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Martyn’s ton puts NAGPUR, Oct 26: Damiem Martyn slammed his second consecutive century as Australia recovered from an early scare to take control of the crucial third cricket Test against an injury-hit India here today......more Team
management shows NAGPUR, Oct 26: The lack of transparency in the Indian teams affairs came to the fore in stark fashion as captain Sourav Ganguly, who had only yesterday declared himself fit to play......more Ganguly
failed fitness test NAGPUR: Clearing the air over Sourav Ganguly’s last-minute pull-out from the third Test against Australia, physiotherapist Andrew Leipus today said the decision to leave out the......more Full marks
to both By Allan Border It was an entertaining day’s cricket. Full marks to both teams for playing aggressively and positively. However, I suppose there will be a feeling in both camps that they could have done better.............more |
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Interesting pre-quarters round of senior snooker begins today Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: An interesting round of pre-quarterfinals of snooker in senior group shall start tomorrow after the end of initial round matches in the ongoing........more Adarsh,
Challenger Clubs Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: Adarsh Cricket Club and Challenger Cricket Club today registered their respective wins to advance into the...........more KVS Jammu
Region Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: The contingent of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan Jammu Region gave........more Volleyball
trials Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: Volleyball Association of Jammu and Kashmir is holding trials for the.......more |
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calls for better treatment of footballers...... Rehmat Ali lifts Akhnoor kesari title....... |
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Martyn’s ton puts Australia on the saddle NAGPUR, Oct 26: Damiem Martyn slammed his second consecutive century as Australia recovered from an early scare to take control of the crucial third cricket Test against an injury-hit India here today. Martyn struck a rollicking 114 to lead an Australian fightback and steer the visitors to 362 for seven at close on the opening day which saw India claw back to some extent with three quick wickets in the last hour’s play. Michael Clarke was batting on a quickfire 73 and Jason Gillespie (4) gave him company at stumps on a day which saw the Australians scoring at a brisk pace of four runs an over on what appeared to be a good batting track at the VCA Stadium. The 33-year-old Martyn, who hit a match-saving 104 in the Chennai Test, recorded his ninth test century to not only pull Australia out of an uncertain 86 for three but put the team on course for a healthy first innings total. The stylish right hander found an able ally in Darren Lehmann (70) as the duo put on a breezy 148-run fourth wicket partnership to torment the Indians who had to go into the match without the services of captain Sourav Ganguly and spinner Harbhajan Singh. The hosts managed to scuttle the Australians from laying the foundation for a mammoth total by snapping up the wickets of Martyn, Dangerman Adam Gilchrist (2) and Shane Warne (2) in the span of six overs late in the day with Murali Kartik doing the bulk of the damage. The mini middle order collapse began with the dismissal of Martyn who, after hoisting Kumble over long off, tried a similar shot only to top edge it for a simple catch to Ajit Agarkar at long off. Kartik, who had dismissed Darren Lehmann for his first wicket of the match before tea, then induced a return catch of Gilchrist before Shane Warne was deceived in the air and stumped. More success could have come India’s way if only Parthiv Patel had kept up his good work. But diminutive 19-year-old Patel’s poor form with the gloves came back to haunt him soon when he missed an easy stumping chance of Clarke on 56. He reprieved Clarke once more on 62 as he looked blinded at a straightforward edged catch off Zaheer Khan. Martyn and Lehmann had earlier performed the salvage job by sharing a blistering century partnership which put the home team on the backfoot after claiming three wickets in the pre-lunch session. Their association ended when Lehmann, troubled by a hamstring and needing a runner, edged a simple catch to stand-in captain Rahul Dravid at first slip