Kapil Dev addressing a press conference after being appointed coach for Indian team in the capital on Wednesday — photo by Vijender Tyagi

Kapil suggests fewer matches NEW DELHI, Sept 22 — New Indian cricket coach Kapil Dev today advocated that the national team play lesser number of matches and said he would recommend to the board that the focus should be on “quality rather than quantity” of matches. The former India skipper declared that his priority was to lift the fitness level of the players.

Borde selection panel chief
JAIPUR, Sept 22 — Former Indian test all-rounder Chandu Borde was today re-appointed as selection committee chairman in a surprise move at the head of the panel’s reconstitution on the second and final day of the cricket board’s (BCCI) AGM here today.

India ‘A’ complete dismal outing
LOS ANGELES, Sept 22 — India “A” completed their dismal outing with yet another pathetic batting display that left the bowlers fighting in vain against Australia “A”, who coasted to a five-wicket win in the final tie to win the America Challenge one-day cricket series 4-1 here yesterday.

Indian team leaves for Nairobi
MUMBAI, Sept 22 — The Indian squad, led by Ajay Jadeja, left here this morning by a Kenyan Airways flight for Nairobi to take part in the Four-Nation Cricket Tournament to be held there from September 25 to October 3.

Karnataka drub Punjab 4-0
MUMBAI, Sept 22 —Karnataka and Kerala girls started their campaign with creditable wins on the opening day of the 31st Junior National Women’s Hockey Championship here today.

Ex-champs Sweden face relegation
STOCKHOLM, Sept 22 — Sevenfold Davis Cup champion Sweden, bounced out of this year’s play in the first round by Slovakia, will be dumped from the World Group if its injury-ridden team fails to beat Austria the coming weekend.

Bubka aiming for gold at Sydney
DONEZK, (Ukraine), Sept 22 — Sergie Bubka aims to participate at next year’s Sydney Olympics and win the gold medal in the dusk of his spectacular career.

• Graf, Agassi tie the knot?
• Sidhu acquitted

India get past Canada 3-2

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (UNI) — A rejuvenated India redeemed itself defeating Canada 3-2 in the opening match of the second leg of the Four-Nation Hockey Tournament here today.

India led 1-0 at half time. Anwar Khan, Deepak Thakur and Gagan Ajit Singh scored a goal each for the winners. Peter Milkovich scored two goals for the losers.

India had lost to Canada 1-2 and finished last in the first leg of the tournament at Canberra last week.

India absorbed all the pressure that Canada applied in the first 10 minutes. The winners struggled to get possession in this period as their rivals dominated.

However Canada, did not show the sharpness they displayed in Canberra last week. Quickness to the ball and interception of lazy Canadian passes characterised the Indian game in the rest of the 25 minutes of the first half.

Mohd Riaz and Gagan Ajit Singh combined on one occasion with four passes between them on the right to work the ball from the half way to the circle. The precision and crispness of the passes left the Canadian defence bewildered

On another occasion, Gagan Ajit Singh worked the ball through the Canadians Robin D’ Abroe and Scott Mosher with neither able to get a stick to the ball, allowing Singh to run to the circles and pass.

Anwar Khan opened the scoring for India when a shot on goal rebounded from the pads of Canadian goalkeeper, Mike Mahmood, and was not cleared.

Canada’s defence could not prevent a dashing run of Thirumalavan along the backline, nor Deepak Thakur through the left side to the circle.

Determined to overcome their poor performance in Canada which saw them lose all three matches, the Indians played a tighter game against the Canadians.

The Asian Games champions who have struggled to maintain their status at the world level in their build-up to the Sydney games had also lost to Canada in last year’s Utrecht World Cup.

India went ahead early with the only goal of the first half through Anwar Khan.

Canada’s 32-year-old captain Peter Milkovich, a veteran of over 240 Tests, equalised with a smart deflection midway through the second half but India went ahead again when Deepak Thakur produced a brilliant diving, backhanded smash from the top of the circle.

