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

J&K team flagged off for National Sport Climbing.......

Aussies knock India out of Champions
Trophy with 6-wicket victory

MOHALI, Oct 29: Hosts India crashed out of the Champions Trophy as world champion Australia humbled them by six wickets in 45.4 overs in their last Group A League game here tonight.

Opting to bat after winning the toss, India posted a challenging total of 249 for eight in 50 0vers but the mighty Australians made light of the target and the host made a sorry exit from the Championship.

Chasing 250 for the win, Australian openers Adam Gilchrist and Shane Watson cashed in on some awful bowling by seamers Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and Shantakumar Sreesanth to get away to a running start.

At the end, which came in 45.4 overs, Damien Martyn was unbeaten on 73 (104b, 8 fours) and Michael Clarke on 26 in Australia’s 252 for four.

Though Sreesanth and Pathan were to also pick up wickets, all three were so wayward that by the time Harbhajan Singh was introduced, Australia were already past the 100 mark by the 14th over.

Gilchrist and Watson prospered with a 61-run opening stand before skipper Ricky Ponting and Martyn laid the platform for the stroll home.

Gilchrist (23, 24b, 4 fours) fell to Sreesanth after Pathan and Patel had given away the runs on a platter. Every over the Indian quicks sent down contained at least one wide ball and a boundary —very often more — and all the Aussies had to do was to wait for the plentiful supply of bad balls to continue.

Watson carried on to a deserving 50 (46b, 8 fours) before he was trapped leg before by Dinesh Mongia, putting on exactly that many runs with his captain. Ponting (58, 69b, 8 fours) and Andrew Symonds (20, 24b, 3 fours) fell as Australia neared the target to inject some excitement into the full house at the PCA stadium, but by then the group winners — who meet New Zealand here on November 1 in their semi-final — just needed to complete the formalities. Earlier, India’s best batting performance in the tournament carried them to what had then seemed a testing target of 250, running up 249 for eight in their allotted quota of overs. It should have been more, but crucial dismissals in the last 10 overs stymied India’s final push.

Earlier, opener Virender Sehwag and skipper Rahul Dravid led the charge as team India’s top batsmen clicked and the hosts posted 249.

Dravid won the toss and expectedly chose to bat on a track which was not to hostile to the batsmen, unlike the one on which South Africa and Pakistan played.

But still it was not easy to score on the track which turned out to be a two-paced pitch. In the start, the ball was hard and fast and the bowlers got plenty of help from it. But as it ball became older, it tended to skid and stop.

Sachin Tendulkar was the only notable failure among the top order while Sehwag and Dravid slammed half centuries to keep India in the game.

Sehwag and Tendulkar gave India a sedate start as they put on 46 runs off 9.5 overs for the opening wicket before the little master departed.

Tendulkar, during his 46-minute stay at the crease, never looked comfortable and finally edged a Glenn Mcgrath delivery and Adam Gilchrist behind the wickets took an easy catch. And in the process, the Aussie wicketkeeper created another landmark of taking 400 catches in his one day international carrier.

Tendulkar made laboured 10 runs with the help of two boundaries while facing 46 balls. This was the seventh time Mcgrath scalped Tendulkar’s wicket.

Sehwag was joined by Dinesh Mongia and the two took the score to 89, adding 43 runs for the second wickets off 9.3 overs before Mongia edged Shane Watson and Mike Hussey took an easy catch in the slip. Mongia contributed 18 runs which came off 30 balls and included three hits to the fence. Sehwag was lucky to survive the torrid opening spell of Australian pacers and survived a chance when he was on 10 as michael clarke dropped him off Brett Lee.

Taking advantage of the chance, the opener managed to shrug off his poor form and got to his first half-century in seven innings.

After hitting boundaries through the off side early, he play plenty of clever dabs and steers and raced to his 24th half century in 160th match. This was his third half century against the Aussies.

Dravid, who came in at the fall of Mongia’s wicket, played a solid innings and rotated the strike intelligently. And India in fact looked in a very comfortable position when Mitchell Johnson struck with an excellent delivery, which landed on a good length, and trapped Sehwag leg before.

Sehwag made 65 with the help of nine boundaries as he faced 90 balls in his 136-minute stay at the crease. Dravid and Sehwag were involved in a 37-run partnership for the third wicket.