off Murali Kartik. Lehmann’s 70 came from 83 balls and contained 10 fours. The Australians piled up 142 runs in 29 overs in the second session and the run rate only dipped with the loss of three wickets for 23 runs in the last session. After Adam Gilchrist won the toss for the third time, the visitors were straightway on the offensive with Justin Langer (44) and Matthew Hayden (23) adding 67 runs for the opening stand. But Zaheer Khan then struck twice in the space of 11 balls to remove both the opening batsmen before Kumble had Simon Katich caught at forward short leg. Martyn and Lehmann then turned the heat on the Indians as they rattled up runs at a furious pace. Martyn continued from where he left off in Chennai where he scored his first century in India. The right-hander, who had scored back to back centuries in Sri Lanka early this year, struck Kumble for three fours in an over in the afternoon and perched him in the uppermost tier after crossing the hundred mark. Agarkar was slammed for two successive fours to the point region by the right-handed Martyn which broke the shackles imposed by Kumble at the other end before the break. Lehmann followed suit in the very next over with a crashing square cut and a paddle sweep for two fours before Martyn too drove and cut the ace Indian leg spinner for three fours in Kumble’s 13th over to force him off the attack. Lehmann was reprieved when four short of his first half ton of the tour by Aakash Chopra at gully when the left hander slashed Zaheer Khan. Martyn reached his century with a wristy shot to point boundary. It was his fourth hundred in the last eight Tests and his fifth in nine Tests in the subcontinent. The Western Australian’s three figure mark came in 153 balls and contained 15 fours. Lehmann, who suffered a muscle tear, was consumed by Dravid in the slips as he went back and played a tentative push at Kartik. It was Dravid’s 108th catch in Tests and it equalled Sunil Gavaskar’s tally. Earlier, the Indians took the field without Ganguly and also off spinner Harbhajan Singh who were down with a thigh strain and an upset stomach respectively. Sachin Tendulkar returned to the team after a nearly three-month layoff due to an elbow injury. Ajit Agarkar came in for the injured Irfan Pathan while Yuvraj Singh made way for Chopra as India made four changes to the team that played in Chennai. Australia retained the team that played the first two Tests. (PTI) SCOREBOARD Australia 1st innings: J Langer c Dravid b Zaheer 44 M Hayden c Patel b Zaheer 23 S Katich c Chopra b Kumble 4 D Martyn c Agarkar b Kartik 114 D Lehmann c Dravid b Kartik 70 M Clarke batting 73 A Gilchrist c and b Kartik 2 S Warne st Patel b Kartik 2 J Gillespie batting 4 Extras (b-6, lb-12, nb-7, w-1) 26 Total (for 7 wkts, in 90 overs) 362 Fall of wickets: 1-67, 2-79, 3-86, 4-234, 5-314, 6-323, 7-337. Bowling: Agarkar 18-2-82-0; Zaheer Khan 21-5-77-2; Kumble 25-6-99-2; Kartik 20-1-57-3; Tendulkar 6-1-29-0. (PTI) |
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Team management shows lack of transparency NAGPUR, Oct 26: The lack of transparency in the Indian teams affairs came to the fore in stark fashion as captain Sourav Ganguly, who had only yesterday declared himself fit to play, was ruled out of the third Test against Australia which commenced here today. The buzz around the stadium when people reached the ground this morning was that the Indian skipper may not play the match and it got confirmed only when Rahul Dravid came out for the toss with Australians stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist. Ganguly had told the media yesterday that the thigh strain that eventually kept him out was not a concern. It could not be confirmed if it was the same injury that Ganguly suffered while fielding in the first Test in Bangalore. With no senior board official present, the media had difficulty in seeking basic information. Off spinner Harbhajan Singh was last night said to be down with viral fever by some team sources, but today it came to light that a stomach bug had led to the bout of fever and made him weak. (PTI) |
