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Friday,
December 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Negative
bowling adds to India’s woes ‘Very
difficult’ to dismiss Sachin Lindsay
advises restraint Laxman
tops the year of the one-man show |
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MacGill
exposes South Africa Richardson,
McMillan steady New Zealand Tushar
scrapes past Divij, enters semis 6
countries to participate in school cricket meet BSF
overcome CISF; GND varsity lose Maneka
against rodeo in Olympics MP too
good for Himachal Jalandhar
to host badminton camp Punjab
to clash with Delhi
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Negative bowling adds to India’s woes
Bangalore, December 20 For the second time in succession, they allowed England to build up a formidable first innings score, the visitors reaching 336 before being all out, and then began their reply on a disastrous note losing the first two wickets with just 22 runs on the board. But what frustrated the Indians the most was the negative bowling indulged in by England the moment Sachin Tendulkar and Shiv Sunder Das seemed to be settling in a rhythm. What followed was 12 overs of totally negative cricket when paceman Andrew Flintoff bowled a series of bouncers and left-arm spinner Ashley Giles consistently sent deliveries wide outside the leg-stump to deny any runs to the Indians. The Indians objected to such tactics and words were exchanged between Tendulkar and England captain Nasser Hussain as tempers flared on both sides. The umpires did their best to bring matters back to normal but England were in no mood to oblige. Their ploy yielded result too when Das played on to his stumps to give Flintoff his third wicket. When play was called off due to poor light for the second day in a row with 11 overs still needing to be bowled, India were 99 for three with Tendulkar batting on 50 and Rahul Dravid on one. With stakes very high for both sides, it came down to a battle of nerves. When India took tea at 42 for two, England were right on top of the game. But Tendulkar and Das made steady progress in the final session of play and scored at a brisk pace. It was Tendulkar who drove the English team into panic with his attacking batting after the break and quickly raced to his 30s. England decided to try something different and left-armer Giles started bowling over the wicket to both the right handers. Das just padded away the deliveries while Tendulkar simply left them to pass the stumps from a safe distance. There was no run for the next seven overs with India stuck at 88 for two. Giles and Flintoff tested the batsmen’s nerves with continued dose of negative bowling, and though Tendulkar showed abundant patience and determination to deal with such a situation, he did approach Hussain and asked him to control matters. But Hussain rebuffed him and an exchange of words followed. It continued into the drinks break with the Indian camp taking up the issue with the umpires. Das, who clearly looked upset, lost his concentration and went for a cut off a delivery from Flintoff that wasn’t wide enough. The ball took the inside edge and crashed into his stumps. Das had batted for more than two hours for his 28 that included three hits to the fence. Two overs later Tendulkar stepped out to hit Giles through mid-off for a four that brought up his 30th fifty in Test cricket. The next ball turned viciously and beat both Tendulkar and wicketkeeper James Foster to run down to third man fence and Indian scoreboard moved swiftly after a long time. Play was called off two overs later due to poor light with 11 overs still remaining to be bowled before stumps. Earlier, England resumed at their overnight 255 for six and added 81 runs in their first innings before Anil Kumble finally brought it to an end with his 300th Test wicket. Kumble, who was stranded at 299 wickets for the entire day yesterday, failed to find the elusive victim in the seven overs he bowled in the morning session too. He finally reached the milestone in the fifth over after lunch when he trapped Hoggard leg before wicket for one. Foster and Giles put up a defiant 63-run partnership for the eighth wicket after Javagal Srinath, the most successful of Indian bowlers with figures of four for 73, had dismissed overnight batsman Craig White in the 11th over of the day. White, who was on 30 yesterday, added just nine runs to his score before snicking a Srinath delivery to Dasgupta. Foster, who was batting very confidently, then got another good partner in Giles and the two took the score past the 300-run mark. England took lunch at 325 for seven with Foster batting on 45 and Giles on 22. India got the breakthroughs immediately after lunch with Srinath having Foster, who missed his first half-century by two runs, caught by Dasgupta for his fourth wicket. PTI SCOREBOARD England (Ist innings): Butcher run out 27 Trescothick c Laxman b Srinath 8 Hussain c Dasgupta b Srinath 43 Vaughan (handled the ball) 64 Ramprakash c Dravid b
