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Ganguly confident of KOLKATA, May 5: Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly is confident that his team will win both.............more Moya on course for home PALMA DE MALLORCA, (Spain), May 5: Carlos Moya booked his place in the Mallorca Open ...........more Asian Zonal Chess Champ COLOMBO, May 5: All the three Indian Grandmasters in the fray recorded comprehensive victories ......more Roddick continues to HOUSTON, May 5: Andy Roddick remained on course for his second career title in consecutive.......more |
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Mulkh Raj Memorial Cricket Tourney Eleven Star beat KHCC to reach final of Veterans Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, May 5: Eleven Star defeated Kulbushan Handa Cricket Club (KHCC).........more Traditional
games Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, May 5: The well contested finals of the traditional rural games of Wrestling and Kabaddi marked the ......more Volleyball
complex Excelsior Sports Correspondent UDHAMPUR, May 5: The Minister for Sports, Harbans Singh today inaugurated the newly constructed Volleyball Complex in.....more Mahant
Bachiter Singh Memorial Cricket Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, May 5: Shine Star Cricket Club today entered the final of the 5th Mahant Bachiter Singh......more |
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Ganguly confident of overseas victory KOLKATA, May 5: Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly is confident that his team will win both the test series and the limited-over triangular contest when they visit Zimbabwe later this month. India will play a two-match test series and a limited-over tournament, in which West Indies will be the third side, in Zimbabwe from May end. "I am sure the Indian team will continue with its form and return from Zimbabwe on a winning note," Ganguly told newspersons here yesterday. The recent test series victory against Australia has given the team a great deal of confidence, he said. "We have won the series at home and now we want to win one outside the country as well," Ganguly said. The Indian captain sounded very confident about the India’s batting prowess and termed it as "one of the best in the world now." The Bengal tiger hinted that he would prefer to have five seamers in the team as the wicket there would suit the pacemen better. "Our fast bowlers will have an important role to play and they are expected to get some assistance from the conditions," he added. Ganguly pointed out that there would be some grass on the wickets in Zimbabwe, but it would be less than what they had against Bangladesh recently. "If they keep more grass on the wicket, it won’t help them much as our bowlers are also quite capable of extracting benefit out of it. But we still have to improve further in the bowling department," he added. Besides bowling which needed more attention, the Indian skipper also expressed concern about wicket-keeping. "We are looking for a wicket-keeper who can bat well," the Southpaw said. The Indian selectors have included three players in the list of probables — Samir Dighe of Mumbai, Ajoy Ratra of Haryana and Deep Dasgupta of Bengal — for wicket-keeper’s slot in the team visiting Zimbabwe. However, Sourav admitted that it would not be easy to beat Zimbabwe at their home turf. "We would decide about our strategy for the Zimbabwe tour when we all meet at Bangalore for the camp, like we did against Australia. We first ask all the players for their opinions. Then the seniors in the team would jointly discuss and chalk out the plan," he added. Ganguly said he had already discussed with team coach John Wright and vice-captain Rahul Dravid about the camp where special emphasis would be given on physical fitness and fielding. In the last series against the Aussies, the Indian captain did not do well in batting. To make it up, the Bengal southpaw is regularly spending a lot of time in gymnasium and nets to improve his physical fitness and batting and bowling prowess. Besides, he is also participating in the domestic and local tournaments to get the match practice. "I want to keep myself fully fit and prepared for the task ahead," Ganguly said. (UNI) |
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Moya on course for home victory in Mallorca Open PALMA DE MALLORCA, (Spain), May 5: Carlos Moya booked his place in the Mallorca Open semifinals yesterday with a 6-4 6-2 victory over German number one Nicolas Kiefer. Local-born Moya, seeded three and looking to win his home clay-court tournament for the first time, confirmed his recent good form with a convincing victory over the sixth-seed. Moya, who lost last week’s Barcelona Open final to Juan Carlos Ferrero, will meet compatriot Alberto Marin today. The 22-year-old Spaniard swept past Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic 6-2 6-4 in his quarter-final earlier in the day. On the other side of the draw, Moya’s Davis Cup colleague, Juan Balcells, made it a trio of Spaniards in the semis after a closely fought victory over Argentina’s Agustin Calleri 7-6 6-4. Balcells meets the highly-rated Argentine Guillermo Coria, who fought back from a set down to overcome Costa Rican qualifier Juan Antonio Marin. The 19-year-old, seeded fourth in the tournament, lost the first set 3-6 before battling his way from 4-5 down to take the second on a tie-break which he won 7-2. But Coria, ranked 14th in the ATP standings, recovered some fluency in his play as he ran away with the third set 6-1. (REUTERS) |
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Asian
