KANPUR, Apr 15: Shahid Afridi recorded his second fastest century that gave Pakistan a thumping five-wicket win in the fifth cricket one-day international and complete a brilliant turn around in the six-match series against arch rivals India here today.............more

Tickets for Indo-Pak
match sold out
within hours

NEW DELHI, Apr 15: After waiting hours and in some cases days for a ticket to the high-profile Indo-Pak cricket match here, only a few were rewarded for their patience today............more

Pak cricket fans
walk into India for
New Delhi ODI

KARACHI, Apr 15: Nearly 1,200 die-hard Pakistani cricket fans walked through the Wagah Border into India this afternoon on way to New Delhi to watch Sunday’s sixth and last one-day international............more

Musharraf’s presence won’t
add pressure: Inzamam

KANPUR, Apr 15: President Pervez Musharraf’s presence in the final and sixth one dayer against India won’t create pressure on his side, said Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq........more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 15: Qasim Din (Billu) of Jammu and Kashmir Police has completed hat-trick of winning Rustam-e-J&K wrestling competition winning the prestigious title for third consecutive time at Mini-Stadium, Parade here today......more

Beloff appointed
chairman in
Ganguly’s case

LONDON, Apr 15: Chairman of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) code of conduct commission, Michael Beloff, will hear the appeal by Indian captain Sourav Ganguly against his six ODI match ban, the ICC announced today.......more

Paes in semis,
Bhupathi ousted

NEW DELHI, Apr 15: Fifth seeds Leander Paes and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia entered the semifinals of the men’s doubles event in Monte Carlo tennis masters series......more

Dravid, Inzamam admit
Afridi made difference

KANPUR, Apr 15: Shahid Afridi’s blazing knock was the difference between winning and losing on a track which was difficult to bat on was the unanimous verdict of both the Indian and.......more

Awesome Afridi pummels india into submission

KANPUR, Apr 15: Shahid Afridi recorded his second fastest century that gave Pakistan a thumping five-wicket win in the fifth cricket one-day international and complete a brilliant turn around in the six-match series against arch rivals India here today.

After the Indians frittered away the advantage of winning the toss with some inept batting display and were restricted to 249 for six, Afridi came up with one of the fastest one-day hundreds to put the host bowling on the mat and help Pakistan romp home with 7.5 overs to spare at the Green Park Stadium.

The dashing Afridi stole the limelight with some breathtaking strokes to give the visitors an unassailable 3-2 lead in the series with the last tie to be played in Delhi on Sunday.

Afridi’s 102 came from 46 balls and contained 10 fours and nine sixes as he reduced the Indian bowling to smithereens. It was the third fastest ODI century ever, and the dashing opening batsman himself holds the world record with a 37-ball 102 against Sri Lanka at Nairobi in 1996-97.

Afridi added 131 runs with his opening partner Salman Butt whose subdued 21 needed as many balls as Afridi for his triple figure score.

India paid the penalty for not applying themselves on a wicket that offered variable bounce. They owed their total a record fifth wicket stand between stand-in Captain Rahul Dravid (86) and middle order batsman Mohammad Kaif (78).

The duo’s 135-run stand lifted the team from the rubble of 59 for four but the eventual target proved to be too meagre to defend against the brilliant assault of Afridi.

The belligerence of Afridi’s knock has now set up a fitting climax in Delhi to the visitors’ eventful 48-day tour.

Pakistan, who suffered heavy defeats in the first two matches, now have a decisive lead and go with their collars up into the much awaited final one-dayer in Delhi where their President Pervez Musharraf would be the chief guest.

Afridi waded into the Indian bowling in the very third over of the Pakistan innings when he plundered 23 runs off Laxmipathy Balaji with two sixes and a four.

When the right-arm seamer was replaced by Anil Kumble, Afridi welcomed the leg spinner with three sixes and a boundary and forced him out of the attack after just one over.

The Pakistan 50 came in the fifth over with Afridi’s third six off Kumble and the 100 in the 11th over with another lofted shot off part-time spinner Dinesh Mongia.

The opener reached his half century with a sweetly timed four down the line off Zaheer Khan, the milestone coming in just 20 balls with five sixes and as many fours.

It kept raining fours and sixes as Afridi went hammer and tongs. Suddenly, all the noise in the 40,000-capacity stadium was coming from the special enclosure filled with 650-odd tourists from Lahore and Karachi.

The vast majority of the Indian supporters had little to crow about the whole day and now that they were pummelled into submission by Afridi, they cheerfully bowed to his clean hitting.

When Afridi’s sweep shot off Harbhajan fell into the hands of Yuvraj at short fine leg, only for umpire K Hariharan to signal ‘no-ball’, it was clear that it was Afridi’s day out.

