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Kumble infused life into listless afternoon |
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700: Warne reaches milestone in style
Ranji Trophy
Liberals Hockey
32 foreign players for PHL
Prakash, Vishal bow out
Police shooting meet starts
Maharashtra, AP declared joint winners
Sporting Clube in Fed Cup final
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Kumble infused life into listless afternoon India came back well after a listless afternoon to get eight South African wickets down. That recovery came on the back of some extremely clever bowling by Anil Kumble who outthought the lower order batsmen and had them back in the pavilion to swing the days honours India’s way. Having opted to bat first on a pitch which had the reputation of being the quickest in South Africa, the home team were rattled by some top swing bowling by Zaheer Khan who once again got his man Graeme Smith out playing a forgettable shot for a man woefully short of runs. There is huge pressure building on Smith for quite some time now, as many South Africans don’t approve of his sometimes abrasive behaviour and so would have someone else take his place. Smith has been shuffling too much in his crease but as is the current norm, is reluctant to ask former South African greats for some help. Coach Micky Arthur has not played any Tests nor did he ever look like playing one so it is not easy for him to offer any advice and this is what happens when a player or a team is suffering from bad form. The former South African players who meet in the TV commentary box area all wonder at the kind of batting, coaching that the youngsters are getting at schools and at the franchise levels where the batsmen are taught to move forward with the front foot pointing straight down the pitch. If the ball is pitched away or moves away as Sreesanth can make it move, then the batsman has to reach out for it without any move of the front foot which is pretty much rooted after the initial movement. That’s how AB de Villiers was out pushing out at a delivery swinging away from him. Hashim Amla is getting caught in no man’s land with no appreciable feet movement. Gibbs dropped down the order after his pair in the first innings showed some patience till he got to his half century but then was back to his careless ways and it was no surprise to see him dismissed soon after when he should have shown the resolve to make the bowlers pay for the ignominy of the pair at the Wanderers in the first Test. The one solid player in the South African ranks apart from Kallis is Ashwell Prince who showed great temperament and as he settled down showed a good range of shots too. He is too short of a well deserved century after missing one in the previous Test and with the tail with him, would be looking to get it first thing in the morning. He looked unconcerned as Sreesanth lost the plot a bit as he started mouthing off and so lost focus. The bowler was spoken to by the umpires as well as the skipper who was also told to ask his bowler to cool it off. While Sreesanth can be allowed the folly of sledging because of his inexperience at this level, it will be interesting to see if the same standards will be applied by the umpires to Andre Nel who was the last man to be out showing a gap between bat and pad, which was almost as big as his mouth. India need to ensure that the tail doesn’t wag because they really don’t want South Africa to get past 300 and the quicker they get the last two wickets the more time they will give themselves to win what is going to be as usual in Durban, a weather affected Test. — PMG
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England fall to Warne
Melbourne, December 26 Australia, in reply, slumped to 48 for two at stumps, after England skipper Andrew Flintoff first dismissed Justin Langer for 27 then nightwatchman Brett Lee for a golden duck in successive deliveries. Matthew Hayden got the benefit of the doubt to a confident appeal for lbw to reach the close unbeaten on 17 with his captain Ricky Ponting yet to score. Flintoff's double strike provided the tourists with some hope of staging a fightback and salvaging a little pride from a series where they have been comprehensively outplayed, losing the first three Tests to surrender the Ashes they won last year. Their batting had let them down in each of the three previous matches and once again failed them after they won the toss and elected to have first use of the pitch. England made a bright start and were cruising along at 101-2 after lunch when the wheels suddenly fell off and they collapsed, losing their last eight wickets for 58 runs. Warne, who announced last week that he would retire from Test cricket after the final Ashes match in Sydney, was again the destroyer, bowling magnificently on a pitch that was better suited to the seamers. The master leg spinner reached the once-unimaginable milestone of 700 wickets when he clean bowled opener Andrew Strauss for 50 with a perfect leg-break. He then added the scalps of Kevin Pietersen (21), Chris Read (3), Steve Harmison (7) and Monty Panesar (4), when they all inexplicably threw their wickets away with rash shots. Pietersen was caught on the long-on boundary, Read drove a ball straight to Ponting at short extra-cover after Australia set the trap for him while Harmison and Panesar