By Allan Border

Now that India has done well in the first Test, they need to keep matching the aggression of the Australians.........more

Waugh hints Australia will
use short-pitched attack

MELBOURNE, Dec 10: Australia captain Steve Waugh hinted today he would direct his pacemen to bowl a shorter length to India’s batsmen on the bouncy Adelaide wicket in the second Test starting on Friday..............more

Board committee meets
today to decide Kale’s fate

KOLKATA, Dec 10: A high-level disciplinary committee of the cricket board would meet here tomorrow to decide the fate of first class cricketer Abhijit Kale, accused of trying to bribe his way into the Indian team............more

Pressure now will
be on Australia

By: Ravi Shastri

After emerging from the first Test with their confidence reinforced, India should be able to take Australian on at Adelaide with renewed vigour. In batting and bowling, they held............more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 10: Jaideep Manocha, who upset defending champion Kamal Rohmetra in the semi-finals, won the final today to become the new senior Snooker...........more

It’s all Police affair
in Volleyball

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 10: It will be a show of strength by spikers in uniform when two teams of Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police (JKAP) will be playing in the final of the.........more

Ranji Trophy
J&K in troubled waters
after losing 2 early wkts

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 10: After bowling out Tripura for 235 just before the close of second day’s play, J&K failed to give fillip to their innings......more

Kathua, Gandhi Nagar
College win in inter-
college Badminton

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 10: Degree College Kathua and Government College for Women (GCW) won their respective matches on day.....more

Gill confident of Jugraj in Athens Olympics team.....

Yuvraj gears up to face McGrath and Co.....

Board committee meets today to decide Kale’s fate.....

India may have to call upon Kumble

By Allan Border

Now that India has done well in the first Test, they need to keep matching the aggression of the Australians.

The world champions normally play their cricket at full throttle and if Indians are wayward, specially in the bowling, they would be taxed severely. The two roadblocks in Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden are at the start of the innings itself. The others carry, as you say, the knock-out effect. India’s bowling must not be shown as inadequate.

Zaheer Khan leads India’s bowling attack and he could be more than handful if he is swinging and getting his length right. He bowls at 140k at times and that’s a good pace. He needs to be supported by others but I’m very disappointed in Harbhajan Singh. He doesn’t appear the same bowler to me. He wasn’t able to get his drift, curve and spin which has been the hallmark of his bowling. Whether it is because of a finger injury or he has had too much of cricket, I’m not sure. India might have to call upon Anil Kumble in Adelaide because they just can’t let bowling be their weak link.

Adelaide can be an interesting ground for both sides. It has something for everyone and the atmosphere still retains its old-world charm. Batters can score briskly and both pacers and spinners can purchase help. The shape of the ground leaves little margin for error for the bowlers as the square boundaries are relatively shorter. Batters, who know the conditions, tend to use the square shots to their advantage. Anything even marginally short, hits the pickets.

Coming to Gabba, I must say it was the best I’ve seen Sourav Ganguly bat outside his country. He has some marvelous scores, especially in the sub-continent and in one-day cricket. He was under a bit of pressure because of all the talk he’s suspect against short-pitched bowling. But it was a great innings. It’s always good if the captain is leading from the front, especially on a tour.

There were two issues from the game about which a lot more was made than required. One of course was Damien Martyn’s run-out and the other concerned the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar. Both issues were debated at length and personally I feel there was a lot of innuenos being written about.

One must understand the shot Martyn played had three runs written all over it. There was hesitation and it was one of those situations when a run-out occurred. Whether he sacrificed it for his captain or tried to make up late for his third run is difficult to say.

Similarly with Tendulkar’s dismissal, it was an honest umpiring error. It happens all the time. But Tendulkar has an ironic status in the game and the focus would just not go away from the issue. Sachin coped it on the chin. It didn’t cost India badly either. I would never like technology to be all pervasive. Sometimes there is too much of analysis and issues are looked at too deeply than is necessary. Mistakes happen and there is a human element which must be preserved in the game.

I was a little surprised by Steve Waugh’s declaration. I thought they would go for a bit of batting practice but Waugh perhaps wanted to seize the initiative given how well India had performed in the Gabba Test. He wanted to have a few wickets, put the psychological pressure back on the Indians and in that respect it was a clever ploy. More so the way Virender Sehwag and Akash Chopra got out. There were a few mind games played at the Gabba for sure.

As an Australian selector, I was a little disappointed with our collapse on the second day. There were run-outs, Steve Waugh’s hit-wicket and other soft dismissals. Justin Langer had played an outstanding innings but then it started to go horribly wrong for us. India took wickets against us like few have in recent times.

Just a Test in Gabba, with the help of rain of course, India promises a summer of keen cricket. It wouldn’t be a washout as everyone has been predicting and instead the visitors could Test the hosts like few have in recent memory. Batting is the strength of both and to run through them would take exceptional bowling performances. Without good bowling, these batting sides would be made to appear doubly strong. (PTI)

Waugh hints Australia will use short-pitched attack

MELBOURNE, Dec 10: Australia captain Steve Waugh hinted today he would direct his pacemen to bowl a shorter length to India’s batsmen on the bouncy Adelaide wicket in the second Test starting on Friday.

India captain Sourav Ganguly made 144 of his side’s 409 as the tourists outscored Australia by 86 runs in the first innings of the drawn first test in Brisbane. India reached 73 for two in their second innings after they were set 199 to win on Monday.

Australia plucked fiery fast bowler Brad Williams from an interstate match in Perth on Monday and flew him to Adelaide to join the squad.

Left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken, who took three wickets on his debut, and queenslander Andy Bichel, who lacked penetration and returned match figures of 1-162, are competing with Williams for the two vacant pace bowling roles alongside Jason Gillespie.

