Jamshedpur, January 9
Jiwanjot Singh (131) and Taruwar Kohli (151 not out) hit centuries to help Punjab take the crucial first-innings lead over Jharkhand and assure themselves of a place in the Ranji Trophy’s last-four stage on the on the fourth and penultimate day of their quarterfinal match here on Wednesday.

In reply to Jharkhand’s first innings total of 401, Punjab reached 435 for three at stumps on day four of the match with Kohli unbeaten at the crease.

With Punjab having already taken a 34-run lead with seven wickets still remaining, the match is headed for a draw with the visitors, in all probability, making the next round on basis of their first innings total.

Besides Jiwanjot and Kohli, Mandeep Singh also chipped in with a valuable 96 off 230 balls, laced with 12 boundaries.

Resuming at 150 for one, the overnight batsmen — Jiwanjot starting at 77 and Kohli on 26 — did not have any trouble in dealing with the Jharkhand attack on a lifeless, flat Keenan Stadium wicket. The duo put on a 156 runs for the second wicket before the hosts’ captain, left-arm spinner, Shahbaz Nadeem, got the breakthrough for Jharkhand by dismissing Jiwanjot.

Jiwanjot, bowled by the opposition skipper, played yet another marathon innings that lasted 352 minutes and 250 balls. It was the fifth century of the season by Jiwanjot, the 22-year-old who made his debut in first class cricket this season. He struck 19 boundaries to notch up his 131.

Kohli was then joined by Mandeep and they together stitched a 204-run partnership for the third wicket.

Kohli’s unbeaten knock came off 381 deliveries and included 16 fours and a six.

He has already been at the crease for a little short of 10 hours.

Playing with four regular bowlers, Jharkhand brought in several part timers — Ishank Jaggi, Akash Verma and Manish Vardhan — as they desperately attempted to break the Kolhi-Mandeep partnership. In all, seven Jharkhand bowlers were in action in the Punjab innings.

And finally Vardhan managed to strike in the first delivery of his second over to get Mandeep caught in the midwicket region. Mandeep was unlucky as he fell four runs short of his ton. — Agencies

How Punjab made it

Punjab’s Group Results

Punjab vs Hyderabad (Mohali, Nov 2-5, 2012)
Hyderabad 258 and 239; Punjab 565/6d
Punjab won by an innings and 68 runs

Punjab vs Bengal (Mohali, Nov 9-12, 2012)
Bengal 326 and 226; Punjab 579/7d
Punjab won by an innings and 27 runs

Railways vs Punjab (Bhubaneswar, Nov 17-20, 2012)
Railways 205 and 353/5d; Punjab 314 and 59/2
Match drawn

Punjab vs Saurashtra (Mohali, Nov 24-26, 2012)
Saurashtra 90 and 233; Punjab 205 and 120/2
Punjab won by 8 wickets

Punjab vs Rajasthan (Mohali, Dec 1-4, 2012)
Rajasthan 222 and 196; Punjab 215 and 206/1
Punjab won by 9 wickets

Punjab vs Mumbai (Mumbai, Dec 8-11, 2012)
Punjab 580 and 59; Mumbai 485 and 61/2
Match drawn

Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh (Gwalior, Dec 15-18, 2012)
Madhya Pradesh 323 and 193/2; Punjab 148 and 364 (f/o)
Madhya Pradesh won by 8 wickets

Punjab vs Gujarat (Valsad, Dec 22-25, 2012)
Gujarat 266 and 232; Punjab 268 and 193
Gujarat won by 37 runs

Quarterfinals
Punjab vs Jharkhand (Jamshedpur, Jan 6-10, 2013)
Jharkhand 401; Punjab 435/3
Punjab lead by 34 runs with 7 wickets remaining

Scoreboard
Jharkhand 1st innings 401
Punjab 1st innings
Jiwanjot b Nadeem 131
R Inder c Vardhan b Nadeem 37
Kohli batting 151
Mandeep c Jaggi b Vardhan 96
Extras: (b 4, lb 4, nb 12) 20
Total (3 wkts) 435
Fall of wickets: 1-75, 2-231, 3-435
Bowling: Yadav 16-4-37-0 Rao 24-5-89-0 Nadeem 57-17-121-2 Gupta 51-7-149-0 Verma 1-0-5-0 Vardhan 1.1-0-2-1 Jaggi 5-0-24-0

Mumbai’s Hiken Shah was on 65* at stumps. — File photo

Mumbai, January 9
Multiple-time champions Mumbai assured themselves of a place in the Ranji Trophy’s last-four stage after bundling out Baroda for 271 before extending their lead to 545 runs on the fourth and penultimate day of their quarterfinal clash here on Wednesday.

