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Thursday,
December 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India
  
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McGrath’s
early strikes jolt South Africa Vincent
puts Kiwis in charge Sports
medicine programme in January |
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Leander
gets wild card
Services upset
Punjab Northern
Railway maul PSEB NATIONAL FOOTBALL
LEAGUE Mumbai win WZ
Ranji title Ranjit Singh takes
1st day’s honours Jyoti Randhawa tees off at the Royal Challenge Grand Prix at Noida Golf Club on Wednesday. Arjun Atwal (left) and Vivek Bhandari are also seen in the picture.
— PTI photo Salgaocar meet
Punjab Police Anurag team
manager India claim
bronze in Asian TT PATIALA
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McGrath’s early strikes jolt South Africa
Melbourne, December 26 Only 40 overs of a scheduled 90 were possible as heavy showers sent players from the field three times and delayed the start by 80 minutes. At close, the South Africans, one down in the three-match series and needing to win to keep the series alive to the new year third Test in Sydney, were 89 for three with Jacques Kallis unbeaten on 22 and Neil McKenzie on 14. Shaun Pollock’s team, attempting to regroup after their humiliating 246-run drubbing in the first Adelaide Test, lost the toss, were sent in to bat and struggled to build the foundations for a sorely needed big first innings. South Africa looked to veteran fast bowler Allan Donald to instill some confidence into the team, dropping Makhaya Ntini to make way in the only change to the team. That was despite Donald appearing troubled by a foot injury in a tour match in Sydney last weekend. Australia’s premier fast bowler Glenn McGrath gave the home side the impetus of a key wicket when he snapped up Herschelle Gibbs in between rain interruptions. Gibbs, who scored 78 in the first Test, edged to Ricky Ponting at third slip to be out for 14. Three balls later torrential rain swept the ground, forcing the players from the field for the second time. An early tea was taken but 15 minutes into extended evening session, Gary Kirsten became McGrath’s second victim, when he chopped on to his stumps for 10. Both openers were gone for 36 with Australia’s three pace bowlers applying the pressure with tight line and length. Boeta Dippenaar, who kept his Test spot with a slashing century against New South Wales in Sydney last weekend, was out for the second time in the series to a blinding catch. Ponting took a diving screamer to dismiss him for three in the first innings of the Adelaide Test and he was out again to another super catch, this time by Mathew Hayden in the gully. Hayden flung out his right hand to pluck a diving catch to give Brett Lee Dippenaar’s wicket for 26. Dippenaar had looked in good touch, hitting four fours in his 71-minute stay. Kallis had two early lives. Ponting got a hand to a hard chance in the slips when Kallis was on six and just after last drinks Lee put him down on 11 when he hooked Andy Bichel to fine leg. Lee did well to get to the ball, but distracted by his close proximity to the boundary rope he spilt a running chest-high chance. Kallis made good his two let-offs to crack leg-spinner Shane Warne for six over long-off, just a ball before the onset of more rain which forced umpires to abandon play for the day at 6:27pm (12:57 pm IST). The Boxing Day Test is regarded as the showpiece of the Australian cricket calendar but it has a history of abysmal weather and a crowd of almost 62,000 once again endured the worse of it today. Play will start half-an-hour early tomorrow and finish 30 minutes later to make up for some of the lost time. Scoreboard South Africa (1st innings): Gibbs c Ponting b McGrath 14 Kirsten b McGrath 10 Dippenaar c Hayden b Lee 26 Kallis batting 22 McKenzie batting 14 Extras (lb-2, nb-1) 3 Total (for 3 wkts, 40 overs) 89 Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-36, 3-59. Bowling: McGrath 13-4-28-2, Lee 16-6-38-1, Bichel 10-4-15-0, Warne 1-0-6-0.