Gagan Ajit Singh effectively made the game safe with a breakaway field goal with three minutes remaining but Milkovich added a penalty corner goal to reduce the margin in the final minute.

Milkovich was critical of his team’s effort.

“That’s a very disappointing display. To build a good team for the Olympics we have to build consistency and today’s was not a consistent effort”.

“We came out flat and then we found our legs and really owned the game but you have to score to win matches and they beat us on the counter-attack,” he admitted.

Lanka recover

GALLE, Sept 22 (AFP) — Aravinda de Silva and Russel Arnold hit half-centuries to help Sri Lanka reach 254 for six wickets at the end of first day’s play today in the second Test against Australia being played here.

De Silva continuing his fine form against the tourists scored 64, and Arnold 50, as they helped Sri Lanka recover from a shock start of losing their captain Sanath Jayasuriya to the first ball of the match after he had won the toss and decided to bat first.

Jayasuriya went edging Glenn McGrath’s first delivery to Mark Waugh at second slip, but Arnold and Marvan Atapattu first retrieved the situation with a second wicket stand of 80. Atapattu became one of leg-spinner Shane Warne’s three victims of the day when he edged a catch to wicket-keeper Ian Healy at 29.

Arnold batted 154 minutes and hit five fours for his third half-century in Test cricket before he also edged a catch to slip. De Silva and Mahela Jayewardene then set about stabilising the innings by putting up a fourth wicket stand of 93 before Australia could break through again.

Jayewardene fell for 46 when he lofted a catch to mid on, and Warne took his third wicket when Arjuna Ranatunga also fell to a catch in the same position. The former captain made 10 and looked to be out of touch.

SCOREBOARD
Sri Lanka (first innings)
Jayasuriya c M. Waugh b McGrath 0
Atapattu c Healy b Warne 29
Arnold c Warne b Miller 50
De Silva c S. Waugh b Fleming 64
Jayawardene c Blewett b Warne 46
Ranatunga c Miller b Warne 10
Kaluwitharana not out 24
Chaminda not out 14
Extras: (B-4, LB-8, NB-5) 17
Total: (for six wickets) 254
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-80, 3-100, 4-193, 5-206, 6-226.
Bowling: McGrath 21-6-59-1 (4nb), Fleming 17-3-54-1 (1nb), Miller 23-1-72-1, Warne 25-11-29-3, Ponting 4-1-7-0, M. Waugh 2-1-9-0, Blewett 3-0-12-0.

Borde selection panel chief

JAIPUR, Sept 22 (PTI) — Former Indian test all-rounder Chandu Borde was today re-appointed as selection committee chairman in a surprise move at the head of the panel’s reconstitution on the second and final day of the cricket board’s (BCCI) AGM here today.

The 65-year-old replaced former India skipper Ajit Wadekar at the coveted job as he took over from him as the West Zone representative in a move reflecting last minute manoeuvres after outgoing national coach and former India bat Anshuman Gaekwad was widely expected to be nominated.

Borde, who was earlier selector from 1982 to 1986 and chairman of the panel from 1984-86, was reportedly backed by the Maharashtra association as selector.

Making the announcement, board secretary Jaywant Lele told reporters that former India paceman T A Sekar of Tamil Nadu will succeed ex-test off-spinner Shivlal Yadav of Hyderabad as the selector from South Zone, edging out former Test wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani of Karnataka.

Former India all-rounder Roger Binny has been appointed India “A” coach to succeeded Krishnamachari srikkanth, who had apparently declined to accept the selector’s Post once Kapil Dev pipped him to the senior coach’s job.

When asked why Borde was brought in and both Wadekar and Gaekwad shown the door, Lele would only say “no special reason. The members wanted so”.

The 58-year-old Wadekar, who took over as chairman from the late Ramakant Desai last year, had come in for much criticism of late, especially the handling of the “Mithun Manhas” episode.

The following is the senior selection committee with the other three retained:

Chandu Borde (West-chairman), Madan Lal (North), Ashok Malhotra (East), Anil Deshpande (Central) and T A Sekar (South).

