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Semi-final line up drawn in Inter Collegiate Volleyball..............

India missed experienced players in middle order: Sehwag

PORT ELIZABETH, Nov 30: India’s stand-in captain Virender Sehwag said Rahul Dravid’s absence and the poor form of Sachin Tendulkar put enormous pressure on the rest of the young and inexperienced batsmen in the fourth cricket one-dayer here against South Africa.

Sehwag also felt India missed having experienced batsmen in the middle order as South Africa had also started off badly but could recover because they had tried and tested players in their ranks.

"Dravid’s absence hurt us in this game. He is the kind of batsman who tries to bat out overs in the middle order. The other batsmen then can feed around him," he said at the post-match press conference.

"Tendulkar’s failure also puts pressure. When a big player fails, the rest of the batsman come under pressure."

"We are not opening well and are losing far too many wickets in the first 10-15 overs. Youngsters thus are confronted with a huge task.

"South Africa are also starting badly but they are able to recover because they have experienced cricketers like Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs in the middle. That is not the case with us."

But Sehwag begged fans back home to be patient and give them some more time to come to terms with the tough conditions in South Africa.

"I want the fans to keep trust in us. Things cannot change in a day and it will take time. We will improve," he said.

"Even though we have been here for nearly a fortnight, we have hardly practised. Our sessions were spoilt in Johannesburg and Durban. Hopefully before the last ODI, the Twenty-20 match would afford us valuable practice," Sehwag said.

The teams are slated to play a Twenty-20 game at Potchefstroom on December 1 followed by the last ODI on December 3 in Centurion.

Sehwag defended the selection of Dinesh Kaarthick ahead of Dinesh Mongia, who was chosen as a specialist batsman for the series.

"Kaarthick is batting well in the nets and we feel if we give him more opportunities, we could have a new player in the middle order.

"Dinesh Mongia is not playing because we decided before the start of the series that we would try to play as far as possible five bowlers in every match.

"It means we can only play five batsmen and in that scenario, we are not able to make space for Mongia."

Sehwag gave an insight into his thinking when he said he preferred having a spinner bowl in the death overs than the medium-pacers.

"Spinners like Kumble are difficult to hit in slog overs and that’s why I gave only four overs to faster bowlers in the death overs."

Sehwag saw positives in the way Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kaarthick and Irfan Pathan shaped up in the middle and felt this was a base which could produce dividends in the near future.

"We only need to spend more time in the middle. I am sure things would be alright soon."

Man of the match Herschelle Gibbs set the alarm bells ringing for India when he said they were not playing anywhere their best.

The middle order batsman said that although the hosts had pocketed the series there would be no let up in the plundering of runs.

"Now that there is no pressure we can play with more freedom. Hopefully we can put up a good score," said Gibbs who made an unbeaten 93.

He said South Africa have not batted to their potential yet in the series so far.

"We are not firing yet as we know we can. We are winning despite not playing well. So that feels great."

South African skipper Graeme Smith took confidence from the fact that despite losing the openers for only six on the board, his team won emphatically.(PTI)

Ganguly back into test fold; Laxman named vice-captain

New Delhi, Nov 30: The national selectors today recalled former captain Sourav Ganguly to beef up the tottering Indian line up for the three-test series against South Africa while giving a stern message to non-performers like Virender Sehwag who was removed from vice-captaincy.

VVS Laxman, suddenly back in favour after being kept out of the one-day team on grounds of fitness, was elevated as the vice-captain for the test series beginning on December 15.

The axe fell on Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina for India’s dismal display in the one-day series they have already squandered 3-0 to the South Africans and the duo would return home after the last ODI on December 3.

Ganguly’s comeback after being in the wilderness for ten months was expected considering the frenzy that had been building over the past two days and his subsequent stepping down from Bengal captaincy.

Asked about the left-hander’s inclusion, Selection Committee Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar said, "If you look at the performance in South Africa, our batting has failed. We need experienced players like Laxman and Ganguly."

Ganguly, on his part, promised to give his best on the tour given his experience of having played on tracks with bounce and carry.

"My job is to go and do well. I have lot of runs behind me and experience to play on the bouncy pitches in South Africa," Ganguly told reporters at the Eden Gardens.

However, he would not be able to represent Bengal in their Ranji Trophy game against Mumbai starting tomorrow as he is scheduled to leave for South Africa from Mumbai on December 3 alongwith Vikram Rajvir Singh and Gautam Gambhir.

Ajit Agarkar and Dinesh Mongia would also return home with Raina and Kaif after the one-day series.

Ganguly comes in the place of an injured Yuvraj Singh in the middle order while Zaheer was rewarded for his good show in the one-dayers with a test berth. Both Ganguly and Zaheer last played a test against Pakistan in January this year.

Ganguly, whose comeback is bound to ruffle a few feathers given his soured relations with coach Greg Chappell, is expected to turn out in the warm-up game against South Africa at Potchefstroom from December 7-10.

Gambhir was also finally rewarded for his consistency in domestic circuit with a place in the 16, announced by BCCI secretary and Selection Committee Convenor Niranjan Shah at a press conference here.

