KOLKATA, Oct 29: Upbeat after two huge back-to-back wins in Mumbai and Chennai, India would be hoping for a rare 3-0 sweep as they play the third and final test at the Eden Gardens starting tomorrow against arguably.........more

We want to keep winning
run going: Sourav

KOLKATA, Oct 29: Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly today confirmed that seamer Ashish Nehra will be included in the playing eleven against the West Indies........more

Caribbeans will play
for pride: Hooper

KOLKATA, Oct 29: "We will play for pride in the third test at the Eden Gardens," West Indian skipper Carl Hooper said here today........more

Unprecedented security
during India, West
Indies cricket test

KOLKATA, Oct 28: An unprecedented security arrangement has been made for the third and final test match between India and West Indies beginning........more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Kamal Rohmetra and Kuldeep Sharma won their respective first league matches in Pool-A while Vishal Abrol defeated Umar Farooq in the first league match of Pool-B........more

J&K wrestlers need best coaches: Sharma
Billu Pahalwan lifts
Muthi Kesari 2002 title

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Billu Pahalwan of J&K Police today lifted Muthi Kesari-2002 title by defeating Pahalwan Jai Nandan of BSF in a tough bout played in the premises of Government Girls Middle School, Muthi.....more

Inter -College Cricket
ASCOMS to clash with PG
Law, Science in semis

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Acharya Sri Chander College of Medical Sciences (ASCOMS) today defeated Degree College Poonch......more

Champion Club wins opening match....

Tendulkar to feature in two weekly programmes ....

India firm favourites for 3-0 sweep

KOLKATA, Oct 29: Upbeat after two huge back-to-back wins in Mumbai and Chennai, India would be hoping for a rare 3-0 sweep as they play the third and final test at the Eden Gardens starting tomorrow against arguably the weakest West Indies side to tour the country.

With most top order batsmen in fine fettle and the spinners on a song, the magnificient Eden seems the perfect setting for another Indian victory. The series is already sealed with a 2-0 lead in Chennai.

West Indies, in contrast, are a demoralised lot, with nothing going right for them in the series so far. Their batsmen have been all at sea, particularly against the guiles of the Indian spinners - Harbhajan Singh and the veteran Anil Kumble; Their bowlers have lacked discipline and failed to be agressive enough to unsettle the Indian batsmen.

Even the Caribbean fielding and catching have been suspect, making their invincible predecessors of the 70s and 80s seem like men from another part of the globe.

"Our performance has been disappointing," skipper Carl Hooper admitted on his arrival here two days back.

The hosts have been well served by their openers Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar, who have been going great guns in the series so far and have proved perfect foil to each other.

The sensational Sehwag had torn the West Indies attack to Smithreens scoring a blazing hundred in Mumbai before coming up with another sizzling half-century in Chennai.

Bangar, on the other hand, has played the anchor’s role to perfection at the other end, producing decent knocks in both the matches.

Rahul Dravid, whose run of four successive hundreds was broken in Chennai, is another batsman in fine nick. The cool Bangalore player has carried his classy showing in England into the home series, and skipper Sourav Ganguly would expect him to keep up the good work to put it across the visitors yet again.

Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar have not reached their lofty standards in the series so far and big knocks are overdue from them to bolster the Indian innings as both of them were yet to record a century at the historic Eden.

Ganguly, though failing to score double digit runs even once in the series, has captained the side well with his customary aggressive style.

A personal milestone beckons the prince of Kolkata on his home ground. He is only one win away from equalling Mohammed Azharuddin’s record of leading India to the maximum number of victories. While Ganguly has won 13 of his 28 tests as captain, Azharuddin had won 14 out of 47. Eden has not been a happy hunting ground for Tendulkar, who has scores of 0, 9, 10 and 10 in his last four test innings on the ground. Having played five tests at the Eden, the star batsman has only two fifty-plus scores. The test provides him a good opportunity to please his umpteen fans in the city.