"Brad gives us different things — pace, bounce, a bit more aggression," Waugh told reporters in Adelaide.

"If you’ve got that strike power like Brett Lee or Brad Williams you’d probably bowl a little bit more shorter."

"The attack we had (in Brisbane) wasn’t suited to bowling a lot of short stuff."

"We had swing bowlers, guys who bowl in the corridor. There’s no point in bowling a lot of short deliveries if it’s not the style you’ve got."

"But we didn’t execute our plans that well. We’ll revise those and do something different this test match."

Williams, 29, who took four wickets on his debut against Zimbabwe two months ago, said he loved bowling in Adelaide.

"I have got a few five-wicket hauls there. It’s one of my favourite grounds to bowl on so hopefully I will get a chance," the Western Australian said.

"I have tended to get reverse swing there in the past." (AGENCIES)

Board committee meets today to decide Kale’s fate

KOLKATA, Dec 10: A high-level disciplinary committee of the cricket board would meet here tomorrow to decide the fate of first class cricketer Abhijit Kale, accused of trying to bribe his way into the Indian team.

The three-member committee is headed by the board president Jagmohan Dalmiya and includes two vice-presidents, Kamal Morarka and Ranbir Singh Mahendra.

Board sources here refused to spell out whether the committee would reach a final decision in the matter tomorrow itself or there would be more meetings.

Generally, a disciplinary committee is given up to six months’ time to take a final decision on any matter referred to it but in this case the outcome is expected early.

The sources, however, said the decision of the committee would be final and binding. The board had constituted the committee on December 5 after it received the report of the inquiry commissioner D V Subbar Rao, who had earlier been asked to look into the allegations of the two national selections, Kiran More (West) and Pranab Roy (East) that Kale had offered them Rs 10 lakh each in return for a place in the Australia-bound Indian team. (PTI)

Pressure now will be on Australia

By: Ravi Shastri

After emerging from the first Test with their confidence reinforced, India should be able to take Australian on at Adelaide with renewed vigour. In batting and bowling, they held the upper hand for the major portion of the match, which means that the pressure now will be on Australia to reiterate their credentials.

There is no tougher cricket opponent than a bruised Aussie, and India can expect the tour to get tougher from here on. The drawn first Test will not have gone down well with Steve Waugh. Too much time was lost there because of rain, but Waugh knows that India stood up to his side admirably.

As I had mentioned earlier, this Australian attack is not exactly brimming with brilliance, and Waugh will be looking for a 200 per cent effort from his bowlers. Only Jason Gillespie looks world class, but he alone cannot carry the side to victory against the strong Indian batting line-up.

The key players for India at Adelaide will obviously be the big boys. At Brisbane, Ganguly, Laxman and to an extent, Dravid showed that they can rise to the occasion when warranted, and the team will need more of the same. Ganguly’s hundred was a tremendous effort and it will give him the boost in confidence as batsman and captain to set higher goals.

Tendulkar was unfortunate to get a duck, but I expect this to motivate the great man further. It is important for Tendulkar himself and the team that he bats freely. The Aussies may have respect for a number of players, but he is the one they fear most. If he plays his natural game, Tendulkar can grab the advantage from the Australians.

For this tour, India have five fast bowlers in the squad which suggests that Saurav hopes to fight fire with fire. This paid dividends of sorts with Zaheer bowling splendidly and Agarkar providing very good back-up. Yet, India will need more from the slower bowlers to sustain the pressure on the Australian batting. I thought Harbhajan was cleverly targeted by Hayden, Langer, Ponting and Martyn and may now be suffering a crisis of confidence. They have done good homework on the off-spinner and h is looking innocuous and giving away too many runs.

I would opt for Anil Kumble at Adelaide because he is more likely to keep things tight, either when the quickies are resting or when the batsmen are looking to take charge. I have a lot of respect for Anil, and because he has not done too well in Australian the past, will also be looking to prove a point or two.
What the composition of the Indian attack will be remains to be seen. My advice to the bowlers would be "don’t get excited at the bounce and pace, focus on line, length and control, make the batsmen earn their runs". The Aussies are natural strokeplayers, and like to take the attack to the bowlers. This increases the risk element, which is the best chance for bowlers to succeed.
The Australians play hardball in the middle, but as they showed in Brisbane, if the Indians refuse to get bullied, there could be a match to remember. (TCM)

Jaideep is new State Snooker champion

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 10: Jaideep Manocha, who upset defending champion Kamal Rohmetra in the semi-finals, won the final today to become the new senior Snooker State champion in the 13th edition of the State Billiards and Snooker Championships. He beat Kuldeep Sharma 4-1.

The low profile final between both the first timers in the senior group, hardly showed any tough contest except in the fifth and final frame.

Making a winning start with first frame in his favour, Kuldeep could not display any extra-ordinary shot which could have proved tough for his opponent Jaideep. With one frame up, he lost the three successive frames. However, in the fifth frame, Kuldeep had the chances of taking the game to its logical conclusion but he missed the opportunity of potting the six pointer pink ball.

Had Kuldeep potted the open Pink ball, he could have won the frame as at that time Jaideep was in need of Snooks and not points. Soon after Kuldeep committed mistakes, Jaideep trapped him through a snook, which former failed to break thus adding four foul points in opponent’s account. It was followed by Jaideep taking away the pink and then black to win the frame and the match also. The score: 26-54, 70-48, 62-28, 62-50, 61-59. The final was officiated by Surjeet Singh, Rakesh and Pervez.

Now, in the senior Billiards final, to be played on December 12 at 3 pm, veteran Gautam Lakra will take on junior Nishant Azad, said Sheetal Gandotra, organising secretary of the championship.