West Indies go to final,
beat Zimbabwe by 8 wkts

KANDY, Dec 16: A batting blitz of 85 runs off 79 balls by Chris Gayle gave the West Indies victory in the crucial match against Zimbabwe today, ............more

Kannan shocks
Bopanna to become
national champion

NEW DELHI, Dec 16: Ninth seed Vijay Kannan upset top seed Rohan Bopanna in the mens’ singles final to clinch the DSCL National Open tennis ............more

Victory okay, but a
lot of hard work
ahead: Dhillon

NEW DELHI, Dec 16: After the splendid victory in the Champions Challenge Tournament in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, the Indian hockey team has set its sights on the World.......more

UP, Delhi repeat
performance in
Sr National Women Hockey

LUCKNOW, Dec 16: Uttar Pradesh and Delhi teams repeated their yesterday performances on the second day of the first (Region II) Senior ....more

SMHS School organises
various functions

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 16: The valedictory function of Arts and Crafts Exhibition was organised by Shastri Memorial Higher Secondary School Rehari......more

Workshop on teaching
aids held

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 16: A workshop on Teaching aids was held at New Modern Higher Secondary School, here, wherein teachers work on new systems of education for the students.....more

Jammu karateka attends
national technical camp

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 16: Sandeep Dogra of Jammu attended the national technical karate training camp, which held at J J Indoor Stadium,.....more

Marriage is over: Thorpe

LONDON, Dec 16: England hero Graham Thorpe, who quit India tour midway in a desperate bid to save his marriage, said he was splitting with .....more

West Indies go to final, beat Zimbabwe by 8 wkts

KANDY, Dec 16: A batting blitz of 85 runs off 79 balls by Chris Gayle gave the West Indies victory in the crucial match against Zimbabwe today, taking them to the final of the Triangular Tournament against Sri Lanka.

Chasing 155 for victory, the West Indies lost opener Darren Ganga with the team’s total at 15. But Gayle and one-down batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan took the score to 121 when Gayle was out.

Gayle hit all Zimbabwean bowlers all around and raced to 85 off 79 balls. He hit 17 boundaries and a six. Gayle was adjudged the man-of-the-match and got a reward of $ 500.

Earlier, an eighth wicket partnership of 60 runs between Heath Streak and Travis friend helped Zimbabwe post 154 all out, after being seven for 53 runs at one stage.

Batting first, Zimbabwe started disastrously, losing four wickets in the first 15 overs for 24 runs and then slipping to 53 for seven.

Then Streak and friend steadied the innings and added 60 runs when friend was out for 22.

Streak went into scoring his fourth one-day half century and posted 57. He faced 88 balls, hit four boundaries and one six.

The match gave West Indies medium pacer Darryl Brown, 27, a three-wicket haul on his international debut.

Brown dismissed Trevor Gripper, trapped Andy Flower Leg Before Wicket and claimed Douglas Marillier.

Zimbabwe’s problems started in the third over of the day when Grant Flower played down the wrong line and was bowled by Pedro Collins. Two balls later, Corey Colleymore trapped Dion Ebrahim, who was dropped first ball of the match by Carl Hooper at second slip, leg before.

Carlisle then played a loose shot at a wide delivery from Collins and was caught low down by wicket keeper Ridley Jacobs.

Andy Flower and Craig Wishart looked to be building a promising fourth wicket stand when Wishart was called for a quick single and was run out by Hooper.

West Indian captain Carl Hooper won the toss and elected to field first in this make or break clash. (AP)

Kannan shocks Bopanna to become national champion

NEW DELHI, Dec 16: Ninth seed Vijay Kannan upset top seed Rohan Bopanna in the mens’ singles final to clinch the DSCL National Open tennis title at the DLTA Deco-Turfs here today.

The pulsating two-and-a-half-hour match, which started late due to overnight dew, saw Kannan emerging the winner in a battle of nerves with a 6-4 6-4 5-7 6-1 victory.