Sarandeep 58 Flintoff c Sachin b Sarandeep 0 White c Das b Srinath 39 Foster c Dasgupta b Srinath 48 Giles lbw b Sarandeep 28 Dawson not out 0 Hoggard lbw b Kumble 1 Extras
(b-8, lb-9, nb-3) 20 Total (all out, 123.3 overs) 336 Fall of wickets:
1-21, 2-68, 3-93, 4-206, 5-206, 6-219, 7-271, 8-334, 9-334. Bowling:
Srinath 29-9-73-4, Ganguly 13-3-39-0, Kumble 29.3-6-74-1, Harbhajan 27-7-59-0, Sarandeep 21-5-54-3, Tendulkar 3-0-19-0, Sehwag 1-0-1-0. India (Ist innings): Das b Flintoff 28 Dasgupta c Trescothick b
Flintoff 0 Laxman b Flintoff 12 Sachin batting 50 Dravid batting 1 Extras
(b-4, lb-3, nb-1) 8 Total (for 3 wkts, 43 overs) 99 Fall of wickets:
1-8, 2-22, 3-88. Bowling: Hoggard 6-3-16-0, Flintoff 15-4-30-3, Giles 16-8-25-0, White 6-2-21-0. |
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‘Very difficult’ to dismiss Sachin Bangalore, December 20 “I hope he will miss one or nick one tomorrow,” Flintoff said in the post-match press conference at the end of the second day’s play in the third and final Test against India. He ended the day with a career best three for 30. When asked about short-pitched deliveries, he said: “We stick to a game plan. We have different plans for different players”. He said that he was surprised when asked to open the attack in the match. “Bowling with a new ball in a Test match for England was bit of a shock,” added
Flintoff, who hopes to retain his place in the New Zealand tour. About his allround abilities, he said he started off as a batsman but focused on bowling later. “Now I want to improve my bowling further and also bat well.”
UNI |
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Lindsay
advises restraint Bangalore, December 20 Lindsay visited the dressing rooms of both teams and asked them to cool down tempers, England team’s media manager David Clarke told reporters. Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Shiv Sunder Das had a verbal duel with English skipper Nasser Hussain after the home team complained about the negative bowling being indulged in by paceman Andrew Flintoff and left-arm spinner Ashley Giles to control the flow of runs. Flintoff sent down a series of short-pitched deliveries while left-armer Giles consistently bowled way outside the leg-stump from over the wicket to the right handed Indian batsmen in a bid to take advantage of the rough.
PTI |
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Laxman tops the year of the one-man show
London, December 20 The previous 12 months had been all about the team — Australia — and their transformation of Test cricket from five-day attrition to three-and-a-half day sprint. But 2001 stood out for breath-taking individualism. Courtney Walsh set the tone in April. He scattered Allan Donald’s stumps in Kingston for a world-record 519th Test victim before the West Indian pace bowler’s aching body finally ground to a halt. Behind him, however, the spinners, with their short run-ups and fully functioning knee cartilages, were already gathering like vultures. Shane Warne crossed the 400-mark in August as he claimed 31 wickets during Australia’s 2001 Ashes Cakewalk. Muttiah Muralitharan was in his ample slipstream after 24 wickets in the three-Test whitewash of West Indies. The year’s undoubted climax, though, came from a man previously labelled an underachiever. All that changed in the second Test against Australia at Calcutta’s Eden Gardens in March. When Vangipurappu Laxman approached the wicket on the third day, India were 52 for one in their second innings, needing 222 to avoid an innings defeat. Laxman and his pock-marked bat departed 10-1/2 hours later, 281 runs in credit, as India became only the third team in history to win a Test after following on. Rahul Dravid played his part in a 376-run stand but it was Laxman who attacked to change the mood of both game and series. His feat may also have changed the mood of world cricket, ending a run of 16 successive Australian victories. If that was not enough, the deciding Test produced as grand and as unlikely an individual achievement. Second-choice spinner Harbhajan Singh