Sachin Tendulkar & Shane Warne

India crash to defeat,
lose series 0-2

MELBOURNE, Dec 30: Indian batting plumbed the depths again despite skipper...more

Mohammed Azharuddin & Ajay Jadeja

Selectors ignore Azhar,
Jadeja to continue
‘young only’ policy

MUMBAI, Dec 30: The national cricket selectors today ignored the claims of....more

Mark Waugh

Waugh rates Australia as
among best in history

MELBOURNE, Dec 30: Australia’s cricketers finished the 20th century where....more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 30: The Indian hockey team which is leaving Jammu after their 21-day long coaching camp today called on the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah on luncheon, here today......more

Bedi, Jaitley face
off in DDCA polls

NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Former Indian captain Bishen Singh Bedi and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley are pitted against each other in a high profile contest for presidentship of the Delhi and District Cricket Association elections slated for tomorrow. ....more

India fined for
slow over rate

MELBOURNE, Dec 30: The Indian cricket team which lost the second test and the series here today were dealt another blow as they were penalised five per cent of their match fee for slow over rate......more

Delhi to clash with
Rlys in women’s final

NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Underdogs Delhi continued their dream run outplaying Tamil Nadu 75-42 in the semifinals to set up a summit clash with defending champions Railways in the women’s section of the senior National Basketball Championship here today. Spearheaded by the troika of Shivani Gupta, Prabjot Gill and Nishita Chaudhary, the 1973 champions, who reached the semi-finals upsetting last edition’s runners-up Kerala.....more

India crash to defeat, lose series 0-2

MELBOURNE, Dec 30: Indian batting plumbed the depths again despite skipper Sachin Tendulkar’s heroics as they crashed to a humiliating 180-run defeat in the second cricket test against Australia to lose the three-test series 0-2 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground today.

Entering the final day at 40 for one with the massive task of having to negotiate 105 overs, the visitors showed some resistance before being bowled out for 195 soon after tea to lose their second straight test by a huge margin for Australia to annex the border-Gavaskar trophy first time.

India, keen to recover from their 285-run defeat in the first test, held slim hopes of salvaging a draw at 110 for three at lunch, but Tendulkar, who followed his grand 116 in the first innings to top-score with 52 and claim the Man of the Match award fell soon after to be followed by debutant left-hander Hrishikesh Kanitkar after a fighting 45.

The Indian cup of woe was full when opener Sadagopan Ramesh, who fended a snorter from debutant pace sensation Brett last evening, was ruled out with a fractured left thumb this morning and the writing was on the wall when they were left gasping at 187 for eight wickets at the tea break.

Anil Kumble again offered some resistance at the fag end before he was run out desperately trying to shield last man Venkatesh Prasad to signal Australia’s seventh straight win.

The Aussie bowling honours were shared with pacemen Damien Fleming (2/46), Brett Lee (2/31) and part-timer Mark Waugh (2/12) emerging the most successful.

India, set a stiff target yesterday - of 376 for an improbable win or playing out 126 overs (105 of them today) to avert a more likely defeat - were dealt a big blow in the morning when Ramesh, who came in to bat with a painful left thumb, retired hurt after facing one over from Fleming and was diagnosed to have suffered a fracture.

The opener, who did not add anything to his overnight 26, has been ruled out of the final test starting in Sydney on January 2.

Rahul Dravid held firm for nearly three hours before he was caught behind by Adam Gilchrist off lee for just 14 and Tendulkar was left as the final hope to stave off defeat.

The skipper, whose superb first innings century helped India avert the follow-on, held on grimly for over three hours to score 52, but fell into the lunch session as Warne captured his prize scalp.

Tendulkar padded up to a flipper from the star leg spinner to be rapped in front of the wicket and umpire David Shepherd adjudged him leg before.

Saurav Ganguly (17) once again got his eye in but failed to support his skipper as he fell to the penultimate ball before lunch from part-time bowler Greg Blewett, dragging a low delivery pitched outside the off-stump onto the wicket.

Fellow left-hander Hrishikesh Kanitkar made a determined 45, but Mark Waugh who was given a rare bowl in tests pushed the Aussies closer to victory when he removed M S K Prasad (13) and Ajit Agarkar, for a first ball duck, off successive deliveries to be on a hat-trick.

Kanitkar fell leg before to Fleming five short of a well deserved fifty and Javagal Srinath’s dismissal for the addition of just one run left India at 185 for eight.

Kumble was struck on his left shoulder by Lee, who also peppered him with short stuff, but held on for a brief while with Prasad before he was run out, setting off belatedly for a single after playing Fleming to deep gully but failing to beat the throw to the bowler.

