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Dravid's knock goes in vain as India go down by 13 runs
BCCI announces Test venues for Australia, SA series |
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India A team leaves for
Zimbabwe Bobby clinches Olympics berth Binu upset over doping doubts
Dhanraj, Dhillon in Olympic squad India hold Germany; finish runners-up Argentina, Colombia enter semis Indian spikers complete whitewash
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Dravid's knock goes in vain as India go down
Dambulla, July 18 Dravid led the fight back after early loss of wickets with a courageous 82 off 96 balls but the target off 283 proved too stiff for the Indians as they finished at 269 for eight in a thrilling day-night encounter at the Rangiri Stadium. The Indian vice-captain shared a 133-run fifth wicket partnership with Yuvraj Singh who overcame a scratchy start to slam a vital 47. Despite the loss, India advance to the Super League stage of the six-nation tournament as the second team in the group and will take on group A runner-up Bangladesh at Colombo on Wednesday. Indians had a disastrous start as Sachin Tendulkar (11) failed once again and his makeshift partner Parthiv Patel (6) did nothing of note either. Virender Sehwag (37) played a few sparkling strokes before a direct throw sent him packing and Sourav Ganguly (6) pulled at a delivery too close to his body. Dravid and Yuvraj took some time to find their feet but then blossomed out in the middle overs to put Sri Lanka back on defence. The two staged a recovery to the extent that Indians after being 71 for four at one stage, were 200 for 4 in the 40th over, the same as Sri Lanka were at this juncture batting first. For Sri Lanka, Nuwan Zoysa was the pick of the bowler, taking three for 49 besides connecting a direct hit to find Sehwag short of his crease. Yuvraj departed in the 41st over through a miscued hit off Chaminda Vaas after making 47 from 78 balls with four fours. Mohammad Kaif immediately made his presence felt by slamming Zoysa through the covers and then picking him up and depositing him beyond the wide midwicket stands. Dravid departed in the 46th over when he went on the backfoot to Muthiah Muralitharan and was bowled for 82 from 96 balls with eight fours and a six. That sounded the end of India's chase as Sri Lankan bowlers closed out the game in a professional manner. Earlier, Sri Lanka set new benchmark in run-scoring with a total of 282 for 4. Sri Lanka Jayantha c Patel b Balaji 34 Gunawardene run out 49 Atapattu run out 50 Sangakkara c Ganguly Jayawardena not out 58 Dilshan not out 7 Extras:
(b-2, lb-9, nb-4, w-12) 27 Total: (for 4 wkts, 50 overs) 282 Fall of wickets:
1-63, 2-128, 3-156, 4-272. Bowling: Pathan 10-0-49-1, Balaji 9-1-60-1, Zaheer 9-0-39-0, Ganguly 2-0-15-0, Kumble 10-1-46-0, Sehwag 7-0-45-0, Yuvraj 3-0-17-0. India Tendulkar c Jayantha b Patel c Sangakkara b Zoysa 6 Sehwag run out 37 Ganguly c Murali b Zoysa 6 Dravid b Muralitharan 82 Yuvraj c Sangakkara b Vaas 47 Kaif b Maharoof 22 Pathan not out 15 Balaji c Sangakkara b Vaas 10 Zaheer not out 0 Extras
(b-1, lb-6, w-21, Total
(for 8 wickets in Fall of wickets:
1-16, 2-33, 3-71, 4-71, 5-204, 6-234, 7-243, 8-266. Bowling:
Chaminda Vaas 10-0-51-2, Nuwan Zoysa 10-2-49-3, Fervez Mehroof 10-0-45-1, Muthiah Muralitharan 10-0-46-1, Upul Chandana 5-0-39-0, T M Dilshan 3-0-25-0, Saman Jayantha 2-0-7-0.
