Hero Honda Golf Tourney
Milkha leads the field

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: Fancied Jeev Milkha Singh delighted the home crowd with a three under 69 penultimate round to aggregate nine under 207 to lead the field in the Omega Tour’s 200,000 US dollar Hero Honda Golf Tournament here today.

Overnight joint leaders American Mike Cunning and Jyoti Randhawa slipped to joint second and fourth place with par 72 and one over par 73 round respectively.

First round leader Gerry Norquist shot two under 70 and was a sharing the second place with Mike Cunning. Jeev started with bang birding the first hole and had eight pars on his way out while coming back he carded birdies on the 11th, 12th, 14th but dropped a stroke on the 18th to finish the day at 3 under 69.

"This has been my best performance on the Delhi Golf Course so far and I hope I will to do well in the final round tomorrow" said Jeev Milkha Singh after his round.

"I have only won a Sub Junior National Title on this Course" Jeev said adding’ I will try to do better in the fourth round".

Arjun Atwal fired a one under 71 and was lying joint 7th with a total of 211. While Vivek Bhandari who shot one under 71 and Daniel Chopra with par 72 were at joint ninth place with a total of four under par 212.

Chandigarh professional Amritinder Singh and 20 year old Calcuttan S S P Chowrasia shot identical three under par 69 third round.

Amritinder moved up to joint 14th place with an aggregate of two under 214 while Chowrasia with four over 220 was lying at the joint 36th slot.

"I stroked the ball well, but left too many putts short-on line but unfortunately short," said Jeev whose lst victory on the Delhi layout came in a junior event 10 years ago.

"I hit 15 greens today and had only my third bogey of the tournament, so I’m very happy with the way I’m playing. But tomorrow I’m have to focus more on my putting. If you don’t hit it hard enough you’re never going to give yourself a chance of making the putts. The rain delay made it quite hard to keep my concentration and slowed the greens but I knew they’d be slower so that’s no excuse for leaving them short."

Starting the day in third place and three behind the lead Jeev wasted little time making up ground on the leaders with a tap-in birdie on the par five first.

After an hour rain delay, the 25-year-old from Chandigarh reached

the turn one under the card before picking up consecutive birdies at the 11th and 12th. He took the outright lead with another birdie from six feet at the 14th, but dropped his only shot of the day on the 16th when he got a ‘ flyer ‘ with his second shot and over-ran the green.

Level with Jeev at the start of the day, Norquist reached the turn one better than his Indian rival after draining birdie putts from five feet at the second and 10-feet at the eighth. The 36-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona picked up another shot at the 11th when he fired a seven iron to three feet, but made bogey two holes later when he needed three to reach the green.

"I woke up with a cold this morning after a poor night’s sleep so it didn’t help too much standing under a tree for an hour in the rain," said Norquist, a three-time winner on the Omerga tour. "But if I can get some sleep tonight then it should be good day tomorrow-Jeev’s Si a great player while mike (cunning) drove the ball today as well as anybody I’ve seen."

Having started the day level with local favourite Jyoti Randhawa, cunning played the front half one under thanks to birdie at the second. But last year’s omega order of merit winner lost the lead following a double bogey immediately after the turn.

Short of the green in two,cunning ‘fluffed’ his first chip before chipping on again and taking two putt to get down. But he made sure of a place in the final flight tomorrow by holing a ten foot birdie on the par five last.

Jyoti slipped back to fourth place on seven under par after hitting a one over 73.The 27 year old Meerut professional carded four birdies and three bogeys, but received a two stroke penalty on the third when he made a ruling mistake with ‘casual water’.

On the third hole Jyoti hit his drive the second shot and felt that there was a ‘casual water’ there and wanted to take a drop. He asked Marker Mike cunning about the drop and the American agreed.

However Gerry Norquist felt that there was no ‘casual water’ there and objected. The referee upheld Gerry’s objection and the Indian was penalised two strokes.

Jyoti maintained that "this time he was right" and admitted that he was jittery after "being penalised" but I came back and that was good"

"Two shots behind just before the final round, I think it is not much and I can hope of taking a shot at the title" he said.