Mohammad Kaif, playing his first game of the championship, joined Dravid and the Uttar Pradesh skipper justified his inclusion as he frustrated the Australian bid for another quick breakthrough.

Kaif and Dravid added 60 valuable runs for the fourth wicket in 12 overs and when it looked the Indian skipper was heading for a big score Bret Lee got him out.

Dravid had committed to a stroke to a ball which came late and clarke took an easy catch. The Indian skipper’s 52-run knock was studded with six boundaries and came off 63 balls. At that stage, score was 186 for four in 40.1 overs.

Kaif was next to go being clean bowled by lee after chipping in 30 runs off 43 balls, hitting two boundaries.

The Indians added 52 runs in last 7.5 overs with Mahendra Singh Dhoini scoring a quickfire 23-ball 28.

Bret Lee, Mcgrathand Nathan Bracken claimed two wickets each.

Damien Martyn, who scored unbeaten 73, was declared man of the match. (UNI)

Jammu Distt Open Billiards, Snooker
7 cueists sail into pre-quarter finals stage
of Senior Snooker

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Seven cueists sailed into the pre-quarter finals of the Senior Snooker in the 16th Jammu District Open Billiards and Snooker Championship being played at Billiards Hall of MA Stadium.

They are Ashok Rapheal, Ishan Chowdhary, Vishal Abrol, Kamal Rohmetra, Sumesh Turki, Jaideep Manocha and Sheetal Gandotra. The pre-quarter finals will be played tomorrow.

In the second round, Ashok Rapheal defeated Abhishak Goswami by 3-0. It was an easy sailing into the pre-quarter finals for Ashok as Abhishek could not pose any sort of challenge to him in any stage of the match. The score was 78-20, 51-26, 79-45.

Ishan Chowdhary beat Bhanu Pathania by 3-0 in second match of the second round. In this match too, the loser failed to create any problem for Ishan on his way to secure berth in the pre-quarters.

Vishal Abrol beat Sahil Aggarwal by 3-0. The score was 41-29, 50-12, 45-38; Sumesh Turki defeated Anil Kumar by 3-0 (68-05, 59-19, 46-24); Jaideep Manocha beat Akhil Tandon by 3-0 (66-58, 51-20, 63-40) and Sheetal Gandotra defeated Anit Singh by 3-0. The score was 58-33, 54-28, 62-02. Kamal Rohmetra beat Sahil by 3-0 (59-53, 71-60, 87-32).

The only match of the second round where touch competition was witnessed played between Vishal Mehra and Sachin Sant. Vishal won the first frame with a narrow margin of seven points (58-51) but enhanced margin of his victory in the second frame which he won by 63-30.

In the third and fourth frames, Vishal suffered defeat at the hands of Sachin, who scored 47 points as against 45 in the third frame. In the fourth frame, Sachin scored 52 points while Vishal scored only 21 points.

With both the cueists having two frames in their credit, the match generated much interest in the 5th frame. But Sachin could not repeat his performance which he exhibited in the third and fourth frames and lost the 5th frame by 16-57 thereby helping Vishal to register 3-2 win.

According to the organisors, Senior Billiards entries will close on November 1, 2006.

Ashutosh wins first match on 2nd day
of Swimming Championship

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Ashutosh Khajuria of Jammu won the first match on the second day of the J&K Open Swimming Championship being organised by J&K Swimming Association.

Ashutosh Khajuria of Jammu clinched first position, Manik Wanchoo of KC Public School bagged second and Irshad Ahmed of Srinagar secured third positions in 50 metres free style group third.

In Group 4th, 50 metre free style, Irshad Ahmed of Srinagar bagged first position, Yaseer Ahmed of Srinagar secured second position and Mahim Gupta and Anirudh Sawhney of Jammu shared third position.

Rudraksh Gupta bagged first position, Bhanu Partap clinched second position and Repu Daman secured third position in 50 metre butterfly event while in 400 metres free style event, Hilal Ahmad bagged first position, Pranav Singh secured second position and Vikrant Gupta clinched third position.

In 400 metres free style group 3rd, S Manhas, Mithlesh Wanchoo and Shine Khajuria bagged first three positions while in 50 metres back stroke, Irshad Ahmed bagged first position, Yaseer Ahmed second and Dhrub bagged third position.