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Ganguly failed fitness test in the morning: Leipus NAGPUR: Clearing the air over Sourav Ganguly’s last-minute pull-out from the third Test against Australia, physiotherapist Andrew Leipus today said the decision to leave out the skipper was taken after he failed a pre-match fitness Test in the morning. "We had a small fitness Test at the ground this morning. He suffered an upper thigh strain while practicing two days ago and thought yesterday he would be fine when he got up today," Leipus told a press conference after the opening day’s play here. "But it was not so and he couldn’t transfer the weight from one leg to another while batting. So we decided it would be unwise to go ahead (with him)." Asked for how long he expected the Indian skipper to be out of action, Leipus said he could not answer the question as the source of the pain would have to be investigated through a bone scan first. On whether the injury was originally picked on the first day of the opening Test of the series in Bangalore early this month, he said "I think so." "He was fine in Chennai and then there was a break," Leipus said adding that when the captain felt discomfort after practising two days ago, an MRI scan was done but it did not reveal any muscle tear. Leipus said it was difficult to say now whether the captain could recover in time for the third Test starting in Mumbai on November 3. "The investigations are on," he said. On Harbhajan Singh, who is down with gastroenteritis, Leipus said he should be fit for the last Test. "I don’t see any problem with Harbhajan being fit for Mumbai. In fact we were hoping he would play today but he felt too weak," he added. Leipus also said he expected Irfan Pathan, who picked a side strain in Chennai, to be fit for the Mumbai Test. (PTI) |
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Full marks to both teams for aggressive play By Allan Border It was an entertaining day’s cricket. Full marks to both teams for playing aggressively and positively. However, I suppose there will be a feeling in both camps that they could have done better. The Indians would have liked to finish off the Australian innings, especially after they got Martyn, Gilchrist and Warne in quick succession. The Australians on the other hand, will regret the fact that they lost as many as seven wickets. Zaheer Khan was the pick of the Indian bowlers. He was unlucky to have catches dropped off him. There were also some chances that fell just short of the fielders. He did a fine job on a wicket that has a bit in it for seam bowlers if they keep hitting the right areas. It’s an unusual strip by Indian standards, and resembles the tracks that are generally prepared for Test matches in England. It stood up well on the first day, yielding 362 runs for the Australians and seven wickets for the Indians from 90 overs. You couldn’t really ask for more from a single day’s cricket. It is always difficult for a team when its captain pulls out on the eve of a big game, but the Indians handled the situation very well. While the Australians were certainly surprised by Sourav Ganguly’s withdrawal due to a groin strain, I don’t think they would have thought about it that much. They are well aware that India’s bench-strength is competent. The replacements have proved themselves whenever they have got opportunity to do so. Mohammed Kaif batted well at Chennai and will try and produce another batting performance here in Nagpur that will help him cement his place in the Test side. Yuvraj, the makeshift opener at Chennai, has been left out in favour of the specialist Chopra, and it will be interesting to see how this new arrangement works for India. The Indian think-tank will be satisfied with the performance of Murali Karthik, who replaced the dangerous Harbhajan Singh and took three wickets. For the Australians, Martyn, Lehmann and Clarke batted quite outstandingly. Just when it looked like India had gained the upper hand after the dismissals of Martyn, Gilchrist and Warne, Gillespie came in and batted well until the close. Australia’s gameplan on the second morning will be to take the score beyond 400, while India will look to take the remaining three wickets as quickly as possible. |
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Interesting pre-quarters
