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Windies score big VIJAYAWADA, Nov 24: Failing to rework the magic that has seen them pull off amazing victories in recent past, India crashed to a humiliating 135-run defeat in the seventh one-day international here today to lose the. ..........more PM
urges athletes NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Expressing serious concern over recent reports on use of drugs by Indian athletes at international meets, Prime Minister Atal ........more Pak
flay Zimbabwe BULAWAYO, Nov 24: Pakistan batsmen were on a Sunday outing at the Queens Sports Club and built up a mammoth score of 344-5 off the inexperienced and hapless Zimbabwe attack. ........more Spirit
of cricket to glow CHENNAI, Nov 24: In the midst of hype over the cricket World Cup in South Africa, this one is a different World Cup. Different for the spirit and the human endeavour behind it. Here there are no qualms about playing against Pakistan.............more |
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Windies make giant strides By Michael Holding Apparently my article, or should I say the first paragraph in my article, after the 6th One Day International in Jodhpur......more 24th
Stag State TT Championship Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 24: Title contenders Chandpreet Kour, Shagun Mahajan and Amrita Singh have.......more All
India Inter-University competitions By Sanjeev Sharma JAMMU, Nov 24: Creating history for the Jammu University, young Vivek Bharti has clinched gold medal in the All India Inter....more Defending champion Punjab makes winning start Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 24: Punjab, the winner of the first two editions, today made a winning.......more |
VIJAYAWADA, Nov 24: Failing to rework the magic that has seen them pull off amazing victories in recent past, India crashed to a humiliating 135-run defeat in the seventh one-day international here today to lose the series against West Indies 3-4. Playing without Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, the Indians collapsed under the pressure of a mighty West Indies total of 315 for six to suffer their first tournament defeat this year. The team, which had successfully chased 320-plus totals twice this year - one just a couple of days back in this very series - was shot out for a mere 180 in 36.5 overs in the first one-sided match of the series. Man-of-the-match Marlon Samuels, who came up with a swashbuckling unbeaten knock of 108 off just 75 balls with ten fours and five sixes, and Jermaine Lawson, who rocked the Indian innings with four early wickets, were the stars of the day which saw the team setting the target winning for the first time in the series. The victory helped West Indies avenge their 0-2 loss to India in the test series earlier on this tour and also the 1-2 defeat in the one-dayers at home earlier this year. India’s undoing was a combination of some outstanding bowling and fielding disturbed with a few injudicious shots played by the home batsmen. The confidence of having chased such big totals with success meant that the Indians were not intimidated by the huge score of West Indies and even when they lost first four wickets for just 67 runs there was an outside chance that they would be able to pull it off. At the crease were Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh, the heroes of India’s stupendous victory in the final of the Natwest Series against England at Lord’s in July. But the quick dismissals of Kaif and Sanjay Bangar, who played two outstanding knocks in this series, washed away all hopes of India even offering a decent fight. Yuvraj Singh waged a meaningless battle before being the last man out for a 69-ball 68. Lawson, who was rested for the one-day series before being recalled as a replacement for the injured Ryan Hinds, bowled a devastating opening spell and put his side on road to victory with the crucial wickets of Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, V V S Laxman and skipper Rahul Dravid. Sehwag was caught by West Indian skipper Hooper in the slips after making 12 runs from 15 balls. Laxman and Mongia put on 33 runs for the second wicket before both were out within three runs of each other. Laxman made 22 while Mongia scored 20. Dravid, who lost his first match as skipper today, was out to a stunning catch by Ramnaresh Sarwan at short mid-wicket which left India panting at 67 for four in the 14th over. Kaif and Yuvraj then tried to build a partnership and added 32 runs in 5.3 overs before disaster struck. With the asking rate nearing seven runs an over, the pressure to hit boundaries was increasing and during one such attempt to find the boundary, Kaif was clean bowled off an inside edge to a Corey Collymore delivery. Kaif managed just ten runs and India’s fifth wicket fell at 99 in the 19th over. Bangar fell just eight runs later, trapped Leg Before Wicket by Collymore, leaving Yuvraj Singh, who was batting well, without any genuine batsman as partner. Indian innings lingered on for 16 more overs after that but the fate of the home team had already been decided. Earlier, Dravid won the toss and in keeping with the trend in this series invited West Indies to bat first. West Indies lost their first two wickets - those of three-time centurion in this series Chris Gayle and their most consistent batsman Shivnarince Chanderpaul - with just 16 runs on board but still managed to post their second 300-plus score of the series thanks to scintillating knocks from Samuels and Sarwan. Sarwan made 83 runs off 101 balls with six fours and a six but once again stopped short of his first international hundred. He put on 116 runs for the third wicket with opener Wavell Hinds that put west indies on road to a remarkable recovery. The Indian bowlers, who had a good beginning, lost ground in the middle overs as West Indies consolidated on their gains. Both Sarwan and Hinds built up a fine partnership and slowly accelerated the scoring through judicious strokeplay. Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik and all-rounder Sanjay Bangar, both of whom had impressed in the previous matches, took a pounding from the batsmen who brought up the second fifty of the West Indian innings in only 48 balls. However, it was only after the arrival of Samuels that West Indies really launched the onslaught. After part-time spinner Virender Sehwag had dismissed Hinds in the 28th over for 58, Samuels and Sarwan put on 50 runs for the fourth wicket in ten overs taking the score to 182 in the 38th over. Sarwan fell Leg Before Wicket to an Agarkar delivery, hitting the front pads of the batsman. But far from being a setback, the fall of Sarwan saw the beginning of a blistering attack on Indian bowlers by Samuels and new man Ricardo Powell who put on 109 runs for the fifth wicket in just 61 balls. It rained fours and sixes in the jam-packed stadium as West Indies progressed from 195 for four in the 40th over to 315 for six in the 50th. Bangar was hit for 15 runs in the 44th over before Srinath gave away 21 in the 47th as West Indies added 120 runs in the last ten overs. Powell was dismissed when he went for a run without knowing where the ball had gone and Dravid completed an easy stumping. Samuels continued to torment the Indian bowlers and raised his century with a single off Sehwag in the last over. After Hooper fell for a six-ball 13, Samuels struck fours on the last two balls to finish the West Indian innings in style. (PTI) SCOREBOARD West Indies C Gayle c Kaif b Srinath 5 W Hinds b Sehwag 58 S Chanderpaul c Kartik b Agarkar 6 R Sarwan lbw b Agarkar 83 M Samuels not out 108 R Powell st Dravid b Sehwag 30 C Hooper c Kaif b Sehwag 13 R Jacobs not out 0 Extras (lb-6, w-1, nb-5) 12 Total (for 6 wkts, 50 overs) 315 Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-16, 3-132, 4-182, 5-291, 6-307. Bowling: Srinath 9-0-55-1, Agarkar 10-1-56-2, Bangar 5-0-39-0, Kartik 9-0-69-0, Sarandeep Singh 10-0-31-0, Sehwag 7-0-59-3. India: V Sehwag c Hooper b Lawson 12 D Mongia b Lawson 20 V V S Laxman c Jacobs b Lawson 22 R Dravid c Sarwan b Lawson 3 Yuvraj Singh b Gayle 68 M Kaif b Collymore 10 S Bangar lbw b Collymore 2 A Agarkar c Collymore b Gayle 4 M Kartik b Gayle 2 Sarandeep Singh c sub (Nagamootoo) b Drakes 19 J Srinath not out 3 Extras (b-3, lb-2, w-9, nb-1) 15 Total (all out, 36.5 overs) 180 Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-56, 3-59, 4-67, 5-99, 6-107, 7-121, 8-126, 9-158. Bowling: Drakes 8-0-44-1, Lawson 10-0-57-4, Collymore 6-0-30-2, Hooper 6-0-22-0, Gayle 6.5-0-22-3. (PTI) |
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PM urges athletes to keep away from drugs NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Expressing serious concern over recent reports on use of drugs by Indian athletes at international meets, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has urged the sportspersons to "keep away from such temptations". "Let no player or athlete take a short-cut in trying to achieve success in sports. Recent reports of drug use are distressing... Nevertheless, our sportspersons should keep away from such temptation," Vajpayee said while presiding over the inaugural meeting of the All India Council of Sports (AICS) here last night. Calling for more accountability and transparency from Sports Authority of India (SAI) and various sports federations, the Prime Minister said "these institutions should recognise that our sportspersons, and not administrators and officials, are the most important entities in our strategy to achieve excellence in sports. Briefing reporters here after the second and final day of the meeting which was aimed at development of sports in the country, AICS president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said today that Vajpayee has also promised a five-fold increase in the budgetary allocation for sports in the tenth five-year plan. The Prime Minister also promised to place the proposal for increasing allocation at the next meeting of the National Development Council for approval. Vajpayee also expressed his delight over the performance of the Indian athletes in the Manchester Commonwealth Games and Busan Asian Games and said that the country should aim at winning more medals in the Olympics. "We should now aim at winning at least six medals, with two golds, at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and 15 medals with six golds in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "Let us recognise that making India a strong player in