both spooned easy catches to the outfield. Lee grabbed two wickets with his sheer pace while Stuart Clarke also got two and Glenn McGrath one after a superb display of seam bowling under heavy skies. The start of play was delayed by half an hour because of rain and there were another two stoppages before tea, to the dismay of the near-record crowd of 89,155 who had turned out to witness Warne's last Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The 37-year-old had stunned the sporting world with his announcement last week that he would quit international cricket after the final Ashes Test in Sydney next week but proved his retirement was unrelated to form. ''It's an unbelievable feeling to be honest. It was a great effort, I thought all the boys bowled well,'' Warne said in a televised interview. ''It's just great. The crowd were fantastic for all of us today.'' ''To do it here in Melbourne... I don't know who's writing my scripts but it's pretty good.'' Lee made the initial breakthrough before lunch when Alastair Cook (11) tried to let a ball go that nicked the toe of his bat and carried through to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. Clark trapped Ian Bell (7) then had Flintoff (13) caught by Warne at slip while Ponting held a sharp catch at second slip to get rid of Paul Collingwood (28) off Lee. McGrath claimed his 150th Ashes wicket when he dismissed Sajid Mahmood for a duck before Warne polished off the tail, celebrating his achievement by raising the ball in his right arm and saluting the crowd. Scoreboard
England (1st innings) Strauss b Warne 50 Cook c Gilchrist b Lee 11 Bell lbw Clark 7 Collingwood c Ponting Pietersen c Symonds Flintoff c Warne b Clark 13 Read c Ponting b Warne 3 Mahmood c Gilchrist Harmison c Clarke Panesar c Symonds Hoggard not out 9 Extras (nb-3, b-3, lb-1) 6 Total
(all out, 74.2 overs) 159 Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-44, 3-101, 4-101, 5-122 6-135, 7-136, 8-145, 9-146. Bowling:
Lee 13-4-36-2 (nb-2), McGrath 20-8-37-1 (nb-1), Clark 17-6-27-2, Symonds 7-2-17-0, Warne 17.4-4-39-5. Australia (1st innings) Langer c Read b Flintoff 27 Hayden not out 17 Lee c Read b Flintoff 0 Ponting not out 0 Extras
(lb-1, nb-3) 4 Total (2 wkts, 11 overs) 48 Fall of wickets: 1-44, 2-44 Bowling: Hoggard 6-2-27-0, Flintoff 5-2-20-2.
— Reuters
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700: Warne reaches milestone in style
Melbourne, December 26 When he hit the middle stump of England opener Andrew Strauss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Wizard of Oz became the first player in the history of cricket to reach 700 Test wickets. The script could not have been written better for the master leg-spinner as he was poised tantalisingly at 699 when the Australians regained the Ashes with a third successive victory over their traditional rivals in Perth last week. Warne, who was introduced late into the attack by skipper Ricky Ponting today, wasted little time and beat Strauss with a characteristic leg-break in his fourth over to trigger a huge roar from the near-capacity crowd. But Warne did not stop there. The Englishmen once again fell to the skills of the Victorian, who claimed his 37th five-wicket haul in Test cricket when he dismissed half the side at the cost of only 39 runs.
— PTI
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Astle guides Kiwis home
Auckland, December 26 Veteran Nathan Astle was in blistering form with an unbeaten 40 off 37 balls, hitting the winning run with nine balls remaining. Sri Lanka never fired after being sent into bat first, falling 10 balls short of their allotted 20 overs as their innings came to a halt at 115. It then became a formality for New Zealand to reach the 116 required for victory, a target they achieved for the loss of five wickets. Brendon McCullum and Stephen Fleming started the run chase at a rollicking pace, reaching 51 by the sixth over when Fleming drove at Dilharo Fernando and was caught by Chamara Kapugedera at point for 17. Kapugedera ran out McCullum for 28 to put the brakes on the New Zealand scoring until Astle opened up, taking 15 off the penultimate over by Ruchiro Perero to level the scores. In the next over, Astle sneaked a single of the third ball by Tillakaratne Dilshan to wrap up proceedings. The tone of the game was set with the very first ball of the game when television technology detected Upul Tharanga edge James Franklin to wicketkeeper Peter McGlashan. It was such a faint edge that the players did not even appeal, not that it mattered much as Franklin bowled Tharanga two balls later. By the 10th over, Sri Lanka were in deep trouble at 58 for six and if it was not for a tail-end bash by Lasith Malinga and Fernando their innings may well have ended much earlier. Malinga's 27 came from 19 balls and Fernando hit 21 from 14, whacking 44 in four overs for the ninth wicket before Fernando mishit an Astle full toss and was caught by Andre Adams on the deep mid-wicket boundary. Franklin was the most successful of the New Zealand bowlers with three for 23, while for Sri Lanka Fernando backed up his fine knock with the bat by taking three for 19. Sri Lanka won the rain-affected first match in Wellington on Friday by 18 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis calculation method. The two teams play the first of five one-day matches in Napier on Thursday.