The board secretary also said that ex-India captain Kapil Dev had announced his acceptance of the job to him.

Former Haryana left-arm spinner Rajinder Goel was made the chairman of the junior selection committee with Ashish Sinha (Bihar-East), Mahendra Raj Dev (Saurashtra-West), Subhash Kangralkar (Goa-South) and Sashikant Khandekar (UP-Central) as members.

Kapil suggests fewer matches

NEW DELHI, Sept 22 (PTI) — New Indian cricket coach Kapil Dev today advocated that the national team play lesser number of matches and said he would recommend to the board that the focus should be on “quality rather than quantity” of matches.

The former India skipper declared that his priority was to lift the fitness level of the players and encourage the BCCI, selectors and the team management to think as one, to ensure the “team gives more than 100 per cent” and returns to its winning ways.

The legendary all-rounder told a crowded press meet that he was happy to accept the job, but felt the tenure of the national coach “should be a long-term affair” than the two years for which the BCCI has appointed him.

“It should be long term. You’ve to do a lot of hard work. In fact, I feel sorry for the managers who were given only a one-year term,” the 40-year-old world record holder for most number of Test wickets, who succeeds Anshuman Gaekwad, said.

Kapil Dev refused to outline his immediate plans saying “if it was that easy, everyone would have done well”. When asked how long will it take him to bring things around, he quipped: “I can tell after two years”.

Kapil said he would like to have a say in the selection of the national side.

“I have no time yet to sit down and draw up the priorities. But as the coach, I would like to have a say in the selection of the national team”, Kapil told newsmen.

Referring to the ‘overkill effect’ of cricket due to a surfeit of matches, the former all-rounder said the national side should play only quality matches and the India ‘A’ team should be given more and more exposure.

Ask how he planned to tackle the job without any previous experience, Kapil Dev said in his inimitable style: “I played my first Test when I was 18 years old with no experience. It will come only with the job”. But he added that it was not essential one should be a great player to be a good coach.

He parried several questions like whether he was sounded out in advance by the board — former skipper and ‘A’ team coach Krishnamachari Srikkanth was the frontrunner till the end — and whether he had set any specific terms to take over as coach.

“My job is to win matches for the country and I will act as a big brother for the players. It is not important whether I sit in the selection committee meeting or not and whether all my suggestions are taken or not. These things will become clear once I talk to the board,” he said.

To a question what he had to say about skipper Sachin Tendulkar’s back problem, the new coach said: “It is the board’s duty to look after him. My job is to look after the entire team. Let me be very clear,” he said.

Kapil Dev, an inspiration player and skipper during his glorious playing career that stretched from the 1978-79 season to 1994 and whose Test bowling record of 434 wickets has stood for the last five years, said he completely withdrew once he retired from the game in 1994.

“Now I will once again pack my bags to return to it, to give my 200 per cent and make sure the result will be good,” he said, adding that he had started distributing business responsibilities to others so that it does not come into his role as national coach.

India ‘A’ complete dismal outing

LOS ANGELES, Sept 22 (PTI) — India “A” completed their dismal outing with yet another pathetic batting display that left the bowlers fighting in vain against Australia “A”, who coasted to a five-wicket win in the final tie to win the America Challenge one-day cricket series 4-1 here yesterday.

The Indian batsmen, on being put in by Damien Martyn, who led the side after skipper Adam Gilchrist chose to rest, once again faltered on a dubious pitch of uneven bounce to be bundled out for 121 runs in 44.3 overs.

Only Devender Bundela (43 — 86 b) and D. Ganesh (28 not out) showed some late resistance in a 59-run ninth-wicket stand after India “A” were reduced to 52-8 as Brendan Creevey (3/13), Gerard Denton (3/33), Lee Hansen (2/13) and Shane Lee (2/22) struck at regular intervals.

The Indian attack led by Ganesh (2/41) and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (2/37) raised some hopes of defending a revised target of 115 in 44 overs following a brief rain interruption by reducing the Aussies to 24 for four, but they could not sustain the tempo for long.

