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

India gain slender
advantage in second Test

KOLKATA, Nov 30: India managed to squeeze out a vital first innings lead of 54 runs with four wickets in hand to gain a slight advantage in the decisive second cricket Test against South Africa here today...........more

Aussies sweep series
with 213-run victory

ADELAIDE, Nov 30: Australia crushed New Zealand by 213 runs on the final day of the second cricket Test to complete a series clean sweep at Adelaide Oval today. The visitors were all out for 250 in their second innings as Australia claimed victory six balls after lunch when No.11 Chris Martin was caught close to the wicket by skipper Ricky Ponting off Shane Warne.............more

India beat Spain to
level series

NEW DELHI, Nov 30: India overcame Olympic semi-finalists Spain with a 3-2 win in the second and final hockey Test here today to gain a big psychological boost ahead of the Champions Trophy starting later this week................more

Dutt miffed with IHF ?

NEW DELHI, Nov 30: Sports Minister Sunil Dutt seems not too happy with the functioning of the Indian Hockey Federation which had come under flak from the ministry over six months ago over its "non-transparent" selection policy...............more

Kuldeep, Sumesh top
in league, enter semis
of junior snooker

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: Top seed Kuldeep Sharma and Sumesh Turki emerged as topper of their respective groups after the quarterfinals league round thus making the semi-final position clear in junior snooker in the ongoing 14th state billiards and snooker championships underway at M A Stadium, here today...............more

Stop misuse of sports
venues: Players to Govt

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: Jammu and Kashmir Players Forum today asked the state government to stop use of the already limited sports venues in Jammu for purposes other than sports...................more

ASCOMS wins by 8 wkts

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: Acharya Shrichander College of Medical Sciences (ASCOMS) defeated Government Medical College (GMC) to sail into the next.............more

Double gold for Narinder
in long distance race

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: Narinder Singh today secured double gold in under-19 year long distance race to further improve medal’s tally of Jammu district tally.......more

India gain slender advantage in second Test

The Indians could not really gather the momentum as they lost their top batsmen at regular intervals before some defiant batting by wicketkeeper Dinesh Kaarthick and Irfan Pathan took them to 359 for six at close on an eventful third day.

The home team lost the flamboyant Virender Sehwag (88) in the very third over of the morning and could not force the pace of scoring against a disciplined South African bowling on an Eden Gardens track which had slowed down quite a bit.

Kaarthick was batting on a gutsy 35 and Irfan Pathan was giving him company on 21 when play was called off because of fading light.

Rahul Dravid was the other notable contributor with a sedate 80 but captain Sourav Ganguly (40) and the stylish VVS Laxman (38) could not capitalise on the starts on a day which saw the visitors peg back the Indian charge to some extent.

With two full days left in the final match, the hosts will be looking to their lower order batsmen to give the team a sizeable first innings lead and put pressure on the visitors on a pitch which was expected to deteriorate.

The morning session saw Dravid play a typically solid innings to keep the Indian innings steady against a determined South African bowling.

The South Africans bounced back from a miserable day on the field yesterday to remove the dangerous Sehwag and star batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

Resuming at a comfortable 129 for one, the Indians lost Sehwag in the third over of the day when Makhaya Ntini produced a snorter of a delivery to consume the opening batsman.

Sehwag had looked in a punishing mood when he hit Pollock for a six in the second over but he had little time to react to the sharp rising delivery from Ntini which climbed on him at an awkward height.

The right hander tried to fend it but could only glove it to Graeme Smith at first slip.

Sehwag’s 88 came off 118 balls and contained 11 fours and two sixes and his partnership with Dravid for the second wicket was worth 127 runs from 34.4 overs.

Tendulkar then walked in to a standing ovation. But he seemed as though he was still smarting under the first Test dismissal in Kanpur when Andrew hall exposed a huge gap between bat and pad.

He was cautious against the incoming deliveries and offered dead bat to deliveries on the off stump.

One such gentle glide to a delivery from hall went abegging between the wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile and Smith at first slip.

Tendulkar was on nine then but he did not last long.

After a delectable turn off his hips to fine leg boundary off hall and a lofted stroke over mid on off leg-spinner Justin Ontong, the Mumbai batsman dragged one wide ball from Zander De Bruyn on to his stumps.

Tendulkar’s 54-ball 20 spanned a little more than hour and fetched 45 runs for the third wicket.

Dravid at the other end was rock solid. Ntini and Hall adopted the same strategy the Australians employed against him, that of attacking his stumps and covering the leg side with three fielders.

But Dravid was too good to be lured into the trap again. After getting his eye in, the Karnataka batsman began to find the gaps on the on-side and was even prepared to play the cross bat when the bowlers dug in occasionally.

South Africa, however, kept coming at the Indians. They removed Dravid and captain Sourav Ganguly in the post-lunch session and chances of a huge score by India seemed to fade away.

