He’s surrounded by fans and media.

Greater Noida, October 25
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, who is heading towards a record fourth championship title, was like a bull in a China shop as he scorched the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in both the practice sessions of the Indian Formula 1 Grand Prix today, to emerge the fastest driver. He led team-mate Mark Webber in another one-two to show the way for Sunday's title showdown. Vettel, who had emerged champions in the previous two editions of the Indian GP, seemed to be so familiar with the countours of the tracks that he was just unstoppable.

Vettel, who topped the practice session in the morning, came back with the same vigor and determination to top in the afternoon, as the German became the only driver to go below 1:25.722s to better his morning time of 1 minute 26.683s. Vettel was the fastest in every practice session at the BIC last year, and today he was faster than teammate Mark Webber by 0.289secs. Webber clocked 1:26.011 as the inform Romain Rrosjean of Lotus, who took the fourth position in the morning, came back hard to give a tough chase in the second session, but the Red Bull machine and drivers were too good to concede any ground. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes clocked 1:26.399s to improve his Formula1 practice timing to finish as the fourth fastest.

Vettel, Webber, Kimi Raikkonen and Grosjean (Lotus) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) took the lead in turns before Vettel scorched the tracks to post his best time. Lewis Hamilton, who was fifth in the morning session, moved up to the fourth while Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, the only driver who can challenge Vettel in the championship race, posted the fifth fastest time of 1m 26.430s, ahead of Rosberg's 1m 26.582s.

Felipe Massa's 1m 26.601s in the other Ferrari, Raikkonen's 1m 26.632s and the 1m 26.857s and 1m 26.972s that Sergio Perez and Jenson Button recorded for McLaren were the other notable feats. Following his morning gearbox problem, Alonso made up for lost time with 37 laps, with team-mate Felipe Massa finishing seventh. Force India drivers Adrian Sutil (1m 27.375s) and Paul Di Resta (1m 27.608s), too put up keen fights in the lower midfield. Force India's James Calado, who raced in the morning practice in place of di Resta, who was reportedly unwell, too went out of shape early and suffered a late spin to finish 18th, with a time that was eight-tenths slower than that of Adrian Sutil's.

In the morning, the Jaypee Sports International heaved a sigh of relief when the hearing of the legal petition against alleged tax irregularities was postponed to next week. The hearing will now take place after the final races on Sunday, paving the way for holding the 16th round of the FI GP series.

Cuttack, October 25
God’s views on cricket, that most noble of sports, aren’t known or enunciated by His interpreters. But on the lesser vital question of rain, there’s no ambiguity in this part of the world: God, maker of everything, must make water, too.

George Bailey, the Australian captain, was asked after the Ranchi One-dayer was washed out: “You think you were helpless before the Almighty?”

Bailey seemed stunned for a few seconds -- was it Almighty, and not Vinay Kumar, who dismissed him on 98? He seemed to be wondering if God indeed took that great an interest in his team’s affairs. Was it a trick question, designed to make him say something indiscrete on Sachin Tendulkar?

“I don’t know what this means... Is this a religious question?” asked Bailey.

Then the penny dropped -- Bailey realised it was a not a religious question. It was a meteorological question. “Ah, the rain,” he said. “I’ve got it now.”

God, or some other rainmaker, seems to have decided to play a decisive role in the fifth One-day International in Cuttack, too.

The sun god was spotted by the gentle people of Cuttack five days ago; the rain god, though, has made Cuttack his regular abode since then -- reports of his presence had reached Bailey in advance .

“Cuttack is also pretty wet,” he’d said. “A couple of pictures are going around with the groundstaff and the water, hopefully that would be better in a couple of days.”

Bailey’s informants were truthful, but his hope of a dry Cuttack proved fruitless. Cuttack isn’t dry. There’s overwhelming evidence all around you that it’s wet. Everything seems to be dripping with water in the city. There are reports that in some parts of the city, brave people are swimming in the roads on their way to and from work.

The ground isn’t inundated, but that’s only because they’ve been using high-power motors to pump out the water. Still, the field is quite wet. Let alone cricket, even a game of football tomorrow seems to be out of the question. The local cricket association officials are already talking about the logistics of returning the money to the ticket-buyers.

The Indians came to the ground to practise at the indoor facility. The idea that the fifth ODI could get washed out due to the surge in the rain has occurred to them.