Only Dravid, who batted for 161 minutes and faced 109 balls for his 14 runs, and Tendulkar, who faced 122 balls in 162 minutes and hit four fours, underlined their class in handling the menacing Aussie pace attack but their dismissals dashed Indian hopes.

Kanitkar, who steered fleming for two fours and drove blewett for boundaries alongwith M S K Prasad held on for a while. But the left-hander fell to the second new ball when fleming trapped him leg before to end his 102-minute stay, when he faced 78 balls and struck six fours.

Shane Warne finished the match with 351 test wickets, just five more required to overhaul the Australian record held by former pace great Dennis Lillee.

The 23-year-old Brett Lee finished with a superb match-analysis for 7-78 which played a big role in Australia’s 17th win over India in 55 tests.

Australia’s sixth straight win came after the one-off test win in Zimbabwe and the 3-0 sweep against Pakistan at home and the win over India at Adelaide.

To add further misery, India were fined five per cent by Sri Lankan match referee Ranjan Madugalle for slow over rate. (PTI)

Selectors ignore Azhar, Jadeja to continue
‘young only’ policy

MUMBAI, Dec 30: The national cricket selectors today ignored the claims of former captain Mohammed Azharuddin to continue their and the team management’s policy of "youngsters only" for batsmen while choosing the squad here for the tri-series in Australia commencing on January 9.

The selectors also did not consider one-day specialist batsman Ajay Jadeja on medical grounds as he is not yet fully fit from his shoulder injury and made six changes while pruning the 16-strong squad now "down under" to 15 for the Carlton and united series in which Pakistan is the third team.

They also decided to recall Harbhajan Singh, T Kumaran, M S K Prasad (the lone "keeper sent for the test series), V V S Laxman and Vijay Bharadwaj from Australia and send Nikhil Chopra, Robin Singh, Sameer Dighe (stumper), Jacob Martin and Sunil Joshi in their place.

Opener S Ramesh, who suffered a thumb fracture in the second test which India lost today at Melbourne, is also set to return in a couple of days after undergoing an operation for his injury, cricket board secretary Jaywant Lele told reporters after announcing the team.

Selection committee chairman Chandu Borde said the meeting lasted only for about half an hour to 45 minutes though the scribes had to wait for nearly four hours after the commencement of the meeting for the press briefing to start.

It is understood there was a lot of deliberation over Azhar in the meeting and finally the team management convinced the selectors that a younger man, Martin, should be sent and not the out-of-favour ex-captain.

The selectors came out of the room where they met first at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) office and went to another room for another lengthy conference with the team management in Australia, according to MCA sources, before finally agreeing upon the choice of Baroda youngster Martin.

Later, Borde said Azhar’s name was deliberated upon at length especially in the absence, due to injury, of Jadeja but it was decided by the selectors to continue with their policy of giving young batsmen a chance, Which was the view of the team management in Australia too.

"It took a long time for us to get the connection to Australia", was his reply on why it took so long for him and Lele to address the press.

Asked how Robin Singh, at 36 as old as Azhar, was considered if one went by the "young only" policy, Borde replied it did not apply as the Trinidad-born Tamil Nadu one-day specialist was still performing well. "Anyway we have eight batsmen in the team", he explained further.

Grilled about the choice of Mumbai’s Sameer Dighe in place of M S K Prasad so soon after deciding to continue with the latter, instead of including Nayan Mongia, for the test series as "he was doing well" at Ahmedabad after the third test against New Zealand, Borde said Prasad’s performance had dipped now.

"We all felt he was not performing as well as before and the team management also wanted Dighe as he can open the innings too in case of necessity. It was felt by the team management that Dighe is a good striker of the ball".

Borde said the injury to Ramesh further strengthened Dighe’s claims as the team management has decided that only skipper Sachin Tendulkar or his deputy Saurav Ganguly would open in the January 9-February 6 tri-series.

Borde also said the selectors had considered the opion of junior India coach Roger Binny on Dighe’s display in West Indies recently before selecting the 31-year-old Mumbai stumper.

"The choice was between Prasad, Dighe and Rueben Paul of Tamil Nadu", Borde said, thus, giving further credence to the widely held view that Mongia was not at all in favour of the team management.

Mongia was treated like an "unwanted" guest on his recent, brief stay in Australia with the team.

He was sent there at the specific request of the team management who later changed their mind and asked for Dighe, Lele said when asked specifically on the unsavoury episode.

About the non-consideration of Jadeja, who was wanted by the team as admitted by Lele, the board secretary said it was the decision of Board chief A C Muthiah that he should first get fully fit before being considered.