— AFP
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PCB readying for another legal battle
Karachi, December 26 A PCB official said since they had not heard so far from either WADA or CAS, they would consider the fast bowlers for selection for the upcoming tour of South Africa. “So far we have got nothing from the CAS or WADA confirming they have filed a challenge in the CAS,” a PCB official said. “I don’t think we will know anything officially until the New Year holidays are over as it would be vacations in those countries. As far as we are concerned, both the players are available for selection and will be considered for the South African tour,” PCB’s media manager Ehsan Malik said. However, according to sources, the board has already started fresh consultations with its legal experts and has even contacted Mark Gay, its lawyer in London. Gay acted as a friend of the appeals tribunal, which cleared the two players of doping charges earlier this month. Considered to be an expert on doping cases, Gay is learnt to have guided the appeals panel of the board, headed by a retired judge. It was he who informed them about applying the anti-doping regulations of the PCB, and not the WADA code, as the PCB was not a direct signatory to WADA. However, it has emerged that since the Pakistan Government is a signatory to the Copenhagen Declaration on anti-doping policies of WADA on sports and as PCB does not function independently, it indirectly becomes a signatory to the code. It has also been learnt that Gay has been asked by the board to defend the exoneration of Shoaib and Asif in CAS in case of a hearing. Gay also represented Pakistan in the International Cricket Council hearing in September in which the team were cleared of ball tampering charges during the Oval Test.
— PTI
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Haryana take slender lead
Vadodara, December 26 At close, the visitors were sitting pretty in their second essay with 89 on the board for the loss of two wickets. Opener Sumit Sharma on 45 and Deepak Joon on 11 were at the crease. Resuming at the overnight score of 41 for two in reply to Haryana’s 171, Vadodara slowly took their score to 118 for three in 43 overs before skipper Joginder Sharma introduced leggie Amit Mishra. Bowling with immaculate line and length, Amit put Haryana back into the game as he bowled out opener Connor Williams (58,9x4) and Satrunjay Gaekwad (0) in his very first over, reducing Vadodara to 119 for 5. Barring skipper Jacob Martin, who hit an unbeaten 37 with four fours and a six, none of the Vadodara batsmen could put up any resistance to Amit’s spin attack. Vadodara, which suffered a similar batting collapse in their previous match against Andhra and conceded 17 runs first innings lead, today crashed to 169 all out soon after lunch conceding two runs lead to their opponents. Hero of the second day’s play, Mishra returned impressive figures of 13-3-33-5, while skipper Sharma, who snared the first two wickets of Vadodara yesterday, today took his tally to three for 56 runs. Rajasthan in control JAIPUR: Afroz Khan's maiden half-century propelled Rajasthan to 332 at Jaipur before their bowlers snapped up four Punjab wickets for 106. On 217 for 5 overnight, Rajasthan rode on Afroz's battling 52, one where he shared a 50-run last-wicket stand with No.11 Shamsher Singh. Rajesh Sharma, Punjab's offspinner, continued his fine season with 5 for 99. Punjab ended on a shaky 106 for 4, with Pankaj Singh, Rajasthan's new-ball bowler, nailing the dangerous Ravneet Ricky and Dinesh Mongia. — Agencies
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Railmen oust Thapar Academy
Ravi Dhaliwal
Nabha, December 26 The Sansarpur boys, who looked invincible after notching up convincing wins in their previous two matches, today had a nightmarish experience as they went down to their rivals owing to controversial last minute goal. In other matches of the day, trailing by four goals, Jagraon Police staged a fairytale comeback to prevail over Centre of Excellence, Patiala 10-9, Friends club, Jagraon, scrapped past Ropar Hawks 1-0 and Air Force, New Delhi, grounded Rock Rovers, Chandigarh 3-2. Gorakhpur opened the scoring with a peach of a goal scored by a diving right in Mohammad Ali who sounded the board from an acute angle after receiving an erratic looking pass from Mohammad Kaleem. Ali, who was hemmed in by a horde of defenders, when he was all set to drive the ball home, suddenly turned and made his way past the left post to evade yet another defender. It was virtually from a blind spot that he had to dive full length to put the ball home. An infringement, close to lemon break, near the danger area saw the umpire awarding a penalty corner to Sansarpur from which left back Surjit Singh struck off an indirect hit to equalise. In the second half, Gorakhpur built up sustained pressure through their wingers, a move which paid dividends when Mohammad Kaleem after finding enough space down the middle banged the ball home off a solo effort. However, once again Thapar academy found the equaliser through left out Pardeep Kumar whose precise looking shot sounded the board after he was involved in a passing bout with Surjit Singh. Then came the controversial goal which sealed the fate of the Sansarpur team. Umpire Sunil Madni's decision to award a penalty stroke to the Eastern railway outfit was vociferously protested by the Sansarpur boys. This forced him to confabulate with the other umpire H.S. Sangha and after deliberations the decision was taken back and a penalty corner was given to the Gorakhpur railmen. This time it was the turn of the railmen to register their protest, while Thapar academy boys heaved a sigh of relief. However, even as protests and counter protests were continuing, the Tournament Director Mr Gurcharan Singh stepped in to restore a semblance of order. Much to the horror of the Sansarpur outfit, Gurcharan Singh reversed the umpires decision and awarded a stroke to Eastern railway. Notwithstanding another round of loud protests by Sansarpur, the match was re-started after a delay of nearly minutes following which Mohammad Hasib neatly converted the stroke to enable his team win by a 3-2 margin. Try as they did, the crestfallen Thapar academy lads failed to find the much needed equaliser and had to take a bow from the tournament albeit with their heads held high. Indeed defeated they were but disgraced they were not.
