Kiwis stages winning
test comeback
against Windies

HAMLITON, Dec 20: New Zealand pulled off one of their ....more

Sadagopan Ramesh and V V S Laxman

Indo-Tasmania 4-days cricket match ends
in a tame draw

HOBART, Dec 20: The Indians’ four-day cricket match against ....more

Bleak future for
Indian women’s
tennis: Nirupama

NEW DELHI, Dec 20: "The future of Indian women’s tennis is very dismal," says numero uno Nirupama Vaidyanathan. ....more

Lokesh Malhotra wins
Royal Challenge
Cup Golf tourney

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 20: Lokesh Malhotra, who secured 44 points bagged the glittering......more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 20: Kamal Rohmetra today sailed into the Snooker semi-finals....more

Inquiry into hostel girls death demanded
JU students boycott
classes, call on
Vice-Chancellor

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 20: Jammu University students today boycotted their classes demanding....more

Inter-school Athletics
Mohan wins 1500 mts
race in U-19 group

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Dec 20: Mohan Lal of Higher Secondary School (boys), Udhampur won gold....more

Unique HS, National School win Distt Tug of War titles

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 20: Unique High School, Gadi Garh won the girls title beating Anand Public School, Digiana....more

Kiwis stages winning test comeback against Windies

HAMLITON, Dec 20: New Zealand pulled off one of their biggest cricket comebacks after a horror first day to beat the West Indies by nine wickets in the first test here today.

It took 15 overs for New Zealand to reach their target of 70, with Nathan Astle hitting the winning run off Courtney Walsh just seven overs into the middle session.

The win was completed with plenty of time to spare thanks to Chris Cairns, who recorded the third-best bowling figures in New Zealand test history with seven for 27 off 22.5 overs.

It gave him 10 for 100 in the match and with his 72 runs in the first innings had little competition for the man of the match award.

It was only New Zealand’s fifth win over the West Indies in 29 matches, the last coming 13 years ago in Christchurch when they had an even easier chase of 33 — but lost five wickets getting the runs.

Today’s win was achieved comfortably after Craig Spearman whacked 30 off 36 balls.

Gary stead was the only wicket to fall but there was bad news for Matthew Horne who had his right index finger broken by Franklyn Rose. He had to retire hurt for five and will miss the second test starting on boxing day Sunday in Wellington.

Although New Zealand had the better of four of the last five days, they had gone into day two with the West Indies 282 for one on a good batting pitch.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming agreed it was one of the team’s better victories.

Fleming, who anchored the New Zealand first innings of 393 with a well compiled 66, recorded his ninth win as captain and moved within two wins of Geoff Howarth as the country’s most successful test leader.

For the West Indians it was their ninth straight test loss away from home, following the 0-5 loss to South Africa a year ago and a 0-3 loss to Pakistan the previous year.

This result left New Zealand with an unbeatable 1-0 lead with the West Indies best hope to tie the series in the second and final test.

Captain Brian Lara blamed complacency for his team’s lacklustre performance in throwing away their early advantage.

The West Indies started the day 66 for four — an overall lead of 38 — but they weren’t completely out of the game with first innings century maker Adrian Griffith and Jimmy Adams still at the wicket.

The pair looked safe for seven overs until Cairns switched to around the wicket and enticed an edge from Griffith who was caught behind for 18 after 157 minutes at the crease.

That started a six-over spell in which Cairns took five for 10 as he cleaned up the West Indies tail while a terrible mix-up led to Ridley Jacobs’ run out.

Cairns was on a hat-trick after taking an easy caught and bowled chance from Dinanath Ramnarine but the hat-trick ball just beat the edge of Reon King’s bat.

Adams once again ran out of batting partners and was the last man out, caught at fine leg by 12th man Shayne o’Connor from a Cairns bouncer. (AFP)

Indo-Tasmania 4-days cricket match ends in a tame draw

HOBART, Dec 20: The Indians’ four-day cricket match against Tasmania ended in the tamest of draws at Bellerive Oval here today their only consolation being their openers coming up with a decent stand.

Sadagopan Ramesh and V V S Laxman put on 64 for the first wicket to give them some hope ahead of the second test in Melbourne as the Indians reached 130 for three in their second knock by close.