Vengsarkar said the selectors wanted to send the message that nobody could take their place in the team for granted through their decision to strip Sehwag of vice-captaincy.

"Absolutely. Nobody can take his place in the team for granted," said Vengsarkar when asked whether removing Sehwag from vice-captaincy was a message to him.

The Delhi opener has averaged just 27.25 in his last 25 one-dayers while in tests in the 2005-06 season, he has averaged 39.37, a sharp decline from a fine 52.

Vengsarkar also backed Irfan Pathan to fire again soon.

"Pathan bowled well the other day. He also batted well. You cannot just drop him like that, it will spoil his confidence. He is the player for the future, we are sure he will perform soon. (PTI)

Yousuf breaks world record as Pakistan eyes victory

Karachi, Nov 30: Master batsman Mohammad Yousuf today broke the 30-year-old world record of most test runs in a calendar year with his ninth century in 2006 as Pakistan pushed the West Indies into a tight corner in the third and final cricket test.

Yousuf followed his century in the first innings with another elegant knock of 124 off 195 balls, hitting 15 fours before Pakistan declared its second innings at 399-6 for a mammoth overall lead of 443 runs.

Captain Inzamam-Ul-Haq scored his first half century in six test matches and remained unbeaten on 58 off 91 balls.

West Indies lost its openers to pacemen Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir and wobbled to 39-2 at stumps on the fourth day.

Brian Lara held the West Indies hopes with unbeaten 18 to save the game while Ramnaresh Sarwan was not out on 11 when bad light stopped play 10 overs before scheduled close.

The West Indies holds the record of best ever successful run-chase in test cricket when it scored 418 in beating Australia at St. John’s, Antigua in 2002-03 season.

Yousuf drove paceman Corey Collymore to a boundary through mid on to reach 48 before lunch and surpassed Viv Richards’ record of 1,710 made by the former West Indies captain in 11 test matches in 1976.

Yousuf plundered 665 runs in five innings, including four centuries, in the three tests against the West Indies to finish 2006 with 1,788 test runs from 11 test matches. (AGENCIES)

Indian men’s badminton team suffers defeat

Doha, Nov 30: Indian shuttlers went down tamely to World Champions China who showed little mercy in spanking their unfancied rivals 5-0 in the opening pool A match of team Badminton competition in the 15th Asian Games here today.

The result was by and large expected as the Indians did not have the skills to match the Chinese who were never really tested in any of the contests at the aspire sports centre.

Anup Sridhar found the going tough in the first singles as he lost to Dan Lin 19-21, 11-21 in 28 minutes while the Chinese doubles duo of Yun Cai and Haifeng Fu gave their team a 2-0 lead by accounting for the Indian pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar.

"I should have probably won the first set. He was pretty fast in the second set, may be my preparation was not good enough," Sridhar said after the match.

"I was not really under any pressure as I know he is a stronger player. I did’nt have anything to lose against him," he said.

In the second singles, P Kashyap put in a spirited performance but it was still not good enough to see him go past Jin Chen who carved out a 21-17, 21-19 verdict in 30 minutes.

The Indians were left trailing 0-4 after the second doubles as the Chinese pair of Zhendong Guo and Zhongbo Xie prevailed over V Diju and Vidhyadhar 21-18, 21-8 in just 22 minutes.

In the third singles, India’s star player Nikhil Kanetkar never really found his rhythm going as he lost to Chunlai Bao 14-21, 12-21 to complete a miserable day for the Indians on the Badminton courts.

As per the format of the team event, there are three pools of three teams each and the champion team from each group moves into the semi-finals. The runner up teams from each group then play a round robin league to determine the fourth semi-finalists. (PTI)

IIIrd Division North Zone National Football
J&K, Haryana clash ends in draw

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: Host J&K drew with Amity United (Haryana) as both teams were unable to score in the allotted time in the ongoing IIIrd Division North Zone National Football Championship being played at Jammu University Football Field today.

J&K started off well by playing aggressively right from the first half. They got a chance in the very first minute of the game but failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

The first half went to J&K, who despite missing possible chances played reasonably well.

In the second half, Haryana regrouped themselves and played well as a unit. But they too missed chances that came in their way.

J&K finished 2nd in their group with 5 points with one win and two draws whereas Amity United topped the group with 7 points with two wins and one draw.

Earlier, in the first match played today, Uttaranchal Police (Uttaranchal) defeated formidable Shastri Football Club (Delhi) by 2-0. Both teams are already crushed out of the tournament.

Neeraj Singh Bisht and Hem Joshi were the goal scorers for Uttaranchal, who scored in the 17th and 90th minutes respectively.

Tomorrow will be the rest day. The semifinals of the tournament will be played on December 2.

Host J&K will take on tournament favourites BSF (Punjab) in the first semifinal at 11.15 am while Amity United (Haryana) to clash with Chandigarh in the second semifinal at 2 pm to be played at the same venue.

JRCC wins a close contest

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: Jammu Rural Cricket Club sealed a thrilling one wicket win over New Millennium College in a low scoring match in the ongoing GKR Memorial Twenty-20 Cricket Tournament being played at GGM Science College Ground today.