India “A”:

Das c Martyn b Denton 4, Yadav c Creevey b Denton 6, Sriram c Symonds b Hansen 1, Laxman c Campbell b Hansen 0, Shewag lbw b Denton 0, Kaif c Richards b S. Lee 5, Bhardwaj c Campbell b Creevey 4, Bundela c Campbell b S. Lee 43, Dighe c Young b Creevey 2, Ganesh not out 28, Harbhajan c Campbell b Creeey 2.

Extras (lb-1, w-24, nb-1) 26. Total (all out in 44.3 overs) 121. Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-14, 3-24, 4-24, 5-26, 6-34, 7-42, 8-52, 9-111. Bowling: Denton 10-2-33-3, L. Hansen 7-1-13-2, Creevey 8.3-3-13-3, S. Lee 10-1-22-2, Young 4-0-22-0, Symonds 5-0-17-0.

Australia “A”: (target reset to 115 in 44 overs):

Richards c Dighe b Ganesh 0, Di Venuto c Dighe b Harbhajan 6, Campbell c Das b Ganesh 3, Creevey c Bhardwaj b Harbajan 11, Hodge lbw b Bhardwaj 15, Symonds not out 62, Martyn not out 14. Extras (w-4) 4. Total (for 5 wkts in 23.1 overs) 115. Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-9, 3-9, 4-24, 5-81. Bowling: Ganesh 8.1-1-41-2, Harbhajan Singh 9-1-37-2, Sriram 2-0-13-0, Bhardwaj 4-1-24-1.

Kathmandu braces itself for sport extravaganza

KATHMANDU, Sept 22 (UNI) — The South Asian Federation (SAF) Games are back to this tiny Himalayan kingdom.

Kathmandu, which took the courage of conducting it when the event was put on hold for the first time in 1984 amid much fanfare and eclat (after Dhaka failed to host it in 1983), would again be playing host to the last edition of the millennium from September 25 to October two.

After the last edition at Chennai (India) in 1995, the games were allotted to Nepal in 1997, but due to some reasons it could not host it. This time it showed enough resilience to pick up the gauntlet and is bracing itself for this mega event — the eighth of the series.

The Games, which exemplifies the drive and the determination of the youth in South Asia, have grown both in stature and competition wise since its inception in 1984.

From a mere five events in the inaugural edition to 14 in the seventh and to 12 disciplines now is a proven testimony of the growth of the games.

Besides host Nepal, South Asian strong force India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives complete the list of the seven SAARC nations which would be sending its full force for the 12 events, sans hockey, tennis and badminton.

An interesting study of the previous editions showed that it was India which had held sway all through the years topping the medals table.

Notwithstanding the chilly weather and high altitude, it was a nonchalant show by the Indians who won 88 medals, including a whopping 44 out of the 62 at stake, 28 silvers and 16 bronze medals in the inaugural edition.

None of the other six nations came close to matching the wits of the Indian sportspersons as Sri Lanka finished a distant second with a haul of 30 medals including a mere seven gold. The major share of the gold for India came in the swimming events as they made a big splash in the pool winning about 50 per cent of their medals (45 to be precise — 22 gold, 15 silver and eight bronze).

In 1985, when the games moved to Dhaka, once again it was India which dominated the show, but it was marred with controversies and protests both before and in the games. Last-minute chopping and changing in the swimming, wrestling and athletic contingent at first was rejected by the competitive committees despite several pleas by the organising committee. A part of the athletics team was left back in Delhi and they managed to make it to Dhaka after staging a protest demonstration in front of the residence of the then Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Margaret Alva.

More disgusting was the behaviour of the Indian officials on the final day of the wrestling competitions following a controversy over the defeat of India’s Jai Prakash at the hands of Pakistan’s Mohammed Akram on the first day of the competition. India demanded a rebout and TV review of the bout after Akram was declared winner. When the organising committee ordered a rebout, the international body came into the picture and overruled the decision.

