Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi

Paes-Bhupathi make
their first final of the year

TOKYO, Oct 14: India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi secured a final berth for the first time this ..........more

ICC Knock-Out Cricket Tournament final today
India favourites for title

NAIROBI, Oct 14: India are on a roll. A team coming into the final of a tournament after defeating reigning World Cup champions........more

Siddharth loses in quarters as Indian challenge ends

BANGALORE, Oct 14: The Indian challenge came to an end with Siddharth Jain and Abhinn Shyam Gupta making their exit in the men’s singles event......more

Kirtane scalps Sunil
for DSCL Open Title

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Nitin Kirtane of Maharashtra put up a gutsy performance in beating defending champion Sunil Kumar 6-1 6-4 5-7 6-2 to.....more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 14: The annual training camp, senior and junior division boys, 2 J&K Battalion NCC has started in NCC Camping Ground, Nagrota from October 13 to October 24 under the command of Camp Commandant Lt Col A K Yadav..............more

Volley Ball Tournament
APS Udhampur triumphs

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Oct 14: Army Public School Udhampur today conducted an Inter-School Army Public School and Army School Volley Ball Tournament.........more

Inter-School Athletic meet
for girls concludes

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 14: Inter-School Athletic Meet for Girls in the age group of under 17 and under 19 concluded today at Jammu University grounds..........more

Inter-Collegiate TT Tourney
ASCMC, GMC enter final

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 14: Archarya Shri Chandra Medical College and Government Medical College entered finals in women section while Post Graduate Department and Commerce College......more

Col Dr A K Prasad awarding the Inter Army School Northern Command Volleyball Trophy to the captain of the winning team.

Paes-Bhupathi make their first final of the year

TOKYO, Oct 14: India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi secured a final berth for the first time this season by reaching the men’s doubles final at the Japan Open Tennis Tournament today.

Paes and Bhupathi, the 1999 French Open and Wimbledon Champions who have been struggling this season, volleyed back everything they received from the Chilean-Brazilian pair Nicolas Massu and Andre Sa for a 6-3 4-6 6-2 victory.

"We played another good match. They are not a typical doubles team, but they are very good baseliners, they both hit the ball very big from the baseline, and I think we did well with our volleys," said Paes.

"Especially in the third set, we volleyed really well, we were like a wall at the net. That’s the way we got better."

"We’ve been having some troubles winning matches," said Bhupathi. "But this week, we had a lot of close matches, so I think we have a lot of confidence now.

"We are very happy, because it’s the first final this year. We’ve played only in five tournaments. We are playing well, we have a good chance," added Bhupathi.

Paes and Bhupathi were again mobbed by the Japanese fans. The duo are popular here partly because of Bhupathi’s winning mixed doubles record with Japanese partners. He won the 1997 French Open mixed doubles with Rika Hiraki and the US Open with Ai Sugiyama last season.

Paes and Bhupathi were also the finalists at the Australian Open and US Open last season, but have not reached a final this season.

"I’m happy about that (reaching the final). I hope this is not the last one," said Paes. (AFP)

ICC Knock-Out Cricket Tournament final today
India favourites for title

NAIROBI, Oct 14: India are on a roll. A team coming into the final of a tournament after defeating reigning World Cup champions Australia and defending champions South Africa in the previous two matches are the natural favourites to win the ICC Knock Out Cricket Cup.

And India not only beat them, but did it in style. Which makes them the strong favouites to win the final against New Zealand tomorrow.

Coming into the tournament after a rather unsavoury episode of match-fixing allegations put the team in a complete disarray and the game itself in disrepute, it has been a remarkable turn around in the fortunes of the Indian team.

They have played like tigers, outsmarting their opponents in every department of the game. Their batting, bowling, fielding have seen a vast improvement when compared to their performances down under, home series against South Africa, Triangular Tournament in Sharjah or in Asia Cup at Dhaka.

But the most noticeable, and welcome, aspect has been their positive attitude, the hunger to win and the willingness to fight for it till the end.

For a team which is notorious for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, this squad has simply refused to wilt under pressure and shown tremendous temperment in crunch situations.

True, it has only been three games till now and they are yet to face a real cliff-hanger. But there have been tight situations which demanded that the players to keep their cool and they have come out trumps.

As for example when Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid got out in quick succession in the quarter-final against Australia, a by-now familiar middle-order collapse looked imminent.

But Punjab youngster Yuvraj Singh, playing his first knock, put up a heroic performance and in the company of Vinod Kambli and Robin Singh not only got India out of trouble but saw to it that a match-winning total was in place.

Or when Brett Lee and Steve Waugh threatened to take the match away from India with some big stroke-play in the slog overs, instead of choking, speedster Zaheer Khan, playing only his second match, fired a yorker to send Waugh back to the pavillion to turn the match back in India’s favour.

Incidentally, Yuvraj and Zaheer, the finds of this tournament, have been tremendous influence on the team. Their youthful exuberance and energy has transformed the entire team and suddenly you have Indians running, diving, throwing themselves at every opportunity.

Vijay Dahiya has also shown tremendous promise behind the wickets though he did not have enough opportunity to prove his credentials as a batsman. In yesterday’s semi-final against South Africa, he had four victims and his stumping of Shaun Pollock was simply brilliant.

Not to speak of the trio of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid who have more or less done the job expected of them. Kambli has looked good though he has yet to come up with a big knock.

And the bowlers led by the ever-dependable Anil Kumble have performed admirably well and have been able to contain the oppostion and defend the totals put up by the batsmen. So, on paper at least, it looks like a cakewalk for the Indians. The ultimate redemption after they had virtually been written off.