—PTI
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Colombo, July 18 Malik first scored a career-best 118 and was associated with a huge 223-run partnership with Younis Khan, who made 144, to take Pakistan's score to 343 for five in 50 overs. The 22-year-old then returned with figures of four for 19 with his slow off-spin to fashion Pakistan's second successive victory to emerge as group-A toppers. Pakistan never required the services of their more experienced players in the win as captain Inzamam-ul Haq and Yousuf Youhana did not bat after the side started the match without pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar, who was rested. Imran Farhat, a part-time leg-spinner also tormented the hapless Hong batsmen with three wickets giving away just 10 runs in his four overs at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground. After Pakistan set an almost improbable target of 344, Hong Kong never looked in the hunt and lost wickets at regular intervals to lesser-known Pakistani bowlers led by Malik. Only Tim Smart (25), Tabarak Dar (36), Manoj Cheruparambil (30) and Afzaal Haider (22) offered some resistance to delay the inevitable before the minnows were bowled out for 165 in 44.1 overs. This was Hong Kong's second loss following the 116-run defeat against Bangladesh in the tournament opener on Friday. Pakistan and Bangladesh now move into the Super League stage where they will be joined by India and Sri Lanka, who are playing at Dambulla today to determine the Pool B leaders. In Pakistan's innings, Inzamam's decision to send the two players up in the batting order after the dismissals of the openers -- Imran Nazir and Imran Farhat -- by the 10th over paid rich dividends as Malik notched up his third century and Younis Khan scored his maiden ton. Malik's 118 was his highest score bettering the 115 he made against New Zeland in Lahore two years back. Younis Khan, who had to wait till his 103rd one-dayer for his first century, made 144. The two batsmen flayed a listless Hong Kong attack to share a huge third wicket stand of 223 runs to steer Pakistan to the highest total of the tournament so far. Pakistan Nazir lbw b Khalid Khan 10 Farhat c French b Khalid Khan 20 Shoaib Malik run out 118 Younis c Nadeem Ahmed
b Haider 144 Abdul Razzaq c Smart b Gul 18 Moin Khan not out 11 Mohammad Sami not out 9 Extras: (lb-3, w-8, nb-2) 13 Total
(5 wkts, 50 overs) 343 Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-51, 3-274, 4-313, 5-327 Bowling:
Haider 9-0-73-1, Khalid Khan 10-1-62-2, Najeeb Aamer 10-1-59-0, Ilyas Gul 9-0-67-1, Nadeem Ahmed 10-0-63-0, French 2-0-16-0. Hong Kong: Smart c Younis b Razzaq 25 Nasir Hameed lbw b Sami 0 French b Farhat 14 Tabarak Dar b Malik 36 R Sharma b Farhat 1 Najeeb Aamer b Farhat 4 Ilyas Gul lbw b Sami 1 M Cheruparambil c Farhat
Afzaal Haider c Sami b Malik 22 Khalid Khan st Moin b Malik 2 Nadeem Ahmed not out 1 Extras (lb-4, nb-7, w-18) 29 Total
(all out, 44.1 overs) 165 FoW: 1-1, 2-45, 3-95, 4-95, 5-101, 6-102, 7-102, 8-149, 9-156 Bowling:
Sami 7-2-16-2, Shabbir 6-2-12-0, Razzaq 6-0-30-1, Naved-ul Hasan 8-0-45-0, Shoaib Malik 9.1-1-19-4, Farhat 4-2-10-3, Nazir 4-0-29-0.
—PTI |
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BCCI announces Test venues for Australia, SA series New Delhi, July 18 The venues, announced by BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, after the first day’s deliberations of the two-day Working Committee here today, are: Kanpur, Bangalore, Nagpur, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. Mr Dalmiya said the exact venues for the four Tests against Australia and the two Tests against South Africa will be determined, after considering the
monsoon situation in various parts of the country at that time. Though Delhi were scheduled to host one of the four Tests against Australia, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) expressed its inability to host any match due to the incomplete stadium work at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground. DDCA senior-vice president C.K. Khanna, who is also the vice-chairman of the National Cricket Academy of the BCCI, said Delhi had now expressed its desire to host either a Test or a one-day international match against Pakistan, who are expected to tour India next year. Mr Dalmiya said some other venues have also been shortlisted for the matches in case the venues already named are unable to host the matches for reasons beyond anybody’s control. He added that Hyderabad and Jaipur have been named as the venues for the three-day matches against Australia and South Africa, respectively. Mr Dalmiya also disclosed that a one-day match between India and Pakistan will be held to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the BCCI. He said the venue of the match will be decided later. Mr Dalmiya said the Working Committee had also decided to enhance the monthly pension to former Test players and umpires, who played their cricket prior to 1976, from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000, while the amount will remain the same — Rs 5000 — for those who retired after 1976. Mr Dalmiya said the Working Committee had decided to retain the Elite and Plate format in the Ranji Trophy cricket championship after an “extremely successful” season last year. He said there was overwhelming support to continue with the present format in the Captains’ Conclave held some time back. He said hence forth, two teams will qualify for the Ranji Trophy one-day tournament knockout round from each zone. He said the Elit and Plate format will be
introduce in the Cooch Behar under-19 cricket tournament too. The Working Committee meeting felt that the recommendation of Technical Committee chairman Sunil Gavaskar to do away with the toss in Ranji Trophy was “too radical a change”, but added that the recommendation would be considered next year.