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Vincent puts Kiwis in charge
Wellington, December 26 Vincent, an exuberant personality who scored a century and a half century on Test debut against Australia earlier this month, claimed three catches and forced a run out to send Bangladesh crashing out for 132 in its first innings. Vincent’s feats included an acrobatic catch at gully to dismiss Bangladesh’s leading scorer, Aminul Islam, for 42, and a diving stop that led to the run out — by the length of the pitch — of Sanuar Hossain. New Zealand were 72 without loss at stumps, only 60 runs behind Bangladesh with all 10 first innings wickets intact. Mark Richardson and Matthew Horne, who formed New Zealand’s third opening partnership in five Tests this season, were 38 and 30 respectively at stumps. Vincent has energised the New Zealand team since his surprise call-up for the third Test against Australia in Perth earlier this month. He scored 104 and 54 on debut but was immediately chastened when he was out first ball in New Zealand’s only innings in the first Test against Bangladesh in Hamilton. New Zealand won that match by an innings and 52 runs and now seems poised to win the two-Test series. Vincent, who was born in New Zealand but spent some of his early years in South Australia, remains a brashly confident player. He boldly pronounced before this match that New Zealand would quickly wrap up victory and be home in time for some cold Christmas turkey. Bangladesh (1st innings): Omar c Vincent b Cairns 0 Al-Shahriar c Bond b Vettori 18 Bashar c Sinclair b Cairns 6 Islam c Vincent b Bond 42 Ashraful c Flemings b Cairns 11 Hossain run out 10 Mahmud c Parore b Drum 10 Masud not out 10 Hossain c Vincent b Drum 4 Mortaza run out 8 Extras (lb-4, w-1, nb-8) 13 Total (all out, 64 overs) 132 FOW: 1-0, 2-6, 3-49, 4-81, 5-92, 6-108, 7-114, 8-118, 9-119. Bowling: Cairns 15-7-24-3, Bond 13-4-21-1, Drum 11-1-26-2, Vettori 25-6-57-2. New Zealand (1st innings): Horne batting 30 Richardson batting 38 Extras (lb-3, nb-1) 4 Total (no loss, 24 overs) 72. Bowling: Mortaza 7-1-17-0, Islam 10-3-21-0, Hossain 4-0-24-0, Aminul Islam 3-0-7-0.
AFP |
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Sports medicine
programme
in January New Delhi, December 26 Dr PSM Chandran, Director (Sports Medicine) of the SAI, said here today that the sports medicine programme would include week-long courses on sports sciences from January 10 to 16 and sports medicine from January 18 to 24. He said the courses would cover talent identification for sports, nutrition, doping, sports psychology and sports injuries. Dr Chandran added that admission to the sports sciences courses would be open to all. For the sports medicine course, admission will be restricted to MBBS graduates. Detailed information can be had from the Sports Medicine Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. |
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Leander
gets wild card Bangalore, December 26 Announcing this here, tournament director Cheila Maniam said this was done considering that Paes was the number one player of the country besides being a crowd-puller in Chennai. According to a statement from the organisers, Paes has confirmed his entry and stated that it gave him a “sentimental boost” to play in the Tamil Nadu capital. Paes will compete against the best-ever field in the sixth edition of the tournament which includes Guillermo Canas, Thomas Johansson, Fabrice Santoro, Pndrei Pavel, Dominik Harbaty and Max
Mirnyi. UNI |
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Freedom at last in Kabul stadium!