was better known at the time for a bad attitude and a bad action. Hugely impressive in the second Test, when he had become the first Indian to take a Test hat-trick, he was phenomenal in the third in Chennai. Seven wickets in the first innings were followed by eight for 84 in 41.5 overs in the second. “The Turbanator’’, as he was immediately nicknamed, added the perfect finish by hitting the winning runs to clinch a knife-edge series. “It was the best and most demanding I have ever played in,” Australia captain Steve Waugh said. “It really was quite amazing. Brian Lara, of course, has a long association with the improbable. Most, though, suspected his best days had passed. In Sri Lanka in November Lara, despite a niggling hamstring, begged to differ. The West Indies lost 3-0 but Lara still managed 688 runs at 114.66 per visit. In the final Test he became the first man in history to score a hundred and double hundred in a Test and still lose. You don’t get many more obvious one-man shows than that. Andy Flower apart. Zimbabwe are a below-average team who, the mirror image of Australia, managed to lose 16 one-day internationals in a row. Wicketkeeper Flower, though, is among the world’s best batsmen, with a Test average of 56. Half way through 2001 he hit 962 runs in 11 innings, at an average of 106.88. He then topped that with centuries in each innings against South Africa, 142 and 199 not out, in Harare in September. And still Zimbabwe lost. The year 2001 will end perfectly, with Australia hosting South Africa and the top place in the world Test Championship at stake. Off the field, though,
things are less rosy. As if cricket’s match-fixing scandal were not
enough, India and South Africa defied the world governing body in
November by sacking International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee
Mike Denness — he angered the Indians by censuring six of their
players — and going ahead with a game stripped of official status.
Denness, some Indians even suggested, was a racist. Reuters |
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MacGill exposes South Africa
Sydney, December 20 South Africa, 375 for six at stumps, put together only two solid partnerships as leggie Stuart MacGill wrecked the middle order taking a five-wicket haul in an impressive display. MacGill took three wickets without conceding a run in seven balls either side of the tea break as South Africa lost four wickets for eight runs at one stage. MacGill, who bowled 31 overs in one spell from the 18th over, finished with five wickets while conceding 125 runs. For South Africa, Herschelle Gibbs was the backbone of the innings, making 145, of which 106 runs came in boundaries - 25 fours and a six. SCOREBOARD South Africa (Ist innings): Kirsten st Haddin b MacGill 31 Gibbs c Higgs b MacGill 145 Rudolph b Bradstreet 52 Dippenaar not out 78 Ontong c Haddin b MacGill 0 Klusener b MacGill 0 Boucher lbw b MacGill 44 Pollock not out 14 Extras: (b-3, lb-4, nb-4) 11 Total: (for six wickets) 375 Fall of wickets: 1-67, 2-231, 3-235, 4-235, 5-239, 6-344. Bowling: Nash 14-5-41-0, Heath 15-5-44-0, Bradstreet 14-2-79-1, MacGill 35-6-125-5, Bevan 4-0-21-0.
AP |
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Richardson, McMillan steady New Zealand Hamilton (New Zealand), December 20 Richardson, who made 124 not out, and Chris Cairns, unbeaten on 40, were still in at the close of play on what was the first day of play in the first Test after the first two days were washed out. Craig McMillan also got a century and helped Richardson steady the New Zealand innings with a fifth wicket partnership of 190 after they had lost four wickets before lunch. Play was interrupted for two hours by a thunder storm and finished eight overs before the end. McMillan went for 106 when he attempted to punch a ball from Mashrafi bin-Mortaza through the covers, but got a thick edge which flew to Monjurul Islam on the third-man boundary. McMillan had hit 18 fours and two sixes in his fifth Test hundred. Richardson’s century was his second, the first coming at the same venue against Pakistan earlier this year when he scored 106. SCOREBOARD New Zealand (Ist innings): Richardson not out 124 Vincent c & b Mashrafi 0 Sinclair c Masud b Monjurul 7 Fleming c Masud b Mashrafi 4 Astle c Al-Sahariar b Monjurul 5 McMillan c Monjurul b Mashrafi 106 Cairns not out 40 Extras (b2, lb10, w5, nb3) 20 Total (for 5 wickets, 68 overs) 306 FOW: 1-1, 2-19, 3-29, 4-51, 5-241 Bowling:
Mashrafi 23-3-82-3, Monjurul 18-5-66-2, Sharif 16-2-87-0, Mahmud 8-0-34-0, Ashraful 3-0-25-0.