“It doesn’t look like there will be a match tomorrow!” Ravindra Jadeja, sent out to face the bored -- and rather damp -- bunch of journalists, said. “Maybe if it doesn’t rain tonight… We are mentally prepared to play a match, no matter of how many overs it is.”

The Australians didn’t come to the ground to practise at all, staying snug in their hotel in Bhubaneswar.

The Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) announced that it had even requisitioned helicopters to try to fan the pitch and dry it. But that could happen only if it stops raining. There’s no hope of that happening. Locals are saying that the rain will stay on for another week.

This is unseasonal rain, coming in the wake of the cyclone Phailin, which hit the Orissa coast on October 11. Tragically, over 30 lives were lost, but it could have been much worse. An intense cyclone in 1999 had caused over 10,000 deaths in the state.

The state government showed excellent preparedness in dealing with Phailin, evacuating over half a million people.

Perhaps the Indian cricket board could have taken cognisance of the cyclone and thought of moving the Cuttack One-dayer to another place. It had a three-week warning after the first alert, and two weeks after the cyclone actually struck. When the Champions League T20 game between Mumbai Indians and Highveld Lions in Ahmedabad was threatened by rain, they moved it to Jaipur — just two days before the match. Here it has been raining for four days. Surely, it could have occurred to someone in the BCCI or OCA that it was raining a bit too much, checked up with the Met department and thought up the idea of shifting the match to a dryer city?

Ranchi, October 25
Australian vice-captain Shane Watson today described Mitchell Johnson as a “huge weapon” and said the fiery pacer provided an “X-factor” to their bowling attack against India in the bilateral series.

“It's important to get our match-ups right when we're bowling against their batsmen. I think we've matched up really well. Mitch Johnson provides a big X-factor for us. There's a couple of guys who aren't as comfortable against the short ball compared to some of their other players as well,” Watson told reporters at the team hotel here today.

“I think the important thing for us has just been getting our match-ups right. Even batting wise when we're facing certain bowlers that they've got. Also trying to take them on at certain stages of the game. I think we've done that really well so far,” he added. With the Indian batsmen troubled by Johnson, the Aussies are happy to use the pacer against the middle-order batsmen and termed him as a huge weapon.

“It certainly has been (a tactic), there's no doubt. Even after seeing what happened in the Twenty20 game in Rajkot, especially Yuvi ... we didn't get our plans exactly right to him and he's an extremely talented player.

“If we give him a chance to get away he certainly hits the ball very sweet. And also to Suresh Raina, he's a high-quality, world-class player as well. We're very lucky to have Mitch in our team bowling the pace and control that he's got at this point in time. — PTI

Dubai, October 25
Pakistan were staring defeat in the face in the second Test after South Africa out-batted them and then bowled well on the third day in Dubai on Friday.

South Africa, seeking a series-levelling win, once again rocked Pakistan's top order with three early wickets after compiling a mammoth 517 in their first innings for a big 418-run lead at Dubai stadium. At the close, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq (42) and Asad Shafiq (28) were at the crease but they still need a whopping 286 runs to avoid an innings defeat or bat out two days to force a draw.

The duo have added 62 for the fifth wicket and would need a Herculean effort to avoid defeat. Dale Steyn gave South Africa an ideal start as he removed Shan Masood with the fourth ball of the innings, having him trapped in front of the wicket with a sharp delivery for nought.

It became two for two when Khurram Manzoor fell for his second duck of the match, caught off a miscued drive off Vernon Philander from the fifth ball of the second over.

Azhar Ali and Younis added 46 for the third wicket before part-time spinner Jean-Paul Duminy struck with his first ball, trapping Ali lbw with a low delivery for 19.

Brief scores: Pakistan 99 and 132 for 4; South Africa 517 (Smith 234, de Villiers 164, Ajmal 6-151)

Cuttack, October 25
On the eve of another probable washout, Ravindra Jadeja, the Indian allrounder, said that the team hoped to win the two final One-day Internationals against Australia, to win the series 3-2.

Jadeja knows that the fifth One-dayer would almost certainly be washed out. He says the team is ready to play tomorrow; but realistically, the Indians would get an opportunity to equal the series only in Nagpur, and then win it only in Bangalore. Cuttack won’t see any action.