Carlos Espinosa (Mexico) moved into contention on six under after posting the day’s lowest, a four under 68. He shares fifth spot with America’s Scott Taylor, who fired two under 70.

Another local favourite Gaurav Ghei had a miserable eight over par 80 round and was lying at joint 30th spot.

Domestic tour favourite Mukesh Kumar returned five over 77 to be at 36th place with an aggregate of 220.

Sanjay Kumar who was at fifth place yesterday, slipped down the leaderboard with five over 77 and was at joint 22th place.

Two time Indian open winner Ali Sher returned one over 73 to GBE at joint 30th place. (UNI)

Khoda, Kanwat help Rajasthan reach 282

JAIPUR, Nov 7: Solid knocks by Gagan Khoda and Rahul Kanwat helped Rajasthan reach 282 for 8 at the close of the first day’s play in their Central Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Uttar Pradesh here today.

After electing to bat, Rajasthan lost opener Anshu Jain (2) when the total read four.

Khoda (82) and Kanwat (99) then played superb knocks in a 166-run partnership that helped the hosts reach a respectable score by close of play at the Mansarovar Stadium.

Khoda, who scored century in the one-dayer yesterday which Rajasthan lost by just two runs, was again in superb form, hitting seven fours in his 141-ball knock. He was caught by substitute Rakesh trying to loft off spinner Musi Raja with the total at 170.

Kanwat, whose 99 included 10 fours, also fell to Raja, UP skipper G Pandey taking the catch.

Thereafter, wickets fell in quick succession as A W Zaidi removed Kaushal Devra (5), Rohit Jhalani (4) and Pramod Yadav (17), as Raja dismissed skipper Ashish Kapoor (12) and Vilas Joshi (5) to reduce the hosts to 256 for eight.

Mohammad Wasid (18) and Devendra Pal Singh (18) were at the crease at the end of the day’s play.

For UP, Raja was the most successful bowler, claiming four wickets for 79 runs, while Zaidi took 3 for 55. (PTI)

Asian Junior basketball
China, Japan moves into quarter finals

CALCUTTA, Nov 7: Holders China, last year’s runners-up Qatar and dark horse Japan moved into the quarter finals of the 15th Asian Junior Basketball championship defeating Hongkong, Malaysia and Bangladesh respectively at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here today.

China emerged at the top of Group A with two victories and a loss. In their last prequarters’ engagement, they drubbed Hongkong 115-42.

Qatar also made itto the quarters as Group B topper with two straight wins. They are yet to play their third match. In today’s match they subdued Malaysia 87-52.

Japan, who are finding favour with spectators and experts alike, moved to the quarters as Group C leaders having won both their games so far. Today they thrashed lowly-rated Bangladesh 147-30, the biggest margin victory sofar in this tourney. In the day’s first match, Qatar set a brisk pace while Malaysia tumbled midway into the game with poor shooting and inept passing. Hashem Zaldan mesmerised the rivals with his accurate shooting, having converted all the eight free throws that came his way besides, scoring field goals. Zaldan fired 30 points for Qatar while B Ahkuwari and M Mangoud earned 11 points each. For Malaysia Chew in Lai scored 12 points and J Yeofeng 10.

The China-Hongkong encounter proved a one-sided affair as the Chinese outplayed Hongkong in all departments of the game. Hongkong cagers allowed China to score at will with poor defence and man-marking. The Chinese built a strong defence with Jiae Jian and Liu Wei falling back in time to thwart the Honggong counter attacks.

The day’s third match too turned out to be a one-sided affair with Japan rolling all over Bangladesh. But for their 30 points, the Bangladeshi men had little to do in the game. Of the total 30 points, MD. Raseduzzaman scored 17.

On the other hand, the Japanese had a field day as the match proved a shooting practice session for them. In his 22 points, F Murayama had six 3-pointers while Kenjiro Hongo had four in his 22 points. However, Tomoo Amino top scored for the winners with 23 points.