But with experts predicting that the relaid Eden Gardens turf would assist slow bowlers, Kumble and Harbhajan could well be the trumpcards for Ganguly.

Harbhajan, after some indifferent performances in recent times, has roared back to form in the series, capturing a rich haul of 15 wickets in the first two tests. Kumble has two less, and the West Indies batmsen have their task cut out against the duo.

In the pace department, left-arm Ashish Nehra looks likely to partner Jawagal Srinath in the absence of Zaheer Khan, who has been ruled out of action due to a knee injury. Bangar in all probability would chip in as the third seamer.

The beleagured visitors have an additional problem at hand. Left arm seamer Pedro Collins, who troubled Tendulkar in the Caribbeans early this year, is down with a lower back injury, making him uncertain for the test.

If collins fails to recover, either Cameron Cuffy or Daren Powell might be asked to step in.

However, there is also a possibility of the West Indies management opting for a double spin attack, in which case leggie Mahendra Nagamootoo might be called in to assist off spinner Gareth Breese.

With Hooper saying after the Chennai test that there would be changes in the team at Kolkata, speculation is rife that right hand opening bat Darren Ganga might find a place in the playing eleven. (PTI)

We want to keep winning run going: Sourav

KOLKATA, Oct 29: Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly today confirmed that seamer Ashish Nehra will be included in the playing eleven against the West Indies in the third and final test beginning at the Eden Gardens tomorrow and hoped that his side would be able to keep up its winning run.

"We have been playing well for the last 11 or 12 months. We want to keep it going," Ganguly told newspersons at the customary pre-match press briefing.

The Indian team has been on a song in recent months with sensational victories in both the shorter and longer versions of the game.

They won the natwest final and ICC Champions Trophy limited over championships before clinching the current test series against the West Indies with huge victories in the first two matches at Mumbai and Chennai.

Asked whether his side was feeling motivated with the series already in its pocket, Ganguly said "it’s another test match and we will try to play our best".

When reminded that India had never defeated the Caribbeans by a 3-0 margin, the captain said the credit for the spectacular performance should go to the entire squad, which was high on talent. (PTI)

Caribbeans will play for pride: Hooper

KOLKATA, Oct 29: "We will play for pride in the third test at the Eden Gardens," West Indian skipper Carl Hooper said here today. "We are going through a crisis and it is important that we do things differently in the third test," an obviously distressed and tired Hooper said.

"It is disappointing that we lost the first two tests but we hope for a turnaround tomorrow," he told reporters after an extended workout.

Hooper blamed poor catching and undependable batting for the dismal performance of his side and said "our batting has been of two extremes. We have either been too cautious or there has been too much of stroke play."

"The other thing that has let us down is poor catching. We need to catch everything that comes our way and the batsmen need to reach three figure score individually," Hooper said.

The West Indian skipper, however, remained sceptical about the wicket. "I saw it and feel it will not be different from the last two. Infact, the Eden track looks better than the last time i had played on it. It does not have a lot of grass and we expect the spinners to come into action," Hooper said. (UNI)

Unprecedented security during India, West
Indies cricket test

KOLKATA, Oct 28: An unprecedented security arrangement has been made for the third and final test match between India and West Indies beginning here at the historic Eden Gardens from October 30.

City Police Commissioner Sujay Chakrabarty said today that the number of police personnel being deployed this time was more than earlier occasions. Besides usual deployment, contingents of Rapid Action Force (RAF) and commandos would be posted in different strategic positions to meet any emergency situation. There would also be continuous clockwise police patrolling outside the stadium as long as the players would remain there, he added.

Giving details of the arrangements, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) Shibaji Ghosh said more than three thousand police forces would be deployed in and outside the Eden Gardens, the venue of the match and the hotel where the players would be residing.

Taj Bengal, the hotel in South Kolkata, looks like a mini fortress with gun totting special protection group commandos armed with automatic guns and pistols keeping a strict vigil. There would be more than two thousand armed police forces including special protection group to maintain law and otder in and around Eden Gardens, he added.