diverse international sports is an essential element of achieving our goal of making India a developed nation by 2020". He also underlined the need for having good coaches to remove shortcomings in sports training in the country and favoured giving maximum opportunities to promising sportspersons for training abroad. "Wherever needed, we should bring foreign coaches to train the best sports talent in India," he said. Underlining the importance of rewarding deserving sportspersons, Vajpayee said a secure and attractive career for medal winners in national as well as international meets should be ensured and business houses should be encouraged to set aside some resources for development of sports. "We should create maximum incentives for them to create sports infrastructure in their neighbourhood and to sponsor sports events at the district, state, national and international levels," he added. Favouring creation of an effective national sports talent search system to identify extraordinary talent at an early age, Vajpayee said sports should be made a compulsory subject in the curriculum in schools, colleges and universities. Vajpayee also called for amendments in the guidelines for the MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development) scheme so that MPs could make their funds available for promotion of sports. Welcoming the assurances given by the PM, Malhotra said a concrete plan of action from AICS as well as the Sports Ministry would be submitted within 100 days to enable the Government to formulate a strategy towards achieving excellence in sports. The president of AICS, which was instituted as an advisory body for the Sports Ministry, said the allocation, if raised, would be utilised for development of sport infrastructure in the country. He also said as the AICS chief he recommends "strictest action" against athletes using banned substances to enhance their performance in national and international meets. Malhotra said he has recommended to the Government for setting up an independent and autonomous dope control body to check the spurt in such incidents and added that dope testing should be made mandatory at school, university and national levels. The AICS president said he would write to the Government asking it to prevent sport federations from allowing liquor and tobacco manufacturing companies to sponsor sporting events in the country. (PTI) |
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Pak flay Zimbabwe for 344 runs BULAWAYO, Nov 24: Pakistan batsmen were on a Sunday outing at the Queens Sports Club and built up a mammoth score of 344-5 off the inexperienced and hapless Zimbabwe attack. Having won the first one day international the previous day by seven runs, Pakistan can feel assured of a much more substantial victory to follow in the second of five in the series. Saleem Elahi, whose form has been rapidly improving since his stuttering start to the tour, made a thumping 107 in 111 balls. His partner Taufeeq Umar, who is not quite so comfortable with one-day cricket as he is with tests, played second fiddle with 76 in 113 balls and they put on 159 for the first wicket. Pakistan went through a relatively subdued middle period with the arrival of left-arm spinner Grant Flower, but once Yousuf Youhana came to the crease it was fireworks all the way to lunch. Youhana had helped himself to 141 not out the previous day in Pakistan’s seven-run victory. This time he smashed an undefeated 76 and lifted eight sixes out of the ground as the scoreboard operators struggled to keep up. The Zimbabwe bowlers were simply swept away. Captain Alistair Campbell said at the toss, won by Waqar Younis, that he did not have six bowlers available and that was a portend of the runs’ glut to come. Zimbabwe were forced to give schoolboy Waddington Mwayenga his first cap after only two first class domestic matches, a measure of their desperation after Andy Blignaut And Henry Olonga reported knee problems. (AFP) |
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Spirit of cricket to glow at World Cup for blind CHENNAI, Nov 24: In the midst of hype over the cricket World Cup in South Africa, this one is a different World Cup. Different for the spirit and the human endeavour behind it. Here there are no qualms about playing against Pakistan. This is about the second cricket World Cup for the blind which Chennai will be hosting from December three to 14, when the final encounter will be played out at the prestigious M A Chidambaram Stadium. Bangalore is the other venue where some matches will be played. Ram Karan Sharma, captain of the Indian team, is all confident that this time they would win the Cup, which went to South Africa when the inaugural event was held in Delhi in 1998. This year’s Cup was to be originally hosted by New Zealand but the kiwis cried off at the last minute citing lack of financial support. The second edition is being supported by oil majors Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL). Hence, it has been named Petro Cup. The 17-member Indian team is being sponsored by Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). Besides India, the other countries who participated in the 1998 tournament were Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England, Australia