In 50 metres group first back stroke, Kavya Kamal bagged first position, Rohit Kapoor second and Manik Sharma third position while in the 50 metres back stroke group second, Mukhtyar Ahmed, Adil Mudhi and Shine Khajuria bagged first three positions while in 50 metre back stroke group third, Manik Wanchoo bagged first position, Arnav Kamal second and M Ibrahim third.

In men section, Abhishek bagged first position, Anil second and Ajay Kumar third position.

All India Open FIDE Rating Chess
2 J&K players secure berth in top 20 prize
money winners’ list

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Two J&K players today secured berth in the top 20 prize money winners' list in the First All India Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament.

Vivek Bharti and Sumit Grover managed to secure berth in the top 20 prize money winners' list by securing 4.5 points after the eight round of the Tournament. In the eight round, Vivek Bharti defeated Rakesh Shrivastava and Sumit Grover beat Bir Singh Raminder.

In the eight round, International Master Sriram Jha equalised with Himanshu Sharma; Girinath PDS defeated Hemant Sharma; Jain Shreuansh Dakia lost to Sangma Rahul; Prakash Ram equalised with Bartakke Amardeep S; Singh S Vikramjit defeated Srivastava KBI; Naveen S Hegde lost to Bhagwan Vinod; Moti Ram defeated Avinash Sethi; Pradip Tiwari equalised with Abid Ali; Fredriok John defeated Diwan Rajesh; Rajesh Kumar Nath equalised with Imtkhab Alam.

In another 10 matches, Biswajit Chatterjee defeated Pawan Bathm; Singh P K equalised with Ritwan Sauntra; Sharad Kumar Sharma lost to Mohd Irshad; Vivek Bharti defeated Rakesh Shrivastava; Sumit Grover defeated Bir Singh Raminder; Hemant Sharma lost to Gusain Himal; Dubey Ankesh defeated Rajesh Kumar; Ajit Kumar lost to Dave Kantial; Anand Yashwante lost to Sanjiv Kumar and Ashutosh Kumar defeated Abhay GN.

Meanwhile, Agrim Pandotra, the youngest chess player of J&K won two points in the eight round and is among several J&K players, who are having three points.

Jammu Distt TT Championship
Svera to take on Chandpreet in final of women’s category

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Svera Singh to take on Chandpreet Kour in the final of the Women’s catregory in the Jammu District Table Tennis Championship while Shazer and Lavanya to lock horns in Sub-Junior Girls final.

Svera Singh defeated Nidhi Arora by 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6 in the first semi-final of the women’s category while Chandpreet Kour beat Deepinder Kour by 11-8, 11-2, 11-2 in the second semi-final.

For the women’s category title, Svera to take on Chandpreet in the final.

Earlier, in the women’s quarter-finals, Svera Singh defeated Deepshikha by 11-8, 9-11, 11-4; Nidhi Arora beat Shzar by 11-9, 13-11; Deepinder beat Baba Singh by 11-5, 15-3 and Chandpreet Kour beat Kriti Gupta by 11-5, 13-11.

In the sub-junior girls semi-finals, Shzar beat Akshita by 11-9, 11-9 and Lanvya Sharma beat Tanvi by 11-4, 11-6.

In Junior girls semi-finals, Deepinder beat Deepshikha by 11-7, 11-9, 11-3 and Shzar beat Kriti Gupta by 11-9, 4-11, 11-8, 11-44.

In the quarter-finals of junior girls, Deepinder Kour beat Megha Jamwal by 11-3, 11-7; Deepshikha Sharma beat Nitani Bakshi by 3-11, 11-7, 13-11; Kriti Gupta defeated Saba Singh by 11-5, 11-4 and Shzar beat Lavanya Sharma by 11-3, 11-6.

Ahil Gupta beat Vikrant by 11-9, 11-9, 11-9; Sandeep beat Jyesh Singh by 4-11, 6-11, 15-13, 11-9, 11-8; Devampuri beat Amit Gupta by 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 and Arjun Kohli beat Ashish Bhasin by 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 in the men’s quarter-finals.