India may lose Champions Trophy Earlier, ICC president Ehsan Mani and Chief Executive Malcolm Speed categorically stated that India will forfeit the right to host the 2006 Champions Trophy if the country failed to soften its tax structure. They said the ICC Champions Trophy was supposed to be played in India this year, but was shifted to England following the BCCI’s failure to make the government change the tax laws. ICC against Azhar’s role in media Mr Ehsan Mani also expressed his surprise and anguish at former Indian captain Mohd. Azharuddin, who is serving a ban for his alleged role in the match-fixing scandal, donning the role of a television commentator. He said the ICC rule was clear that tainted players like Azharuddin should have no role in the international cricket’s scheme of things. “It’s disappointment to see a tainted player being involved with the game in any
capacity”, Mr Mani averred. “In the ICC, we have absolutely zero tolerance to corruption by anyone”, he added. He observed that as far as another tainted player, Ajay Jadeja, playing domestic cricket was concerned, it was beyond the purview of the ICC, though the BCCI has adopted the “correct procedure” to uphold the ICC rule of law in keeping him out of international matches. Talking about Sri Lankan spinner Muthia Muralitharan’s bowling action, he said the ICC was concerned only with his suspect bowling action of his “doosra” deliveries, though mercifully, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board has advised the player against bowling this controversial delivery. Mr Mani said so far 11 players have been reported to the ICC, including five international players. The internationals include Murali, Shabbir Ahmed of Pakistan, Jeremy Lawson of West Indies, Hussain of Bangladesh and James Curtley of England. |
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India A team
leaves for Zimbabwe Bangalore, July 18 National Cricket Academy administrator Col K.R. Nair said the team left for Mumbai enroute to Zimbabwe. Former England opener Geoffery Boycott, who was roped in by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to give tips to the players interacted with the team attending the camp. However, due to
incessant rain and a slippery field, the players could not practice in the outfield for more than two days of their eight-day camp. The India A team will play three four-day matches in Zimbabwe (July 22 to August 8) followed by a tri-series with Pakistan A and Kenya in Nairobi (August 11 to September 4). The team:
Sairaj Bahutule (captain), Akash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, S. Sriram, Hemang Badani, (vice-captain), Rohan Gavaskar, Dinesh Karthick (wk), Amit Bhandari, Munaf Patel, Avishkar Salvi, M.S. Dhoni (wk), Ramesh Powar, Dhiraj Jadhav, S.S. Paul and Yogesh Golwalkar.
— UNI |
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Bobby clinches Olympics berth
Chennai, July 18 The 30-year-old Aloysius, a Preventive Officer of the Chennai customs, was elated about her long time dream of achieving a Olympics berth but said 'technically it was not up to my expectations. I have been working for this (Olympic qualification) for the last two years and now I will be deciding on my training programme upto the olympics. Most probably, I will train under Dennis Doyle of Birmingham (England)'. Everything was in place for the jumper who appealed for the start of the event to be advanced by about two hours. In a field of 10 jumpers, Aloysius started her campaign with a 1.70 m on the bar. Before achieving career best of 1.91 metres, Aloysius brought down the horizontal clearing 1.87 metres after Silver medallist Sahana Kumari of Karnataka failed at 1.83 metres. Aloysius fouled her first two attempts before obtaining the olympic Quota (B) Berth and set a new national mark. Aloysius eclipsed her own mark of 1.90 metres set in Bangalore Inter-State meet in 2002. In other highlights, Delhi's Piyush Kumar (10.44 secs) and Poonam Tomar (11.68 secs) became the fastest man and woman winning the respective 100 metre dash. In the men's 10,000 metre event, Santosh Kumar Patel of Uttar Pradesh retained his title, bettering his own mark of 32.52.04 secs set in Jamshedpur inter state meet last year. Preetam Bind of Uttranchal claimed the gold in the 1500 m clocking 3:54.27 seconds, while Sanjai Rai of UP finished first in the long jump, clearing 7.84 metres. In high jump, Sahana Kumari of Karnataka (1.83 m) and Sangeetha of TN (1.70 m) claimed the silver and bronze respectively. — PTI
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New Delhi, July 18 Talking to PTI here before leaving for Yalta, in southern Ukraine, for training along with heptathlete J.J. Sobha and the women’s relay team comprising his more famous elder sister K M Beenamol, Manjit Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur and Chitra K Soman, Binu said “This entire talk of athletes taking drugs and looking at our trip to Ukraine with suspicion is really tarnishing our image.” The 24-year-old Asian Games silver medallist in 800m said he firmly believed reports claiming that foreign experts prescribed a doping chart at national camps were false. “I did not read the newspaper reports as I was abroad. But I am sure nothing of that sort happens in the camp,” he said. The Railways employee, who earned a few lakhs of rupees money following his success in the Busan Asian Games, was also confident that he would be able to perform at his best in his first Olympics. “I want to improve on my personal best timing recorded here in April. I hope to emulate Beena’s perfomance (Beenamol was the lone Indian to make it to the semifinals in Sydney in 2000) if not going a step further,” said Binu, who will also be anchoring the men’s 4x400m relay if it makes it to Athens. Earlier he was planning to run in the 800m but had to drop the idea as he did not qualify in the event. “Now there is no time to qualify in 800m. So I will be focusing on 400 m.” Binu has produced his best performance in one lap at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here in the first national circuit meet on April 15 when he clocked in 45.59 seconds. That was the second best time by an Indian, just 0.03 seconds slower than Paramjeet Singh’s national record. The qualifying mark was 45.95 seconds. — PTI