India finished with 89 medals, including 46 of the 74 gold at stake, 29 silver and 14 bronze medal. Kabbadi and wrestling were included for the first time in the games, taking the tally to seven events.

The focus of this biennial event then shifted to Calcutta, in India, whose athletes, on home soil, once again proved far superior to the rest of the field. With basketball, volleyball and table tennis making debut in the games, the total disciplines swelled to 10 and the Indians made clean sweep of the games, not before facing a stiff resistance from Pakistan in TT and basketball. It was a good outing for Indian swimmers who came up with record breaking performance and also won the major share of golds in athletics, boxing and wrestling besides pocketing the football and volleyball golds with consummate ease.

The final tally stood at 91 gold, 45 silver and 19 bronze for India as against second placed Pakistan’s 16 gold, 35 silver and 14 bronze.

The contest grew up when the 1989 edition moved to Pakistan for the first time and the Indian monopoly was broken by the athletes from the host nation. The resurgence of Pakistan as a force to reckon with saw India’s performance taking a downward trend in athletics, swimming, table tennis and boxing. Though India finished reasonably ahead in the overall medals tally, it was mainly the performance of their matmen and the weightlifters that swelled the medal tally.

Though finishing behind India, it was one of the best performance thus far by Pakistan in the SAF games winning 34 gold, 25 silver and 19 bronze medals as against India’s 49, 35 and 20.

After Pakistan, it was the turn of the sportspersons from the island nation, which hosted it in 1991. The event which was acknowledged as the biggest and most challenging in the sports history of Sri Lanka, the performance attained new heights. It was a tremendous show of grit and determination by Sri Lanka which won 44 gold as against six at Islamabad. Once again the lifters, had to come to the rescue of the Indian squad, to swell the buffer, but for which India would have been relegated to the second spot behind Sri Lanka. India won 64 gold, 59 silver and 41 bronze whereas the hosts captured 44 gold, 33 silver and 41 bronze.

Having learnt the lessons in the Islamabad and Colombo editions, the Indians lived up to their reputation with a rich haul in the 1993 edition at Dhaka with sweeping victories in a majority of the events, though Nepal regained the football gold (which it won in 1984) and Pakistan unseated India in kabaddi final, India finished with 146 medals (61 gold, 47 silver and 38 bronze) way ahead of second placed Pakistan which had a total of 66 medals — 23-g, 22-s, 21-b.

It was a show of strength by Indian sportspersons in the 1995 edition at Chennai as India for the first time touched the 100-mark in gold eventually finishing with a new record of 194 medals. The Indians held sway in all the events, barring Sri Lanka’s domination in the sprint events, both men and women, that brought Susanthika Jayasinghe becoming a new queen of Sri Lanka with a golden double.

The year ended in a blaze of glory as the Pargat Singh-led India humbled arch rivals and the irrepressible Shahbaz Ahmed-led Pakistan 5-2 in front of a packed mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium for the hockey gold.

Indian team leaves for Nairobi

MUMBAI, Sept 22 (PTI) — The Indian squad, led by Ajay Jadeja, left here this morning by a Kenyan Airways flight for Nairobi to take part in the Four-Nation Cricket Tournament to be held there from September 25 to October 3.

Two members of the 14-strong squad, Mohammed Kaif and Vijay Bhardwaj, are to join the team in Nairobi after flying out from Los Angeles where they were part of the India “A” squad which lost 1-4 yesterday to Australia “A” in the America Challenge Series.

The manager of the squad is expected to reach Nairobi later.

India’s first match, against South Africa, is scheduled on September 26.

The squad: Ajay Jadeja (capt.) Saurav Ganguly (vice-capt), Sadagopan Ramesh, Rahul Dravid, Robin Singh, Vijay Bharadwaj, Mohd Kaif, M.S.K. Prasad (wk), Nikhil Chopra, Sunil Joshi, Debasish Mohanty, B.K. Venkatesh Prasad, Jacob Martin, and Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Coach Anshuman Gaekwad.

