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New Zealand
bowler WELLINGTON, Dec 28: New Zealand pace bowler Chris Martin struck twice in nine balls to quickly have Zimbabwe on the back foot in their first .....more Only tip of iceberg touched in cricket scandal: CBI chief NEW DELHI, Dec 28: CBI Director R K Raghavan believes there is a lot more to the cricket betting and match-fixing scandal than his agency has .....more
Lara clanger plunges Windies into damage-limitation exercise MELBOURNE, Dec 28: Brian Lara’s inexcusable dismissal without offering a shot late today left the West Indies facing another monumental ....more Plenty of talent available MUMBAI, Dec 28: The newly appointed Indian hockey coach Cedric D’Souza today said ........more |
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Vishal
Cricket ClubJammu Excelsior Sports Correspondent KATHUA, Dec 28: Vivek’s disastrous bowling spell helped Vishal Cricket Club Jammu to defeat XI Star Kathua by 90 runs in the 5th match of on-going Peace Cricket ....more Dev Raj Memorial Cricket
Tournament Excelsior Sports Correspondent NOWSHERA, Dec 28: Rakesh XI and Patli XI have qualified for the semi-finals of the on-going..more GHS Satryan bags first position in quiz competition Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 28: The students of Government Girls High School, Satryan in R S Pura tehsil brought laurels to the .....more Reasi Cricket Club Excelsior Correspondent REASI, Dec 28: Reasi Cricket Club today defeated Shastri Cricket Club of Jammu by three wickets in a quarter- final match of the inter-...more |
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New Zealand bowler strikes early WELLINGTON, Dec 28: New Zealand pace bowler Chris Martin struck twice in nine balls to quickly have Zimbabwe on the back foot in their first innings during the one-off cricket test at Basin Reserve here today. Martin, playing in his fourth test and first on home soil removed Guy Whittall and Stuart Carlisle within an hour of play resuming on the third day after a lengthy rain delay. Zimbabwe, in reply to New Zealand’s first innings of 487 for seven declared, was 48 for two when bad light ended play shortly before the tea break. Play was to have continued until 8 p.m. local time, but will instead start an hour early tomorrow. Zimbabwe’s initial target is to reach 288 to avoid the follow on. While New Zealand was banking on spinners Paul Wiseman and Brooke Walker bowling New Zealand to victory, the slender Martin quickly reproduced the form which saw him take 11 wickets in his debut series in South Africa. Martin fired a full-length ball through opener Whittall’s defences and two runs later deceived Carlisle, who mistimed a shot to short cover, where Matt Horne deflected the ball and did well to snare it at his second attempt. Carlisle’s departure for a duck left Zimbabwe struggling at 23 for two. Martin had figures of two for 15 off eight overs, including six maidens after his opening spell. New Zealand declared its first innings closed after adding just 12 runs to its overnight score. (AP) |
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Only tip of iceberg touched in cricket scandal: CBI chief NEW DELHI, Dec 28: CBI Director R K Raghavan believes there is a lot more to the cricket betting and match-fixing scandal than his agency has found and with further probe it hopes to "strike gold sometime". "Probably there are more characters involved in this drama," he said referring to alleged under-world connections and added that "two names which came to notice are of Abu Saleem and Anees Ibrahim". "On their significance we will work out further," Ragahvan said in an interview in the latest issue of the Sportstar weekly magazine. He said there was a nexus and money played a part, and "in certain matches there were certain bizzare happenings". According to him, Mohammed Azharuddin, who was given a life ban by the Cricket Board, had confirmed that he had been asked to "do" some matches which the former India captain said he refused. Asked about the Cricket Board’s criticism of the CBI report, Raghavan said the board was entitled to its views. "BCCI has its views but we have a right to differ. It has a right to differ too. I will be the last person to enter into a slanging match". "They (BCCI officials) are men of eminence," he said and added that the situation was too grave for them to ignore. "We have suggested they impose a rigid code of conduct. One which can be implemented. They would install a monitoring mechanism to counter this problem... It will be naive on our part to think it will not happen again," the CBI boss said. Raghavan said the clinching factors in the CBI probe were the confessions of some players. "Probably they wanted to unburden themselves. I must say to their credit they unburdened themselves and gave us facts which led us on to some persons," he said. The CBI chief denied all suggestions that what his agency put in its report did not match what it collected. "We are quite confident and we stick by our report, we stick to the facts". According to him the submission of the report was not the end of the sordid saga. "The inquiry continues. We have to keep an eye on the nexus between the players and underworld. "We have one or two names, possibly