But the performance came on a wicket that offered nothing to the bowlers and produced one of the dullest games in recent times.

The match was dead long before the Indians started their second innings, 20 minutes before the lunch interval.

Tasmania stretched their overnight score of 472 for four to 548 for five in reply to the Indians’ 316 for nine in the first knock before a batsman in the middle decided to declare the innings of his own.

Left-hander Shaun Young, unbeaten on 62 at that stage, walked off the field of his own after 80 minutes of batting even as his partner Scott Kremerskothen stood rooted at his spot.

Even the umpires had no idea as to what was happening. Finally, they trudged back to the pavilion, asking the Indians to follow them.

The Indians made slow progress on the benign wicket and lost their first wicket when, after reaching a chanceless 27, Ramesh edged Kremerskothen behind the stumps. He had faced 71 balls and hit one four.

Just before the break, Laxman reached his half century, off 96 balls with seven fours. After stylishly pulling Young to the square leg fence, Laxman was out when he tried to flick an overpitched delivery and missed. As he stepped out of his crease, wicketkeeper David Atkinson neatly picked up the ball and dislodged his bails.

In the last hour of the game, the home team made as many as 19 bowling changes over 24 overs. Every one of the Tasmanian players, including ‘keeper Atkinson had a bowl.

By this time, the players and even the umpires seemed to have lost interest in what was happening in the middle. After the last drinks interval, Rahul Dravid took strike instead of Vijay Bharadwaj, and no one seemed to notice.

Bharadwaj again disappointed. He made 15 from 115 minutes off 106 balls before being trapped leg before wicket by leg-spinner Michael Di Venuto.

Another major disappointment for the Indians was the poor form of off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who earlier bowled 47 overs without success while conceding 141 runs.

The only wicket Tasmania lost in the morning was that of Dan Marsh, who made 157 from 297 minutes and 213 balls, hitting 12 fours and a six.

The fifth-wicket pair of Marsh and Young put on 165 runs from 289 balls and 191 minutes.

Bharadwaj claimed three wickets for 105 runs from 32 overs.

SCORECARD:

Indians 1st innings 316/9 decl.Tasmania 1st inningsJ Cox c Prasad b Ganguly 139D Hills run out 84M Divenuto c Mongia b Bharadwaj 12J Dykes lbw b Bharadwaj 61D Marsh c Dravid b Bharadwaj 157S Young not out 62 Kremerskothen not out 1Extras (b1, lb11, w6, nb14) 32Total (for 5 wkts decl) 548Fall of wickets: 1-205, 2-227, 3-277, 4-381, 5-546.Bowling:

Venkatesh Prasad 21-5-52-0,

Debashish Mohanty 26-7-81-0,

Thiru Kumaran 26-6-105-0,

Sourav Ganguly 18-0-42-1,Harbhajan Singh 47-5-141-0,

Ajay Bharadwaj 32-2-105-3,Hrishikesh Kanitkar 5-0-10-0.

Indians 2nd inningsS Ramesh c Atkinson b Kremerskothen 27VVS Laxman st Atkinson b Young 58V Bharadwaj lbw b Di Venuto 15R Dravid not out 18H Kanitkar not out 0Extras (b-3, lb-3, w-3, nb-3) 12Total (for 3 wkts, 61 overs) 130Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-98, 3-124.Bowling:

Miller 16-7-29-0,

Downton 8-1-30-0,

Wright 8-3-10-0,

Kremerskothen 9-3-22-1,

Marsh 8-2-17-0,

Young 2-0-6-0,

Dykes 2-1-3-0,

Atkinson 4-3-1-0,

Di Venuto 2-0-6-1,Cox 1-1-0-0,

Hills 1-1-0-0. (PTI)

Bleak future for Indian women’s tennis: Nirupama

NEW DELHI, Dec 20: "The future of Indian women’s tennis is very dismal," says numero uno Nirupama Vaidyanathan.

"The Indian women’s tennis is currently in a very sorry state of and if something is not done fast, it would be in ruins," Nirupama said in an interview to UNI.

She said unlike men’s tennis, which "is somewhat structured and organised", women’s tennis is in a shambles.