N.M.College after winning the toss elected to bat first.

They got off to a disastrous start by losing their first wicket at 6 runs. Atul and Amit played useful knocks for N.M.College, who scored 33 and 13 runs respectively.

Ankit also chipped in with handy 25 runs at the end of the innings to help the team to reach a respectable total.

Finally, N.M. cOLLEGE made 96 runs the allotted overs. For JRCC, Deepak was the most successful bowler, who grabbed four wickets followed by Kala, who snared two wickets.

In reply, JRCC, chased the target in the last over with one wicket to spare. Manu was the top scorer with 26 runs with the help of two boundaries.

Raju and Jyoti also contributed useful 16 and 18 runs respectively. Jyoti remained unbeaten.

JRCC too had a terrible start as they lost their first wicket at 0. Manu then played a cautious knock and also involved in small but useful partnerships with the fellow batsmen to get the scoreboard ticking.

For N.M. College, Vikram and Varun took three wickets each.

Deepak of N.M. College was declared as the Man of the Match.

The umpires in the match were Pappu Dogra and Santa Singh. The scorer was Mohit Puri and B.B. Verma.

Pre-quarter-finals to commence today

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: The pre quarterfinal in Senior Snooker will commence from tomorrow as third round matches were completed today in the ongoing 16th J&K State Billiards and Snooker Championship being played at Billiards Hall, M.A. Stadium today.

In the matches played today, Kamal Rohmetra outclassed Atul Khajuria by 58-22, 55-13 and 56-51 quite convincingly.

Vidit Gawri had to fought hard to beat Sanjeev Gupta by 68-27, 57-49, 53-60 and 58-31. Vishal Abrol defeated Abhimanyu Pathania by 3-2 frames in a keen contest 19-56, 29-51, 54-12, 63-30 and 64-46.

In other matches, Ashok Raphael beat Sunil Gupta by 46-28, 34-44 and 53-15, M.N.Khan lost to Abhimanyu Arora by 71-31, 35-45, 54-33, 34-62 and 66-17 in a pulsating contest. Kuldeep Sharma beat Burhan by 66-31, 64-27 and 92-14, Abhishek Sharma beat Pallav Gupta by 23-56, 65-50, 73-40 and 82-62, Umar Mushtaq beat Ishan Choudhary by 57-50, 58-32, 32-65 and 49-34, Nikhil Kapahi beat Abhishek Goswami by 60-36, 51-38, 57-68 and 59-19 and Umar Farooq beat Mohit Mahajan by 51-18, 51-43 and 51-34.

The officials in the match were Rakesh, Surjit Singh and Shanker Dass.

The tournament is being organised by the J&K Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored by J&K State Sports Council.

Kathua strikes double in Kho-Kho championship

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: Hosts Kathua stormed into the finals in both Boys and Girls section in the ongoing State Level Inter District Kho-Kho Championship for U/19 Boys and Girls being played at Sports Stadium, Kathua today.

In Boys section, Kathua outclassed Kupwara by one inning and one point in the first semifinal. in a keenly contested match Jammu defeated Doda by one inning and two points. Deepak, Sanjeev and Pawan were the outstanding performers for the winner team.

In Girls section, Kathua thrashed Srinagar by one inning and two points in the first semifinal while Doda beat Jammu by 2 points to enter into the final.

Today’s matches were officiated by Subash Khajuria, Rajesh, Ravi, Kranti Khajuria, Kailash Nath and Sat Pal.

Tomorrow, Kathua will clash with Doda in Girls section whereas in Boys section, Kathua to lock horns with Jammu. Both the finals will be played tomorrow.

The tournament is being organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports.

Semi-final line up drawn in Inter Collegiate Volleyball

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Nov 30:Government Degree College Kathua will clash with Government Degree College Bhadarwah in the first semifinal whereas Govt. PG College, Udhampur to face PG Department in the second semifinal in the ongoing Inter Collegiate Volleyball Tournament being played at Government PG College, Udhampur.

In the quarterfinals played today, DC Bhadarwah beat last year runner up DC Poonch by 3-1 sets 25-18, 23-25, 25-18 and 25-13 in the first quarterfinal.

In the second quarterfinal, DC Kathua trounced Government SPMR College of Commerce by the same margin 23-25, 25-18, 27-25 and 27-25.

Host PG College, Udhampur had no difficulty in defeating GGM Science College by 3-0 sets in a one sided contest.The set score was 25-13, 25-14 and 25-23.

In the fourth quarterfinal, defending champion PG Department defeated MAM College by 3-1 sets 25-11, 25-17, 23-25 and 25-22.

The officials in the match were Romesh Sharma, Anchal Singh, Rajiv Dogra, Ashok Kumar, Rajesh Virdhi, Pawan Kumar, Vijay Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Yog Raj and P.L. Sharma.

Kuldeep Kumar Magotra, Treasurer, Volleyball Federation of India and also the General Secretary of the J&K Volleyball Association was the Guest of Honour in today’s quarterfinal matches.