Kabul, December 26 “This tells us that we really are free,” said fan Jafer Jeffery, 17, as the crowd numbering several thousand cheered the city’s two most popular teams, Sabawoon and Miwand, and stirring national music blared from loudspeakers. While other minor matches have been played at the stadium since the Taliban’s demise, yesterday marked the first major championship clash. During the five years of Taliban rule, football was permitted at the stadium but players were forced to wear long trousers and full-length beards. Spectators were not allowed to cheer, let alone applaud — religious police armed with whips saw to that — and had to wear headgear. Religious police would also halt the match at specific times and force players and spectators to pray. At half-time, vehicles would arrive and prisoners would be paraded before the crowd before being executed — either shot with a Kalashnikov or hanged from the goalposts. However, yesterday, many spectators were wearing western-style clothing, few wore headgear, all were applauding and cheering, none stopped to pray, and no one was killed at half-time. Players wore shorts, many were clean-shaven and all sported western-style football shirts — Miwand in Manchester United outfits and Sabawoon looking for all the world like Real Madrid away from home. “It’s much better now, it used to be so hot in long trousers,” said one of the players, Majid Ahmmad, wearing black shorts and a shirt bearing the name of Turkish star Hakan Sukur. “The Taliban also always used to stop the match for prayer, it was really disruptive.” Spectator Najib Esmatullah, 16, said he deliberately wouldn’t come to the stadium when executions were taking place. “But one day they invited us for a football match. A vehicle arrived and some prisoners were led off — all of them thieves. An ambulance arrived and some doctors with a machine. They cut the hands off one after another and threw them into a truck while the screaming prisoners were put in the ambulance.” Esmatullah said he had become sick after witnessing the amputations “and I stayed in bed for 27 days.” The Taliban’s insistence on long trousers for players applied to foreign teams also. In July last year religious police raided a football field in the country and forced visiting Pakistani youth players to have their heads shaved in punishment for wearing shorts. The Taliban dress ruling saw Afghanistan being kicked out of the international football federation FIFA, according to Mr Zalma Palyanda, head of the Afghan Football Federation and a member of the country’s Olympic committee. Palyanda now wants to apply for readmission but says his federation has no funds to pay the annual fee to FIFA. “We really need the help of the foreign community. We need good trainers and facilities. We believe we have even enough talent to take part in the World Cup but we just don’t have the resources.” He said the Taliban was opposed to sports and would deliberately whip spectators to try stop them coming to matches. The stadium, in an outlying district littered with row after row of bombed-out houses, was destroyed during the 1992-96 civil war. It has since been rebuilt but still bears the scars of warfare. Ethnic tensions were evident at the game. Supporters of the Miwand team, comprising ethnic Hazaras, sat on one side of the stadium and those of Sabawoon, mainly ethnic Tajiks, on the other. Fighting broke out at least twice between spectators and armed police moved in to keep them apart. “That wouldn’t have happened during the Taliban time,” said another fan, Abdul Ali. “We were all too frightened to do anything like that.”
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Services upset
Punjab
Raipur, December 26 After losing a closely fought first game 22-25, Kerala came back into the match winning the next 25-21. But Karnataka again showed excellent temperament to win the crucial points as they took a 2-1 lead winning the third 25-23 and then pocketed the pulsating encounter winning the fourth game. In the other knock-out match, Services sidelined 13-time winners Punjab 25-20 18-25 25-23 25-21 in an exciting match to make the semifinal grade. Kerala women, however, moved into the semi-final beating Punjab. Dominating the proceedings throughout, Kerala won in straight games 25-10 25-13 25-13. Karnataka will stand in the way of Kerala as they reached the last four beating West Bengal in four games. Karnataka, who lost the first game, held their nerves in the crucial moments and won 21-25 25-8 25-19 25-18 in 93 minutes.