Does that put more pressure on India, making victory in the last two matches imperative?

“There’s not too much pressure as such. If this match doesn’t happen, then we have to win the remaining two matches,” Jadeja said.

“We all worked hard in the nets. Everyone wants the match to happen,” he added. “We are 1-2 behind, so we want to win a match whenever we get an opportunity. It’s a home series, so obviously everyone wants the match to happen and for us to do well.”

“The conditions are not in our hand, and we can’t do anything about the rain,” he added. “But we will try our utmost to win the remaining matches. This is a home series, so we’ll also get help from the conditions in all venues.”

But if Jadeja gives it a bit of thought, he’d realise that conditions haven’t really favoured the Indians in this home series. The wickets have been good for batting, and Australia’s fast bowlers have done well. The tracks haven’t really helped the spinners -- except perhaps in Ranchi, where the spinners bowled 28 of the 50 overs.

In this series, the spinners have bowled 100 overs for India, the pacers have bowled 99.3. Jadeja, who came to the fore as a batting allrounder, is the only bowler, from either side, to have completed his quota of 10 overs in each match. His economy rate is 4.85, though he’s picked up only three wickets in 40 overs. Ravichandran Ashwin has bowled 36 overs; among the pacers, Vinay Kumar, with 34.3 overs, has bowled the most overs for India.

Jadeja, enjoying the confidence of his captain, said that bowling conditions for the spinners have been difficult. “The new rule of having five fielders in obviously makes it tough for spinners. If batsmen are set in the middle overs, then it is very easy for them,” he said. “But that rule is there for all, all spinners have to face it all over the world. We practise in the nets like that too and we have to prepare ourselves to bowl that way in the match too.”

The run-feasts on the wickets in this series have made MS Dhoni search for options among his bowlers, and it’s a challenge for the bowlers to complete their 10 overs in each match. “We have to keep in mind things like having five fielders inside the circle always,” Jadeja said. “We have to decide who has to be inside, who has to bowl to which batsman, and what the situation is. If there’s a new batsman at the crease we can keep all five, or even six, in the ring. But if the batsmen are set, then it becomes tough to decide which fielders to keep inside. We have to see which are a batsman’s strong areas, where he can hit the ball, and make a gameplan accordingly.”

Jadeja has had a good time here in Cuttack in the past. He’s got one of his many triple-centuries at the Barabati Stadium here, and is confident he’d do well here. But he knows equally well that the rain won’t allow him his place in the sun here, not tomorrow.

Chandigarh, October 25
Lucky would be those who get to see Sachin play for the first and last time at Lahli. The number of missing out on the opportunity owing to the seating constraints would be much larger than the lucky ones.

And majority of them are going to be localites. The ‘free ticket’ registration idea has not gone down well with the people. “The gates have been closed since the day it was announced that Sachin would play. Who gave these free tickets, to whom, and when? We have absolutely no clue. It's like a wedding at your home, and you are kept out,” said Maha Singh, a Lahli resident.

Sarpanch Bahadur Singh has quite vocal about the ill-treatment.

With a seating capacity of just 6,000, Haryana Cricket Association’s decision to distribute tickets to among district units too has come under sharp criticism. But then, Lahli has never seen such a clamour since it came up in 1996. Every year 3-4 Ranji Trophy matches are played and the stadium remains empty.

HCA secretary Anirudh Chaudhary explained, “We can not accommodate more than the capacity. People's lives can not be put at risk, he said. With just one day to go, the ticket to this match is already turning out to be a matter of life and death for many.

New Delhi, October 25
Embattled shuttler Jwala Gutta on Friday said she is surprised that India's chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand is still silent on the proposed life ban on her by BAI for an alleged disciplinary breach.

“I am really surprised why the chief coach is quiet. Why he has nothing to say?," asked Jwala.

“Former coaches like Arif sir and Vimal sir have spoken out. Vimal sir was the coach of Banga Beats, he also came out with his statement. If they can speak out, why can't the chief coach?

“I mean he is not just the coach of his academy but of the whole country. He can tell me that Jwala what you did is wrong but he should take a stand. Why is he not commenting?," she added.

The Delhi high court on Friday declined to grant stay on ongoing inquiry proceedings by a committee set up by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) against ace shuttler Jwala for alleged indiscipline. The Hyderabadi shuttler, who is currently in Paris playing in the French Open, said the issue is affecting her performance.