round of senior Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: An interesting round of pre-quarterfinals of snooker in senior group shall start tomorrow after the end of initial round matches in the ongoing 14th Jammu district billiards and snooker championships at Billiards Hall, M A Stadium, here today. Prominent among those playing directly in the pre-quarters are defending champion, Kamal Rohmetra and second seed Jaideep Manocha besides Sohail Khalid and Nikhil Kapahi. However, earlier, in the initial first and second round matches played today, Samrat and Abhimanyu had tough encounters on way to the pre-quarterfinals stage while it was an easy sail for Dilip Kumar, Nikhil Kapahi, Ishan Chowdhary and Ajay Pal. The detailed results: IInd round: Nikhil Kapahi beat Vidit 68-29, 55-28, 85-47; Ishuk got walkover Kapal Kapahi; Ishan Chowdhary beat Prince Khajuria 61-17, 48-15, 85-25; Ajay Pal beat Bhanu Pathania 71-11, 58-50, 82-72; Abhimanyu Arora beat Gurdev Singh 74-28, 67-42, 34-43, 48-52, 62-13. Ist round: Varun Gupta bt Sahil Aggarwal 45-32, 45-14, 37-68, 65-17; Ashok Raphel bt Vishal Kohli 43-53, 65-27, 59-42, 72-46; Sidharth Bhatia bt Manik Basotra 44-37, 52-41, 50-48; Dilip Kumar bt Gurvinder Singh 42-38, 17-57, 44-35, 57-53; Samrat bt Ankush Langer 14-49, 79-33, 69-26, 28-45, 43-29. |
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Adarsh, Challenger Clubs win in cricket tourney Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: Adarsh Cricket Club and Challenger Cricket Club today registered their respective wins to advance into the second round of a cricket tournament being played at GGM Science College ground, here. In the first match, Adarsh Cricket Club (ACC) defeated Patta Cricket Club (PCC) by 12 runs. Batting first, ACC set a target of 144 runs losing all their wickets in 24.5 overs of the 25 overs match for the loss of 10 wickets, which, in reply, PCC could not chase and exhausted their quota of 25 overs at a score of 131 with three wickets in hand. Sunny was highest scorer from ACC with 42 runs while Satish and Aman contributed 20 and 17 runs respectively. From PCC, Raj Kumar was most successful bowler with four for 6 in 1.5 overs while Aman took three wickets. Batting second, PCC made a good start but could not maintain the required run rate in middle of their innings. Opener Sonu was top scorer with 44 while Rahul and Sushil added 20 and 17 runs respectively. Aman and Ashok shared two wickets each for ACC. In second match of the day, Challenger Club outplayed Southampton Cricket Club (SCC) by seven wickets. Earlier, decided to bat first after winning the toss, SCC lost all their wickets for 100 runs in 23.1 overs. In reply, Challenger chased the total in 14.2 overs for the loss of three wickets. |
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KVS Jammu Region shine in national sports meet Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: The contingent of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan Jammu Region gave an excellent performance winning 33 medals in the KVs national sports meet held at New Delhi recently. The medals won by Jammu Region included 11 gold, nine silver and 13 bronze. In addition, the region clinched three championship trophies in hockey (boys and girls) and skating (boys). The skating team was represented by Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 Jammu. Contingent was consisting of 396 boys and girls and 52 officials. Jaideep Dass, Education Officer was manager of the group and was assisted by S P Arora, Principal, KV No. 1 Pathankot and Maju Sehgal, Principal, KV Dharamshala. Meanwhile, Vijaya Kumar, Assistant Commissioner, KVS (JR) has congratulated the players and officials for their performance in the KVS national meet for their commendable performance in team as well individual events. |
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Volleyball trials from November 1 Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: Volleyball Association of Jammu and Kashmir is holding trials for the forthcoming 27th sub-junior national volleyball championships. Trials will be held from November one to three at 3 pm onwards at MA Stadium, here. Trials will be followed by the coaching camp from November 4 at M A Stadium under the supervision of Sports Council coach. Coach calls for better treatment of footballers NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Calling for better treatment of football players, national coach Stephen Constantine today said soccer stars should play only in limited number of domestic matches to prevent break downs before crucial international fixtures. "How can we condemn the players for not performing against Japan (in World Cup qualifiers). They are forced to play on and on while getting only third class facilities," Constantine told reporters on the sidelines of the Santosh Trophy football championship. "The national probables are staying in a low budget hotel while I am lodged in a different hotel," said Constantine, who was here for the national team’s camp ahead of the World Cup qualifier in Oman on