BANGALORE, Oct 18: India’s new hero Vijay Bharadwaj cracked a swashbuckling 96 and put on 115 runs for the fourth wicket with V S Thilak Naidu as ....more

Squads for Australia,
Windies tours to be
picked in Ahmedabad

MUMBAI, Oct 18: The national and "A" squads for the forthcoming tours...more

Mahadevan, Uppal
enter second round

MUMBAI, Oct 18: Lucky loser’ Manoj Mahadevan and wild card....more

Govt employees
wins goodwill
Badminton trophy

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Oct 18: The Government employees team led by Sonipal Pandotra...more

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 18: Sandeep Bhat, who scored brilliant 91.........more

Rangrett Club lifts trophy
in Junior Hockey Tourney

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 18: Rangrett Club lifted the winners trophy.....more

Forest XI outplays
CS XI by 38 runs
in friendly tie

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Oct 18: Forest XI outplayed Chief....more

Trekking team returns
from Kargil

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 18: The forty-member trekking team....more

Karnataka take 20 runs lead over Kiwis

BANGALORE, Oct 18: India’s new hero Vijay Bharadwaj cracked a swashbuckling 96 and put on 115 runs for the fourth wicket with V S Thilak Naidu as Ranji champions Karnataka took 20 runs first innings lead over New Zealand on the penultimate day of the three-day match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here today.

Karnataka applied closure at 269 for nine after New Zealand had declared at its overnight score of 249 for six.

In the second innings, New Zealand was 12 without loss in six over with Matthew Horne on nine and Matthew Bell on two.

Karnataka collapsed after a sound start and was tottering at 74 for three at lunch before the fourth wicket pair thrashed the New Zealand attack and helped the home team to recover. For Karnataka opener J Arun Kumar was the other batsman to make 31. Medium pacer Christ Drum (four for 19), spinner Paul Wiseman (three for 99) and Chris Cairns (two for 30) were the successful bowlers for New Zealand.

Anil Kumble obviously delayed the declaration to enable Vijay Bharadwaj, who has been having a good season, to complete his another century on home crowd. Vijay Bharadwaj, who batted for 230 minutes, gave a catch in the deep while trying to clear Wiseman to reach his 100. In his 96, he hit 16 boundaries from the 171 balls he faced.

Kiwi skipper Stephen Fleming, who forced a sporting declaration, used his bowlers effectively and ensured that they sent in short spells.

Sujith Somasundar and J Arun Kumar batted sensibly and were not not troubled by the Kiwi opening attack. The two scored runs easily before Wiseman delivered the first blow. The spinner had J Arun Kumar, who had a good season in English county, plumb in front of the wicket for 31, which included five boundaries.

That triggered the collapse as Karnataka slumped from 63 for no no loss to 74 for three at lunch. A Vijay, who was promoted ahead of Rahul Dravid, saw Sujith Somasundar departing to a doubtful caught behind decision in the bowling of Chris Drum for 18. On the stroke of lunch drum rattled the stumps of a Vijay for one with Vijay Bharadwaj on three.

Thilak Naidu, who was a last minute replacement for injured Somashekara Shiraguppi, made the most of dropped catch by Stephen Fleming in the slips in the bowling of Chris Cairns. The batsman was on six and the side total on 94.

After that both the batsmen dominated the bowling and struck attractive boundaries taking the score past 150. The two went on to score their half centuries in style. Vijay Bharadwaj was lucky as Chris Harris failed to hold on to a difficult caught and bowled chance with his score on 56 and side total 187.

As the tea was approaching Thilak Naidu was beaten by the turn and was bowled to give Wiseman another wicket. Thilak Naidu hit nine boundaries in his 93-ball innings.

The team went into tea at 198 for four with Vijay Bharadwaj on 59 and Rahul on six.

Immediately after tea, Chris Cairns struck two quick blows removing Rahul Dravid for six and Sunil Joshi caught in the slips by Spearman for zero. Cairns after tea spell read 3-1-5-2.

Thereafter, Kumble joined Vijay Bharadwaj on 59. The Karnataka skipper showed signs of aggressiveness as he hoisted the spinner over long on for a massive six. After he had put on 27 runs for the seventh wicket, he was adjudged leg before to drum, who had returned to the attack.

Anand Yalvigi chased an outside the off stump delivery from drum into the hands of Adam Parore for six.

D Ganesh and Vijay Bharadwaj put on 30 before the latter was caught in the deep. Vijay Bharadwaj struck some attractive boundaries and was particularly harsh on spinners Harris and Wiseman. After lifting Wiseman, Vijay stood ground even after Horne took a good running catch. Anil Kumble immediately declared the innings.

In the remaining six overs, Karnataka tried to capture wickets. Kumble pressed five bowlers into service without success as New Zealand openers batted cautiously.

Following is the scoreboard

New Zealand first innings 249 for six declared

Karnataka first innings:

Sujith Somasundar c A Parore b C Drum 18

J Arum Kumar lbw b P Wiseman 31

A Vijay b C Drum 01

Vijay R Bharadwaj c M Horne b P Wiseman 96

V S Thilak Naidu b P Wiseman 52

Rahul Dravid b C Cairns 06

Sunil Joshi c Spearman b C Cairns 00

Anil Kumble lbw b C Drum 11

Anand Yalvigi c C Parore b C Drum 06

D Ganesh not out 12

Extras (b-7, lb-11, nb-18) 36

Total declared for nine wickets 269

Fall of wickets: 1-63, 2-65, 3-74, 4-189, 5-198, 6-204, 7-231, 8-239, 9-269.

