BLOEMFONTEIN, Nov 2: An ill-prepared India would be looking to balance history as they go into the first of the three-match test series against the hosts here tomorrow seeking their first test win on South African soil....more

Jayasuriya passes
7,000-run mark

SHARJAH (United Arab Emirates), Nov 2: Sanath Jayasuriya today passed 7,000 one-day international runs as Sri Lanka and Pakistan met in a dress-rehearsal of the Sharjah champions trophy final........more

J&K face innings
defeat against Haryana

ROHTAK, Nov 2: Jammu and Kashmir faces innings defeat against hosts Haryana as the visitors were 16 for one in their second innings at stumps on the second day of their four-day North Zone Ranji Trophy cricket match here today. Haryana having amassed 410 runs in their first innings, skittled out J and K for a paltry 113 in their first innings forcing a follow on with a first innings lead of 297 runs....more

Tour on, ECB satisfied
with security arrangements

NEW DELHI, Nov 2: The decks were cleared for English cricket team’s tour of India starting later this month with the England and Wales Cricket Board today expressing full satisfaction with the security arrangements planned by the Indian Government.........more

By Sanjeev Sharma

JAMMU, Nov 2: Hosts Jammu and Kashmir Police have proved that they have improved at both defence and attack departments.....more

11th State Billiards and Snooker Championship
Kamal sails into
Sr Snooker semis

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: Defending champion Kamal Rohmetra today sailed into the semi-finals of the senior Snooker in the ongoing......more

Sports Minister’s visit
mark beginning of
Distt TT Tourney

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: The District Table Tennis Championship, organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Table Tennis Association.......more

14-member J&K team
leaves for Sub-junior
national Volleyball

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: Fourteen members team, including two officials, today left for the 24th Sub-junior National Volleyball Championship......more

 
Jammu and Kashmir Police goal-keeper lying before the ball when Chandigarh Police made an attempt to reduce the margin in a league tie at Jammu on Friday. -Excelsior/Ashok

Short of practice, India looking for glory

BLOEMFONTEIN, Nov 2: An ill-prepared India would be looking to balance history as they go into the first of the three-match test series against the hosts here tomorrow seeking their first test win on South African soil.

India have never defeated South Africa in two previous visits to this country, losing three of the seven matches. In fact they were thrashed even at home last year when South Africa won both the tests of the series. The head-to-head record between the two countries is heavily tilted in favour of the South Africans who have won six of the 12 matches and lost two.

Yet Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was quite hopeful of his team making a match out of it. He said his team was going into the match with a positive frame of mind and was quite capable of springing up a few surprises.

This, despite the fact the Indians have had the worst possible practice coming into this test series. They suffered their ninth consecutive defeat in a final match when they lost to the hosts in the title-clash of the Triangular one-day series last week.

Then they watched in frustration as the only practice game ahead of the test - a three-day match against South Africa ‘A’ in Chatsworth, Durban - was washed out due to rain and wet outfield.

To top it all, vice-captain and batting mainstay Rahul Dravid was found to have been harbouring a shoulder injury. Thouth he is likely to play tomorrow, the news of his shoulder problem sent shockwaves in the Indian camp.

However, it is easy to see the reason for Ganguly’s hope and optimism. It obviously stems from a strong batting order with most of the batsmen in good nick though their failure to click as a unit has been a problem for the Indians.

Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly himself have been among the top run-scorers in the one-day series. The Indian batsmen have shown no signs of their perceived weakness on the fast and bouncy pitches with Ganguly himself leading the charge against the South African speedsters. So much so, that the home team was reportedly worried about the lack of variety in its bowling attack.

Ganguly was also expecting a lot from the two left-arm seamers - Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan - who joined the squad for the test series. South Africa have not faced this variant of pace attack in recent times and both Nehra and Zaheer are expected to pose some problems to the home batsmen.

Then there is the spin duo of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh who form a match-winning combination. The two have already troubled the South Africans in the one-dayers and would be an even greater force in the tests.