PTI |
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Northern
Railway maul PSEB Patiala, December 26 In a one-sided match Northern Railway seemed to be trampling all over the Punjab powermen’s territory in the first half and it was during this period that they scored their first two goals. First centre-forward M. Suleiman sent in a well directed pass to left-in Ranjit Singh who flicked the ball in past the bewildered rival custodian. Left-out Rajiv Panchal made it 2-0 for the railmen when he found his scorching carpet drive ricochet off the goal post to nestle itself in the net. M. Suleiman made it 3-0 when he dribbled past a horde of defenders and shot the ball through the custodian’s legs. With the powermen already running out of steam and patience, full back Kuljit Singh scored a goal when he flicked the ball over the defence off a penalty corner to make it a comfortable 4-0 for the railmen. However, during the fag end of the match, the railmen became a bit complacent and it was during this period that the powermen pulled one back through left-out Hardial Singh who dived full length to tap the ball home to earn his team a consolation goal. For Centre of Excellence, left-in Jasdev Singh opened his team’s account off a penalty stroke while centre-forward Amit Kumar darted into the striking circle without finding much resistance to make it 2-0 for the Patiala boys. RCF reduced the margin in the second half when Prabjot Singh converted a stroke. However, all hopes that the Kapurthala team nurtured of staging a comeback were firmly scotched by Jasdev Singh who managed to hoodwink the defence to slot the ball home to score his team’s third goal and in the process also added a brace to his name. In other matches, IHF (Juniors) scored a facile 4-2 win over SBI, Bhopal and UP XI downed Police Range, Jagraon 2-0. |
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NATIONAL
FOOTBALL LEAGUE Kolkata, December 26 Despite being a much more balanced team than their opponents, East Bengal can hardly afford to be complacent as their rivals are capable of springing a surprise in what promises to be a thrilling contest. The defending champions started their campaign with a flourish, thrashing Punjab Police 3-1 but lost their next match to arch-rivals Mohun Bagan by a solitary goal. East Bengal will no doubt be short on confidence after drawing their last match against lowly Mahindra United 1-1 in Mumbai and coach Manoranjan Bhattacharya will be hoping for a much improved show by his players. JCT have not recorded a single victory yet, having lost one and drawn two of their matches so far. They lost their first match to Churchill Brothers 1-2 and drew with FC Kochin 1-1 and Salgaocar 0-0. East Bengal will be heavily relying on Omalaja Olalekin to deliver the goods upfront but the striker has not been in the best of forms and has not lived upto his reputation. The two other strikers Bijen Singh and Dipendu Biswas also have to play a bigger role if the local team hopes to earn full points. The glamour club has a solid defence with Suley Musah, Jackson Egygpong, Dipak Mondal and Ranjan Dey having proved their competence, but the same could not be said of the forward line which has lacked the consistency. Mercurial striker I.M. Vijayan, who has been used in the midfield, seemed totally off colour in the crucial match against Mohun Bagan and the seasoned player has to tone up his game tomorrow. Hard-working Ratan Singh and Isiaka Awoyemi have taken much of the load in the midfield and the duo were expected to keep up the momentum in the subsequent matches. FC Kochin meet ITI KOCHI: FC Kochin will take on ITI in the sixth National
Football League at Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here. FC Kochin, after tasting a reverse in their first match against Salagaocar (O-1), improved in subsequent matches , holding JCT to a one-all draw and title aspirant Mohun Bagan to a goal-less draw. The team has the psychological advantage of playing on home ground. However, ITI also have also fared extremely well in drawing all three games they played. Their opener against Tollygunje Aggragami and Churchill Brothers ended in 1-1 draws. The morale of the local team is on a high after holding
Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan to a draw on December 23. If the team maintains the same form, then ITI will have a tough time in containing nippy Liberian striker, Josiah B.seton. Ukranian Mikola Shevchenko has been outstanding in midfield for Kochin, while the presence of Ghanian Ali Abubaker at the goalpost should further boost the team’s morale. The defence, manned by captain L. Suresh and Nigerian, Obinna winners Onya, who had done a good job in the last match, might face stiff challenge from ITI’s Nigerian frontmen, Kenneth Onu and George Ekha. ITI, who could not do much in the last edition, finishing in 10th spot, had a dream run in the three matches they figured so far. In their last match, they did well to hold a strong Churchill to a one-all draw in Goa. The team boasts of a well balanced midfield, controlled by international K. V. Dhanesh, Shamsi Raza and Zaheer Abbas. Former Indian player Balaji is expected to do duty at the goal post. In the defence, the team has A Majid, Irshi Kappor and Karunakarraju. However, the defenders will have to come up with something extraordinary to thwart the Kochin attacking duo of speedy Seton and V.P. Shaji.