"I try that such things don't affect me but I am also a human being and it harasses me. All these are there in the back of my head, things which are happening in India," she said. Asked if she has the support of her fellow shuttlers, Jwala said they are not openly voicing their support because they are scared of being victimised themselves. “I understand that my fellow Indian team members cannot voice their support openly because they are scared of themselves getting victimised. I am happy Ashwini (Ponnappa) stood by me," she said.

Following a disciplinary committee's recommendation for a life ban on Jwala on charges of indiscipline, a three-member committee was constituted earlier this month to evaluate the report and submit it within a month.

The committee had issued a show cause notice to Jwala on October 14 and she approached the high court challenging the notice and sought a stay on its proceedings against her. However, the court said no interim order is required as the court has already granted relief to her by asking BAI to allow her to participate in the national and international tournament. The court granted her two weeks time to respond to the committee's show cause notice. The court had on October 10 stayed the BAI's decision not allowing her to take part in any international tournament in or outside the country in view of the disciplinary committee's recommendation for life ban on her. — PTI

Chennai, October 25
The clash itself is still a good two weeks away but the buzz is already palpable for the World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and world number one Magnus Carlsen, who is half the Indian legend`s age.

Given the statistics, Anand holds the advantage. The two have played 29 games so far in the Classical format with Anand winning six and Carlsen clinching three while the remaining 20 ending in draws.The November 9 to 28 match can be best described by a famous line — An unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Carlsen is the unstoppable force, having broken all records, scaled one peak after the other like no one else and won almost everything except the World championship at a young age of just 22 years. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Harbhajan to lead Punjab
Mohali: Out-of-favour Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will lead Punjab in the Ranji Trophy match against Odisha.Punjab play their season's opening Group-A league match against Odisha at Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium here from October 27 to 30, a PCA spokesman said on Friday.Vikram Rathore, National Selector, will watch the match and it will be an opportunity for Harbhajan to prove his capabilities before the selectors to make a comeback in the national squad.Odisha team had already arrived in the city. Punjab squad had net session under their Coach Bhupinder Singh Sr in the morning while the Odisha outfit had their net session in the afternoon under the watchful eyes of their Coach Debashish Mohanty, the PCA spokesman said.

Bangladesh vs NZ Test series drawn
Mirpur: The two-Test series between Bangladesh and New Zealand ended in a draw after the fifth day of play in the second match in Mirpur was abandoned due to rain on Friday.Bangladesh ended the fourth day leading by 114 runs with seven second-innings wickets remaining and left-handers Mominul Haque (126 not out), who struck his second century of the series on Thursday, and Shakib Al Hasan (32 not out) at the crease. However, incessant rain deprived the teams of any action on the final day but Mominul did walk away with the honour of being named both man of the match and the series.The first match of the series in Chittagong was also drawn.The two teams next play a three-match one-day international series starting on Tuesday and a one-off Twenty20.

Jeev misses cut in Japan Bridgestone Open
Sodegaura (Japan): Jeev Milkha Singh struggled on his back nine with three bogeys and a double bogey to card a five-over 76 and miss the cut at the Bridgestone Open on Friday. Jeev, who has been hit by injuries and has made just one cut since his withdrawal at the BMW PGA Championships in May, carded 74 and 76 and missed the cut by a big margin.

Vani Kapoor wins her maiden title
Sodegaura (Japan): Delhi golfer Vani Kapoor on Friday tasted her first success on the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour 2013 as she walked away with the winners cheque after the final round of the 12th leg. The INR 2,50,000 event culminated at the Golden Greens Golf & Resort in Gurgaon.

BCCI meets to decide Pune Warriors future
Chennai: The fate of IPL franchise Pune Warriors, which has defaulted on its payments to the BCCI, would top the agenda when the Cricket Board's all-powerful working committee meets on Saturday.Owned by the Sahara Group, the Pune Warriors have been on collision course with the BCCI after the Board encashed its bank guarantee due to non-payment of franchise fee.The Sahara group announced its pull-out from the IPL after that even though that is yet to be formally conveyed to the BCCI, which wants the team to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 170.2 crore to remain part of the league next year. The BCCI, after reportedly reminding Sahara about the payment several time, is now planning to terminate it from the IPL. — Agencies