But, complacency is the last thing they would need going in the match tomorrow. For New Zealand are no mean customers. The way they sent Pakistan packing in the semi-finals, when the chips were down for them, is but only an indication of the strength and character they possess.

Ganguly felt the team has the making of a good unit though he admitted it could do with one or two additions in the line-up.

"We need to fill a couple of slotsmay be a batsman and another pace bowler in the squad," said the Indian captain.

India might have to do without Robin Singh in the final as the gutsy allrounder has dislocated a finger in his left hand and is doubtful for tomorrow’s game.

If Ganguly’s mindset is any indication, he would again ignore left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi and opt for Tamil Nadu’s S Sriram who is not only a useful left-arm bowler and batsman but pretty handy in the field.

New Zealand have similarly been underdogs who have come good though they did look scratchy in their two matches against Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

The two men vital in these wins were bowlers, off-spinner Paul Wiseman and left-arm seamer Shayne O Connor. How these bowlers stand up to the assault of the Indian batsmen remains to be seen.

Shaun Pollock, yesterday’s beaten captain, rated New Zealand’s chances as good but didn’t forget to add a rider.

"New Zealand, of course, can back themselves against India in the final but in order to do so, they would have to get past the three top Indian batsmen".

Pollock said it would not be easy for the Kiwis to get past Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid though if they do manage to do so, they could do well against a suspect lower half of Indian team

The irony about these two finalists is neither boasts of a very good bowling attack. Yet they have come through and a great deal of credit must go to the pitch.

The pitch for the final is the middle of the five in the square and it has not been used. Pollock felt if the kiwi bowlers could swing the ball on the new pitch, they could have an advantage as it poses problems for the batsmen.

New Zealand has some excellent batsmen to take advantage of the good batting conditions. Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle, Roger Twose and Craig McMillan are batsmen in form. Indian bowlers would find it difficult to get past them.

India can only hope their batsmen would bat better and New Zealand bowlers bowl worse than theirs to win the trophy.

Twose has now hit his fifth consecutive fifty by the law of averages is due for a failure. The same law of averages would suggest the little Indian maestro Tendulkar would have a big knock tomorrow.

Tendulkar has just one hundred to his name this year and his captain was hoping he would come good in the final. "I wanted runs from him against South Africa. Now I hope he has been saving it for the final". (PTI)

Siddharth loses in quarters as Indian challenge ends

BANGALORE, Oct 14: The Indian challenge came to an end with Siddharth Jain and Abhinn Shyam Gupta making their exit in the men’s singles event of the Yonex German Open 2000 Badminton Tournament being played in Duisberg.

Siddharth lost to German No.1 Oliver Pongratz 15-8 6-15 9-15 in the quarterfinals while qualifier Chen Yu of China shut out Gupta 15-11 15-12 in the pre-quarterfinals, a Badminton Association of India release said here today.

Earlier, Siddharth reached the last eight stage when his pre-quarterfinal opponent Belgian No.1 Ruud Kuiten conceded his match after Siddharth was up 12-5 in the first game.

Cheatan Anand, Abishek Bakshi and Sachin Ratti had already made their exit, while the three women players including national champion Aparna Popat failed to advance beyond the second round.

The Indian team now moves on to Hertogenbosch to play the $75,000 three star Holland Plaza Dutch Open scheduled to be held from October 17 to October 22, the release said. (PTI)

Kirtane scalps Sunil for DSCL Open Title

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Nitin Kirtane of Maharashtra put up a gutsy performance in beating defending champion Sunil Kumar 6-1 6-4 5-7 6-2 to claim the DSCL Open National Tennis Title here today.

Kirtane put his wrist to maximum utility in his trademark top spin and slice shots to control the power and speed game of Sunil Kumar from the word go.

The 1999 champion played a patchy game today showing only a few flashes of brilliance and failed to loosen Kirtane’s grip over the match.

Both players, however, served poorly and struggled to hold service games. Sunil Kumar, who was mainly erratic with his first serve initially, mended his way in the fourth set but it was little too late.

After an easy first set, Kirtane was broken in the very first game of the second set. However, Kirtane bounced back to break Sunil in the next game to level the set 1-1.

The Chandigarh lad lacked concentration as he squandered two break points in the fourth game of the second set. After exchanging couple of deuces, Kirtane took the game to go ahead 3-1.

In contrast to Kumar, Kirtane pounced on the opportunities coming his way to break the deadlock in the 10th game and won the set 6-4.

The third set saw some excellent tennis with both players showcasing their best game.

Kirtane went ahead as he broke Sunil in the fourth game and was on way to wrap up the match in straight sets. But Sunil had not taken into account the fighting spirit of the defending champion.

Kumar, trailing 5-2, put up some astonishing display of power tennis and fired aces to take the next five games and wrap the set 7-5.

In the fourth set, Kirtane and Kumar were again heading the same way as in the previous set. However, Kirtane stepped up his game to change the course of the set and the match.

Kirtane broke Sunil in the fourth and sixth game to be crowned the new national champion. (PTI)

Annual NCC training camp inaugurated

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 14: The annual training camp, senior and junior division boys, 2 J&K Battalion NCC has started in NCC Camping Ground, Nagrota from October 13 to October 24 under the command of Camp Commandant Lt Col A K Yadav.

About 600 cadets drawn from various educational institutions of Jammu province are attending the camp. During the camp besides military training to the cadets, method to assist during the national disaster will be demonstrated and social service activities will be carried out. Special efforts will be made to select and train the cadets for Thal Sena camp to be held at New Delhi from October 30.

Lt col A K Yadav while inaugurating the camp stressed upon the cadets to maintain the high standard of discipline during the camp and briefed the cadets about the nature of training to be imparted to them.