Bowling:

Chris Cairns 11-3-30-2

Andrew Penn 11-2-49-0

Chris Drum 12-3-19-4

Paul Wiseman 26-3-99-3

Nathan Astle 6-1-17-0

Chris Harris 16-5-37-0

New Zealand second innings:

Matthew Horne batting 09

Matthew Bell batting 02

Extras (b-1) 01

Total (for no no loss) 12

Bowling:

D Ganesh 2-1-2-0

Mansur Ali Khan 1-1-0-0

Vijay Bharadwaj 1-0-9-0

Anil Kumble 1-1-0-0

Sunil Joshi 1-1-0-0

(UNI)

Squads for Australia, Windies tours to be picked
in Ahmedabad

MUMBAI, Oct 18: The national and "A" squads for the forthcoming tours of Australia and the West Indies are to be picked by the selectors during the course of the third and final India-New Zealand test to be held at Ahmedabad from October 29 to November 2, the Cricket Board announced today.

The selection would be done either on the fourth or the final day of the Ahmedabad test, Board’s executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar told PTI here.

The India team, to be led Sachin Tendulkar, is to leave for its 76-day tour of Australia within a week of the conclusion of the five-match limited overs series against the touring New Zealand to play a three-test series against the hosts.

The tests are to be held at Adelaide (December 10-14), Melbourne (December 26-30) and Sydney (January 2-6). It would then play in a triangular series against Australia and Pakistan from January 9 to February 13.

The India "A" team is to depart earlier to the Caribbean islands to play two four-day "tests" and three limited overs "internationals" against their West Indies counterparts.

The India "A" itinerary is:

Nov 13-16: v Trinidad in Trinidad South

Nov 19-22: first "test" in Trinidad

Nov 25-27: v Guyana in Guyana

Nov 30-Dec 3: Second "test" in Guyana

Dec 5: First one-day "international" in Guyana

Dec 11: Second one-day "international" in Grenada

Dec 13: Third and last one-day "international" in

Greneda. (PTI)

Mahadevan, Uppal enter second round

MUMBAI, Oct 18: Lucky loser’ Manoj Mahadevan and wild card entrant Vishal Uppal recorded hard fought wins on way to the men’s singles second round of the 25,000 US dollars prize money ITF Satellite Tennis Circuit (first leg) here today.

Mahadevan, who had lost to Pune-based Rohan Bopanna in the final qualifying round yesterday, made it to the main draw as Ondrej Chvapil of Czech Republic failed to turn up.

Mahadevan, playing a solid baseline game, pipped unseeded local lad Vijendra Laad 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in just under two hours while the Delhi-based Uppal shocked former Davis cupper and unseeded Nitin Kirtane 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

Another lucky loser Kunj Majmudar of the United States, who came in place of seventh seed Zoltan Boroczky of Hungary, also move into the second round crushing India’s S K Shivshankar 6-0, 6-2 in 57 minutes.

Third seeded Radim Zitko of the Czech Republic drubbed Vijay Kannan of India 6-2, 6-0 while fourth seeded Per Thornadtsson of Sweden fought for two hours and 25 minutes before defeating unseeded Indian Saurav Panja 7-6 (9-7), 3-6, 6-4.

Fifth seed American Tom Chicoine too sailed into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win over blake brinklow of Australia in exactly one hour. (PTI)

Rohit Bhat Memorial Cricket Tourney
Sandeep, Qadri help Friends lift trophy

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 18: Sandeep Bhat, who scored brilliant 91 and superv three wickets haul by Qadri, including two in the last over helped Friends Cricket Club to lift the winners trophy in the Rohit Bhat Memorial Cricket tournament played at Government Medical College grounds, here this evening.

They beat Seniors Cricket Club in a close finish by two runs, when three balls were yet to be bowled.

Earlier, Sandeep laid the strong foundation for Friends Club with his glorious 91 runs and later Qadri snatched the victory from Seniors by claiming three wickets including two in the last over.

Winning the toss, Friends had decided to bat first and set a challenging target of 176 runs in allotted 25 overs for the loss of four wickets. Aditya and Sandeep Bhat opened the innings and added 53 runs for the first wicket partnership. Aditya hit nine boundaries and and one six in his inning of 91, while Sandeep contributed 19 with two boundaries.

Gagan Bhagat, Shabab scored 10 and 15 runs respectively, while Manoj and Varinder were at the crease with five runs each on the board.

From Seniors, Pankaj claimed two wickets, while Sandeep Singh and Satinder bagged one each.

Chasing the total, Seniors were bowled out at 174 when three balls were yet to be bowled. Earlier, Seniors started their innings on a bad not when they lost Gagan (5). But, Skipper Sandeep Singh and Vikram Raina played confidently and consolidated their position. Sandeep scored 35 studded with three boundaries and one six, while Vikram Raina played a confident inning of 52 including five boundaries and one six. Vishal Puri added 19 valuable runs.

At one point of time, Seniors were playing at 140 for the loss of four wickets in 19 overs, but sudden fall of late middle order and tale-enders caused the Seniors two runs defeat.

Qadri was the most successful bowler from Friends, while Pavitar Singh who was on hattric claimed two wickets and Gagan Bhagat two.

Aditya was declared man of the match, while Sandeep Singh was declared man of the series.

Dr Iqbal and Amit Bhagat were umpires in the final of the tournament which was organised jointly by Anil Raina, Sandeep Bhat, Varinder Bhagat, Pavitar Singh and Gagan Bhagat on behalf of Anil Bhat Memorial Committee.

Dr HL Goswami, Principal Government Medical College, Jammu was the chief who gave away winners and runners-up trophies, besides individual prizes.

Rohit Bhat in whose memory the tournament was organised was a third year student. He was killed in a road accident last year.