and South Africa. This time except New Zealand, all the others will be playing. The matches will be on a round-robin basis with six matches in the league round and four teams entering the semi-finals. What is blind cricket? it is no different from the other cricket except that it is played with a hard plastic white ball with bearings inside that make noise so that the ball’s movement is tracked. The rules of the game are the same with umpires with proper eyesight guiding the game that is a 40 over contest. Only the stumps are metallic and joined with each other so that the the players can recognise that the batsman is out. Bowling is underarm and the ball should be pitched before a line drawn across half of the pitch. Wickets in blind cricket generally fall clean bowled. Some get out through catches also. Stumping and run out are also done. No balls and wides are not in short supply, which the players say are only natural because of their handicap. Each over should be completed in four minutes. Not all the players are completely blind. There are three categories of players with difference in their blindness. In the Indian team there are four players with b3 blindness. They can see 3/6, that is, three to six metres. Three players belong to b2 category, who can see 2/6, two to six metres and four players who cannot see anything. There are two extra players in each category. The same regulations apply to other teams too. The Association of Cricket for Blind in India (ACBI) and the National Federation of Blind (NFB) are the main force behind the cricket for the visually impaired, particularly George Abraham, ACBI chairman, a totally sighted person who became partially blind after an accident. The Indian captain, 34-year-old Sharma, is a veteran of blind cricket and the oldest member of the team, whose average age is 27 years. He played in the last cup in Delhi and aggregated over 350 runs including a century against South Africa. The blind cricket is also not exempt from the usual excitement that surrounds a match between India and Pakistan. Recounts Sharma. In the match against Pakistan in 1998, he went five down when his side needed 40 runs in 4.4 overs. There were a number of spectators, a sizeable number of them being men in army uniform. They goaded him saying even if India loses the cup it does not matter but do not lose to Pakistan. Sharma says he did not realise what happened to him. "I played the first two balls and hit them for boundaries. One ball I missed. The next over was a maiden. "But the 38th over changed everything as it yielded 26 runs and we were through against Pakistan," Sharma says triumphantly. India won all the league matches but over confidence on the part of some players cost them the semi-final and India was out. The other Indian players include debutant Sanjeev Dalal, a ba final year student in S D College, Ambala Cant. And Rajinder Verma, a music teacher in Rajasthan. Nirmal Kumar, doing his MA in Ajmer, had played in the last cup and he belongs to B3 category in sight. The players say their playing cricket is one more attempt at telling the world they want to be as normal as others can be and to strive for further excellence in various fields. (PTI) |
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Windies make giant strides By Michael Holding Apparently my article, or should I say the first paragraph in my article, after the 6th One Day International in Jodhpur caused a bit of a stir in the cricketing media and circles. In that article I asked for someone to enlighten us as to who actually won the toss. Some seem to think that there was no need to ask the question, to those people I simply refer them to the recording of the sequence of events at the toss. On the tape, Ian Bishop can clearly be heard saying that the "call" at the toss is tails. Now the Indian captain was the one tossing the coin so obviously he didn’t do the calling as well. What did the coin show when it settled on the ground? Supposedly Tails, so I still ask the question. Who won the toss at the 6th one day international in Jodhpur? Did Ian Bishop make a mistake when he said the call was tails or was it heads that showed on the coin? Someone should be able to answer that question. Of course comments have been made by those involved at the toss when asked about the events but what was forthcoming from the West Indies Captain Hooper was a bit startling, at least to this writer anyway. Apparently his comment was that commentators should stick to commentating on cricket and let the administrators run the game. Well, he should be advised to engage his brain before engaging his mouth. I don’t see how what has transpired can be interpreted as a commentator trying to run the game. Considering the irrefutable facts stated above, that comment is both insipid and irrelevant. Ian Bishop has since said that he is willing to accept that he must have made a mistake when he said the "call" was tails. Be that as it may, life goes on and so does the cricket. And what fantastic cricket we have had in this One Day Series. The bowlers haven’t half enjoyed themselves as much as the batsmen but the fans certainly have and that, as far as I am concerned, is where the emphasis should lie in this form of the game. If there was any