A back foot pull-drive off the same bowler to long on boundary brought up Afridi’s fourth one-day hundred and his second against India. But barely had the celebrations stopped when he played the next ball on to his stumps.

It brought to an end what is now the highest opening partnership by a visiting team at Green Park, the previous best being 115 between Phil Simmons and Stuart Williams of the West Indies in 1994.

Kumble returned to trap Butt Leg Before the Wicket with only four runs added but any hopes the Indians might have cherished of a fight back was nipped by Shoaib Malik (41) and Yousuf Youhana (24) who ground them to dust with a 58-run partnership for the third wicket.

Inzamam-ul Haq (24 not out) and Younis Khan (24) saw the team home, with the captain bringing the winning runs with a square drive four off Mongia.

Earlier, Dravid and Kaif added 135 runs for the fifth wicket to lead India’s recovery after seamer Rana Naved-ul Hasan had driven a wedge through the top order with three wickets in successive overs.

Electing to bat, India made a disastrous start as they lost three wickets in seven overs with only 26 runs on the board.

Rana (3-35) more than made up for the loss of fast bowler Mohammad Sami — down with a heel injury — as he made use of the early moisture in the pitch to remove Sachin Tendulkar (1), Virender Sehwag (5) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (11) in his second, third and fifth overs respectively.

Rana removed Tendulkar with a classic out swinger, the late swing of which the batsman could only snick to the ‘keeper.

Sehwag then was undone by the variable bounce of the pitch, his huge back swing a bit too late to block the delivery that held its line and sent the off stump cart wheeling.

Dhoni played across the line and the gentle out swinger took the outside edge to third slip where Younis Khan collected a fine low catch.

Three wickets in the space of 16 runs meant the Indians were denied a blazing start that had been a routine in this series.

Yuvraj Singh, with a half century from the last one-dayer to boost his confidence, played a couple of stunning shots —including a back foot punch off Rana to long on fence and a pull to square leg fence off Rao Iftikhar Anjum.

But, after adding 33 runs from 56 balls for the fourth wicket with Dravid, the Punjab left-hander too was undone by the unpredictable nature of the track and saw his woodwork disturbed by one that kept below knee height.

Fortunately, Kaif found his form at the right time to rescue the sinking ship. The Uttar Pradesh batsman flicked the first ball he faced from Razzaq to square leg boundary. By then whatever juice in the pitch was gone and Kaif was able to play his shots with less difficulty.

There was a brief exchange of verbal volleys with Shahid Afridi but Kaif kept his cool. He reached his half-century with a single off the leg spinner from 66 balls with five fours.

Dravid was never far behind. In the same over, the stand-in captain notched up his 50 with two successive fours from 85 balls and five hits to the fence.

They scored more than run a minute and the 100 runs for the partnership came in 76 minutes from 131 balls. Soon, the duo bettered the previous best fifth wicket stand for India against Pakistan, which was their own 118 at Karachi on India’s tour last year.

As the innings entered the last 10 overs, runs were coming thick and fast.

But Kaif fell while trying to accelerate, his pull off Razzaq landing straight in the hands of substitute Mohammad Hafeez at midwicket.

Dravid lasted a little longer to help the scoreline get closer to the 250 mark. It was his second fifty of the series besides a century in the opening one-dayer at Kochi.

His 86 came from 113 balls with eight fours.

Dinesh Mongia provided the late burst and was 33 not out that included two consecutive sixes off spinner Arshad Khan. (PTI)

SCOREBOARD

India:

V Sehwag b Rana 5

S Tendulkar c Akmal b Rana 1

M S Dhoni c Younis b Rana 11

R Dravid run out 86

Yuvraj Singh b Razzaq 18

M Kaif c sub (Hafeez) b Razzaq 78

D Mongia not out 33

Zaheer Khan not out 1

Extras (lb-10, w-2, nb-4) 16

Total (for 6 wickets in 50 overs) 249

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-11, 3-26, 4-59, 5-194, 6-248.

Bowling: Rana Naved-ul Hasan 10-2-35-3, Rao Iftikhar Anjum 10-1-46-0, Abdul Razzaq 10-1-51-2, Arshad Khan 9-1-41-0, Shahid Afridi 6-0-32-0, Shoaib Malik 5-0-34-0.

Pakistan:

S Butt lbw b Kumble 21

S Afridi b Harbhajan Singh 102

S Malik c Zaheer b Tendulkar 41

Y Youhana c Kaif b Kumble 24

Inzamam-ul Haq not out 24

Younis Khan b Sehwag 24

A Razzaq not out 0

Extras (lb-5, nb-5, w-6) 16

Total (for 5 wickets in 42.1 overs) 252

Fall of wickets: 1-131, 2-135, 3-193, 4-216, 5-248.