Reuters |
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Tushar scrapes past
Divij, enters semis New Delhi, December 20 In a stunning upset, 10th-seeded Nihal Advani of Maharashtra packed off second-seeded Rupesh Roy of Bengal 6-1, 6-1 while unseeded J Vishnu Vardhan of Andhra Pradesh knocked out fourth-seeded Aditya Madkekar of Maharashtra 6-1, 6-3. Like Tushar, third-seeded M V Abhay Prakash of Karnataka also justified his billing when he sailed into the semi-final, beating 12th seeded Ajay Selvaraj of Tamil Nadu 6-3, 6-2. Chandigarh’s challenge came to an end in the boys under-14 event at the hands of Sri Lankan players in the quarter-finals. Giant-killer N.S. Nichendran ousted Paras Thakur 6-2, 6-2 while Franklyn Emmunal shocked second-seeded Sanam K. Singh 6-3, 7-6 (8). In other matches, fourth seeded Sumeet Prakash Gupta of Uttar Pradesh knocked out eighth-seeded R Parivel of Tamil Nadu 6-3, 7-5 while J Vishnu Vardhan made the semi-final of the boys-14 event, beating Krishank Shah of Maharashtra 6-0, 7-6 (7-3). In the girls Under-16 event, seventh-seeded Ankita Bhambri of Delhi shocked second seeded Sandri Gangothri of Andhra 6-1,6-1 while top-seeded Parul Goswami of Delhi took eighth-seeded Madura Ranganathan of Tamil Nadu 6-3,6-2 in her stride. |
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6 countries to participate in school cricket meet Chandigarh, December 20 Being organised by the Punjab Education Department under the aegis of the Schools Games Federation of India (SGFI), the tournament has attracted entries from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Singapore, Nepal and Canada. Efforts are on to get a team from Malaysia for the tournament as well. The confirmation from Malaysia is expected by next week, according to Mr Ravinder Sandhu, Secretary, Education (Schools), Government of Punjab, and the Chairman of the organising committee of the tournament. The participating teams would be divided into two pools and the tournament, to be played of 50 overs a side, would be played on league-cum-knockout basis. Mr Sandhu agreed to a suggestion to have the final of the tournament at the PCA Stadium at SAS Nagar in case the stadium was available. Also, in case the number of teams went up to eight then some of the league matches may be held at Jalandhar, where again international class facilities were available at the Burlton Park Stadium. The reason to host the tournament, according to Mr Sandhu, was the tremendous success of the Asian School Hockey Championships organised by the Punjab Education Department last year also at Ludhiana. The cricket tournament had the full support of Mr Tota Singh, Education Minister, Punjab. Mr Sandhu was hopeful that in the cricket tournament the participating nations would appreciate the hospitality provided by Punjab as had been the case of the hockey tournament. Mr Sandhu said Anandpur Sahib would play host to the 47th National School Games in various disciplines. Earlier, it was planned that the games would be held from December 10 but due to the ongoing preparation for the schools cricket tournament the National School Games would now be held in the last week of January, 2002. Also, he disclosed that efforts would be made to include golf and shooting in the calendar of the National School Games from next year. Mr P. S. Chhabra, Secretary-General of the Schools Games Federation of India who was also present at the press conference said the preliminary selection of the Indian team for the cricket tournament was made at Anandpur Sahib last week. But the final team would be made after taking into account the performance of the players at the National School Games Cricket Tournament (under-19) being held in Delhi. He disclosed that all participating teams had been requested to bring one umpire with them to supervise the matches. He disclosed that the decision to conduct the cricket tournament was approved at the executive committee meeting of the Asian School Sports Federation held at Kuala Lumpur last year. He hoped that by hosting the tournament would help to make the game of cricket more popular. |
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BSF overcome CISF;