November 17. The Anglo-Cypriot said that too much was being read into India’s defeats in the World Cup qualifiers against Japan and Oman. "We talk endlessly about India’s defeats over five-goal margin quickly forgetting the good results," said Constantine, whose contract is under the All India Football Federation scanner. "How can we expect to compete with sides like Japan when their top players get `A’ grade facilties and play few number of games," he said. Constanine said India should have played more practice matches before going to Oman for the November 17 match. "Whenever we had time to prepare we performed well. We are only playing one practice against Kuwait before taking on Oman. I tried to arrange more matches and talked to the UAE coach but they were booked three months in advance.(PTI) Rehmat Ali lifts Akhnoor kesari title Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 26: Rehmat Ali of Maller Kotla in Punjab lifted the 52nd edition of the Akhnoor Kesari dangal beating Pahalwan Satish of Alamgir in Ludhiana in a tough bout, which lasted for 32 minutes, for the first ‘malli’ at Akhnoor, near here. Winner was given a cash prize of Rs 8,000 while runners-up, Satish was presented a cash prize of Rs 5,000 by president of J&K Indian Style Wrestling Association, Shiv Kumar Sharma, who was chief guest on the occasion. In all, 67 bouts were played in this dangal. The second main bout was won by Soni of Ludhiana who outplayed Shammi of Phagwara in the 27 minute long fight. Winner was given a cash prize of Rs 6,000 while runners-up got Rs 5,000. Billu of Jammu and Kashmir Police won the third main bout beating Sunny of Jallandar. For winning the third main title, Billy was awarded a cash prize of Rs 4500 while Sunny got Rs 3,000. In all, 120 wrestlers took part in this day-long dangal which was officiated by Om Parkash, Mohd Fareed, Madan Lal, Tara Chand, Krishan Lal and Kewal Krishan Magotra. Later, chief guest complimented Akhnoor dangal committee for making dangal an annual feature. Prominent among others present were president Dharmarth Trust, Diwakar Singh, Prithvi Raj Sharma, Ashok Kumar Mishra and Ramakant. MALLORCA (Spain) Oct 26: Indian eves came up with yet another emphatic performance to beat Russia 2-1 in the 10th round of the women’s section of the 36th chess Olympiad here. Koneru Humpy and S Vijayalakshmi proved superior than their higher rated rivals - Alexandra Kosteniuk and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya - and even Nisha Mohota’s loss against Nadezhda Kosintseva on the third board could not save the Russians as the Indians remained in hunt for their first-ever medal in the 14 round championship. Meanwhile, the Chinese juggernaut was finally halted by the US who scored a 2-1 victory. The result was made possible by Irina Krush on the second board as she romped home against World Cup champion Xu Yuhua. The other two games ended in draws. The victory gave the US a rare triumph over the leaders who are otherwise running away with the title. As things stand now, China leads with 24.5 in their kitty and are now followed by Hungary on 20. Half a point adrift of Hungarians are the Indian eves along with the US and Georgia. Humpy, who was instrumental in India’s upset win over Ukraine, against gave a great start to her team on the top board as she overpowered Kostneuik in the game of the day.(PTI) India beat Australia 3-2 to draw parity in hockey PERTH, Oct 26: Putting behind the dismal performance in the first Test, India (U-21) made a strong comeback to overpower Australia 3-2 in the second hockey Test here today. India had lost the first Test 1-6 yesterday. This afternoon, India looked a transformed lot and played a fine attacking hockey. Indian defence seemed to have learnt their lesson from first Test debacle as they did not concede many penalty corners. For the Indians, the goalscorers in the second Test were Nitin Kumar, Birender Lakra and Jatinder Pal Singh. On Sunday, penalty corner specialist Steven Boyce fired five goals including a hat trick as Australia humiliated India 6-1 in the first hockey Test between the U-21 teams. Seven Boyce converted four penalty corners with his powerful drag flicks and scored a field goal in completing the Indian rout. Boyce converted penalty corners in the fourth, 17th, 19th and 67th minutes. His fifth was a field goal scored one minute before the hooter. Glenn Turner scored the other goal for the hosts in the 21st minute. (UNI) |
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