Daily Excelsior.........sports

India ‘A’ beat Pakistan
‘A’ in Kenstar Asian
Cricket tourney

KOLKATA, Dec 25: Promising pacer Amit Bhandari finished with a four-wicket haul as India a gave the nation a wonderful Christmas gift scripting an emphatic 89 run win over sub-continental rivals Pakistan a in the Kenstar Asian A teams’ cricket tournament here today. ........more

Waugh says pressure
would be on India
to deliver

MELBOURNE, Dec 25 : Australian captain Steve Waugh today sought to play the mindgame ahead of the crucial third Test against India, saying the visitors will have to cope with greater pressure as fans back home will expect them to win the series.........more

Everyone will
be under pressure,
says Dravid

MELBOURNE, Dec 25: The pressure tactics adopted by Australian captain Steve Waugh hardly seemed to ruffle Indian vice-captain.....more

MCG pitch, a heaven
for fast bowlers

MELBOURNE, Dec 25: The first thing Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly did stepping on the MCG ground for net practice............more

Shyam, Ankush
winners in mobike race

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 25: Shyam Sharma in two-stroke and Ankush Langer in four-stroke won the Balki Ram Memorial Open Mobike Dirt Track Racing Challenge, the finals of which took place today at Mini-Stadium, Parade, here........more

MP in confident position
in delayed first day play

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 25: Madhya Pradesh were placed in a better position at the end of the delayed first day play of the Ranji Trophy cricket today against Jammu....more

31st State Badminton
meet begins

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 25: The 31st State Badminton Championships, organised by the J&K Badminton Association......more

State Volleyball tourney
starts at Gurah Mundian

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

KATHUA, Dec 25: The 16th J&K State junior boys and girls Volleyball Championships began today at Government Girls High.....more

India ‘A’ beat Pakistan ‘A’ in Kenstar Asian Cricket tourney

Pakistan middle order bat Navid Latif’s heroic 128 run effort proved futile as his side failed to recover from the early blows inflicted by man of the match, Bhandari, (4/47) and his new ball partner Munaf Patel who at one stage reduced the visitors to 31 for four and then left them tottering at 72 for six. Latif, who came at the fall of the fourth wicket, ploughed a lonely furrow in the company of the tailenders and was the last man out as the Pakistan a innings folded for 240 in 48 overs at the Eden Gardens here. His 180-minute aggressive knock off 123 balls was studded with 11 boundaries and seven sixes.

India, who lost their opening match to Sri Lanka, earned their first win in the tournament, and the scintillating show would definitely give a boost to their confidence ahead of their second game against the islanders on the morrow.

Earlier, replying to India’s 329 for six, the Pakistan openers Imran Nazir (0) and Shahid Afridi (9) got out to irresponsible shots off Bhandari to give a poor start to the tourists’ innings.

While Nazir dragged the ball on to his stumps in his bid to drive the ball, skipper Afridi miscued an off drive of a rising delivery and the edge ballooned up to point where Yuvraj Singh took the catch.

The double success spurred Bhandari and his opening ball partner Munaf Patel who bowled their hearts out and even extracted some movement off the wicket. Muhammad Hafeez (13), Faisal Iqbal (5) and Salman Batt (12) also returned cheaply. Excepting Hafeez, the other four fell to Bhandari whose first spell read 6-1-27-4. (PTI)

Waugh says pressure would be on India to deliver

"I think there will be more pressure on them. They are in front, they probably didn’t expect to be, their record wasn’t good away from home," Waugh said, refusing to concede that his champion side would be under enormous pressure as it stared at the prospect of losing a home series for the first time in more than a decade.

India won the second test at Adelaide by four wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

"Now they have an opportunity to win a series and people in India would expect them to win from here. So I’d like to think it is the other way round, there is more pressure on them," the 38-year-old Waugh said.

Despite trailing in the series, Waugh said, Australia would continue with their style of play although at the moment they were not focusing on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

"We can relax and go out there and play our brand of cricket. I think we will play the same way we have always played. Just because we messed up once with our batting (at Adelaide), we are not going to change the way we play."

"We know we could have batted better on that day. Occasionally that is going to happen. It’s happened very rarely over the last five or six years," Waugh said.

"I am not concerned about the trophy. You want to win the series of course but with two Tests to go, we are just concentrating on this Test."

Waugh praised a "mentally tough" India for providing the perfect challenge to the Australians in a long time which was needed for the team to get going.