Zonal Chess Champ COLOMBO, May 5: All the three Indian Grandmasters in the fray recorded comprehensive victories in the first round matches of the Asian Zonal Chess Championships which started here today. GMs K Sasikiran, Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua won their respective games without much trouble but International Master D V Prasad and Saheli Barua suffered reverses. While Prasad lost to his bete noire Reefat Bin Sattar of Bangladesh in a wild French game, Saheli lost to the younger of the Subburaman Sibling Meenakshi falling for the minority attack on the queenside. For top seed Sasikiran it was testing time of his opening repertoire as he played the king pawn opening much to the surprise of his opponent. But Taibur Rahman was upto the task and was holding his own comfortably in a closed Sicilian game until the time pressure undid him. "I just managed to win" was all that India no. 2 Sasikiran would say after the game. Quite unusual of him, but then equally unusual was the presence of both his father and mother among spectators. It makes a big family of chess players in this "island in the sun" as the trio of Baruas, Subburamans and Krishnans make a cheerful party in this event. For the Pune-based Kunte it was a routine victory as he hardly exerted and left the rest for the later rounds. It was an usual quiet win for Kunte over the young Abu Safin Shakil of Bangladesh. Coming out with equally quick wins were S S Ganguly and Enamul Hossain over Laxman Wijayasurya and D R Peiris. Interesting games of the day came from the oldest of the participants viz., Prasad and Barua. For Prasad the beginning was a slip of sorts as his pursuit of GM norm suffered in the hands of the enterprising Bangladesh IM Reefat Bin Sattar. Prasad lost the advanced french game in 43 moves. "Prasad’s eleventh move allowing ‘h5’ was a mistake. I almost messed it up in the time pressure, but managed to squeeze the point in a pawn up ending," said a relieved Sattar. Calcutta-based Barua had his hands full against local star Amarawickrama. In a double edged position, Amarawickrama, a medical practitioner by profession, consumed too much of time and fell short by four moves when his flag fell. It was anybody’s game, wherein Barua couldn’t make a big headway into the Sri Lankan original play. But the reduced time control effected here had its victims, like Amarawickrama, who were a little under prepared in the opening. It was Meenakshi who made news on the distaff side, scoring a fine win over Saheli Barua in a technical queenside attack. Holding fort till the middle game, Saheli allowed white queen’s foray into her territory after which Meenakshi made no mistake. Sensing trouble Saheli went for a kingside encore but was found wanting. Saheli’s flag fell when she was two moves short, with a position that wasn’t savable. There were two different rook blunders that gave Pallavi Shah and Vijayalakshmi full point in an advantageous position. Also finishing on the winning side after the opener were Swati Ghate and Vineta Vijayasurya. It was a time pressure mistake by veteran Rani Hamid of Bangladesh that gave Swati the advantage of a full piece, which she patiently converted to score her first point of the event. (PTI) |
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Roddick continues to prosper in Houston HOUSTON, May 5: Andy Roddick remained on course for his second career title in consecutive tournaments after taking only 49 minutes to defeat Stefan Koubek 6-3 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the U S Men’s Clay Court Championships. The big-serving 18-year-old eased past his Austrian opponent, who he also beat last week en route to the Verizon Challenge final in Atlanta. Despite hitting only six aces, Roddick made sure most of his serves were unplayable and never faced a break point throughout the match yesterday. "When I’m feeling good, I can step up to the line and win points off my serve," Roddick said. Playing in only his 11th ATP Tournament, Roddick is on an eight-match winning streak but he won’t allow himself to consider the possibility of two tournament wins in a row. "If I reach the final, then I’ll think about it," Roddick said. "I still have to get past Jerome Golmard and he’s been playing well in the last couple of weeks." The third seeded Golmard beat Jiri Vanek 6-3 6-2 to book his place against Roddick in the semifinals. The two have never met in a competitive match, but have often practiced together on a hardcourt in Roddick’s Florida Garden. In an earlier match, Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea, the tournament’s eighth seed, scored an upset victory over second seeded Australian Andrew Ilie 6-4 2-6 6-2. Lee, currently ranked 81st in the world, is the highest-ranked player from his country in the history of the ATP rankings. Yesterday, he made it two semifinal appearances in a row, having lost to Michael Chang last week in Atlanta. Lee will face Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic in the other semifinal today. The fourth seed won in straight sets over Belgium’s Olivier Rochus 6-4 6-2. (REUTERS) |
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Mulkh Raj Memorial
Cricket Tourney Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, May 5: Eleven Star defeated Kulbushan Handa Cricket Club (KHCC) by five wickets to reach the final of the Veterans, while as Dogra Cricket Club won their tie in the Open competitions of the Ist Mulkh Raj Gupta Memorial Veteran Cricket Club being held at Parade ground, here today. Earlier, after winning the toss and opted to bat, KHCC set a target of 186 runs in the allotted 25 overs for the loss of six wickets, which in reply, Eleven Star chased in 23 overs for the loss of five wickets. Ravi Kant was the top scorer with 32 runs off 32 ball including four boundaries, while Dr Manhas followed him with unbeaten 31 (off 27 balls, 4x4). Ramesh, Naresh and Bakshi contributed 25, 27 and 20 runs respectively. From Eleven Star, Neetu took three wickets, while, Lovely, Kamal and Jasbir shared one each. Batting second, Eleven Star reached the required total in 23rd over. Kamal Sharma played a nice inning of 36 runs off 29 balls hitting one six and four boundaries, while Davinder contributed 39. Rajinder and Ashok added valuable 26 and 19 runs to the total. Highest 54 runs came through extras, which clearly showed the bad bowling by KHCC bowlers. From KHCC, Manhas and Hafiz took two wickets each. Davinder was declared as man of the match. Zahoor Ahmed and Kapil were umpires. In the Open competitions, Dogra Cricket Club down Rajan Cricket Club by seven wickets to advance in the third round. Batting first, Rajan Club scored 155 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 25 overs. In reply, Dogra Club chased the target in 24.3 overs losing only three wickets. Inderjeet played a brilliant inning of 50 runs, hitting five fours, for Dogra Club and also took three wickets. He was declared as man of the match. |