Bowling: Laxmipathy Balaji 6-0-51-0, Zaheer Khan 7-1-35-0, Anil Kumble 10-1-54-2, Dinesh Mongia 4.1-0-40-0, Harbhajan Singh 10-0-43-1, Sachin Tendulkar 3-0-20-1, Virender Sehwag 2-0-4-1. (PTI)

Tickets for Indo-Pak match sold out within hours

NEW DELHI, Apr 15: After waiting hours and in some cases days for a ticket to the high-profile Indo-Pak cricket match here, only a few were rewarded for their patience today.

Just a few hundred fans today managed to lay their hands on the elusive tickets for Sunday’s match after braving the scorching sun and the tight security arrangements, but there were many more who had to go back empty handed as these were sold out within hours.

While tickets of denomination Rs 11,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 1,000 were sold through the Parliament Street branch of Central Bank of India, those costing Rs 400 and students passes valued at Rs 200 were sold through its Kashmere Gate branch.

Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) had earmarked 12,150 tickets for the general public for the sixth and last one-dayer to be played at Ferozeshah Kotla ground.

Out of these, it handed over 2,050 tickets to Pakistan Cricket Board for the fans from that country. Another 3,000 tickets for the DDCA League Club members meant that only 7,000 tickets were left for common fans.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will be among a host of dignitaries who will watch the match.

Though the ticket counters opened only at 10.30 am, fans who did not want to take any chances had lined up from last evening itself.

"I had camped here from five PM last evening for this ticket," said a jubiliant and bleary-eyed Rishipal Singh, the first to buy a ticket at the Parliament Street branch.

"I am going to gift it to my son Ankur who had performed very well in his class 11 examination," he said.

Singh had made two false starts before finally managing to pocket his ticket today. He had been among a large number of fans who queued up for hours on Wednesday before bank officials announced that postponement of ticket sales. He had returned yesterday too, but the bank was closed on account of Ambedkar Jayanti.

However, buying the tickets was not a pleasant experience for women as bank authorities had not made arrangements for a separate queue for them, perhaps the reason why only a few of them turned up.

"We had to face cat-calls the entire duration we were standing in queue. The manager should be ashamed for not making separate arrangements for us," said a harried woman.

However, this did not deter Laxmi who waited in line from 1 am to become the first woman to buy a ticket - costing Rs 5,000.

"I will not sell it to anyone even if I get Rs 20,000," she said with a grin on her face.

Fans had turned up from places as far way as Bareilly and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh and Rewari in Haryana to grab the tickets.

There were even some foreign tourists who joined the throngs.

Jacob, from Salsbury in England, said he was standing in the queue since five AM today.

"But it was worth it, nothing like an Indo-Pak encounter," he said as a couple from holland nodded in agreement.

Standing in queue for hours was not the only problem the fans faced.

The student passes and tickets costing Rs 400 and Rs 1,000 were sold out within one-and-half hours of the opening of counters.

Disappointed fans then almost went on the rampage alleging that bank officials and policemen posted on duty had sold off a large number of tickets in ‘black’.

"Otherwise, how can all the tickets be sold out in such a short time," asked Amjad, almost on the verge of tears.

However, bank officials refused to talk to the media on the issue or disclose the exact number of tickets sold.

At the Kashmere Gate branch, fans alleged that police had lathi-charged to disperse the crowd after the tickets were sold out.

However, a police official said cops only had to resort to "mild force" as the crowd became violent.

Even amidst the strong police presence, some people tried to sell off their tickets at higher cost to the waiting multitudes.

"Someone has just offered me this (Rs 1,000) ticket for Rs 5,000. Is it genuine," Antony toll from Australia asked media persons who gathered around him.

The seller probably managed to convince him as toll left clutching the ticket soon after. (PTI)

Pak cricket fans walk into India for New Delhi ODI

KARACHI, Apr 15: Nearly 1,200 die-hard Pakistani cricket fans walked through the Wagah Border into India this afternoon on way to New Delhi to watch Sunday’s sixth and last one-day international.

The number was likely to rise to 1,500 by the time the gates close for the day while the remaining would enter India through train or by air, officials said as the historic India-Pakistan cricket series drew closer to its conclusion.

"The spectators would board Shatabdi Express at Amritsar for New Delhi at 1700 hours (IST) and would reach the Indian capital at 2200 hours (IST)," Iqbal Junani, spokesman for American Express, the official travel agents of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), told PTI from Lahore.