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32 foreign players for PHL
Chandigarh, December 26 However, the names of the players and countries are yet to be finalised. It may be recalled that in the last PHL held in Chandigarh, eight players from Pakistan were among the foreigners who donned the colours of different teams. The first phase will begin on January 4 in Chennai and at Chandigarh from February 11.
This time at least four foreign players will be in one team. Holders Bangalore Lions, runners-up Chandigarh Dynamos, Hyderabad Sultans, Chennai Veerans, Orissa Steelers, Maratha Warriors and Sher-e-Jalandhar will vie for top honours in the tournament. Matches at both venues would be played under flood lights. Two teams from Punjab - Sher-E-Jalandhar skippered by Kanwalpreet Singh, and runners-up Chandigarh Dynamos to be captained by Rajpal Singh - are being jointly sponsored by Western Union, a leading provider of global money transfer services and ESPN Star Sports.
— UNI
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Prakash, Vishal bow out
New Delhi, December 26 The second-seeded Prakash, who is yet to fully recover from a wrist injury, played well in the first set, but wild card Ashutosh Singh of Delhi powered his game to a different level to record an upset 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory after a hard-fought battle lasting two hours and four minutes. Both the players fired nine aces each, but Prakash’s four double faults proved
too costly than Ashutosh Singh’s two. Vishal Uppal lost in straight sets to Todor Enev of Bulgaria 4-6, 3-6 as the Bulgarian played a steady game to rattle Vishal, for whom the court was very familiar, being a Delhi boy, but his game lacked that cutting edge. Vivek Shokeen of India survived a mid-match slump to oust eighth-seeded Vladislav Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-1 while seventh-seeded Xavier Pujo of France disposed of qualifier S Narayanaswami of India. In another match, fifth-seeded Petar Jel4enic of Croatia defeated Kiroki Kondo of Japan 6-4, 7-6 (6).
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Police shooting meet starts
Chandigarh, December 26 The competition would test the professional and weapon-handling skills of personnel from all central paramilitary forces and police organisations from across the country. There would be 15 events spread over five days in which security personnel would exhibit their skills in handling, the 9mm pistol, carbine, 7.62mm rifle and machine gun. A special electro-mechanical range has been built at the training centre for the purpose. The meet would also be used an opportunity to spot talent which can be further nurtured for national and international shooting events. Promising shooters would be brought under the guidance of the All India Police Sports Control Board. The meet was declared open by the Director General of Police, Haryana, Mr R. S. Dalal who underlined upon the importance of holding such competitions which inculcate professionalism and comradeship. In his welcome address, Mr P.P. Singh, Inspector General ITBP said that shooting skills are the core competence of any security force and any laxity in this field would have detrimental ramifications on its operational efficiency.
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Maharashtra, AP declared joint winners
Chandigarh, December 26 However, Uttar Pradesh finished third, which was decided on the basis of a toss. Individual outstanding players awards were given away by Mr P. Dolas, Joint Secretary, SGFI. Apoorva of Maharashtra was awarded the ‘Best Player of the Tournament’. The ‘Best Bowler’ award was given to Farhat of UP while the ‘Best Batswomen’ award was given to Sunil Gill of Haryana. Snehal of Maharashtra was given the ‘Best Wicketkeeper’ award.
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Sporting Clube in Fed Cup final Kolkata, December 26 The all-important goal came in the 86th minute as Dudu headed in a floating freekick unleashed from the right by Nicholas Rodrigues in the floodlit Salt Lake Stadium match and the Mahindra defenders were largely to be blamed for the setback. — PTI
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