The lanky Kannan used his baseline play to perfection and except for the third set which he lost 5-7, he seemed to be in full command of the proceedings.

Bopanna too showed his brilliance but in patches as he managed to trouble his rival on quite a few occasions with booming aces.

Bopanna started confidently and put Kannan on the defensive playing some remarkable shots to win the initial three games.

But a plenty of unforced errors by Bopanna helped Kannan recover in the eighth game of the first set. Game nine saw an aggressive Bopanna fighting for a comeback after the deuce but by that time the game had already moved in Kannan’s favour.

Early leads for Bopanna served no purpose as he lost five consecutive games to concede the first set 4-6.

Bopanna seemed to make a comeback in the first game of the second set, the longest of the match. After trailing 15-40, Bopanna edged back to make it deuce. Kannan took the advantage with a well-placed volley, but failed to seal the issue as his next shot was wayward. That triggered a long series of deuces, eight in all. In the end, Bopanna took the game with some excellent passing shots.

Kannan won the next three games, but Bopanna, not willing to let go, replied by taking next three.

He, however, committed a series of unforced errors in the ninth game which enabled Kannan to break him. Kannan went on to take the next game and the set 6-4.

The top-seed showed some of his fire in the third set. He lost three games in a row after taking the first, but his aggressiveness ensured that Kannan did not run away with the match that easily.

The two won on their serves in the next four games, after which Bopanna broke Kannan in the tenth and twelth games to take the set 7-5.

However, he lost his way completely in the fourth set. The ninth-seed faced almost no resistance from Bopanna, who reverted to his saga of unforced errors and was soon trailing 4-0.

In the fifth game, Bopanna tried hard to make a comeback. He again showed some of his excellent range of shots which Kannan had no answer to.

But it was too late by then and Kannan had to just stick to basics to take the set 6-1 and the match.

Meanwhile, in a delayed women’s final match, top seed Rushmi Chakraborty lived up to her billing defeating fourth seed Sheetal Goutham 6-4 6-3. After six match points were saved by Goutham, Rushmi won on her seventh match point to take home the top honour. (PTI)

Victory okay, but a lot of hard work ahead: Dhillon

NEW DELHI, Dec 16: After the splendid victory in the Champions Challenge Tournament in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, the Indian hockey team has set its sights on the World Cup next year though captain Baljit Singh Dhillon said a lot of hard work still needed to be done.

Expressing satisfaction with the team’s performance in Malaysia, which would also host the World Cup in two months time, Dhillon said the team needed to work harder on many areas, specially mid-field play so that no chances were missed.

"We missed a lot of chances in this tournament. We should have won the final by at least five or six goals," Dhillon said on arrival here from Kuala Lumpur alongwith seven of his teammates. The remaining members of the team including coach Cedric D’souza stopped in Chennai.

However, Dhillon was very satisfied with the result. "We succeeded in our gameplan and played good hockey. We had a very good rate of penalty corner conversion that obviously worked to our advantage," Dhillon said.

He said the combination of senior and junior players had been beneficial for the team as youth and experience complemented each other well. Now, the aim was to continue the good performance in the World Cup and Asian Games next year apart from the the Champions Trophy for which India qualified by virtue of having won in Kuala Lumpur.

"We had two back-to-back victories (in junior World Cup and Champions Challenger) and that is a tremendous confidence booster for the team. Now we have to continue the good work," Dhillon said.

"In World Cup and Champions Trophy, we will have tougher competition and we will have to be better prepared. We cannot afford to miss chances there," he said.

As part of its preparations for the coming tournaments, India will embark on a tour of Argentina and Singapore next month to play a few practice matches.

Coach D’souza has already said that the Indian team would not feature in any more tournaments before the World Cup and will only play some quality test matches with other countries.

The World Cup starts in Kuala Lumpur on February 24. (PTI)

UP, Delhi repeat performance in Sr National Women Hockey

LUCKNOW, Dec 16: Uttar Pradesh and Delhi teams repeated their yesterday performances on the second day of the first (Region II) Senior National Women’s Hockey Championship at the Dhyan Chand Stadium here.