GND varsity lose Jalandhar, December 20 Bharat Petroleum garnered three points against Guru Nanak Dev University, winning 3-0. In the 21st minute Deepak of Bharat Petroleum opened the account for his team as he made no mistake in converting a penalty corner. At half time the score was 1-0. After the breather, the winners consolidated their lead in the 45th minute through Amar Aiyamma. Bharat Petroleum made their victory safe as they increased the lead when Rajpal Singh converted the penalty corner in the 54th minute. In the other match Border Security Force had a fighting match against Central Industrial Security Force both displaying good stick work. BSF secured an early lead in the fifth minute when Johan Jojo converted a penalty corner. They increased the lead in the 11th minute when Sushil Kumar netted the ball. After changing ends CISF managed to narrow down the gap in the 58th minute through Mangra Munda taking the score to 2-1. In the boy’s section, Ramesh Academy thrashed Mehta Academy 5-0. The match was completely dominated by Ramesh Academy, who opened their account in the last minutes of half time through Sanjay Bir. In the very next minute Onkar Singh consolidated the lead to take it to 2-0 till half time. After the break, in the 43rd minute, Amit scored to make it 3-0 and then it was Jalwinder in the 47th minute and Harsh Preet was the last to score in the 63rd minute, completing the tally. In the women’s section, Amritsar XI and Starch Mill Phagwara could not score any and had to satisfy with one point each. |
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Maneka
against rodeo in Olympics New Delhi, December 20 In a letter dated December 12 to Jacques Rogge, the Switzerland-based President of the IOC, Ms Maneka Gandhi has warned that the introduction of the sport of rodeo, a confrontation between man and animals will lead to “resentment and a reaction in most countries.” She has drawn the committee’s attention to empirical evidence which suggests that injuries are inflicted on both the man and animal in the confrontation. |
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MP too good for Himachal Jaipur, December 20 In other matches Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh played a 1-1 draw in cluster III, while hosts Rajasthan got a walkover from Andaman and Nicobar in Cluster VI. For Rajasthan, hosting the championships after a gap of 37 years, it was a disappointing start to their campaign as Andaman and Nicobar failed to turn up. The MP boys were too good for HP in cluster VI and they took the lead in the 24th minute. A minute later MP were 2-0 ahead when Ibrahim capitalised on a defensive lapse to slip the ball in.
PTI |
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Jalandhar
to host badminton camp Sangrur, December 20 Giving this information Mr Rajinder Kalsi, Honorary Secretary, Punjab Badminton Association, said the camp would start on January 20 and continue till the departure of the team. India is participating in the European zone which will be held in the Netherlands in February, 2002. This is the first time that Jalandhar is hosting the national camp. Mr Kalsi said the players had been asked to report at Patiala on January 18 for a medical check up. From there the players, would join the camp. The final selection of the team would be made at Lucknow on January II during the senior National Championships. Top shuttlers of the country, including P. Gopi Chand. Abhin Sham Gupta, Sachin Ratti, Vijaydeep Singh, Aparna Popat, P.V. Luxmi and G. Gwala, are likely to attend the camp in the renovated Hans Raj Stadium, Jalandhar. |
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Punjab
to clash with Delhi Jalandhar, December 20 The hosts are riding high on a wave of new found confidence after registering convincing wins against Services and J&K but had to face the ignominy of having to share points with lowly placed Himachal Pradesh in a rain marred match. Punjab and Haryana, who incidentally performed dismally in the four-day games preceeding the one-day league, have accumulated 12 points each from the three matches the teams have played till yet. |
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Bangalore,
December 20