The day’s other matches are between:

Philippines—Kuwait

India—Pakistan

Korea—Chinese Taipei. (UNI)

Rural Sports Mela concludes

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov. 7: A 2-day Rural Sports and Cultural Mela organised by the Youth Services and Sports Department Jammu at Ramgarh in Jammu district concluded today.

1200 students drawn from 13 schools participated. The matches which includes Volleyball, Kabaddi and Tug of War were also played during the Mela.

The Minister for Animal Husbandry/Sheep Husbandry, Mr S.S. Slathia was the chief guest. The Director General, Youth Services and Sports. Mr S S Ali presided over the function.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Slathia lauded the role of Youth Services and Sports Department for organising the Mela in this border village for the first time and invited the students to participate. He said that the Department should also organise such melas in far-flung and remote areas of the State. He said that the physical exercise is very necessary for the students with their studies. He hoped that the students of far-flung and border villages will also take part in New Delhi on 15th August and 26th January in future.

Mr. Slathia directed the concerned authorities to submit a proposal to the Government for construction of play ground and stadium at Ramgarh during this year. He awarded Rs. 500 each to 13 participating schools for their good performances besides presenting trophies among the winning students during the Mela. He said that the Department of Youth Services and Sports will work for the promotion of sports in rural, remote and far-flung areas of the State to encourage the students so that they can participate in such melas whole-heartedly.

A cultural programme was also presented by the students of various schools on the occasion.

Surjit Hockey Tourney
BSF upsets Punjab Police

JALANDHAR, Nov 7: Holders Punjab Police were upset by Border Security Force, but runners-up Punjab and Sind Bank managed to beat Rail Coach Factory and Air India drew level with Punjab State Electricity Board in league encounters of the 15th Indian Oil Surjit Hockey Tournament here today.

Border Security Force (BSF) caused a flutter when they beat defending champions Punjab Police 3-1 in pool "A" match. In a fast-paced match, BSF forged ahead in the 7th minute when their outside right Shinu Herenz found the target with a reverse flick. Rattled by an early reverse, defending champions hit back and in the 17th minute skipper Sarvjit Singh hit a cross from outside right harmik to restore parity 1-1.

But Shinu Herenz again took the BSF into lead with a solo effort after half time when he hit home to make it 2-1. The bordermen scored the third goal in the 60th minute when deep defender Christopher Ekka converted the 8th penalty corner making it 3-1.

In a pool "B" league encounter, last year’s runners-up Punjab and Sind Bank defeated Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala by 2-1. Star-studded bankmen took an early lead in the 6th minute when outside right Harpreet Singh Channi took full advantage of a pass from olympian Sanjeev Kumar to strike home. They got several opportunities to build on their lead but failed to capitalise and by the half-time whistle bankmen were leading 1-0.

Down but not out, coachmen reorganised themselves in the second half and earned three penalty corners but all went abegging.

They however, succeeded in restoring parity in the 41st minute when right half back J.Singh found the target with a direct penalty corner hit 1-1. Spurred by the equaliser, the bankmen launched a counter-attack and earned three penalty corners but failed to convert any.

A brilliant move by Sanjeev Kumar rescued them when the olympian, after dodging past a host of defenders, put centre forward Parminder Singh in possession of the ball and the later gave it final touches to make it two dash one for the bankmen.

In the third hard-fought match of pool "A", Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) drew 2-2 with Air India. Airmen took the lead in the 12th minute when inside left Edward Arhana raced down the middle and finding a gap hit past helpless PSEB custodian Mohan Singh to give 1-0 lead.

The airmen kept up the pressure after the changerover and earned four penalty corners but failed to build on their lead. After wasting two penalty corners, powermen levelled 1-1 in the 43rd minute when outside left Hardayal Singh latched on the ball at the top of the striking circle and dodged past skipper Surinder Kundu to unleashed a powerful shot to which Air India custodian Edgar had no answer.

Powermen mounted pressure and inside left Deepak Thakur shot another kick to forge his team ahead 2-1.