In the second matches of the round robin league championship Delhi beat Rajasthan 13-0 while host Uttar Pradesh beat lowly-ranked Uttaranchal 7-0. However, the losers improved their performance a lot in comparison to the previous day when they were beaten by Delhi at 13-0.

UP started the day with an attack on Uttaranchal from the very first minute but were deprived of an immediate lead, Uttaranchal’s defenders frustrated them, clearing the ball neatly till the 11th minute but Sheetal Bhat drew the first blood on her solo move, coming in front of the goalkeeper, hit the ball into the goal mouth, after that in the 20th and 29th minutes Mohini and Deepali consolidated the lead through field goals.

At half time, the UP team was leading 3-0.

In the second half, the Uttaranchal team again tried their best to restrict the opposite camp to score further and forced them to remain in their shell. They later failed to resist well and the cordon was holed by Razmi Razi(4-0).

Taking advantage of the demoralised Uttaranchal team, Pooja struck hard and within four minutes completed her hat-trick of the match and made the score 7-0 which they maintained till the final hooter.

In the second match, fancied Delhi beat Rajasthan 13-0. Delhi girls entered the ground with an aggressive mood and in the very first minute of the game Anju gave Delhi lead (1-0) which she increased 2-0 in the fifth minute. Rajasthan team could not match the stamina of Delhi girls who scored the goals at their will, at the half way the winners were leading 9-0.

In the second half, the game progressed slowly and only four goals were scored in 35 minutes by the winners making it 13-0.

Both the losing teams— Rajasthan and Uttaranchal— are goalless after the end of their two round matches. In contrast, Delhi hit maximum number of goals(26) and UP (18). All the four teams have only one match to play and the top two teams will qualify for the super league stage to be held in Delhi in January next, it was clear that UP and Delhi would have been the two qualifying teams on the basis of their points tally.

On the final day, Uttaranchal will take on Rajasthan and Delhi will clash with host UP tomorrow. (UNI)

SMHS School organises various functions

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 16: The valedictory function of Arts and Crafts Exhibition was organised by Shastri Memorial Higher Secondary School Rehari at its Patoli wing which was presided over by Swami Paul Ji, Chairman, Maa Shakti Sanstha, a NGO dedicated to the cause of children and youth.

As per a release in his impressive address Swami Paul said that children are greatest strength of the country and that it is only they who can make the country strong and prosperous. He added that the paramount duty of all to care for their mental and physical growth in order to make them able to face challenges ahead.

Swami Paul said further that all out efforts should be made to make their future bright. He added that in this fast growing world the children have to shoulder great responsibilities in future. Swamiji recalled that his contact with the children has kindled him the strength to go ahead in his life. He advised the parents to give full affection and love to their children for their overall development.

Swami Paul went around the exhibition and observed keenly the works of the students on display. He appreciated the skill of budding students and expressed the hope that students of the school will make further strides to glorify the institution which has enjoyed as a standard school on the Educational Map of Jammu and Kashmir.

The judges on the occasion were Messrs O P Verma, Manoj Chopra and Satish Sharma while prizes were given by Swami Paul to winners. The winners in Science Model included Sumit Koul as Ist, Bharti and Roham Harish as second and Amita, Sumita and Puja as third. In clay modelling Shiveta bagged first, Palvi Gupta second, Heena Jamwal as third and Khawahish Mattoo as fourth.

Rahul Munshi, Avneet Koul and Anita Verma secured first, second and third positions in painting contest while in Matka painting the first three winners were Rahul Ganjoo, Harpreet and Priyanka. In Crafts Ishan Malhotra, Vidushi Vaid, Amandeep and Aparna Bhat bagged first, second, third and fourth spots respectively.

In Glass painting Rahul Munshi, Avneet Kour and Mishu bagged first, second and third positions respectively and in Interaction Sumit Koul bagged the first position. In Fancy Dress competition Shabina Suri, Manish and Mahul bagged first three positions respectively.