India seize initiative
on third day

PORT OF SPAIN, Apr 21: It took close to two hours for Indian bowlers to claim the last four West Indian wickets but the visitors managed to take what could turn out to be a crucial 94-run . .......more

Muralitharan out for a month, misses first England test

COLOMBO, Apr 21: Injured off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will be out for at least four weeks but may be back in time for the second test of the England ............more

Anup Deshmukh
remains in lead

NEW DELHI, Apr 21: International Master Anup Deshmukh (LIC) maintained a slender half point lead with a quick draw against G B Joshi .........more

Owen wants Beckham
to captain England
at World Cup

LONDON, Apr 21: Michael Owen, England’s skipper against Paraguay in last week’s friendly, says he would happily give up the captaincy if it meant .........more

Atman Club, RCC win Lajwanti Memorial Cricket

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 21: Atman Cricket Club and Jammu Cricket Club won their respective ties ......more

Padyalichak lifts Deepak Memorial Cricket trophy

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 21: Padyalichak Cricket Club (PCC) clinched the Deepak .....more

Balraj Singh Bhau Memorial Cricket Chowdhary Club wins by 3 wkts

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 21: Chowdhary Cricket Club (CCC) defeated Lions Cricket Club (LCC) by three wickets in the ongoing.....more

Sports events mark
start of integration week

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 21: Various sports events marked the beginning of the integration week .......more

India seize initiative on third day

PORT OF SPAIN, Apr 21: It took close to two hours for Indian bowlers to claim the last four West Indian wickets but the visitors managed to take what could turn out to be a crucial 94-run first innings lead on the third day of the second cricket test here today.

West Indies progressed from their overnight 197 for six to 245 before being all out half an hour before the lunch break.

India, who had scored 339 in their first innings, were 15 for one in their second knock at lunch with Rahul Dravid batting on eight and Sanjay Bangar on six. Opener Shiv Sunder Das was dismissed for nought.

Left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra broke through early in the day when he trapped overnight batsman Mervyn Dillon (9) after West Indies had added just four runs this morning. But the last three tailenders defied the Indian attack long enough for skipper Carl Hooper to keep pushing the score into the 230s.

Hooper, who was 30 not out yesterday, took his individual score to 50 before being the penultimate batsman to be dismissed. Realising that he was running out of partners, Hooper tried to go for the big shots after completing his half-century but faltered at his very first attempt when he holed out to his Indian counterpart Sourav Ganguly at mid-off.

Hooper batted for more than three hours for his 50 which included four hits to the fence.

Hooper’s fifty came courtesy the 41-minute stay at the wicket of Marlon Black and 50-minute knock of Adam Sanford.

Black was run out off a direct throw from Harbhajan Singh when he hesitated in responding to Hooper’s call for a single. Black made six.

Sanford hit two boundaries in his 12-run innings before becoming the last man out. Attempting a big hit against Harbhajan Singh, he holed out to long-on where Sachin Tendulkar took a good diving catch.

The Indian opening pair once again failed to lay a good foundation, Das being dismissed cheaply for the second time in the match.

Das, who was out for 10 in the first innings, failed to score this time and was trapped Leg Before Wicket by Mervyn Dillon when the total was on six.

But Bangar was a lot more confident than he was in the first innings. He middled the ball well and was much more positive in his foot movements. He steered marlon black for a boundary to the third man.

Dravid continued with his good run in the series and started with a flourish, hitting black for two consecutive boundaries in the last over before lunch. India now are 109 runs ahead with nine second innings wickets intact. (PTI)

SCOREBOARD

India 1st innings 339

West Indies 1st innings 245

India 2nd innings:

S S Das LBW b Dillon 0

S Bangar batting 6

R Dravid batting 8

Extras (b-1) 1

Total (for 1 wkt, 6 overs) 15

Fall of wickets: 1-6.

Bowling: Dillon 3-2-1-1, Cuffy 3-0-13-0. (PTI)

Muralitharan out for a month, misses first England test

COLOMBO, Apr 21: Injured off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will be out for at least four weeks but may be back in time for the second test of the England tour, Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore said today.

Muralitharan suffered a slight dislocation and torn ligaments in his left shoulder while fielding against Pakistan in the Sharjah Cup final last week but a specialist in Australia said he would not need surgery.

"He will be put in a special brace with a sling for a period of four weeks after which time he will be re-evaluated," whatmore said at a ceremony just before Sri Lanka left for Britain.

"We are hopeful he will be able to play some part in the later stages of the tour," he said.

Sri Lanka will play three tests against England, with the first starting on May 16 at Lord’s, and will also take part in a one-day tournament.

"When a bowler who has taken 400 wickets isn’t playing because of injury you will obviously miss him, but you would like to think we are not a one-man team," Whatmore said.

Muralitharan has been the world’s must successful spinner for the past couple of seasons, taking 80 wickets in 12 tests in 2001.

He currently boasts 412 test wickets, just behind Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne’s total of 450.

The injury is to Muralitharan’s non-bowling arm.

Earlier this year he took nine for 51 in the second test against Zimbabwe, just missing out on becoming the third bowler in history to take all 10 wickets in an innings. (AGENCIES)

Anup Deshmukh remains in lead

NEW DELHI, Apr 21: International Master Anup Deshmukh (LIC) maintained a slender half point lead with a quick draw against G B Joshi (IA) at the end of the 9th round of Global Networks International Rating Tournament here today.

The lead positions remained unchanged and Nassir Wajih (Railways) continued at second place with seventh points while candidate IM Vishal Sareen (LIC) is a close third with 6.5 points. Gurpreet Pal Singh (Railways) and Akshay Kumar (Delhi) share the next spot with 6 points each.