Karnataka drub Punjab 4-0

MUMBAI, Sept 22 (PTI) —Karnataka and Kerala girls started their campaign with creditable wins on the opening day of the 31st Junior National Women’s Hockey Championship here today.

In a pool-C match, Karnataka sidelined Punjab 4-0, the only other team in the pool, after Rajasthan — the third team dropped out of the championship yesterday. Winners led 2-0 at the breather while Kerala subdued Vidarbha with two second half goals in a pool-E match.

Left-out Sindhu Kotta scored two solo goals in the second and the 19th minutes while inside-left V. Kumari scored in the 35th and 41st minutes of the match.

For Kerala centre-forward Susen scored off inside-left H. Anita’s pass in the 37th minute while Anita herself got her name on the scorecard with a solo effort in the 59th minute of the match.

In the other one-sided matches, Uttar Pradesh drubbed Tamil Nadu 6-0 after leading 2-0 at half-time while in a pool-D match Mahakoshal crushed Pondicherry 9-0 after leading comfortably (7-0) at half-time.

Centre-forward Vandana Yadav, opened the account for her team with a penalty corner conversion in the 28th minute. Soon after, inside -right Priya Singh made it 2-0 with a solo effort.

In the second half, Moni Sonkar, Vandana Yadav, Priya and Brudula got the goals for the winners.

Mahakoshal totally outplayed Pondicherry with centre-forward Swati Singh and inside-left Satinder Kaur getting three goals each.

Swati scored in the sixth, ninth and 47th minutes of the match while Satinder got her goals in the 30th, 56th and 60th minutes.

Defender Shilpi Yadav, scored in the 28th and 44th minutes while left-out Rajini scored her goal in the 18th minute.

Ex-champs Sweden face relegation

STOCKHOLM, Sept 22 (AP) — Sevenfold Davis Cup champion Sweden, bounced out of this year’s play in the first round by Slovakia, will be dumped from the World Group if its injury-ridden team fails to beat Austria the coming weekend.

Although Sweden has had to qualify twice before to stay in the World Group, the situation has never looked more critical for the defending Davis Cup champions, who also won the title in 1997 and 1994.

All five of Sweden’s top singles players are either injured or sick. Singles players Thomas Bohansson and Magnus Larsson and doubles player Jonas Bjorkman have already been ruled out by Sweden’s coach Calle Hageskog. Johansson suffers from heart trouble, Larsson from a severe knee injury and Bjorkman from a sore back.

Magnus Gustafsson, 77th on the ATP ranking, suffers from strained shoulder but still looks the best bet for taking one of the singles Friday.

Magnus Norman, who made an impressive appearance in the US Open before he suffered a back injury, may however be tapped for the other singles if he continues to improve. But the 23rd-ranked Norman has not played a match since he was forced to retire at Flushing Meadow two weeks ago.

To top it all Sweden‘s first-ranked player, Thomas Enqvist, had to retire with a sore back last Monday when his semifinal encounter against Austria’s number one player Stefan Loubek was to be resumed in the rain-delayed Samsung Open in Bournemouth.

Loubek then narrowly lost the final 6-1, 6-7, 6-7 to unseeded Romanian Adrian Voinea. Koubek is ranked 48th on the latest ATP ranking.

Austria’s team, without retired longtime star Thomas Muster, also has a few injury problems. Second string Markus Hipfel, ranked 73rd, is reportedly nursing a bad groin and Wolfgang Schranz is suffering from a shoulder injury.

Sweden was beaten at home by Slovakia in the first round of this year’s Davis Cup tourney. It was the first time since 1991 that Sweden had been knocked out in the first round.

Sweden has twice qualified to remain in the World Group. In 1990 they beat Finland 5-0 and in 1991 the Swedes trounced Finland again by the same score.

Bubka aiming for gold at Sydney

DONEZK, (Ukraine), Sept 22 (DPA) — Sergie Bubka aims to participate at next year’s Sydney Olympics and win the gold medal in the dusk of his spectacular career.

