec 24 The race was no walkover as Keshavan was tailing in second place during the first run, 0.129 seconds behind Japan’s Hidenari Kanayama. Last year’s runner up Oguchi Takahisa was not far behind in third place only 0.058 seconds after Shiva. Each of the top three had broken the previous track record of 50.072 set in 2004. However, last year’s champion, India’s Shiva Keshavan toppled the scores in the second heat, absolutely smashing the Asian track record by 0.482 seconds. Despite the disadvantage from the first run, Shiva won with a considerable margin. Yamaura Yohan of Japan finished fourth and Kim Dong Hyeon of Korea bagged the fifth place. “I lost control of the sled for a moment in the first run at curve 6 but I managed to avoid a crash. The track conditions were very different from what we experienced this week but we were prepared for any eventuality. I knew the moment I finished the second run that it would be extremely difficult for the others to catch up with me. I’m glad all the preparation of the team paid off at the right moment, and that the Cup is coming back to India”, said an elated Shiva after the second run. Shiva now holds two of the three Asian records, with only the start record of 3.190 seconds set in 1999 still remaining to be vanquished. The International Luge Federation Vice President for Asia, Korea’s Jae-Ho Chung gave out the trophy and Medals. “We can see that the level of Asian athletes has risen tremendously in recent years. With the 2018 Winter Olympic Games to be held in Korea, we can expect athletes from Asia to dominate this field,” said Chung. The Asian record set by Shia Keshavan is only 0.017 seconds after the Olympic record set in Nagano. Definitely with the right conditions for training, and the right facilities, the future could seem promising. — TNS
|
|
|
Ranji trophy Bhajji sits out on Day 3 claiming to be suffering from 'food poisoning’
Valsad, December 24 Resuming at an overnight score of 227 for seven, Punjab's first innings folded when Uday Kaul was caught by Jesal Karia off Rush Kalaria's bowling after adding 30 runs to his overnight 63. A day after Harbhajan Singh was ignored by the national selectors for the Pakistan ODI and T20 series, Punjab skipper did not take to the field claiming to be suffering from ‘food poisoning’. Bhajji tweeted: "Not well today. Stomach ache. Food position (sic). Feeling yukk." In their second innings, Gujarat were 24-2 in 14.4 overs when Juneja came into bat and along with skipper Parthiv Patel tried to steady the ship, adding 63 runs for the third wicket. But Parthiv was dismissed by Amitoze Singh in the 27th over and in the next over Sarabjit Ladda accounted for Y Venugopal Rao to reduce the hosts to 96/4. Juneja held on to one end but wickets kept tumbling on the other as Gujarat further plummeted to 148-7. Juneja added another 61 runs for the eight wicket with Kalaria (not out 33), before becoming a victim of Ladda. Ladda was the highest wicket-taker for Punjab as he scalped four, while S Kaul and Gurkeerat Singh snapped a couple of wickets each. Brief Scores: Gujarat: 266 & 232 all out in 68.5 overs (U Kaul 93; R Dhruv 3/51); Punjab 268 all out in 68.5 overs (MC Juneja 79; S Ladda 4/112). HP need 202 runs to register outright win
Parvez Rassol and Ram Dayal struck impressive half centuries as Jammu and Kashmir post a fighting total of 248 in their second innings on Monday, leaving their Ranji Trophy group league match against HP for an interesting finish at Jammu. Resuming at 16/3, J&K added 232 runs before being all out for 248, riding on Rassol's 83 and Dayal's 71. Chasing a target of 235 for an outright win, HP were 32/1 in their second innings when the stumps were drawn for the day. Captain Aakash Chopra was batting on 23 while Karanveer Singh was on one. Himachal require 203 runs for a win with nine wickets in hand. Brief Scores: Jammu and Kashmir 175 and 248 all out (Parvez Rassol 83, Ram Dayal 71; Vikramjeet Malik 3 for 50) lead Himachal Pradesh 189 and 32 for 1 in 10 overs (Aakash Chopra batting 23) by 202 runs. Haryana enforce follow-on
Seamer Harshal Patel wreaked havoc as Haryana enforced follow-on on hosts Karnataka in a group league game. In reply to Haryana's 587/9, Karnataka were all out for 272 with Kunal Kapoor scoring his maiden hundred as Harshal picked up 5/79. Brief Scores: Haryana 587/9 decl; Karnataka 272 (Kunal Kapoor 106, Harshal Patel 5/79, Amit Mishra 3/79) & following on 63/0 (Robin Uthappa 37 no).
— PTI/TNS |
|
|
Harbhajan XI, Yuvraj XI to lock horns in triangular series
Jalandhar, December 24 The triangular series has been named in the memory of Harbhajan Singh's father, Sardar Sardev Singh. The tournament will be conducted in a league-cum-knock out format for two categories of team. The competing academies will bring forward Under-14 and Under-16 teams. The matches will be played at the Harbhajan Singh Institute of Cricket, Jalandhar over a period of four days. The final will be held on December 28 both the categories. — TNS
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Bengaluru, December 24
Bengaluru, December 24
Jalandhar, December 24