Anup decided to sit on his lead and did not take any risks against the solid play of joshi in a Reti opening game with black pieces.

After shadow boxing that lasted a mere 16 moves, the players settled for the peace treaty. Earlier in the 8th round, Anup had also gone for a quick draw against Vishal Sareen.

Nassir Wajih drew with top seed IM N Sudhakar Babu (Indian Bank) from the white side of a glek variation game. Babu equalised without any trouble with correct maneuvers but the resulting position did not offer any chances for either player to strive for an advantage.

This draw left babu with 5.5 points.

Vishal Sareen had an easy outing against Sanchit Saran Aggarwal in a pire defence game with pieces. Right from the opening Vishal seized the initiative in the centre and got a passed pawn in the centre and that did the needful in just 22 moves.

Gurpreet Pal defeated V S Negi in a one sided game arising out of a Sicilian accelerated dragon. Negi got an inferior position right after the opening moves and was saddled with underdeveloped pieces. In trying to create some counter attack on the king side, Negi sacrificed a piece but did not get much play. Gurpreet won with the help of extra material.

S K Sinha (Bihar) defeated Sankalp Modwal from a queen pawn opening while Akshay Kumar Jain accounted for Karun Duggal. (UNI)

Owen wants Beckham to captain England at World Cup

LONDON, Apr 21: Michael Owen, England’s skipper against Paraguay in last week’s friendly, says he would happily give up the captaincy if it meant David Beckham were fit in time for the World Cup next month.

Owen scored after just four minutes in Wednesday’s match, which England won 4-0, in his debut as captain in place of the injured Beckham.

"It was a tremendous honour, one I won’t forget in a hurry," the 22-year-old Owen, who became England’s second youngest captain after 1966 World Cup-winner Bobby Moore, told the liverpool website.

"I remember just after scoring the goal, jogging back to the halfway line and thinking ‘it doesn’t get much better than this.’

"All the same though, I would rather see David Beckham return from injury and lead the side into the World Cup".

"Belief is one thing but when you don’t have your best players on the field you’re always at a disadvantage. Hopefully that won’t be the case and david will be back to make a difference," Owen said.

Beckham broke a metatarsal bone in his left foot after a challenge from Argentine Aldo Duscher during Manchester United’s champions league quarter-final victory over Deportivo Coruna two weeks ago.

With a recovery time of an estimated six to eight weeks Beckham is determined to be fit for England’s first match of the finals, against Sweden on June 2. (AGENCIES)

Atman Club, RCC win Lajwanti Memorial Cricket

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 21: Atman Cricket Club and Jammu Cricket Club won their respective ties to advance into the second round of the Lajwanti Memorial Tamar Cup Cricket Championship being played at M A Stadium, here today.

In the morning session, Atman Cricket Club (ACC) trounced Sangam Cricket Club (SCC) by eight wickets.

Batting first after winning the toss, SCC made 119 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the allotted 25 overs. In reply, ACC chased the score in 17.3 overs losing only two wickets.

Ashok was the top scorer for SCC with 34 runs including four boundaries in his account, while Bunty and Susheetal contributed 23 and 21 runs respectively. From ACC, Samir emerged as the most promising bowler, who took three wickets for 14 runs in three overs. Rajinder, Raman and Ashok were other successful bowlers, who took one wicket each.

Chasing the target of over four runs per over, ACC reached the required total in 17.3 overs with eight wickets in hand. Druv Mahajan and Surinder were the two unbeaten batsmen with 40 (4x5) and 23(4x3) runs in their respective accounts. Rajinder too played good innings contributing 32 runs. From Sangam Club, Ramesh and Umesh took one wicket each.

Druv Mahajan was later declared as man of the match. B K Tickoo and Sadiq Hussain Malik were umpires in this match, while Ramesh Pandit was scorer.

In the second match played in the evening session, Jammu Cricket Club (JCC) thrashed BNCC by a huge margin of 188 runs in a one-sided affair.

Deciding to bat first after winning the toss, JCC set a big target of 253 runs for BNCC in the allotted 25 overs, which latter could not chase and the whole side bundled out for a meagre sum of 64 runs in 15.3 overs.

Right from the very first delivery, JCC batsmen were playing confidently and when their first wicket fell they had already reached the 53 runs mark.

After the dismissal of Vivek Singh (14), Suresh Singh and young Ian Dev Singh added quick runs to the total and together brought the score to 143. Suresh made highest 79 runs hitting nine boundaries, while Ian Dev scored 45 with the help of seven fours. Guru Partap too played confident innings of 57 runs and remained unbeaten alongwith Manjeet (13).

From BNCC, Maharaj Krishan bowled economically and took two wickets for 39 runs in five overs. S K Bali was another successful bowler, who bagged two wickets giving away 42 runs in his five overs spell.

Later, chasing a difficult target, BNCC batsmen surrendered before the calculated bowling of JCC and bowled out for just 64 runs in 15.3 overs.

Srikant Bali was the maximum scorer, who made 26 runs including six hits to the fence. Vikas was another batsman who scored in double figure with 10 runs in his account. Three batsmen, Ashwani, Ravinder and Rimpu, went to the pavilion without opening their accounts.

Jagtar was the most successful bowler with three wickets for just five runs in 2.3 overs from JCC. Raj Kumar and Vijay Sharma shared two each, while Sahil took one wicket.

Suresh Singh was declared as man of the match for his brilliant knock out of 79 runs.

Vinod Koul and Rakesh Pandita were umpires, while Ramesh Kumar was scorer.

Tomorrow’s fixture: Dogra Cricket Club will take on Baba Jitoo Cricket Club at 8 am, followed by the second match between Shastri Cricket Club and Rehari Cricket Club at 2 pm.