Daily Excelsior.........sports

Balaji likely to make debut
in place of Nehra

VADODARA, Nov 17: Encouraged by the performance of their young brigade, India is likely to give a look-in to the uncapped seam bowler L Balaji in the fifth match of the one-day series against West Indies here.........more

Sachin will be fit
in next 10 days

SHIMLA, Nov 17: Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar today said he would be fit in the next ten days to play again. "I think in the next ten days I should be perfectly fine", Mr Tendulkar, who ........more

Ban spelt civil death
for me: Ajay Jadeja

NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Charging Indian Cricket Board of depriving him of his livelihood by slapping a ban for five years on match-fixing charges, Ajay Jadeja has said the decision preventing him from playing his favourite sport spelt "civil death" for him. ........more

Windies fined for
slow over-rate

VADODARA, Nov 17: The West Indies cricket team has been fined five percent of its match fee for slow over-rate during the fourth one-day international against India at Ahmedabad on Friday.

The fine was slapped on the visiting team after they bowledt..........more

Surinder’s pace reduces Haryana to 102-5 in reply
to J&K’s 121

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 17: It was Surinder Singh Bagal’s pace which sharpened hosts bowling...........more

City Club, Police Academy enter Volleyball semis

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Nov 17: City Volleyball Club and Police Academy team today reached the semi-finals.....more

Inter-school sports
contest organised

Excelsior Correspondent

KATHUA, Nov 17: Tagore Vidyarthi Vikas Sanstha celebrated Children’s Day by organising sports competition and a cultural programme in the ......more

State Boxing Championship
Gurvinderpal knocks out Shakoor to claim gold in Light weight
* Neenu, Simi, Kuldeep and Sheetal winners in women

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 17: Gurvinderpal Singh defeated Shakoor Ahmed (Knocked-out Head Down) in the second ....more

Balaji likely to make debut in place of Nehra

With left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra being largely unimpressive against the free-stroking West Indian batsmen in the fourth match at Ahmedabad, and the Indian think-tank trying out different combinations prior to the next year’s World Cup, the right-arm seamer from Tamil Nadu was likely to make his international debut tomorrow.

The seven-match series is interestingly poised at 2-2 and with the teams matching each other in strength, tomorrow’s outing promises to be another thriller of a contest.

The match has also generated renewed public interest after the home team stormed back in style, winning the third and the fourth one-dayers at Rajkot and Ahmedabad after losing the first two at Jamshedpur and Nagpur.

India’s five-wicket win at Ahmedabad was just what was needed to wipe out the bad memories of crowd trouble that marred the first three matches.

That it was incident-free and India successfully chased a mammoth 324, made the Ahmedabad match a memorable one for the players and fans and with the kind of security in place for the match here, it is too expected to go off smoothly.

As in the previous matches, the pitch at the IPCL stadium too was unlikely to provide any assistance to the bowlers and was expected to be a high scoring affair.

Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly will be hoping to win the toss and put the opposition in to bat as his team has chased well in the last two matches. In fact the confidence of the Indian team is such that it seems India can chase any total with the way the batsmen have delivered in crunch situations.

But Ganguly would like his new-ball attack to be more disciplined and provide early breakthroughs this time and would prefer to restrict the suddenly-aggressive new-look visitors to around 270 or 280 runs.

Paceman Javagal Srinath has bowled his heart out in the last three ties but he is yet to get good support from the other end so far.

A lot would also depend on the spin duo of Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik who did well in controlling the run rate in the previous match.

Part-time bowlers — Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh will have to pull their act together and bowl a tighter line to give more bowling options to ganguly who himself can play the role of utility bowler.

The revelation of the Ahmedabad match - Sanjay Bangar -has raised expectations after his match-winning performance with the bat and will feel the pressure when he comes out in the middle tomorrow.

Ganguly will also be hoping to give his team a solid start along with his opening partner Sehwag who has developed a reputation of tearing the opposition attack apart once he survives the initial overs.

India will have to match the West Indies in exploiting the first 15 overs to the hilt the way Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds have done. Gayle has been really unrelenting in his onslaught on the hapless Indian bowlers and India must think of ways to find the chink in his armour and send him back to the pavilion before he gets into the plundering act.

The Indian middle order seems stable at the moment with V V S Laxman, who helped himself to a useful 66 runs at Ahmedabad and vice-captain Rahul Dravid with a century under his belt, lending solidity.