there are other names, possibly they may give other leads. We are collaborating with the other enforcement agencies. We have given the leadership to this exercise to ferret out information not only from here but from abroad also, possibly the economic links, financial links. So the inquiry continues. It is just possible we may strike gold sometime". Raghavan said the report was more than fair to the cricketers and refused to react to BCCI Vice-President Kamal Morarka’s outburst that there was more corruption in CBI than in cricket saying it was an unfortunate statement. Himself a good club cricketer and broadcaster, Raghavan said he felt hurt by the betting and match-fixing scandal and said "when I played or when I commentated on it, I took it for granted that everybody played in the right spirit". (PTI) |
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Lara clanger plunges Windies into damage-limitation exercise MELBOURNE, Dec 28: Brian Lara’s inexcusable dismissal without offering a shot late today left the West Indies facing another monumental defeat as Australia applied the blowtorch in the fourth test here. Just when the demoralised West Indies were looking to Lara to offer some resistance in the face of the relentless Australian juggernaut, he padded up and lamely offered no shot to be bowled for a duck by Jason Gillespie with stumps in sight on the third day. Trailing the Australians, who declared their second innings at 262 for five, by 461 runs, West Indies were a miserable ten for three in their second knock with two full days to go. The Australians rushed to excitedly embrace each other realising that they had eliminated the biggest obstacle to their quest for a 14th straight test victory and a 4-0 series lead. Lara’s duck after just nine minutes and seven deliveries plunged the tourists into a desperate damage-limitation battle. The tourists lost the opening two tests in Brisbane and Perth inside three days and last week’s third Adelaide test by five wickets. Set 462 runs to win the boxing day test, the Caribbean tourists made yet another of their calamitious starts losing youngsters, Daren Ganga (0) and Wavell Hinds (4) before Lara’s sickening blow in the 11 tense overs to stumps. The tourists trailed by a whopping 452 runs with a result expected sometime on fourth day tomorrow. All the wickets fell to pace bowler Gillespie, who had Ganga lbw in his first over and Hinds caught by Andy Bichel in the seven-man slips cordon in his second over. He picked up the prized Lara scalp with the fifth ball of his third over to have the figures of three for five in 16 balls as the tourists tottered at seven for three. He left the arena with three for eight off five overs. At the close, the West Indies were grimly holding on with vice-captain Sherwin Campbell failing to get off the mark in 50 minutes and nightwatchman Colin Stuart, surviving the final over from spinner Colin Miller surrounded by fielders, on three. Skipper Steve Waugh called a halt to Australia’s steady accumulation of runs after Ricky Ponting plundered 21 runs in Stuart’s final over. Building on a mammoth 199-run innings lead, Australia declared at 262 for five, setting the hapless West Indians the task of defying history to get anywhere near the target. India scored 406 for four after being set 403 to beat the West Indies in port of Spain in 1975-76, which remains the highest score to win a test. But it was all academic after the West Indies’ horrific start. Mark Waugh remained unbeaten on 78 scored in 247 minutes and Ponting 26 off 24 balls at the time of the Australian team’s declaration. Justin Langer topscored with 80 before he was snapped up by Ganga at slip off left-arm finger spinner Jimmy Adams in the final over before tea. (AFP) |
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Plenty of talent available in country: D’Souza MUMBAI, Dec 28: The newly appointed Indian hockey coach Cedric D’Souza today said his priorities would be to improve mental, physical and tactical aspects and tap the available talent in the country. "We still have lot of talent left," D’Souza told PTI here. "Before the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) offer came to me, I was involved with the grass-root development and have been round the country and the amount of talent available is unbelievable. "It is necessary that we tap the talent as early as possible so that we can train them well in advance and get ready for the big tournaments because it is not possible for any team to peak in every tournament," he added. "We have to focus on the big tournaments and work towards attaining our objectives and from my side there will be no lack of commitment. My priority would be to improve the basic areas - the mental aspect, physical and the tactical," D’Souza said when asked about his immediate plans at the camp. "We have enough time on hand before the fantastic calendar which is lined up for the boys to get good international exposure and I feel half the battle is won if we can start making the boys think for themselves and take decisions on the field," he added. "We have shortcomings as well, penalty corner conversion is one of them, and we would like to take care of it as early as possible," the former international said. (PTI) |