Bagan take on HAL BANGALORE: Kolkata’s Mohun Bagan, last year’s runner-up, are looking to gain full points when they take on debutant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Sports Club in the fourth round here but it won’t be an easy task. Hal, with five points from three encounters, have already proved they are no pushover, after registering two draws and a surprise victory over former champions Salgaocar 2-1. On the
other hand, former champions Bagan have seven points from two wins and a draw. They would be striving to come back to winning ways after they were held to a goal-less draw by FC Kochin. Bagan are hoping their Brazilian star Jose Barreto, who was subdued in the match against FC Kochin, would strike form again. |
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Mumbai win WZ Ranji title Mumbai, December 26 Mumbai now qualify for the Sponsors Trophy to be played in West Zone next April. This was Mumbai’s third straight win, collecting 12 points plus two bonus points, making the remaining two matches of no consequence. On a very greenish wicket, Gujarat made 222 for eight. Mumbai after struggling at 137 for five off 33.4 overs, finally achieved the target, making 225 for five, with 3.2 overs to spare. The architects of the win were Mumbai captain Samir Dighe and Sairaj Bahutule, who remained unbeaten on 67 off 72 balls and 30 off 33 balls, respectively in a stand of 76 runs off 13 overs. Sloppy fielding and the bowlers losing their accuracy and nerves in the final overs cost Gujarat a shot at the title. Had they won this match, Gujarat would have reached 12 points from three wins and would have found goings easier against Maharashtra tomorrow while Mumbai would have been under pressure to beat Baroda in the last match. Tejas Vasrani spoiled his batting heroics while making an unbeaten 65 by not judging Dighe’s catch in the 44th over which went on to for a four. Fielding lapses, overthrows, 14 wides and two no balls added to Gujarat’s final session woes. Inspite of a difficult wicket for shot making, Vasrani made his 65 from 80 balls with six fours. Gujarat’s top order, barring Vivek Parrikh, who made 50, were clueless against Ajit Agarkar’s razor sharp bowling (10-2-27-3). Kirat Damani, however, used the long handle to make 40 with one six off 44 balls. Gujarat medium pacers Hitesh Muzumdar and Lalit Patel allowed no free runs and got rid of Robin Morris (1), Vinod Kambli (5) and Amol Muzumdar (5) soon. Brief scores: Gujarat: 222 for eight off 50 overs (T Varsani 65 not out, V Parikh 50, Niraj Patel 26, Kirat Damani 40, Agarkar 3 for 27, A Salvi 2 for 45, R Morris 2 for 25). Mumbai: 225 for five (S Dighe 67 n.o., W Jaffer 65, S Bahutule 30
n.o., Hitesh Muzumdar 2 for 46). UNI |
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Ranjit Singh takes 1st day’s honours New Delhi, December 26 Seasoned Mukesh Kumar, who holds the course record of eight-under 64, established at the Noida Open recently, carded a bogey-free two-under 70, as did another veteran Shiv Prakash. Jaiveer Virk, in search of his maiden professional title, brought in a one-under 71, despite three putts, as did Vijay Kumar and Jyoti Randhawa. Vijay Kumar missed more than a few short putts, but still came in with a 71. The third player to end the day on one-under 71 was Jyoti Randhawa, who not only missed a few small putts, but also struck a horrible patch between the 11th and 16th holes. He finished with a less than satisfying score of 71. Mukesh Kumar was impressive while making 70, though the score was a bit of a let down, considering the lofty standard he has set for himself in recent months. Jyoti Randhawa paired with Arjun Atwal and Vivek Bhandari in a much-publicised three-ball, and was the only player to come under par. Atwal, fresh from his European PGA tour, made a below average round of 77. Shiv Prakash, with three birdies, scored 70. Among others who returned creditable scores were: Mohammad Islam, Ali Sher, Rohtas Singh and Uttam Singh Mundy. |
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Salgaocar meet Punjab Police Margao, December 26 Salgacoar, who started off well with a win against F.C. Kochin but struggled to find form in their last two matches, have four points from three matches. Punjab Police, who have lost all their matches, are still to open their account. Both are likely to field the same teams. Salgaocar’s win will largely depend how well their midfield play. Dharamjit Singh, Eugene Gray, Denis Cabral and Climax Lawerence will have to shoulder great responsibility to create more opening to their strikers Alvito D’Cunha and Librian Glador Osacr Zaire, if they are to gain full points. Bruno Coutinho, who came as a substitute in the second half, is playing and will give more thrust in the attack. Salgaoacr’s coach Savio Medeira said “The rivals are playing well as a unit and they have the spirit to fight to the last. And our boys cannot remain complacent although we have the home advantage”. “Our midfield is not functioning and it is a big concern. Our strikers Alvito cunha and Zaire, who were off colour in the last match, will have to play to their potential and captilise all the chances that come as we need to garner full points to boost our morale as we have a tough match in hand next against Mahindras United,” the coach said.