Selection trials of Sub-Junior Kabaddi teams today

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Selection trials of Sub-Junior Boys and Girls teams will be conducted on October 30 and 31, 2006 at 2 pm at Flood Light International Kabaddi Stadium in the premises of MA Stadium.

The teams will be selected by a committee headed by general secretary of J&K Amateur Kabaddi Association Kuldeep Gupta. The other members of the committee are Gh Mohd Ganai, Hakumat Singh, Sushil Kumar Jamwal, Dharamvir Singh, Gulzar Ahmed and Jasdev Singh.

President of the Association Prof Chaman Lal Gupta has directed all the affiliated districts and clubs of the State to send their registered players for trials of sub-junior state teams which will participate in the 18th Sub-Junior National Kabaddi Championship to be held at Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh from November 11 to 14.

Distt Udhampur TT Championship begins

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: District Udhampur Boys and Girls Table Tennis Championship was declared upon by MLA Udhampur Balwant Singh Mankotia.

About 250 players in all the four categories reported at the venue. All the matches of junior and sub-junior boys were completed upto the quarter-final level.

In the quarter-finals for Junior category, Arvind of Vijay Higher Secondary School beat Sunil of National Academy by 13-11, 11-7, 11-5; Sumit beat Rajinder by 13-11, 11-8, 11-7 and Rohit Paul defeated Tarun by 11-8, 11-5, 11-7.

In the quater-finals for Sub-Junior category, Ankit won by 11-9, 11-2, 11-5; Mohit beat Vivek by 11-7, 13-11, 11-8; Rohit Paul beat Harsh Dev by 11-5, 11-4, 11-2 and Sourab beat Shivam by 11-13, 11-6, 11-7 and 11-5.

Semi-finals of these two categories and matches of other groups will be played tomorrow. Rohin Bhardwaj, Laksh and Rohit were the officials.

State Open Shooting Championship concludes

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: First 10 metres State Open Shooting Championship concluded today at shooting range established in K C Public School by J&K Rifle Association.

The shooters participated in the air rifle, air pistol 10 metres competition in three categories—Under-15 years (sub-junior), Under-19 years (junior) and Open.

In Under-15 years age group, Alok and Vikramjit Singh of BSF School Jammu bagged first and second positions while Aaniq Moughal of Delhi Public School secured third position. In air pistol, Smaurya Jain and Naman Khajuria of JK Public School bagged first two positions and Sandeep Singh of KV-I Kathua secured third position.

In Under-19 years age group, Vikash Singh of KV-I Udhampur, Nitin Pangotra of Happy Model School Udhampur and Ranjan Chowdhary of KV-I Udhampur secured first three positions.

In Open category, Karan Singh of JK Public, Sanjay Singh and Rajiv Singh of Udhampur bagged first three positions.

Ten shooters represented KV-I Kathua while as equal number of shooter came from KV-I and Happy Model School Udhampur. Rest of the shooters were from BSF Higher Secondary School, K C Public School, Delhi Public School, JK Public School and KC Law College.

President of J&K Rifle Association P S Gill, Additional Director General of Armed Police also visited the range during the competitions.

J&K team flagged off for National Sport Climbing

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 29: Chief Electoral Officer, J&K B R Sharma today flagged off 9-member J&K State Sport Climbing team, to participate in the 12th National Sport Climbing Competition to be held at Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi from November 4 to 7, 2006.

The J&K team, which recently won the North Zone Trophy, is part of the North Zone team which will compete in the National (Inter-Zonal) Competition.

The State team is a fine blend of talent and experienced and is expected to bag a number of medals. Harjot Kour, last year’s silver medalist, and Shivani Raj are the favourites to win the national titles in lead and speed competitions respectively in the girls category.

Suraj Singh and Gurpreet Singh are also expected to be among the medal winners. Shivati Koul, the captain of the team, who finished 6th last year, is also expected to give a tough fight to the three international climbers from North East and South Zones in the women’s speed competition.

The State team comprises of Shivati Koul (captain), Bhawna Sharma, Rohini Chib, Suraj Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Rajeev Sharma, Harjit Kour, Shivani Raj and Princy Chowdhary.

Among others who attended the function include Prof Lalit Magotra, president Dogra Sanstha, S S Jamwal, president Tawi Trekkers and office bearers of the Mountaineering Association of J&K and its affiliated clubs.