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Lister records year’s best triple jump
Sacramento, July 18 Only the top three in each event make the US team for the Athens games next month. Walter Davis leaped 17.63 metres and Kenta Bell jumped 17.58 metres to join Lister on the American squad. Monique Hennagan provided another stunner when she ran a personal-best 49.56 seconds to win the women’s 400 metres. It was the second best performance in the world this year and the best by an American in seven years. Sanya Richards finished in 49.89 seconds. World champion Tom Pappas was beaten in the decathlon. Breaux Greer repeated as the Olympic trials javelin champion with a throw of 82.39 metres. In qualifying, Shawn Crawford continued his sparkling 200 metres running by clocking 20.00 seconds in his semifinal. World champion and Olympic favourite Allen Johnson led qualifying in the 110-metre hurdles in 13.25 seconds and Gail Devers was the second fastest in the women’s 100-metre hurdles in 12.79 seconds. Marion Jones, meanwhile, will not defend her Olympic 200 metres gold medal in Athens after pulling out of the semifinals because of fatigue, but the Sydney games triple champion could still be going for multiple medals next month. Jones told a press conference that she would be available to compete in as many as four events at Athens. |
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Johnson set to lose final Olympic gold
London, July 18 At a special council meeting in Grosseto, Italy, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) agreed that the USA should lose their title because current world 400 metres champion Jerome Young was not entitled to compete after failing a drugs test in the previous year. Young ran in two early rounds in Sydney after a USA Track & Field Doping Appeal Panel cleared him to compete despite a positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in 1999. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled last month that Young should have been banned for two years. IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said the council, which was meeting on the final day of the world junior championships, had decided that any ban should also have included relays. “The result of the relay will be annulled,” he said. “We will now inform the IOC (International Olympic Committee).” The IOC executive board, which is scheduled to meet before the Athens Olympics opening on August 13, must now decide whether the medals should be returned. The US squad, which was anchored by Johnson in the final, also included Young, the Harrison twins Alvin and Calvin, Antonio Pettigrew and Angelo Taylor. Nigeria are now the new Olympic champions with Jamaica moving up to second and the Bahamas taking third place. This year the IAAF also annulled the British team’s second place in the 4x100 metres relay at last August’s Paris world championship after European champion Dwain Chambers tested positive for the steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone). Johnson, the only man to win the Olympic 200-400 double, has already said he said he should not lose his medal. — Reuters
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Dhanraj, Dhillon
in Olympic squad
Dusseldorf, July 18 The selection committee, which had come all the way to Germany to witness the team's performance in the four nation event, opted for a combination of six forwards and five midfielders in the roaster which also has three defenders and two goal keepers. Team: Goalkeepers -
Devesh Chauhan, Adrian D'Souza; Defenders - Dilip Tirkey (capt), William Xalco, Harpal Singh. Midfielders -
Sandeep Singh, Viren Rasquinha, Ignace Tirkey, Vikram Pillay and Arjun Halappa; Forwards - Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh, Adam Sinclair, Baljeet Singh Dhillon, Dhanraj Pillay. The five players, among the 21 training in Germany, who could not make it to the Athens-bound squad include Kawalpreet Singh, Vivek Gupta, Bimal Lakra, Sandeep Michael and Jatinder Pal Singh. The inclusion of the Pillay in the 16-member squad also put to rest any speculations on whether the veteran striker could make it to his fourth Olympics. Doubts were cast over the chances of Pillay, India's most capped player, being included in the Olympic squad after he was ignored for a couple of tournaments and also the fitness camp at Barog. But the player was later picked in the 30-member probable list and accompanied the team for the camps in USA and later in Holland and Germany. Pillay played an instrumental role in the just concluded four nation tournament playing the role of a schemer to perfection by creating a number of opportunities for the forwards. India finished second behind hosts and world champions Germany on the basis of number of goals scored by either teams.