Even if the match ends in a draw, Mumbai, who were 171/1 at stumps, will qualify for the next stage due to their huge first innings lead.

Baroda needed another 175 runs to avoid the follow on and trailed by 374 runs when their innings wrapped up nine minutes before the end of the first session. Mumbai skipper Ajit Agarkar decided against imposing the follow on.

First innings centurion Wasim Jaffer became the second player ever to accumulate more than 9,000 runs in Ranji Trophy. He is now 97 runs behind former Mumbai player Amol Muzumdar (9,105) in the table.

Jaffer scored 33, striking two fours and two sixes, before being trapped LBW by Ambati Rayudu. Opener Kaustubh Pawar (70) and No. 3 Hiken Shah (65) forged an unbeaten 123-run stand. Baroda skipper Yusuf Pathan, suffering from butter fingers, dropped Shah — Pathan’s third drop in the match — on 54. Pawar hit six fours and two sixes, while Shah struck six fours and a six.

Baroda’s leading wicket-taker Murtuja Vahora, who picked four wickets in the first innings including Sachin Tendulkar’s, did not bowl in the second innings due to an injury, adding to Baroda’s misery. The visitors, who started the day with 167 runs on board and five wickets in hand, lost Pinal Shah early, caught in the slip cordon off debutant Vishal Dabholkar.

From then on, it was a downslide for Baroda as they did not offer much resistance to Mumbai’s attack and added only 104 runs in the first session. The last batsman, Bhargav Bhatt, hit two fours before being caught by Tendulkar off Javed Khan.

Rayudu, dropped on 33, ran out of partners and was left stranded at 89. His knock comprised 15 fours and two sixes.

Dabholkar was pick of the bowlers as he scalped three wickets for 88 runs and would have bagged Rayudu’s wicket too if Agarkar had held a simple catch. Javed Khan, Dhawal Kulkarni and Ankeet Chavan grabbed two wickets each.

Brief scores

Mumbai, January 9
The BCCI’s all-powerful working committee (WC) will meet here next week, but it is not known whether the Indian team’s recent poor performance against England and Pakistan would be deliberated upon.

“The meeting of the BCCI working committee is to be held at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai on January 15. It’s a regular meeting,” BCCI sources said on Wednesday.

There has been a talk that the support staff of the Indian team, including chief coach Duncan Fletcher, may face the heat from the BCCI for the team’s poor display but whether the Board’s WC would discuss the matter on renewal of their contracts is not certain.

At the last WC meeting held on November 21, a consensus could not be reached whether to bring Mohammed Azharuddin back under the parent body’s fold after the Andhra Pradesh High Court lifted the life ban on the former Indian captain by the Board.

“The decision on Azharuddin’s future in the BCCI has been deferred. The working committee was undecided on whether to appeal against the decision or not. The legal team is still studying the case and it will still take some time to reach a conclusion,” a senior BCCI official preferring anonymity had said then.

It remains to be seen whether the WC can come to an agreement on this issue at its first meeting in 2013.

In another major decision at its last sitting, the WC also decided to dole out their one-time benefit payment to around 50 more cricketers who had a “touch and go” case in terms of the number of matches played and the year of retirement.

The previous working committee meeting also decided to appeal against the decision taken by the three-member tribunal on paying Rs 120 crore to Zee Entertainment Enterprise as damages for termination of telecast rights of India’s home matches back in 2007.

Meanwhile, the decision on where to hold the next IPL players’ auction will be taken by the Twenty20 League’s governing council and not the BCCI’s WC, the sources said.

“That decision will be taken by the IPL Governing Council and not the working committee,” the sources informed.

The auction has been fixed for February 3, but the venue has not been communicated to the media. — PTI

New Delhi, January 9
Indian cricket is enduring one of its worst phases right now but former ICC and BCCI president Sharad Pawar feels the talent pool has never been wider even though it would take some time for the upcoming players to become world-class.

The Indian team succumbed to Test whitewashes against England and Australia before being humiliated at home by the former. The team most recently lost 1-2 in a short ODI series against Pakistan and there are question marks about the way forward after retirements by Test greats such as Dravid and Laxman.