Hall succeeded in inducing an inside edge from Dravid. The Indian stalwart’s 80 came off 247 balls with eight fours.

Ganguly, who had an answer to all that the South African seamers threw at him, was ruled leg before by Simon Taufel although television replays showed the ball pitched outside leg stump.

The captain, who played in the Test after the ICC upheld his appeal against a two-Test ban, made 40 from 73 balls and struck five boundaries.

At 267 for five, the Indians were still 38 runs behind and only Laxman remaining as the recognised batsman.

Credit had to be given to the South African pace quartet who stuck to a gameplan and never allowed the Indians to really get on top of them.

De Bruyn picked two for 32 while Ntini grabbed 2-85. But Pollock (1-81) and Hall (1-64) were equally impeccable in their line and length too.

Laxman and Kaarthick added 41 runs for the sixth wicket that helped India cross the South African total before the former fell to Ntini.

The 21-year old Kaarthick then combined with Pathan and the two young colts played some bold strokes to help India gain the lead.

Kaarthick in particular was impressive with his nimble footwork in tackling the leg-side strategy of ontong whom he reverse swept with some audacity.

When bad light stopped play, the unbroken seventh-wicket stand between Kaarthick and Pathan was already worth 49 runs. (PTI)

SCOREBOARD

South Africa 1st innings: 305

India 1st innings:

V Sehwag c Smith b Ntini 88

G Gambhir lbw b Pollock 7

R Dravid b Hall 80

S Tendulkar b De Bruyn 20

S Ganguly lbw b De Bruyn 40

V Laxman c Ontong b Ntini 38

D Kaarthick batting 35

I Pathan batting 21

Extras (lb-18, nb-7, w-5) 30

Total (for 6 wkts in 125 overs) 359

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-144, 3-189, 4-238, 5-267, 6-308.

Bowling: Pollock 33-10-81-1, Ntini 32-7-85-2, Ontong 18-1-79-0, Hall 26-5-64-1, De Bruyn 16-4-32-2. (PTI)

Aussies sweep series with 213-run victory

ADELAIDE, Nov 30: Australia crushed New Zealand by 213 runs on the final day of the second cricket Test to complete a series clean sweep at Adelaide Oval today.

The visitors were all out for 250 in their second innings as Australia claimed victory six balls after lunch when No.11 Chris Martin was caught close to the wicket by skipper Ricky Ponting off Shane Warne.

The Kiwis, resumed on the final day at 140 for five, and they resisted through the entire morning session, primarily through the spirited batting of Daniel Vettori, who topscored with 59 in 111 minutes.

Vettori was out in the final over before lunch when he holed out in the deep to Jason Gillespie giving home-town hero Darren Lehmann his second wicket with his left-arm spin.

Paul Wiseman remained 15 not out off 37 balls.

Australia proved far superior to the Kiwis and smashed them by an innings and 156 runs in the first Brisbane Test inside four days.

Opening batsman Justin Langer was named man-of-the-match for his 215 in the first innings and fast bowler Glenn McGrath was announced as man-of-the-series in a tightly-contested vote.

New Zealand have now lost six of their last eight Tests with their two wins coming against win-less Bangladesh last month.

In contrast, Australia have won eight of the last 12 Tests with three drawn and their only loss to India in Mumbai last month.

New Zealand’s last victory over their trans-tasman rivals was by five wickets in Auckland in March 1993 some 14 Tests ago.

Jacob Oram only lasted until the second over of the day before he tickled one from McGrath to wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist with no addition to his overnight score of 40.

His batting partner Brendon McCullum followed five overs later painfully wrapped on the pads by Gillespie and sent limping on his way by english umpire David Shepherd Leg Before Wicket for 36.

Paceman James Franklin, who put on 46 runs for the eighth wicket with Vettori, was out for 13 to a spectacular catch from Gilchrist diving across first-slipper Warne off the bowling of Michael Kasprowicz to leave the black caps at 206 for eight.

Vettori played with commendable spirit but threw away his wicket nearing lunch when he should have been more circumspect.

Australia will now play New Zealand in three one-day matches for the newly-struck Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, starting in Melbourne on Sunday.

Australia will then play three Tests against the touring Pakistanis in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney and a triangular one-day series with Pakistan and West Indies before heading to New Zealand for a three-Test and one-day series in February-March. (AFP)

India beat Spain to level series

India, who had lost by a similar margin in the first Test on Sunday, played an aggressive game to level the series 1-1 with Ignace Tirkey (10th), Sandeep Singh (25th) and Arjun Halappa (57th) scoring for them in the tension-filled encounter.

The match saw the home side racing to a 2-0 lead in the first half itself and even though the Spaniards bounced back after the break, they could not break the Indian defence in the final minutes for an equaliser.

Spain scored both their goals through penalty corner conversions by Pau Quemada (48th) and Alberto Esteban (59th).