"It’s our biggest test for a long while which is great. We have said often in the last couple of years we need a challenge to get us going. That’s when we play our best cricket. We won’t have a bigger challenge than right now.

"This is a different Indian side than they have been in the past. They are certainly mentally tougher and have a lot of help from the guys we have been involved with them —Sandy Gordon and Bruce Reid. They have got pretty good help on their side."

Waugh also kept his fingers crossed on Sachin Tendulkar’s batting form and hoped the little Genius would remain short of runs in the next two matches.

"I wouldn’t say we are on top of him, I wouldn’t be that silly. I think if you look at the batting records. You expect a guy like that to get runs at some stage. I hope he’ll wait another couple of Test matches," he said of Tendulkar who is yet to fire in the series after contributing 0, 1 and 37 in his three innings.

While Tendulkar has struggled to match his exacting standards, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid have come into their own in the series with scintillating hundreds already under their belt.

"They have played two great partnerships together and probably won two Test matches for India against us, but are like anyone else. They are capable of making mistakes under pressure."

"I still can’t believe he (Laxman) was not in the World Cup squad. He is a phenomenal talent. I have no idea why he hasn’t been more consistent."

The presence of plenty of batting talents in both sides prompted Waugh to comment that "it may be one of the two best batting sides that have come up against each other in the history of Test cricket, statistically."

Matthew Hayden (4202 at 56.78), Ricky Ponting (5461 at 54.06), Waugh (10788 at 51.12) and Adam Gilchrist (3145 at 58.24) for the Australians and Tendulkar (8920 at 55.75) and Dravid (6276 at 56.54) for the visitors are averaging 50-plus in Tests.

Then there are Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Sourav Ganguly and Laxman from the two sides who are world class batsmen with career averages in the 40s.

Waugh was hoping Brett Lee would take up the mantle of Australia’s premier strike weapon at the bouncy Melbourne cricket ground wicket now that Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie are missing from the line-up.

"He (Lee) wants the responsibility. He has talked about stepping up to the plate. I think the time is right for Brett to take the challenge and assume the mantle of the strike bowler. He doesn’t get a better opportunity than to play in the boxing day Test," Waugh said.

The Australian captain hinted the team would still like to go with four frontline bowlers for tomorrow’s Test despite suggestions he would be better off to have more firepower at his command to Test the Indians.

"Five bowlers sounds good on paper but it’s a lot harder out in the middle to give everyone a decent go. I think bowlers like to have a decent bowl."

"When you have five, it’s pretty hard to juggle them so I think the ideal combination is four frontline bowlers plus one or two part-time bowlers to complement them."

"Simon Katich is coming on pretty well. I think in the next couple of years he’ll prove to be a quality bowler at this level. He’s a little bit inexperienced right now but he’s probably nearly good enough to hold his own as a bowler."

"You always feel comfortable if there is a spinner there, particularly late in the game," he said.

Commenting on the second Test, Waugh felt the track at Adelaide suited the tourists to the hilt and bowlers, especially spinners, struggled to contain the Indian batting line-up.

"The Adelaide wicket was like being at home for them. They felt comfortable there and they play spin very well on those kind of wickets. For anyone like Stuey (Stuart MacGill) or Shane Warne who comes up against them, it’s probably the ultimate challenge." (PTI)

Everyone will be under pressure, says Dravid

MELBOURNE, Dec 25: The pressure tactics adopted by Australian captain Steve Waugh hardly seemed to ruffle Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid who refused to believe that the heat would be on India alone in the crucial Melbourne Test beginning tomorrow.

"The rival captain is always going to say the other team is under pressure when the fact is that everyone is under pressure," Dravid said today.

"I cannot understand why only we will be under pressure. Australia is also under tremendous pressure," he said referring to the fact that the hosts were faced with the prospect of a rare series loss at home.

"We came here as underdogs. But now we are playing well and we want to carry on," he said.

While admitting that India has had difficulty in capitalising on a one-nil lead in the past, he said it did not mean that it would be the case this time as well.

"Just because we have not been able to finish off the job in the past, it does not mean that we are not going to finish the job off in the future. But we know that it is going to be a lot of hard work from here on."

"Every game in test cricket is a bit of pressure, and I always get to hear this whether you are one up or one down...," said Dravid.

The in-form middle order batsman said the team got a feel of the track at the Melbourne cricket ground when it played in the tour-opener against Victoria last month and was "aware of the bounce".