But Pawar feels the talent pool is huge enough even though youngsters such as Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja have not quite lived upto the promise.

“There are a lot of youngsters. Once upon a time, there were certain good areas, which traditionally supplied good talented players like Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. But that is not the case today,” Pawar said.

“UP and Jharkhand are providing good players. Now, we are getting talent from throughout India. It will take time to shape them as good players. I don’t think there is shortage of players,” he said. — PTI

Rajkot, January 9
The Alastair Cook-led England team has arrived here along with a couple of Indian players for the first One-dayer of the five-match series to be held at the SCA stadium on January 11.

“The entire England team led by captain Alastair Cook and two Indian players — Ishant Sharma and Suresh Raina — on Wednesday arrived in a special plane from New Delhi, while the rest of the players, except Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja, would come later,” a senior official of the Saurashtra Cricket Association said.

Pujara is playing the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Karnataka at the Saurashtra University ground and would join the team on Thursday morning.

England are scheduled to practise on Wednesday evening while the Indians would practise on Thursday morning. — PTI

New Delhi, January 9
India might have lost the recent ODI series against Pakistan but former England captain Geoffrey Boycott feels that the hosts still stand a better chance of winning the five-match series against England, starting in Rajkot on January 11.

“...it’s about 60-40 in India’s favour, I would say, in this series to come,” said Boycott.

“I don’t think India will be as tough to beat as they were. They’ll still be tough in their own country, they’ve still got a lot of other good players.

“(MS) Dhoni is a fantastic player, there’s (Virat) Kohli — they are good players. It just gives England a bit more of a chance, maybe, but I believe India are right to try and plan ahead and move forward,” Boycott told a cricket website.

“India are trying out one or two new fast bowlers. They are making Ravindra Jadeja a major spinner; we all know about his batting, and his triple-hundreds, but you make him like a spinner, get some young fast bowlers in, because Zaheer Khan is more or less past it,” he said.

The ex-English cricketer said the Indian team should not get too worried as the recent slump of form can be attributed to the transition phase it is going through after the retirement of seniors such as Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

“I like young batsman (Ajinkya) Rahane, he looks promising. And I know that losing to Pakistan may hurt a lot of Indian supporters. That’s part and parcel of moving forward, trying new guys, moving towards an end product which is the World Cup in Australia.”

He said it is important to try new players as it’s only two years to go for the ODI World Cup. “You’ve got to move forward and give these guys opportunities to see how they perform,” stressed Boycott. — PTI

London, January 9
Kevin Pietersen’s return to the England fold has been finalised after the batsman signed a full central contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Pietersen’s relations with the board plummeted to an all-time low in 2012 and, after being dropped for the final Test of the summer against South Africa, he underwent a process of “reintegration” before making his comeback in India before Christmas.

Since then he has been working on a short-term deal that expires at the end of the month, but the limited-overs coach Ashley Giles confirmed on Wednesday that Pietersen has penned a full central contract. That places him on the same terms as the rest of England’s senior figures, ending a period of uncertainty, with the current batch of contracts running until 30 September.

The batsman played an important role in England’s historic Test series victory, scoring 338 runs.

Pietersen’s tumultuous 2012 led him to retire from 50-over and, reluctantly, Twenty20 internationals. — Agencies

London, January 9
For the last eight years, the rest of men’s tennis has watched in a mixture of admiration and frustration as four players have dominated the major competitions. At the dawn of another Grand Slam season, however, the hopes of a new generation of players are rising at last.

With Roger Federer reaching his 32nd birthday this year and doubts growing over Rafael Nadal’s future, younger players such as Milos Raonic, Bernard Tomic and Grigor Dimitrov might feel that now is the time to make their move. While Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray may still be in their prime for several seasons, there is likely to be room at the top alongside the two 25-year-olds in the near future.

Nadal, who has not played since Wimbledon after a recurrence of his knee problems, is certain to be out of the top four by the end of the Australian Open. Federer, meanwhile, may also struggle to keep his place in the top group, especially as his schedule for 2013 has indicated a shift in priorities. The world No 2 will not play anywhere for seven weeks between Indian Wells in March and Madrid in April, meaning that he will miss the Masters Series tournaments in Miami and Monte Carlo.

The stranglehold of the big four in the Masters Series could be over already. Between them Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray had won 17 Masters titles in succession until David Ferrer ended the run in Paris two months ago.