— PTI
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India hold Germany; finish runners-up
Dusseldorf, July 18 Despite finishing second, India had a good outing in the tournament where they did not lose a single match. They won 2-0 against Great Britain and 5-0 against France. Germany won the title having scored a 6-0 win against France and 3-1 victory against Great Britain yesterday. Before the match, the four-team event played on a round robin format, had Germany and India as joint leaders, both being the unbeaten teams with six points each, However, Germany were ahead on the goal difference of plus eight while India were on seven. Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh and Gagan Ajit Singh scored for the Indians, who were leading 2-1 at the half-time.
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Argentina, Colombia enter semis
Chiclayo (Peru), July 18 It took the inspired substitution of Carlos Tevez for Argentina to get past Peru in a tale of free kicks. Only three minutes after entering the match at the packed Elias Aguirre Stadium, Tevez bent an unstoppable free kick inside the left corner of the goal in the 61st minute. “I hit it like I always do and fortunately it went in,” said Tevez. But when Peru received a free kick also straight out in front four minutes later, Nolberto Solano’s attempt hit the crossbar. “It was a game that either team could have won,” said Peru coach Victor Zegarra. The Argentines played the final minutes a man down after Roberto Ayala was expelled for excessive yellow cards in the 82nd minute. Both teams started slowly in an uneven first half that saw Argentina dominate possession against a determined Peruvian team cheered on by a capacity 25,000-strong crowd in this northern coastal city. Ayala had a chance to give Argentina the lead in the 25th minute off a corner kick, but his header from just inside the penalty area sailed wide. The Peruvian attack came to life with around 15 minutes left in the half, but Roberto Palacios failed to finish off a pass from Andres Mendoza in front of the goal in the 35th minute. Mendoza then had a chance of his own three minutes later, but sent a soft, rolling shot that goalkeeper Roberto Abbondazieri easily handled. Argentina’s Javier Saviola, who is tied with Brazil’s Adriano for the tournament’s leading scorer with three goals, did not start for the second straight game because of a leg muscle injury. A little south down the coast at Trujillo, a well-rested Colombia easily overcame Costa Rica at Mansiche Stadium. Aguilar one-timed a low right cross from Jairo Patino near the penalty spot in the 41st minute, and two minutes into first-half injury time Tressor Moreno converted a penalty he drew when he was tripped up on a breakway by Costs Rica goalkeeper Ricardo Gonzalez. — AP
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Indian spikers complete whitewash Chennai, July 18 The hosts had already won the series, clinching four matches in a row — one each by the senior and juniors and two by Youth teams — in Bangalore last week. Playing to redeem some pride, Uzbekistan players did put up some resistance in the second set, but lacked consistency. On the other hand, India, mostly comprising junior players combined well with Tom Joseph, Natarajan and Pradeep leading the attack in tandem with setter and skipper Kapil Dev. Natarajan also combined well with lanky Subba Rao in blocks, while Libero Kulwant too played his part. For the visitors, Sharipov Mahmud and Serebrennikov Alexander shouldered the attack, but were wayward on several occasions. The Uzbeks also missed out on a few serves, gifting points to their rivals.
— PTI |
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