Though youngsters Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif failed to click, Bangar showed there were more than one match-winners whom India can rely upon.

With even Kartik, Harbhajan and Srinath capable of some big hitting, India’s batting line looks more than adequate.

The visitors too are likely to make one change from the playing eleven which did duty at Ahmedabad. Leg spinner Mahendra Nagamoottoo, who failed to impress in the previous match, was likely to make way for either Cameron Cuffy or Corey Collymore.

West Indies were also hit by injury scares to in-form Marlon Samuels and fast bowler Vasbert Drakes. However, their exact injury was not known and it was not clear whether they would be available tomorrow. Drakes’ availability would be crucuial for the side as he has performed well alongwith strike bowler Mervyn Dillon.

As far as statistics go, the visitors have won the only match they played on this ground against India way back in 1983 while India’s highest total on this wicket is 283 for six against South Africa in 1999.

Teams (from):

India: Saurav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, V V S Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Sanjay Bangar, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Javagal Srinath, L Balaji, J P Yadav, Ashish Nehra, Dinesh Mongia and Parthiv Patel.

West Indies: Carl Hooper (captain), Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle, Ricardo Powell, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ridley Jacobs, Mervyn Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Pedro Collins, Corey Collimore, Cameron Cuffy, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Darren Ganga, Ryan Hinds and Marlon Samuels.

Umpires: Asoka De Silva (SL), A V Jayaprakash (Ind).

Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa). (PTI)

Sachin will be fit in next 10 days

SHIMLA, Nov 17: Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar today said he would be fit in the next ten days to play again.

"I think in the next ten days I should be perfectly fine", Mr Tendulkar, who is convalescing from hamstring injury, said at a press conference at Charabra near here.

He said he had been out for the last two weeks and there was still a week and half to go when he should be ready. "I am going to start practicing now and have been given a programme which I have been following", he added.

He said that India’s chances in the World Cup stood good and the Indian team was proving that. "What we need to do is to speak at the right time".

Stating that Indian team has good bowlers, he said there were times when one found it difficult to deliver. "You try hard as far as possible to win but it is not happening", he said.

"We have good bowling side as well and I think we have to win the games", he said dispelling speculations that Indian team had weak bowlers. (UNI)

Ban spelt civil death for me: Ajay Jadeja

Making an impassioned plea for setting aside the report of BCCI investigator K Madhavan - acting on which the board banned him - Jadeja, in his petition before the arbitrator appointed by Delhi High Court to adjudicate the dispute, said, the ban not only deprived him of livelihood, but severely damaged his reputation and image as well.

Alleging that Madhavan had chosen to ignore the evidence of cricketers Ajay Sharma and Mohammed Azharuddin denying statements attributed to them by CBI against Jadeja, the petition by counsel P P Malhotra said the former CBI official had given his own analysis in the report.

"Without any basis or reasoning whatsoever, Madhavan states that the players due to media pressure spoke the truth before the CBI and were not speaking the truth before him on legal advice," the petition alleged.

Madhavan’s Reliance on the CBI report showed his loyalty to the agency where he served for over 30 years, it alleged, and sought to know how he had obtained the agency’s papers relating to the investigation.

The High Court had earlier this month referred the matter to the arbitrator, following a mututal agreement between the parties to settle the issue through arbitration.

Quoting media reports that a member of disciplinary committee had requested the then BCCI President A C Muthiah to adjourn the meeting as he had not yet studied the report, the petition charged that Muthiah acted in haste and convened the meeting depite a lack of quorum.

Muthiah while announcing the ban had said that a right of appeal would be provided to the players, but Jadeja was still to be informed of the procedure and forum of appeal, the petition alleged.

Contrary to rules of natural justice, the petitioner was not allowed to have the full text of Madhavan’s report, which would have enabled him to defend himself, the former cricketer said adding he could obtain the copy only after he wrote to BCCI Secretary Jaywant Lele, a month after the ban.

Alleging that Madhavan’s appointment was not permitted by BCCI rules, the petition claimed the same was only to divert public attention from the CBI’s perliminary report, which had adverse remarks against the Board.

Stating that he had requested CBI to give copies of printouts of a cell phone and telephone bills of the bookies, with whom he allegedly had contacts, the petitioner alleged the investigating agency had not yet responded to the request.