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Vishal Cricket Club
Jammu defeats Excelsior Sports Correspondent KATHUA, Dec 28: Vivek’s disastrous bowling spell helped Vishal Cricket Club Jammu to defeat XI Star Kathua by 90 runs in the 5th match of on-going Peace Cricket Trophy being played at Sports Stadium here. Batting first, Vishal Cricket Club scored 227 runs by losing 7 wickets in the stipulated 35 overs match. Ajay Bhatti and Rakesh Koul scored 70 runs each in 80 and 69 balls respectively. Replying to the huge total, the opener of XI Star Kathua Vishu gave well start and scored 24 runs off 26 balls. The first wicket fell when the total score on the board was 43 runs. Nirdosh of XI Star also showed good batting and made 24 runs in 29 balls. But the wickets continue to fell after regular interval of time as a result of which XI Star could score only 137 runs by losing all wickets. Rakesh Koul was declared man of the match and award was presented to him by Mr Pankaj Gupta of Pankaj Textiles. The match was officiated by Dharamvir Singh and Anminder Slathia. Prakesh Udey Singh, Naresh Sharma and Davinder Bhola awarded Rs 300 to Balbir Singh of XI Star, who hit 2 sixes and 2 fours. |
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Dev Raj Memorial Cricket
Tournament Excelsior Sports Correspondent NOWSHERA, Dec 28: Rakesh XI and Patli XI have qualified for the semi-finals of the on-going Dev Raj Sharma Memorial Inter-Club Cricket Tournament organised by Indian Youth Organisation. In the first match of the day, Rakesh XI defeated Langer XI by 67 runs and entered semi-final. After winning the toss, Rakesh XI elected to bat first and scored 151 runs in alloted 20 over for the loss of 10 wickets. Opener Rakesh played marvelously and scored 71 runs with the help of 7 boundaries and 5 sixes but the player at other end Ravinder was bold at 8. Vikas was able to get only single while Rakesh was stumped out at 20 and Rahul contributed 18 runs with the help of 3 boundaries and remained not out. For Langer XI, Suresh remained most successful bowler who clinched 3 wickets by giving 20 runs while Sumit, Pawan and Deep got 2 wickets each. In reply, Langer XI scored 84 runs by losing all wickets. Opener Sumit was caught at naught but Satvir played sensibly and contributed 24 runs with the help of 4 boundaries and one six. Pawan, Deep, Vinod and Neeraj scored 10, 13 13 and 18 runs respectively. For Rakesh XI, Raja Bakshi remained most successful bowler by getting 5 wickets by giving 13 runs in four overs. Manu and Rahul also shared 3 and 2 wickets. Raja Bakshi of Rakesh XI was declared man of the match for his all round performance. In the second match, Patli XI beat Jaba XI by 2 wickets and qualified for the semi-final. After winning the toss, Jaba XI elected to bat first and scored 106 runs. Top order batsmen Satpal, Surinder and Davinder were only able to contribute 3, 7 and 4 runs respectively but middle order batsmen Lovely and Digpal played sensible cricket and contributed 20 and 34 runs respectively. Both these players helped Jaba XI to score total of 106 runs in alloted 20 overs. For Patli XI, Sham, Kuka and Ashwani got 2 wickets each while Vineet, Kuku and Ramesh shared one wicket each. In reply to Jaba XI’s 106 runs, Patli XI lost its opener Kuku when total score on the scoreboard was only one run. But the other opener contributed 10 runs. The middle order batsmen Puneet, Sham, Ashwani and Ramesh helped their team to register victory over the opponent by contributing 16, 13, 20 and 14 runs respectively. For Jaba XI, Pawan remained most successful bowler by getting 5 wickets at the cost of 14 runs in 4 overs. I D also got 2 wickets by giving 17 runs. Ashwani was declared man of the match for his all round performance. |
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GHS Satryan bags first position in quiz competition Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 28: The students of Government Girls High School, Satryan in R S Pura tehsil brought laurels to the school by getting first position in the District Level Quiz Competition in Hindi conducted by DIET Jammu. Miss Meenakshi Chib and Miss Ronika Chib, students of 9th Class participated in the quiz under the guidance of Mrs Raman Gupta, teacher. Mrs Bimla Bhagat, Headmistress of the School appreciated and congratulated the students for their achievements. |
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Reasi Cricket Club enters semi-finals Excelsior Correspondent REASI, Dec 28: Reasi Cricket Club today defeated Shastri Cricket Club of Jammu by three wickets in a quarter- final match of the inter-district tournaments being held here. Shastri Club captain Mr Ashish Kumar after winning the toss elected to bat and scored 158 runs in 29.2 overs. Sachin Sharma knocked brilliant 77 runs, taking the team to a respectable score. Reasi Cricket Club crossed the given target of 159 runs in just 26.3 overs after losing only seven wickets. Ashwani gupta played a real captain’s role and knocked valuable 42 runs. He also sent three players to the pavilion and was declared ‘man of the match’. A spokesman of the tournament said that semi-final match will be played between Reasi Cricket Club and Tara Cricket Club of Jammu tomorrow. |
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