However, there are major worries too, the foremost being the opening slot where Connor Williams was likely to make his test debut. With the chatsworth game having been abandoned, Williams would be going into the match without facing a single ball in the middle on these tracks. The other opener Shiv Sunder Das, though having proved himself earlier, failed to click in the one-dayers and it remains to be seen how he copes on pitches which are in stark contrast to what he has batted on till now.

It was not surprising then that there was talk of sending Dravid as an opener and keeping Williams out for the next test.

In fact, Williams’ place was under threat from another quarter too. The team management was yet to decide on the final composition, the point of contention being whether to go in with four bowlers or five.

Coach John Wright was said to be keen to include five bowlers and ganguly too was reported not averse to the idea but that would jeopardise the delicate balance of the team. It would also mean that williams sat out and dravid opened the innings. With less than a day left, the indians were reverting to the conservative idea of going in with four bowlers. (PTI)

Jayasuriya passes 7,000-run mark

SHARJAH (United Arab Emirates), Nov 2: Sanath Jayasuriya today passed 7,000 one-day international runs as Sri Lanka and Pakistan met in a dress-rehearsal of the Sharjah champions trophy final.

The Sri Lankan captain, playing his 246th match, overhauled the mark as his side reached 116 for two after 25 overs.

The left-hander put on 95 with Avishka Gunawardene but, after making 36, fell to spinner Shahid Afridi.

Only two other Sri Lankans — Aravinda De Silva with 8,430 runs and Arjuna Ranatunga with 7,456 — have passed the milestone.

Gunawardene, after making 57, miscued a hook off Shoaib Akhtar straight to Inzamam-ul-Haq.

The two teams meet again on Sunday in the final of the Triangular Tournament after Zimbabwe lost all four of their group matches. (REUTERS)

J&K face innings defeat against Haryana

ROHTAK, Nov 2: Jammu and Kashmir faces innings defeat against hosts Haryana as the visitors were 16 for one in their second innings at stumps on the second day of their four-day North Zone Ranji Trophy cricket match here today.

Haryana having amassed 410 runs in their first innings, skittled out J and K for a paltry 113 in their first innings forcing a follow on with a first innings lead of 297 runs.

Following on the visitors were again in trouble and lost opener R Bali’s wicket without a score. The visitors still needed 282 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

Resuming at the overnight score of 286 for three, Haryana were all out for 410 in 129.3 overs. Ishan Ganda could add only three runs to his overnight score of 106 before he was bowled by Vijay Sharma. Shafiq Khan added 32 runs to his overnight score of 114 before falling prey also to Vijay Sharma, who finished with a tally of five for 67.

Amit Mishra, Sumit Narwala claimed three wickets each in J and K first innings while two each were shared by Gaurav Vashishta and S Vidhyut.

Scoreboard:

Haryana (ist innings):

Paramjit Sehrawat c Bali b

Surinder Singh 0

Chetan Sharma lbw

Surinder Singh 41

Ishan Ganda b Vijay Sharma 109

Parender Sharma c

Kanwaljit Singh b Jagtar 5

Shafiq Khan b Vijay Sharma 146

Ajay Ratra c Raju Sharma b Vijay Sharma 0

S Vidhyut st Taggar b S Khajuria 31

Amit Mishra c Dhruv Mahajan b Vijay Sharma 12

Sumit Narwal c Fayaz b S Khajuria 30

Gaurav Vashishta not out 7

Vineet Jain b Vijay Sharma 2

Extras (b-8, lb-4, w-2, nb 13) 27

Total (all out in 129.3 overs) 410

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-94, 3-117, 4-294, 5-296, 6-342, 7-370, 8-371, 9-407

Bowling analysis: Surinder Singh 31-7-97-2, Vijay Sharma 23.3-5-67-5, Raju Sharma 6-0-31-0, Jagtar Singh 34-9-86-1, S Khajuria 15-1-70-2, Ashwani Gupta 17-4-36-0, D Mahajan 3-0-11-0. (PTI)

Tour on, ECB satisfied with security arrangements

NEW DELHI, Nov 2: The decks were cleared for English cricket team’s tour of India starting later this month with the England and Wales Cricket Board today expressing full satisfaction with the security arrangements planned by the Indian Government.

ECB Director of operations John Carr and English players’ representative Tim O’gorman held extensive discussions with officials of Home Ministry and cricket board and were convinced that the security planned by the Indian authorities would "substantially address the concerns of the English cricketers".