Deepak Thakur rescued his team by making a goalline save when goalkeeper Mohan Singh was completely beaten in the 69th minute. But powermen’s chance to consolidate their lead over airmen was foiled by left back Stephan when a reverse flick by Bhupinder junior had beaten goalkeeper Edgar. Airmen got their equaliser just before the final hooter when outside left Devinder Kumar sounded the board with a solo effort two dash two. (UNI)

India aim to win convincingly

SHARJAH, Nov 7: Buoyed by a thrilling win over World Cup champions Sri Lanka to begin their campaign on a winning note, India will look to dominate Zimbabwe when they meet them in their second league tie of the Coca Cola Cup Triangular Cricket Tournament here tomorrow.

India, who struggled to overhaul a modest target in the final stages before young all-rounder Ajit Agarkar saved the day for them, will be vary of the emerging African side who are capable of proving tough customers.

Zimbabwe, despite bowing out in their first match against New Zealand at the just-concluded Dhaka Mini World Cup, are a fast improving side who beat India in the third and final match of the one-day series at home and then stunned them by claiming the one-off test.

India, who had however claimed the one-day series in Zimbabwe, will look to give off a far better performance and avoid any of the anxiety they faced against Sri Lanka.

Openers Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly, who surprisingly suffered a combined failure yesterday, will be raring to go against the sharp opening attack by Eddo Brandes and Heath Streak, who have gained much respect from the opposition due to their recent deeds.

India look unlikely to change the team that beat Sri Lanka by three wickets, but will be determined to pull off an authoritative win over the dark horses.

Skipper Mohd Azharuddin, who struck a vital 94 and overhauled the world one-day aggregate record held by former West Indian opener Desmond Haynes, will have more thinking to do on improvisations in the batting line-up.

The ploy to push Nayan Mongia up, after omitting Rahul Dravid who has been unable to push the score coming early in the innings, clicked but introduction of Javagal Srinath as pinchaitter failed once again with the lanky paceman running himself out this time.

But Nikhil Chopra, the new off-spinner, did himself no harm with a tight spell and it is to be seen whether he is able to maintain the impression he has created with his showing against Sri Lanka.

Zimbabwean hopes will once again rest on the ability of their top order batsmen led by skipper and left-hander Alistair Campbell and the ability of their seamers to keep up a tight line and length with backing from slick fielding, which is drawing comparisons with the South Africans.

The Indian side will be quite fresh after today’s rest, but the Africans should face some strain of playing back to back matches, which are highly taxing but have become a regular feature of the limited overs version of the game. (PTI)

India demolish Pakistan with convincing margin

CALCUTTA, Nov 7: Hosts India played a cohesive game to trounce Pakistan 94-57 in a group-B league match of the 15th Asian Basketball Confederation Championship for junior men at the Nataji indoor stadium here today.

The hosts, who jeopardised their chances of a quarter-final berth when they went down to Malaysia in their opening league match, gave a much better account of themselves as they choked the Pakistanis with an improved performance in all departments of the game.

The Indian cagers relied on the shap shooting abilities of their captain S Robinson who secured 24 points to help his team record their first win in the 15-team championship. The fleet-footed Des Raj, who looked in very good form today, was the other notable contributor for the Indians with 15 points.

Leading by a narrow 42-35 margin at the interval, the Indians toned up their game in the second session and pierced the Pakistan defence with a series of fast breaks.

Pakistan, who did quite well in the first half, were a trifle tentative after the breather as the home team combined well and kept pressure on their opponents with a flurry of long ranged baskets.

The Indians have no option but to pull off an improbable victory over strong contenders Qatar T Kee their hopes alive in the championship. They have to also hope that Pakistan gets the better of Malaysia in their last match. (UNI)

Bharadwaj hits career-best 171

TIRUNELVELI (TN), Nov 7: A brilliant 171 by Vijay R Bharadwaj and his 134-run sixth-wicket partnership with Anand Katti helped Karnataka amass 390 for the loss of seven wickets in their first innings against Tamil Nadu on the second day of the four-day South Zone Ranji Trophy League Cricket Tournament here today.