It was an overall good display by the Indian team, which barring some odd lapses, played much better than they did in the first Test.

Devesh Chauhan, who has played second fiddle to Adrian D’souza ever since the Athens Olympics, manned the post brilliantly in the first half to stake a strong claim for an elevation to keeper number one.

Adrian, who replaced his senior after the break as coach Gerhard Rach made some experiments in the side’s final competitive match before the elite six-nation event in Lahore, also did well and came up with couple of fine saves.

The initial few minutes saw Spain continuing from where they had left on Sunday, playing with purpose and unleashing some fine attacks from both the flanks.

But as the match progressed, the Indians grew in confidence, making regular inroads into the rival defence and finishing their moves with stunning goals.

Ignace Tirkey gave his side the best possible start by slamming home from the top of the circle after Arjun Halappa went inside the Spanish circle only to see his feeble shot padded away by the goalkeeper to the Indian mid-fielder.

The hosts made the scoreline 2-0 in their favour under dramatic circumstance. Vikram Pillay sounded the board with a superb effort but Pakistani umpire Syed Zulfiqar Haider disallowed the goal after the Spanish players protested claiming that the player had raised the stick over his shoulder.

The umpire then awarded a penalty corner to India which was converted by Sandeep Singh with a perfect carpet shot.

In between, Spain made some spirited attempts and in the process even irked the umpires. Their captain Juan Escarre was cautioned for being over-aggressive.

They upped the tempo after the break and reduced the margin through Quemada’s strike as India went into a shell in a bid to deny their rivals from posing threat to their post.

Even as Spain threatened to equalise, India swelled the lead again when Arjun Halappa made no mistake in hitting the net from the penalty stroke that the side got for an infringement inside the Spanish circle.

Two minutes later Esteban scored to raise hopes of a Spanish revival, but that was not to be as India hung on till the last minute. (PTI)

Dutt miffed with IHF ?

Dutt, who launched ‘Sportal’, the official website of the Sports Ministry today, did not give any direct reply to a query when asked if he was satisfied with the functioning of the IHF.

"Are you happy with it?" was what he said before adding "it seems no one is happy. I need not say anymore".

In may this year, the Sports Ministry had asked the IHF to put in place a transparent selection policy following which the federation appointed a seven-member selection committee which included four former national captains.

Dutt also ruled out government interference in the working of the Indian Olympic Association in the run up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games for which both the Centre and the IOA have formed parallel organising committees.

While the Sports Minister himself is the chairman of the government committee, the IOA chief heads the other.

"Definitely IOA will have their say as far as the games or federations are concerned. We are not going to interfere in their functioning. But as far as finances are concerned, it will be Government of India," Dutt said.

On IOA’s proposal to ask the government for a fund of Rs 1,000 crore for staging of the games, the Minister said "if we won’t give then who will?

"We will have so many things to do so the amount may be more. We have to see all the infrastructure and if needed we will modernise them. We will improve the airport and the transport. These will be used after the games as well."

On the website "sportal.Nic.In", designed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Dutt said it would provide valuable information concerning Indian sports to people.

"It will be useful to everyone as people can know more about sports. We will be updating it regularly. This website covers not only Olympic sports, but also other games being played in India."

When his attention was drawn to the other aspects of the website, Dutt said "this is just a muhurat. We are working on it and you will see the improvements very soon." (PTI)

Kuldeep, Sumesh top in league, enter
semis of junior snooker

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

From group-A, Kuldeep and Nishant Azad have entered into the semi-finals, whereas Sumesh and Rashu Gupta have made into the last four stage from other group.

Both Kuldeep and Sumesh won all the three league matches they played in respective groups. Nikhil Kapahi, who was fighting in group-b failed to open his account.

Now, in the semi-finals, to be played tomorrow, Kuldeep will take on Rashu Gupta at 11 am, followed by the second match between Sumesh and Nishant at 2 pm.

Meanwhile, according to organising secretary, Abhimanyu Arora, competition in senior snooker category shall start from December 2. Draws can be seen on the notice board at the Billiards Hall after 11 am tomorrow, he added.

Detailed results of QFs league: Rashu Gupta bt Ankush Gupta 41-38, 56-36, 16-53, 48-36; Sumesh Turki bt Nikhil Kapahi 46-40, 63-33, 72-25; Kuldeep Sharma bt Ishuk Chowdhary 48-38, 16-45, 59-50, 70-11; Nadeem Malik bt Nishant Azad 79-70, 32-42, 26-61, 56-19, 72-20; Sumesh Turki bt Rashu 46-39, 100-0, 49-50, 76-89, 83-13; Ankush Gupta bt Nikhil Kapahi 58-43, 62-40, 51-43; Ishuk Chowdhary bt Nadeem Malik 68-28, 88-5, 51-26; Sumesh Turki bt Ankush Gupta 60-58, 72-40, 48-27.