"There is no structure for women’s tennis in India. Here tennis is mostly taken as a hobby, but not groomed as a profession. It largely ends up as secondary to the primary aim of education."

Nirupama said, unlike abroad, India does not have professional academies catering to the sport.

"Academies like Britannia Amritraj Tennis (BAT), from where Leander Paes had come, are very few. These used to employ foreign coaches and used to proceed in a systematic manner to groom future champions."

"We do not lack talent here. Its just the proper grooming that is required, she added."

She said among the various factors requirement to boost the sport, "the most important are sponsors and a new approach to the way it is handled by the concerned authorities."

"To make it big on the professional WTA circuit, a financial backing by sponsors is very important. This can be facilitated either by the Government or by private organisations.

Speaking on the soory state of affairs, she said, "though I am the number one women’s tennis player of the country and represent one billion people, I have no sponsors and have to travel abroad and play at my own expense. Looking at this you can very well imagine how the country’s number two, three and so on must be surviving, especially if they don’t have personal money to put in."

She said due to lack of money she cannot afford to have a personal coach on the tour.

"I can’t afford a coach. A coach plays a very instrumental part in players success as it is he who decides the strategy."

Asked if the recent exploits of Paes and Bhupathi have in any way helped in roping sponsors, she replied in the negative.

"I think reaction to success has so far been very individualistic. Whatever success they have had, has primarily helped them, but not done much otherwise."

About her future plans, Nirupama, whose career-best WTA ranking has been 130 (currently above 200), said she planned to make some changes in her selection of tournaments.

"I have realised that I should give more emphasis to 25,000 or 50,000 (dollars) tournaments rather than playing in bigger events where I clash with the higher-ranked. In the smaller events, a clash with these usually comes in later rounds."

"Also, I feel that consistency is one department where I lack. Though I have beaten even players as high as top 10, I lack consistency."

However, on an optimistic note, she added, "my best is yet to come."

Asked if she had plans to play doubles pairing with Tathiana Garbin of Italy, she said currently she just intended to stress on singles.

"My first priority will always be singles. About doubles I am not sure. About garbin, well I am not much certain as it is difficult to make it with a foreigner."

Commenting on the new crop of Indian girls in tennis, Nirupama said, "except for Manisha Malhotra, (Sai) Jayalakshmi, Rushmi Chakravarthi, who are all my age, I do not find much talent in the under-14 and under-16 sections."

She said after a break in Coimbatore, she would now be heading to Australia for the Australia Open qualifiers. Her career best in a grand slam so far has been a second round in Australian Open. (UNI)

Lokesh Malhotra wins Royal Challenge Cup Golf tourney

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 20: Lokesh Malhotra, who secured 44 points bagged the glittering Cup beating B R Singh in the Royal Challenge Cup Golf Tournament which played at BSF Golf Club, here yesterday.

Third place was shared by Raju Choudhary and Hiteshar Arjun Anand. In Gross score, Sanjeev Singh, while Ghalib Mohiudin finished second. Col. C Dhara topped in longest drive in hole number eight, Lt General P S Vadhera was closest to the pin hole number five.

The prize for maximum number of Birdies was bagged by Master Amit Walia, while maximum number of Pots were scored by Mr Khurshid Ahmed. First prize for senior category went to Col D S Jamwal and Balbir Singh got second position.

Ms Sonal Sharma and Ms Lucky Sandhu bagged first and second positions in Ladies Putting while Col D S Jamwal and Balbir Singh got first two prizes for senior above 55 years.

The prize distribution function was held in the evening, wherein Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah who was also chief guest gave away the prizes to the winners.

A cultural programme was organised by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages on this occasion. Dogri, Kashmir and Ladakhi folk songs and dances were presented by the artists of the Academy. The programme was well presented and was compared by Mr Vijay Attri. Dr Abdullah thanked the Academy for organising a good presentation and nice show.

In all, 56 reputed players participated in the day-long event. Among the star golfer who participated in the tournament were Dr Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister, Lt Gen. A S Khanna, GoC 16 Corps and IG BSF, Mr U C Chhabra apart from many senior civil and police officers.

The Chief Minister and other dignitaries were presented mementos on the occasion by the organisers. It was followed a dinner sponsored by ‘Shaw Wallace’ and Company.