"It is essential that our team and management can have peace of mind with regard to security arrangements to enable them to focus 100 per cent on the cricketing job in hand. We are now happy that arrangements can be put in place to achieve this end. We look forward to a most exciting test series," Carr told reporters here today.

After meeting BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya in Kolkata yesterday, the ECB team today held consultations with joint secretary (security) in Ministry of Home Mffairs Harminder Rajsingh and were "reassured" by the Government that their security concerns would be adequately adddressed.

"I spoke to the players before I arrived in India and I believe all their individual concerns can be substantially addressed by the proposed security arrangements," a press release by ECB quoted O’gorman as saying. (PTI)

50th All India Police Hockey Championship
J&K outclass opponents in league, enters QFs
* Hosts emerge as most favourite side, who scored
26 goals and conceded none

By Sanjeev Sharma

JAMMU, Nov 2: Hosts Jammu and Kashmir Police have proved that they have improved at both defence and attack departments after they scored 26 goals against and conceded none, thus entering the knock-out round of quarter-finals of the 50th All India Police Hockey Championship in a style.

In the last league round match today, Jammu and Kashmir Police trounced Chandigarh Police by five goals to nil.

Now, in the quarter-finals, Jammu and Kashmir Police will meet Delhi Police for the semi-finals berth. If one goes through the last years records, Jammu and Kashmir had defeated Delhi by a big margin of six goals, so the hosts have advantage and also being considered as favourites. At the moment the morale of the Jammu and Kashmir Police team is quite high because of their emphatic clean sweep in the league round.

In their last league encounter this morning, J&K Police played in same pace as they played in the earlier matches and blanked Chandigarh 5-0. The hosts went into the lead in the 8th minute through Iqbal Singh, who converted a penalty corner into the net. They made it 2-0 in the 11th minute when fire-brank Mandeep Singh struck off a pass he received from out side the circle.

Afterwards, Chandigarh defence line resisted J&K from striking in their goal area and concentrated on defence. However, Chandigarh succeeded in handling the aggressive hosts around the 25 yard line. At the end of the first half the score remained the same 2-0.

In the second half, though J&K took it easy, even then they managed to add three more goals to their total. Thanks to the superb game played by Mandeep, who made two goals after the breather making it a 5-0 win. Third goal was scored by Jatinder Singh in the 42nd minute, followed by two goals by Mandeep in the 49th and 64th minute.

In the 64th minute Mandeep showed presence of mind, when a lift from right corner by Gurjeet hit the face of the goalkeeper and ball fell on the goal mouth, Mandeep, who by then had reached near the goal-keeper directed the ball into the net without wasting time.

No doubt J&K played a brilliant game in the field, but they have virtually failed to take advantage out of the penalty corner chances they got during the match. Out of the 11 penalty corners, they were able to convert only one into the goal. While, the teams like BSF and CRPF, which could be the sides, J&K is likely face in the semi-finals, have comparatively better penalty corner conversions average.

This match was officiated by Shakil Qureshi and Blace Montario, while Ranbir Singh and Jasbir Singh were judges. PS Banghari was reserve umpire and Gurcharan Singh was technical officer.

The third match of the day between West Bengal and RPF in Pool-F was quite interesting because it ended in a 1-1 draw. Both the goals from either side were scored in the first half and the second half remained barren, thus ending the match in a 1-1 draw. For West Bengal, Sagar Subsa scored in 25th minute which was equalised by Sukh Pal Singh for RPF in the 34th minute.

In Pool-E Uttaranchal humiliated Assam by imposing a seven goals defeat on them. Rajinder Singh (29th), Rajinder Prashad (32nd), Lalit Mohan (34th), Bhopal Singh (43rd), Rajinder Singh (45th), Bhopal Singh (58th) and Vijay Mohan (64th) secured goals for the winners Uttaranchal Police.

In the last match of the day Maharashtra outplayed Haryana by three goals to nil. All three goal came after the breather. Tanveer Sheikh (36th), Niyazullah(44th) and Datta Shinde (67th) scored goals for Maharashtra.