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Anurag
team manager Chandigarh, December 26 Balwinder Sandhu, Dilip Vengsarkar and Dr Rana are the coach, consultant and physiotherapist of the team. Parthiv Patel, last year’s captain of the Indian under-17 team, will be the captain. He has been the trainee of Yoginder Puri who is currently the official coach of the Himachal Pradesh Junior Cricket Academy at Una. The team will leave for Australia on January 3. The players will undergo a special training and conditioning camp organised by the BCCI for 10 days there before their first match against the qualifying team from America on January 21. |
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India claim bronze in Asian TT New Delhi, December 26 According to information received here today, India lost to Brazil 2-3 in the
semifinals. In the fifth game, Sourav Chakraborty was leading 9-6 but lost 14-16. Soumyadeep Roy and Ranbir Das won a match each for India. Losing semifinalists are given bronze medals.
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Intense contest, good crowds enliven stadium Ravi Dhaliwal Patiala, December 26 This was in stark contrast to the spectator turnout during the previous Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Haryana at the same stadium. Designed like the famous Lord’s stadium in London, just half a dozen cricket enthusiasts watched the proceedings at the stadium. Sports writer Micheal Proust once wrote, “Cricket, at its very best, is all about people and passion they bring in. Take out the passion people bring in with them and cricket will be rendered as hollow as an empty vessel, devoid of its worth and intrinsic value.” This was on view when scores of swanky cars and other vehicles lined up in front of the main gate of the 100-year-old stadium. The match turned out into an intense contest. For both the fan and the fanatic, a majority of whom were not well versed with the finer points of the game, but were more keen to watch the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Reetinder Sodhi and Dinesh Mongia, the cricket on view was enthralling as the celebrities performed up to the expectations of the spectators. As the match drew to an end, sledging, without which modern one-day cricket would be reduced to a relatively monotonous affair, became more and more profuse. The players kept up the tempo with constant sledging. They escaped without a reprimand from the umpires, but the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontations every now and then sent the spectators in a tizzy. Punjab won the battle, but needed a bonus point to top the points table. Haryana pulled out all stops to deny the hosts that vital point. The enthusiasts were unfazed with the end result and were more content of watching the proceedings. The match was good advertisement for one-day cricket.  |
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West Bengal bag gymnastic title Ambala, December 26 Girl gymnasts of West Bengal secured 334.46 points for getting the title, Punjab, which remained second, collected 312.61 points, while Maharashra, which finished third in the championship, secured 311.13 points.
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Vijay chess champ Ropar
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Australia
kept the leash on South Africa on a frustrating opening day of the
Boxing Day cricket Test here today where the elements had the final say.
Only 40 overs of a scheduled 90 were possible as heavy showers sent
players from the field three times and delayed the start by 80 minutes.