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Traditional games finals
mark end of Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, May 5: The well contested finals of the traditional rural games of Wrestling and Kabaddi marked the end of the two-day sports cum cultural mela organised by the Jammu division unit of the Youth Hostels Association of India at Bishnah, here. In circle Kabaddi final, Kotli Club defeated Bishnah Club with a narrow margin of one point (18-17), while as in Volleyball final, Allah Club beat Pindichak (Allah) 2-1. In wrestling five best bouts were played on the final day. Before the prize distribution function, students from the different schools and local artists enthralled the audience with their performance. Mr Harbans Singh, Minister for Sports, was the chief guest, who gave away prizes to the winners and runners-up. Director, Youth Services and Sports, Syed Asgar Ali and chairman of the Jammu unit of YHAI, Mr Gurjeet Singh presided over the function. The Minister said that by organising exploring the hidden talent and providing them a chance to perform on the field and at the stage, the YHAI was doing a great job. Minister assured the YHAI all sort of help and cooperation from the Government. Director, in his address, lauded the role of Jammu unit of the YHAI in organising such rural sports melas in the border villages. Vote of thanks was presented by the the secretary of the Association, Mr Trilok Singh. |
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Volleyball complex inaugurated Excelsior Sports Correspondent UDHAMPUR, May 5: The Minister for Sports, Harbans Singh today inaugurated the newly constructed Volleyball Complex in memory of Late Madan Parkash Gupta, a veteran sports person, at the Government Higher Secondary School, here. The largely attended function, besides others, was attended by the Deputy Chairman, Legislative Council, Mr Chuni Lal Khajuria, Director Youth Services and Sports and Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur. The complex has been constructed at a cost of Rs 4.70 lakh with the local initiative and contribution of school boys and with the Army help. The complex with a sitting capacity of near 1200 spectators has one training wall and national standard cynder court While inspecting other sports infrastructure in the district, the Minister announced a grant of Rs 4 lakh for the completion of remaining work of Badminton complex during the current financial year. Besides this, he also announced Rs 10,000 for the the refreshment of the students, who performed in the cultural programme on the occasion. He also gave away a cash prize of Rs 1000 each to the teams which played the inaugural match. In this match, J&K Armed Police team beat BSF in straight sets. Speaking on the occasion, the Director, Youth Services and Sports said that efforts are being made to provide infrastructure in all the regions of the State. He also told the gathering that immediately after the declaration of the National Sports police, State sports policy will be declared. In his address, the Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, Mr M S Khan complimented the District Youth Services and Sports Officer for organising sports activities in far flung areas by engaging large number of students. Earlier, in his welcome address, District Youth Services and Sports Officer, Ashok Kumar said that besides regular practice by the locals, the complex will also be thrown open for the inmates of Sports Hostel being commissioner at Udhampur shortly. Students of Little Flower Convent, Happy Model Higher Secondary School, Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Nehru Memorial Hr Sec. School and Sheetal Academy performed cultural programme. Prominent among others present on the occasion were Daleep Kumar, SSP, J K Sawhney, Addl DC, Veena Bakshi, Divisional, Youth Services and Sports Officer, Jammu, besides other senior officials of the Department of Youth Services and Sports. |
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Mahant Bachiter Singh
Memorial Cricket Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, May 5: Shine Star Cricket Club today entered the final of the 5th Mahant Bachiter Singh Memorial Cricket Tournament beating Singh Cricket Club, Bandhu Rakh by 10 runs at Simbal, here. Batting first after winning the toss, Shine Star scored 163 runs for the loss of five wickets in the allotted 20 overs. In reply, Singh Club lost all the wickets for 153 in the 18th over. Anil and Sonu were the main batsmen, who added 80 runs for the sixth wicket partnership and brought the score to 163 for five in the stipulated overs. Both Anil (40 off 26, 3x6, 2x4) and Sonu (36, 2x6, 2x4) remained unbeaten. From Singh Club, Rajesh and Sudhir shared two wickets each, while Parveen took one. Batting second, Singh Club lost all the wickets for 153 when 18th over was in progress. Satyajeet was the top scorer with 34, while Paul contributed 29. Parveen and Sudhir shared 20 each. Anil was the most successful bowler from Shine Star, who claimed four wickets, while Narinder and Ashwani shared two each. Anil was declared as man of the match for his all round performance. Pintu and Harmeet were umpires in today’s match, while Ajmeet Singh was scorer. Tomorrow’s fixture: Combined XI V/s Rajan Cricket Club at 2.30 pm. |
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