The PCB last week received 2,050 tickets for the high profile New Delhi one-dayer that will also be watched by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The 2,000 tickets of Pak Rs 1,500 denominations were for public of which 110 were scooped up by the Karachiites, 350 by the Islamabadians and the remaining 1,540 by the Lahorians.

Although the process of issuing passports and visas has been near perfect, Pakistan fans going by air were left pondering about their return when they were granted visas between April 15 and 19 instead of a more convenient April 14 and 18.

"We had requested the Indian High Commission to issue visas between April 14 and 18 because there was a train and a pia flight to New Delhi on April 14 while there was also a return PIA flight on April 18," said Junani.

"Now the law of the land is that if you go by air, you have to come by air but there is no such restriction for people crossing border by foot into India. This means that Pakistanis fans going by air will be forced to either return on April 18 or hope that PIA arranges an extra flight for them on April 19 from New Delhi," Junani added.

Pia will fly a 400-seater 747 jumbo on Karachi-Lahore-New Delhi sector tomorrow and is also contemplating to introduce an extra airbus flight from New Delhi on April 19. PIA normally flies a smaller 737 aircraft on Karachi-Mumbai or Lahore-new Delhi sectors.

PIA officials in Karachi said the decision on arranging an extra flight from New Delhi would be taken tomorrow.

"I think there will be an extra flight because other than people who have gone on cricket visas, there will be people part of President Musharraf’s entourage and all of them have to return by April 19," PIA sources said.

The Indian High Commission, according to officials, granted 7,000 cricket visas, including 3,000 for Mohali, 850 for Bangalore, 1,000 for Kanpur and 2,050 for New Delhi.

"It has been a great learning experience for us and the Indian High Commission. I think we managed things pretty well despite having our limitations," Junani said adding that his staff now deserved a long break after working round-the-clock for the last couple of months. (PTI)

Musharraf’s presence won’t add pressure: Inzamam

KANPUR, Apr 15: President Pervez Musharraf’s presence in the final and sixth one dayer against India won’t create pressure on his side, said Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq.

Asked if his side would be under pressure to perform well before the President, Inzamam said, "I don’t think so. If there would be pressure, it would be on both the side. I guess head of both the states are going to be there for the match. So why pressure on us alone?"

The burly Multan player showered praise on swashbuckling opener Shahid Afridi and said the latter’s 46-ball knock of 102 made it a "one-sided affair."

"I was worried after losing the toss for it was not easy to chase a target of 250. But shahid made it a one-sided affair with a great knock," he said.

"There was little help for the pacers but Rana Naved-ul Hasan picked three important wickets that helped us contain the Indians. And then Afridi took over."

Talking about the Delhi one dayer, Inzamam said, "all efforts will be to win that match and wrap up the series. We will go out with positive frame of mind."

Meanwhile architect of Pakistan’s win today Shahid Afridi thanked his captain for backing him even when he was out of form.

"Inzybhai supported me even though I failed both with the ball and the bat. I’m grateful to him and the coach. I want to play my normal game and took chance. I guess it was my day," Afridi said.

"I know my style of playing cricket is risk prone but all I want is to give the team a flying start and I’m happy to do it here." asked whether he was aware that he had made the second fastest ODI century, the fastest one was also created by him, today’s man of the match Afridi said, "when you go out you don’t remember those things. I just played my normal game and by the grace of the almighty, the record came my way." (UNI)

Qasim Din (Billu) retains Rustam-e-J&K title

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 15: Qasim Din (Billu) of Jammu and Kashmir Police has completed hat-trick of winning Rustam-e-J&K wrestling competition winning the prestigious title for third consecutive time at Mini-Stadium, Parade here today.

Witnessed by a large gathering of wrestling lovers of Jammu, the dangal was contested by all prominent wrestlers of the State, expect last year’s runners-up Jakkar Hussain, who could not turn-up.

For the Rustam-e-J&K bout, Qasim defeated Omkar Singh of Kathua. Winner Qasim was rewarded with a cash prize of Rs 31,000 in addition to traditional gurj and patta. Runners-up Omkar got Rs 21,000 prize.

Third position holder, Roshan Lal of Muthi in Jammu was given away a cash prize of Rs 11000 by the organisers. Suram Din finished fourth.

Minister of State for Sports, Yogesh Sawhney was chief guest who gave away prizes to the winners. He was accompanied by guests of honour, Navin Aggarwal (IGP Home Guards) and S S Bijral (IGP CID).

Among others present were Director Tourism, Nirmal Sharma and president, J&K Indian Style Wrestling Association, Shiv Kumar Sharma.

Rustam-e-J&K dangal, which was part of the three-day Jammu Mela, was sponsored by the Tourism Department. It was organised by J&K Indian Style Wrestling Association in assistance with J&K State Sports Council.