"It is not that we are playing for the first time in Melbourne. We are aware of the bounce. We have learnt a few lessons (playing against Victoria). We want to implement the things we have discussed at length.

"We know we have to give our best, if we can manage to do that, result would take care of itself," he said. (PTI)

MCG pitch, a heaven for fast bowlers

MELBOURNE, Dec 25: The first thing Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly did stepping on the MCG ground for net practice a day before the Test begins was to ask for bowling machine.

"Hey John, we need bowling machine," said Ganguly to the team coach John Wright."

Bowling machine manufacturers would indeed have something to thank the pitch curator at the MCG to thank for. A true MCG wicket, it looks like heaven for the bowlers of the faster pace, something that reasons in the captains playing here to call for.

Indeed, Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden had one-and-half hour batting practise with his coach John Buchannan operating the bowling machine yesterday.

Indian coach John Wright was also not caught napping, as he himself monitored opener Virender Sehwag face some chin music, as well as away going deliveries from the machine at a pace the Indians think the pitch will play in this Test.

"The wicket should be good for both India and Australia. I like to leave some moisture on the pitch for the second day, and I feel the pitch would be the fastest on day two," said Tony ware the pitch curataor. It looks like a green top, but we have our task cut out. I think if we keep it simple, and play our basics right, we would be able to negotiate the Australian bowling," said Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid. The Indians would indeed be looking upto Dravid and Laxman once again to score heavily as both of them look like having touched the purple patch.

The Indian captain also said that he expected Sachin Tendulkar to shine in this match, and the Indian maestro also looked in good nick at the nets, middling the ball well.

Sachin soon changed gears to bowl leg spinners to Laxman, who was quite foxed by some of his deliveries. However, the curator feels that the spinners would have their role curtailed here.

"I don’t think this pitch would break, so the spinners need extra something. But I think with his kind of speed and bounce, the pitch might help Anil Kumble," said Ware.

The match is already billed as make or break match for both the teams, and words don’t seem to match the pressure both the teams must be feeling. Steve Waugh said that the pressure would be more on the Indians because they are one up which is unfamiliar position for them.

But the Indian vice - captain chose to differ. "I think bot the teams would be under pressure. In matches such as this, the pressure is evenly balanced, both the sides want to perform, the result means a lot to both of them," said Dravid.

Dravid wasted no time in returning to nets, with skipper Ganguly on the neighbouring pitch toiling hard under a scorching melbourne sun. Ganguly knows all to well : Batting holds the key here. (UNI)

Shyam, Ankush winners in mobike race

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

Shyam took 16.47 minutes to complete 10 rounds having a distance of 900 meters each. He was followed by Sanjay Kumar (16.53 mts) and Amardeep Singh (16.55 mts) at first and second runners-up positions respectively. Other two riders Ankush Langer and Inderpal Singh were disqualified.

In four-stroke category, Amardeep Singh (17 mts) remained second while Alok Makhnotra (17.39 mts) finished third. Pardeep Majotra was a number four position and Rakesh Choudhary was disqualified.

In addition, clash prizes were also given to the winners by the organisers.

Glittering trophies were given away to the first three position holders, amidst cheering crowd at the jam-packed stadium, by Governor, Gen (Retd) S K Sinha, who was chief guest on the occasion.

Judges who conducted both finals were Dr C M Khajuria, Iqbal Singh, Satpal Khajuria, Naresh Joshi, Rakesh Verma and supervised by Pritam Singh Rathore. Track was formulated and controlled by Lovekesh Sharma.

Main sponsors of this mega event were Garden Estate and Banquets, Raja Properties, Dharmpaul Builders, Grover Traders and J&K Pest Control Services.

Prominent among others present were Ashwani Sharma (MLA), Romesh Mahajan, Ranjit Singh, Vikram Singh, Som Raj Gupta, Praval Sharma, Umesh Joshi, Ajit Singh Wazir, Rajan Sharma and Ashutosh Sharma.

The event was organised by J&K Motor Sports Association under the aegis of Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India.

Main sponsors of this mega event were Garden Estate and Banquets, Raja Properties, Dharmpaul Builders, Grover Traders and J&K Pest Control Services.

Prominent among others present were Ashwani Sharma (MLA), Romesh Mahajan, Ranjit Singh, Vikram Singh, Som Raj Gupta, Praval Sharma, Umesh Joshi, Ajit Singh Wazir, Rajan Sharma and Ashutosh Sharma.

The event was organised by J&K Motor Sports Association under the aegis of Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India.