Madhavan, it alleged, did not deliberately call or examine any of the alleged bookies, who reportedly deposed against the petitioner and arrived at "arbitrary" conclusions. (PTI)

Surinder’s pace reduces Haryana to 102-5 in reply to J&K’s 121

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 17: It was Surinder Singh Bagal’s pace which sharpened hosts bowling attack and reduced Haryana to 102 for five in 31 overs after hosts J&K bowled out for 121 runs in the post lunch session in 56.5 overs on the opening day of the second Ranji Trophy league engagement at the MA Stadium, here today.

Surinder shattered the opening order, taking first three wickets without allowing the batsmen to reach the double figure mark. However, Middle orders, Ajay Ratra (35) and Shafiq Khan provided fresh blood to the Haryana innings.

When day’s play was abandoned, Shafiq Khan was batting at 26 runs with Amit Mishra (3) at the other end.

Surinder, who bowled nine overs for 28 runs, made Jitender Singh his first victim on duck. Thereafter Maninder Bisla was caught by Jagtar Singh of Surinder. He went to the pavilion by contributing just one run to his individual score with team’s total of three.

Surinder bowled out Ishan Gunda (7) but not before he extended good support to Ajay Ratra and they together added 55 runs. Haryana lost their fourth wicket in the shape of Ajay’s with total score on board 88. Caught by Arshad off Ashwani Gupta, Ajay contributed 35 runs facing 57 deliveries studded with five boundaries.

All-rounder, Ashwani Gupta, who earlier in the morning lost his wicket cheaply, made Vikram Dhariwal (7) his second victim.

No doubt, J&K reduced Haryana 102 for five, but their bowling was not up to the mark. As compared to Haryana’s seven extras run in the inning of 56.5 overs, J&K bowlers gave 32 extras in the Haryana’s total in just 31 overs, they have bowled so far.

Earlier, J&K started their innings on confident note and the first wicket partnership between Shabir Kanth and Vikrant Taggar yielded 34 runs. But, the sudden fall of four wickets within a gap of just 21 runs reading the scoreboard 55 for five.

However, a fine knock of 44 runs including six boundaries by Dhruv Mahajan provided some relief in the hosts camp. Dhruv, playing with Arshad Bhat (8), added 45 runs for the sixth wicket partnership.

The tail-enders failed to resist before the Haryana bowling and virtually surrendered. With last two batsmen, Sameer Khajuria and Jagtar Singh, bowled out cheaply, J&K finished the innings on 121 in 56.5 overs. Last three wickets for Haryana were taken away by Gaurav Vishisht.

In their first league match against Bihar in Bihar, J&K made highest ever 532 runs for eight declared. But due to bad weather conditions the match remained inconclusive.

Scoreboard

J&K first innings

Shabir Kanth c Shafiq Khan b Joginder Sharma 16

Vikrant Taggar c Shafiq Khan b Aprajit Singh 27

Kanwaljeet Singh lbw Joginder Sharma 6

Ashwani Gupta lbw Amit Mishra 4

Shammi Salaria c Ajay Ratra b Aprajit Singh 0

Dhruv Mahajan c Shafiq Khan b Amit Mishra 44

Arshad Bhat c&b Amit Mishra 8

Vijay Sharma b Gaurav Vishisht 7

Sameer Khajuria b Gaurav Vishisht 2

Surinder Singh Bagal not out 0

Jagtar Singh lbw Gaurav Vishisht 0

Extras (nb-3, lb-3, b-1) 7

Total (all out in 56.5 overs) 121

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-44, 3-52, 4-54, 5-55, 6-100, 7-109, 8-119, 9-121, 10-121.

Bowling analysis: Joginder Sharma 13-4-30-2; Amit Suman 9-2-21-0; Manvinder Bisla 1-0-4-0; Amit Mishra 15-5-26-3; Aprajit Singh 12-5-23-2; Gaurav Vishisht 5.5-0-13-3.

Haryana first innings

Jitender Singh c Arshad Bhat b Surinder Singh 0

Maninder Bisla c Jagtar Singh b Surinder Singh 1

Ishan Ganda b Surinder 7

Ajay Ratra c Arshad Khan b Ashwani Gupta 35

Shafiq Khan not out 26

Vikram Dhariwal c Vikrant Taggar b Ashwani 2

Amit Mishra not out 3

Extras (nb-6, w-8, lb-6, b-12) 32

Total (for five in 31 overs) 102

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-31, 3-58, 4-88, 5-93

Bowling analysis: Surinder Singh 9-2-28-3; Vijay Sharma 6-1-27-0; Jagtar Singh 9-4-15-0; Ashwani Gupta 7-1-14-2.