doubt that the bowlers would continue to be punished in this the last game, the West Indies batsmen quickly put that to rest. The opening partnership didn’t flourish as Gayle departed early. Chanderpaul promoted to number three in this game went early as well but Hinds and then Sarwan and Samuels really pummeled the bowling. This One Day Series has really highlighted the young batting talent available in the West Indies. With Hinds, Gayle, Sarwan and Samuels showing their undoubted talent the poweres that be have half their problems solved when thinking of a future world beating West Indies team. But the other half, the bowling and fielding, is somewhere that a lot of thought and hard work has to be done. After all, the test match scene is about getting twenty wickets to win a match, not just about scoring tons of runs. One gentleman who could be important in that regard was drafted into this last game and had an immediate effect. Jermaine Lawson has one of the very important ingredients to make the grade, PACE. He is nowhere yet the finished article but his extra pace contributed to the demise of Virender Sehwag which is always a big wicket to get early in his innings. When Sehwag is at the crease, he doesn’t hang around, he gets his runs quickly. Lawson didn’t stop there either, he got the first four wickets to fall, reducing India to 67/4 which for all intents and purposes was the end of the match. There were naturally thoughts being harbored by some that India could do a repeat of the Nat West finals at Lords with Kaif and Yuvraj Singh together, but it was not to be. Congratulations then, to the West Indies, they didn’t win the test series but their cricket in general and their batting in particular made giant strides as this tour wore on.(TCM) |
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24th Stag State TT
Championship Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 24: Title contenders Chandpreet Kour, Shagun Mahajan and Amrita Singh have moved into the third round of Sub-junior girls singles in the ongoing 24th Stag State Table Tennis Championship at M A Stadium, here today. All the three paddlers won their matches in straight sets. Chandpreet defeated Bhavneet Kour of Udhampur 11-6, 11-4, while Shagun Mahajan down Lavanya Sharma 11-9, 11-4. Amrita Singh outplayed Priya Seth rather easily 11-2, 11-5 and her sister, Mohita Singh trounced fighting Deepinder Kour 11-9, 11-6. Earlier, in the first round match, Deepinder beat Babal Bakshi 11-9, 11-6 and Bhavneet defeated Avantika 11-6, 11-5. Lavanya Sharma had overpowered Shazar 11-6, 11-7 to move into the second round. In another first round tie, Mohita Singh beat Anukampa of Udhampur 11-2, 11-1. Other detailed results Sub-junior boys second round: Ankur Sachdev bt Rohit Pal 11-2, 11-5; Antriksh bt Abhas Sharma 11-3, 12-10; Varun Bhalla bt Amanpreet 11-7, 11-7; Arun Verma bt Pranav Mahajan 11-6, 11-5; Anant Aima bt Shivendu 11-2, 11-7; Gurvinder bt Avi Ral Gupta 12-10, 11-8; Navjot Singh bt Kashish Khajuria 11-4, 11-6; Arjun Anand bt Tapas Sharma 11-6, 11-5; Arjun Kohli bt Prabhas 11-5, 11-6; Manmeet bt Karan Ghai 11-4, 11-2; Karan Nagotra bt Kanav Sharma 11-4, 11-4; Abhimanyu bt Gaganpreet (Poonch) 8-11, 13-11, 11-8; Gurvinder bt Gautam Daluja 11-6, 11-7; Sumit bt Tavleen Singh 11-1, 11-4; Baljeet Singh bt Shivang Gupta 11-7, 11-6; Shivam Soni bt Aditya (Poonch) 16-14, 12-10. Cadet boys second round: Arjun Kohli bt Anirudh 11-4, 11-4; Shivendu bt Abhimanyu Gupta 2-11, 11-8, 11-7; Pranab Mahajan bt Pulkit 11-4, 11-7; Gurvinder bt Gautam Daluja 11-7, 11-3; Abhimanyu bt Amanpreet 11-1, 11-5; Manmeet Singh bt Shivang Gupta 11-5, 11-3; Arjun Anand bt Samandeep 11-5, 11-5. Tomorrow’s fixture: Sub-junior boys pre-quarters, quarters and semi-finals at 4 pm; Cadet boys quarters and semi-finals at 4.30 pm; Women’s singles first, second and third round at 5 pm; Veteran singles Ist round, 2nd and third round at 7 pm; Men’s singles prequarters, and quarterfinals at 8 pm. |
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All India Inter-University
competitions By Sanjeev Sharma JAMMU, Nov 24: Creating history for the Jammu University, young Vivek Bharti has clinched gold medal in the All India Inter-University Chess Tournament, conducted by the Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. Not only he won the gold, but also helped his team to upgrade Jammu University in ranking, bringing it (JU) to 13th position among 92 participating Universities of the country. The team included Mohit Bharti, Rajinder Singh, Ajit Kumar and Vivek Bharti. Playing on fourth board, Bharti scored 9\9 points to also qualify for the board prize. In all, eight players were taken from all the four boards for the Board prize. Now, these eight probables, selected for the Board prize, will undergo all India camp and have competition among themselves to come out with six-member final team representing India in the World-Universities Chess Tournament to be held next year. "It was fantastic to find myself among the final eight players out of a total of 550 participants in (Men section only) representing 92 Universities", said proud Vivek while talking to EXCELSIOR on his return. However, the cool and sober, Vivek has now set eyes on all India camp to figure among the