The grip of three of the fab four on Grand Slam trophies has been even tighter. Following Marat Safin’s victory in the 2005 Australian Open, only one of the subsequent 30 Grand Slam tournaments — the 2009 US Open, in which Juan Martin del Potro triumphed — was not won by Federer, Nadal Djokovic. The last year’s US Open was won by Murray.

Statistics show that today’s players tend to peak later in their careers than they have in the past, probably as a consequence of the greater physical demands of the modern game.

There are no teenagers currently in the world’s top 100, but there are players in their early twenties for whom the future is looking bright. The next week’s Australian Open could see the door open for them at last. — The Independent

Seoul, January 9
Top Indian shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal, started the new year on a winning note, reaching the second round of the season-opening Korea Open Premier Super Series on Wednesday.

Olympic bronze-medallist Saina, seeded third, was a little rusty to start with as she conceded the first game but got her act together in time to notch up a 17-21, 21-9, 21-19 win over Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in the women’s singles opening round.

The world number three will now clash with Singapore’s Mingtian Fu. Fu beat Bulgaria’s Petya Nedelcheva in another match at the SK Handball Stadium. Saina has a 3-0 record against the Singaporean.

World No. 14 Parupalli Kashyap disposed off Commonwealth silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph of England 21-19, 21-16 in his 40-minute men’s singles opener. Kashyap, who a bronze at the the Commonwealth Games, will now meet seventh seed Yun Hu of Hong Kong. The duo has clashed only once so far, during the Badminton Asia Championships in 2010, when Yun beat Kashyap in three games.

Rising star P.V. Sindhu also reached the second round after beating Lindaweni Fanetri, to whom she lost in the finals of the Syed Modi Grand Prix gold in Lucknow less than a month ago.

The world No. 19 from Hyderabad prevailed 22-20, 21-16 over the Indonesian in a 42-minute match.

The 17-year-old Sindhu will next take on Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who was the surprise winner after Olympic Champion Li Xuerui of China retired midway through the opening game of the first-round match.

With top seed Li out of the tournament, Saina is expected to meet seventh seed Tanjiao Jiang of China in the semifinals. — PTI

New Delhi, January 9
AITA’s efforts to rope in US-based Prakash Amritraj in the Davis Cup squad to negate a boycott threat from the top players came to a nought today as the Sports Ministry stuck to its policy that only Indian passport holders can represent the country.

The Sports Ministry today issued a press release saying that it had reviewed the policy and had concluded that “a person can represent India in any international competition only if she/he is an Indian passport holder”.

In the wake of revolt by eight top players, including Somdev Devvarman, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, the AITA was trying to bolster its line-up by including Amritraj in the squad for the South Korea tie, beginning February 1.

In December 2008, the ministry had formulated a policy on the participation of sportsperson in international events under which it had decided that only Indian citizens were eligible to represent the country. The policy rendered three Indian players — Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and Neha Uberoi — ineligible for selection.

At that time, Prakash had opted to retain his American citizenship. Prakash, who is coming back to competitive tennis after an injury, is in good form as he won four matches at the Chennai Open.

His inclusion could have helped a beleaguered AITA, who will now be forced to field a depleted side if the eight players stuck its stand and remains unavailable.

AITA does not see the Ministry’s stance as a setback to their plans. “I would see it this way, that we will not be able to avail Prakash Amritraj’s services. He is in form and in good shape. He is a much better player than he was two years ago and at the moment he’s better than many who we were considering for selection,” AITA CEO Hironmoy Chatterjee said.

AITA has given a deadline till tomorrow to the eight players to make themselves available. Its selection committee will meet on Friday to discuss the options. Leander Paes is the only top player for AITA to choose.

If Somdev, Bhupathi, Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri, Sanam Singh, Vishnu Vardhan, Divij Sharan and Saketh Myneni remain unavailable, AITA will have to look at second-string players. The next best available players are Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, ranked 423, N Sriram Balaji (324), Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (517), Vijayant Malik (542) and Purav Raja (155 in doubles). — PTI

New Delhi, January 9
He was the numero uno goalkeeper for India before a slump in form cost him his place in the national hockey team, but former captain Bharat Chetri insists he is not finished yet and is prepared to work for a comeback into the national team.

Chetri was the captain of the Indian team in the London Olympics, after which he was sacked.

“I have gone through such phases many times in 12 years, but every time I was dropped it made me more determined,” he said. “I’m not yet finished. If I give my 100 percent, I can always return to the side.” — PTI