Bharadwaj, who was unbeaten on 90 when stumps were drawn yesterday, completed his century with minimum fuss and proceeded to score 171, his career-best in Ranji Trophy. His innings which lasted 522 minutes, was studded with 14 fours and five sixes. He was finally caught by Vasant Saravanan off Sriram.

Bharadwaj’s previous best knock was 164 against Railways in the super-league stage last season.

The only other Karnataka wicket to fall today was that of D S Ananth who was caught by Arasu off the bowling of Kumaran for just four runs.

Katti remained unbeaten on 68, his maiden 50 in Ranji Trophy Tournament. (PTI)

East Zone Ranji

AGARTALA, Nov 7: Orissa established a comfortable margin over host Tripura to win the East Zone Ranji Trophy match here today the end of the third day.

Resuming at the overnight score of 147 for five, Orissa scored a total of 269 at their second innings losing all the wickets. Visitors’ two openers P Joychandra and Rabin Marish were the two successful batsmen who crossed the half century mark. Marish scored 51 with three boundaries while Joychandra scored 59 with seven boundaries and one over boundary. The other Orissa batsmen who crossed quarter century are Sanjoy Satpati (27) and Debashish Mahanti (25).

Tripura’s off spiner Aditya Sukhla was the most successful bowler claiming five wickets in 42 overs giving away 92 runs while another off spiner Timir Chanda took three wickets in fifteen overs giving away fifty runs. Subal Chowdhury and Sohel Dhand took one wicket each.

Tripura resumed their second innings in a poor note. The host scored a total of 92 losing eight wickets in 38 overs in their second innings at the end of the day. Only Bijoy Prajapati (30), Amitava Bilaskar (23) and Timir Chanda (15) crossed the double digit mark.

Orissa skiper Sanjoy Raul took three wickets followed by Sanjoy Satpati two and Debashish Mahanti, Rabin Marish and Sayeed Khan one each respectively.

Brief score : Orissa : first innings 168 and second innings 269. Tripura : first innings 154 and second innings 92 for eight . (UNI)

Paris Open
Rios, Agassi ousted, tired Sampras maintains dominance

PARIS, Nov 7: Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov overpowered a lacklustre Marcelo Rios in the quarterfinal of the 2.55 million dollar Paris Open yesterday, easily beating the World No. 2, 6-3, 6-2.

Kafelnikov, the No. 8 seed, took exactly one hour to beat Rios, who was roundly booed off the court by spectators who felt he hadn’t made an effort.

The match turned in the eighth game of the first set.

Kafelnikov broke serve while leading 4-3 with a smart backhand drop volley, and held serve to take the set.

"The first set was unbelievable but he let himself down in the second with some loose play," Kafelnikov said. "From that point on he gave me a lot of extra confidence and I never looked back."

"Once you give the idea that you are a bit down, or not satisfied with something, that gives your opponent extra confidence," the Russian said.

Kafelnikov’s win also improves his chances of qualifying for the ATP world championship in Hanover this month.

Rios still hopes to end the year as number one.

"Hanover will decide it," he said.

Showing no signs of the back injury that plagued him earlier in the tournament, Pete Sampras advanced to the semifinals by beating Australia’s Mark Philippoussis, 6-3, 6-3.

Sampras, looking to end the season as No. 1 for a sixth consecutive year, demonstrated his familiar array of winners against the U.S. Open finalist.

Leading 2-1 in the second set, Sampras played a stunning backhand winner at full stretch past a stunned Philippoussis to break service and set up the victory.

Unseeded Philippoussis beat No. 7 seed Karol Kucera and No. 10 seed Petr Korda on his way to reaching the quarterfinals, but always looked a class below the world number one.

But after the match, a tired Sampras slammed the organisation of the professional tennis circuit, saying it was too busy and caused injuries.

"The more we play, the more chance there is of injury. One of the problems is with the ranking system, which encourages too many matches," he said.

"If I want to play for many more years, which I want to do, I need more of a break. I mean about this all the time but nothing changes," he said.