final six. "I will be utilising all my energies, mental capabilities and abilities to excel in the all India camp fighting with the country’s best talent to find myself in the final six-member team taking part in the World-Universities Chess Tournament next year", disclosed Vivek. Vivek appreciated his team members, who too played great innings, thereby putting Jammu University at 13th ranking among the 92 Universities. Rajinder also performed well, securing 6\9 points, while Mohit had an exception after he defeated an International rated player, informed Bharti. Vivek was coached by his elder brother, Atul Gupta, serving with the J&K Bank, who recently got the All India ranking in a tournament held at Chandigarh. Vivek is a regular member of the ABM International Chess Club. Meanwhile, the ABM International Chess Club has urged the University of Jammu and State Government to help this budding player by suitably rewarding him. In the meantime, when contacted the Assistant Director Physical Education, University of Jammu, M M Sharma said that it was a tradition of the Jammu University to honour those who achieve distinct feet in sports, so, Vivek Bharti will also be honoured and awarded. Since South Indian States have dominated the mind game of Chess, It was a golden double for Madras University as its men and women clinched the titles. While men regained the title after two years, the women retained the trophy, informed Bharti when questioned about the winners of the tournament. The Men’s team was comprised of International Master Sundararajan Kidambi, M R Venkatesh, Ram S Krishnan and Pretham Sharma, who emerged winner in style with an unbeaten record. Whereas the Women’s team included Lakshmi Priya, Rajalakshmi, Kavitha and Y Prathiba, who emerged victorious with a round to spare in the seventh round with an unbeaten record. Men had 30 points from 36 games- 9 rounds, while women team totaled 27 points in 28 games, explained Vivek Bharti. |
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Defending champion Punjab makes winning start Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 24: Punjab, the winner of the first two editions, today made a winning start in the 3rd Senior National Rugby Championship being hosted by the J&K Amateur Rugby Football Association at University of Jammu grounds, here today. Punjab defeated Uttar Pradesh in a one-sided contest 57-0 (ht 31-0) points. Punjab women, who are also here to defend their title, defeated Madhya Pradesh 5-0. All the five points came through Sarabhjeet Kour. In Men’s section, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh also won their respective matches. Chandigarh defeated Haryana 15-0 (ht 5-0) and Himachal beat Madhya Pradesh 12-0. Gujarat overpowered Andhra Pradesh 12-5 (ht 7-0), while Chhattisgarh down Rajasthan 16-5 (ht 6-0). In all, 15 states, including hosts J&K, are taking part in Men’s section, while six teams are contesting in Women section. According to the organisers, besides J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa. Earlier, the championship was declared open by Mr Ram Sahai, president, Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Jammu this afternoon. |
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Nirmal again excel in State Athletic Championship Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 24: Likewise last year, Nirmal Singh excelled in the State Athletic Championship held at M A Stadium, here winning three gold, one silver and one bronze medal. A Law student of University of Jammu, Nirmal won gold in 200 meters race, followed by two more first positions in 4x100 meters and 4x400 meters relay. However, he finished at number No. two position in prestigious 100 meters race and claimed bronze medal in Shot-Put event. Nirmal is excelling in the State Athletic Championship from the last eight years. He also got appreciation from the visiting Deputy Chief Minister, Mangat Ram Sharma. Nirmal is a trainee of Sohan Singh, athletic coach of the State Sports Council. Dravid admits India were outplayed VIJAYAWADA, Nov 24: In a frank admission of his team’s shortcomings, skipper Rahul Dravid today said India failed to chase well in the series-decider and were totally outplayed by West Indies in all departments of the game. Dravid said the team had taken a few risks earlier in the series that paid off but today it was done in by some "injudicious shots" and an opposition that played "better cricket". "When you chase a total of 300 plus, a team needs to have a good run rate and also keep some wickets safe. But today we failed to chase well," Dravid told reporters after India were handed a humiliating 135-run defeat in the seventh and final one-day match against West Indies here. "In this series we had taken a few risks and clicked but today we played some injudicious shots and paid the prize ending up as the second best team," Dravid, who lost his first game as a skipper in four matches, said. Asked what in his opinion was the turning point of the match, Dravid said, "I will not call anything a turning point but the way the West Indies played in the last ten overs and the way we lost five wickets inside 15 overs shaped the course of the match". (PTI) |
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