Mr. Ghosh informed that metal detectors were being installed at various gates of the stadiums while close circuit televisions were being placed in different blocks. Close circuit television sets would also be installed before the entraces to the players’ dressing rooms so that no unwanted person could enter there. The police has also put a ban on carrying any cracker, match box and water bottles or any other items which could be thrown into the ground. Even newspapers would not be allowed inside the ground so that no one could lit a bonfire during or after the match inside the stadium.

"As such we are not apprehending any trouble during the match. But we are not taking any chance, specially after various terrorist activities in and around the country," Mr Ghosh added. (UNI)

Kamal, Kuldeep win matches in Pool-A,
Vishal Abrol in Pool-B

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Kamal Rohmetra and Kuldeep Sharma won their respective first league matches in Pool-A while Vishal Abrol defeated Umar Farooq in the first league match of Pool-B of the quarter-finals of the senior Snooker in the 12th J&K State Billiards and Snooker Championship.

Vishal Abrol defeated Umar Farooq in a close contest as both cueists were striking the balls in unique way to prevent each other from collecting scores. The match saw ups and downs for both the cueists till the end of game as none of them was losing any chance to dominate other.

The first frame was won by Vishal Abrol by 85-35 scores but in the second round Umar Farooq made his come back and won the frame by 66-63. In the third round, Vishal Abrol again struck back and restricted Farooq from clinching scores for a long period as a result of which Abrol made 63 points while Umar Farooq remained on 22 thus losing yet another frame.

The fourth frame was totally identical to third frame as in this frame Umar Farooq restricted Vishal and himself continued to score after scores. Farooq won the frame by 68-19 points. With both the cueists winning two frames each, the fifth frame become more interesting and challenging for both Abrol and Farooq.

In the final frame both maintained attacking show but Abrol left behind Farooq in collecting quick scores and won the frame with 63-58 points and match in Pool-B by three frames to two.

The second league match of the quarter-final was in the Pool-A which was won by Kuldeep Sharma from Umarjaan by 3-0. The continuous collecting of scores by Sharma diverted the attention of Umarjaan who played some bad shots which further benefitted Sharma.

Kuldeep Sharma won the match with scores 75-34, 75-15, 66-25.

The third league match of the quarter-final of the day and second in Pool-A was really a one sided competition with State Champion Kamal Rohmetra restricting Amit Raina to the score before 20 points in all the three frames.

Kamal’s performance in all the three frames was marvellous and he played freely as Amit Raina failed to pose any competition to him. Kamal’s unique control over cue and ball was looking from his each and every shot which was yielding scores.

The state champion won his match by 3-0 with scores 62-19, 61-18, 51-10.

In Pool-A of the quarter-final, there are Kamal Rohmetra, Kuldeep Sharma, Amit Raina and Umarjaan while in the Pool-B there are Sanjeev Gupta, Vishal Abrol, Umar Farooq and Abhimanyu Arora.

From Pool-A, Kamal Rohmetra and Kuldeep Sharma won the matches while from Pool-B Vishal Abrol won the match. Each player of the either pool has to play three matches.

Earlier, in the third round of the Senior Snooker Kuldeep Choudhary beat Manav Gupta with scores 37-83, 57-49, 63-23, 93-64 while Amit Raina defeated Irfan by 3 frames to one.

Umar Farooq beat Umar Hussain by 3-2 while Vishal Abrol defeated Owis by 3-0 with scores 55-38, 65-37, 42-26 and Kamal defeated Jaideep by 3-0. Avish Sharma was defeated by Sanjeev Gupta with final score remained 59-76, 34-62, 36-52.

Sanjeev Gupta also defeated Sunny Gupta by 3-1 while Abhimanyu Arora defeated Younis Kochay by 3-2 with scores 59-14, 63-40, 54-66, 18-80, 53-40.