Sampras said that Patrick Rafter’s injury, which will keep the Australian out of the world championships, is an example of the pressure put on players.

"Rafter has been playing too much tennis and now he can’t play in Hanover," Sampras said. "That cannot be good for the game."

But when asked why players do not challenge the system, he said

"It is hard enough to get the top players in a room together at the same time, let alone to agree on anything. Anyway, there is a lot of bread to be made out there."

In Saturday’s semifinals, Sampras will play Todd Martin, who came back from 1-3 behind in the final set to beat no. 5 seed Andre Agassi 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Agassi double-faulted with Martin on his second match point.

In the other semifinal, Kafelnikov will play Britain’s Greg Rusedski.

Rusedski, who retains a small chance of qualifying for hanover, had little trouble beating Magnus Gustafsson, 6-3, 6-2 in another quarterfinal contest. (AP)

Indian Masters Tennis
Federico Rovai clinches title

KANNUR, Nov 7: Playing true to his form and reputation top seeded Federico Rovai of Sweden completed a hat trick of triumph, annexing the men’s singles title in the Indian Masters Satellite Tennis Championship which concluded here today.

In the final, which never rose to any dizzy heights, Rovai stamped his authority in no unmistakable terms, winning 7-5, 6-2 against Prahalad Srinath of India in eighty minutes.

Rovai, who had won the Hyderabad and Bangalore legs earlier, signed off the circuit on a victorious note winning his second match against the Indian Davis cupper in three meetings.

Rovai became richer by winning the winner’s purse of 800 US dollars and 31 ITF points, which is equivalent to 23 ATP points, while Srinath had to be content with the runner-up purse of 600 US dollars and 11 ITF points, equivalent to 8 ATP points.

The one-day rest seemed to have done a lot of good for the 25-year-old Rovai, who clearly started as favourite against Srinath after the latter’s gruelling three-setter in the semifinals yesterday.

I am really happy. I had to win badly to improve my ranking, Rovai who had got a walk over in the semifinals as his fellow countryman Johan Hede pulled out due to a knee injury, later told newsmen.

"I just pinned him in baseline and never allowed him to charge at the net", he added.

Srinath on the other hand looked a tired lot and virtually threw in the towel in the second after a closely contested first set in which he lost serve in the crucial eleventh game, committing a lot of unforced errors. "I am totally out",he later said.

Rovai survived some anxious moments in the early part of the first set, when he staved off a break point in the second game before holding serve with two successive aces. He pinned Srinath to the baseline, returning hard and deep, and broke the Indian in the third game. Srinath nearly came close to losing his serve again in the seventh game but served well and held by saving three break points.

This gave in some confidence as Srinath broke back Rovai in the eighth when the latter put an easy volley long to make it 4-4. Srinath struggled with his first serves contestly and lost serve in the 11th game. Rovai held serve in the next to win the first set 7-5.

It was Rovai all the way in the second set, Srinath paid the penalty for trying to execute back hand drop shots from the baseline, which landed in the net on most occasions.

When he tried to attack at the net, Rovai responded with his double-fisted backhand passing shots leaving the Indian stranded on many a occasions.

After losing serve in the first game, he had a chance to make amends in the second game but Srinath made some silly errors and falled to cash in on the chance. He managed to battle back from a 0-40 deficit and stretched the game to deuce but he twice netted his returns and Rovai went up 30- breaking Srinath for the second time in the set. It was a mere formality after Rovai held his serve conceding a solitary point for a 4-0 lead.

The set went with the serve and Rovai served out the match in style when Srinath netted a service return, but not before he squandered two match points after leading 40-0. The match should have been over two points earlier, but Rovai in a show of sportsman spirit said the ball was good after the chair umpire said it was long. Srinath came up with a down the line shot to make it 30-40. But Rovai had the last laugh when Srinath netted a service return.

The focus now shifts to Calcutta, where both Srinath and Rovai would participate in the ITF Futures Tennis Championship beginning on Monday. (UNI)