“I will not only compete, but win the gold as well”, the Ukrainian pole vault legend told reporters yesterday.

The statement came after the 35-year-old Bubka was sidelined by achilles tendon problems for the whole 1999 season and despite the fact that he has never done well at the Olympics.

Bubka won the gold medal in 1988 for the Soviet Union, but fouled out on his opening height in 1992 and had to withdraw from the 1996 competition with is achilles tendon problems.

Outside the Olympics, by contrast, Bubka boasts a total of 35 world indoor and outdoor records as well as an unprecedented six straight first world championships Bubka was unable to compete in.

Graf, Agassi tie the knot?

BERLIN, Sept 22 (AFP) — Rumours that tennis champions Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi are now a couple got a boost by pictures of the two kissing in public, including one on the popular daily Bild’s front page.

“They smile, shine, and kiss each other — and not just on the cheek,” the mass-circulation German daily gushed yesterday.

Sidhu acquitted

CHANDIGARH, Sept 22 (TNS) — Cricket star Navjot Singh Sidhu was acquitted of the murder charge by Sessions Judge G.S. Garewal at Patiala today, according to information reaching here today. The case pertaining to the murder of a landlord, Mr Gurnam Singh Sidhu, had been lingering for the past 11 years. Sidhu’s co-accused in the case has also been acquitted

Huge victory for Patiala

PATIALA, Sept 22 (FOC) — Patiala swamped Fatehgarh Sahib by a massive margin of 346 runs in the Punjab Inter District (U-19) Cricket Tournament match for the Dhruv Pandove Trophy which concluded here today.

Aided by a superb 151 by Binwant Singh and useful contributions from the hosts middle order, Patiala amassed 433 for 6 before declaring their innings. Gautam Mandora’s five-wicket haul ensured that Fatehgarh Sahib could not even put up a semblance of a fight.

Scores: Patiala Ist innings: 433 for 6 (Binwant 151, Harikrishan Mandora 73, G. Garry 71, H. Kali 69, Rajiv Kumar 33, Gurtar Singh 3 for 35)

Fatehgarh Sahib: Ist innings: 87 all out (Amit Sehgal 25, Bunty 16, Gautam Mandora 5 for 14, H. Kali 3 for 28, G. Garry 2 for 12).

Ludhiana cricket trials

LUDHIANA, Sept 22 (FOSR) — Trials to select the Ludhiana cricket team (U-16) for the Punjab state inter-district cricket championship for M.L. Markan Trophy will be held here at S.D. Government College grounds on September 25, according to Mr Vinod Chitkara, honorary general secretary, Ludhiana District Cricket Association.

Players born on or after September 1, 1983, are eligible for the trials.

BSF, CR in final

FARIDKOT, Sept 22 (PTI) — BSF won the first semifinal of eighth Baba Farid Gold Cup Hockey Tournament defeating Punjab State Electricity Board 3-2 at Government Barjindra College Stadium here this evening.

Border Security Force opened their account when inside-left Peter Turky netted the goal by dodging both the full backs of PSEB in the 11th minute of the first half.

In the second semifinal, Central Railway, Mumbai, defeated EME Jalandhar 7-6.

As 70 minutes play and the subsequent tie-breaker could not decide the issue, the sudden death rule was applied and Central Railway emerged triumphant. The final will be played tomorrow.

Padamjit, Sonu sparkle

NEW DELHI, Sept 22 (FOSR) — A fine unbeaten knock of 55 runs by Padamjit Sehrawat and good bowling by Sonu Sharma (4 for 21) and Surinder (3 for 19) enabled Gurgaon district Cricket team to beat Sonepat district cricket team by 9 wickets in the quarter final match of Pataudi Trophy Cricket Tournament at Nehru Stadium, Gurgaon.

Scroes: Sonepat district: 90 all out Surinder 3 for 19. Sonu Sharma 4 for 21 and Manoj Goel 3 for 22 Gurgaon district: 92 for one Padamjit Sehrawat 55 not out. Devashish Kaushik 24 not out and Ashok 1 for 10.