"He has been given a rehabilitation programme by the South African doctor who treated him in Johannesburg and has started the course immediately but recently an MRI and Sonography tests were conducted in Baroda and the specialist felt it will be another 2-3 weeks before he attains complete fitness", Lele said.

"In such a situation the Board chief felt Jadeja has to first complete his rehabilitation process before being considered for selection and the selectors did not consider him," Lele added. (PTI)

Waugh rates Australia as among best in history

MELBOURNE, Dec 30: Australia’s cricketers finished the 20th century where they started — on top of the world — after crushing India by 180 runs to win the second test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia’s emphatic victory was their sixth in a row and finished a remarkable year which included winning the limited-overs World Cup in England.

Australian captain Steve Waugh now believes his team deserves to be rated among the finest in history.

"There have been lots of other great players but as a collective unit, I think this is probably the best side I’ve been involved in," Waugh said.

"We’re pretty relentless. Once we get on top, we don’t relax."

By beating India today, Waugh’s side became the first Australian team in 79 years to win six tests on the trot since Warwick Armstrong led his players to eight in a row from 1920-21.

Waugh’s side began their sequence against Zimbabwe in October before last month’s 3-0 series clean sweep against Pakistan.

They thrashed India by 285 runs in Adelaide a fortnight ago before making it six in a row at Melbourne.

With the third test against India starting in Sydney on Sunday and three tests to follow against New Zealand in March and April, Waugh believes his side is poised to challenge the world record of 11 consecutive wins set by the West Indies during the mid 1980s.

"I think we’re playing very good cricket at the moment," Waugh said.

"I’d back us against any side from any era. If someone’s going to beat us they’re going to have to play very well."

Truly dashed

Any thoughts that Australia might loosen their grip on world cricket following the retirements of Mark Taylor and Ian Healy have been and well and truly dashed since Waugh inherited the captaincy this year.

The 34-year-old has introduced a new level of toughness to the side that was missing in previous seasons.

Australia’s reputation for choking when chasing fourth innings totals was blown away under Waugh’s leadership when they made 369 batting last — the third biggest succesful chase in the game’s history — to beat Pakistan in Hobart last month.

They also shrugged off their habit of losing "dead rubbers" by thrashing the Pakistanis by an innings a week later in Perth. Waugh has also challenged some of the game’s traditional conventions, electing to bowl after winning toss even though the accepted practice is always to bat first and experimenting with different ideas.

When Australia needed quick runs to set up an early declaration against India yesterday, Waugh unhesitatingly promoted wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist up the order. Gilchrist made 55 in 73 balls.

When he needed wickets on the final day, he threw part-time seamer Greg Blewett and occasional off-spinner Mark Waugh into the fray. Both got wickets in their first over.

He was also instrumental in getting Rookie paceman Brett Lee into the test side despite his relative inexperience at first-class level.

Lee responded with match figures of seven for 78 in his test debut to suggest he is a star of the future.

Waugh said Lee’s intimidating speed would add a new dimension to the Australian team as they head into the new millennium, a sobering thought for other cricket-playing nations.

"He will do to quick bowling what Shane Warne did to leg spin bowling," Waugh forecast. (REUTERS)

Indian Hockey team calls on Chief Minister

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 30: The Indian hockey team which is leaving Jammu after their 21-day long coaching camp today called on the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah on luncheon, here today.

The Chief Minister during his introduction with the players underlined the need for giving sports the priority it deserves and said that he will take up the matter with the concerned ministry in the Centre to encourage hockey players so that they could attain their earlier position in the world ranking.

Wishing the national team a success, the Chief Minister recalled the status of Indian hockey in the recent past and hoped that it will make endeavours to regain its position in the world hockey once again.

The Chief Minister said that the game of hockey has become very fast over the years and exuded confidence that Indians are good enough to bring laurels to the country. He urged them to improve in all the disciplines and give their best to keep the country’s flag high. He concluded with saying, "we have many expectations from you".

Earlier, Mr Bhaskaran, the chief coach of the Indian Hockey team gave the first hand reports to the Chief Minister for their practice in the newly laid Astroturf at K K Hakhu Hockey Stadium, here. He said that this is for the first time that country’s hockey contingent had its practice sessions in Jammu and Kashmir.

The members who called on the Chief Minister included former captain Dhanraj Pillay, Mohd Riaz, Dilip Trikey, Dinesh Naik, Anurag Raghuvanshi, Thirumalvalavan, Bimal Lakra, Kamal Horo, Sameer Dad, Brojen Singh, Jude Menezes and R V S Prasad.

Assistant coach of the team and physician were also present on the occasion, besides general secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Hockey Association.