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

India beat Lanka to revive
hopes for place in final

ADELAIDE, Feb 19: India revived their hopes for a berth in the final of the cricket tri-series as they recovered from early jolts to script a thrilling two-wicket win against Sri Lanka in a crucial game ...more

Shoaib meets Shahrukh

MUMBAI, Feb 19: Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who is on a brief visit to the city, met bollywood star Shahrukh Khan at the latter’s residence here. Soon after his arrival, Akhtar went to Haji Ali dargah where he offered a chadar of Rs 5000 and called .....more

13 Aussie players
sign for IPL

MELBOURNE, Feb 19: Altogether 13 Australian cricketers — including captain Ricky Ponting, retiring wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and pace spearhead Brett Lee —today joined the Indian Premier ....more

Sangwan’s fiver helps
India beat SA

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19: Left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan dished out a fiery spell to claim five wickets as India coasted to a convincing six-wicket victory over South Africa in their Under-19 Cricket World Cup match here today. After ....more

CM inaugurates Health
Club

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, Feb 19: Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today inaugurated Health Club cum Massage centre at Royal Spring Golf Course ....more

5th National Winter Games
Army makes clean sweep in cross country

GULMARG, Feb 19: Army made a clean sweep in the 15-km free style cross country race winning all the three medals while Bhubhashvari won the first gold for Himachal Pradesh (HP) and hosts Jammu .....more

NSK High school
organises Yoga camp

Excelsior Correspondent

REASI, Feb 19: Narayan Shishu Kala High School organised a special Yoga camp here today under the chairmanship of Satya ...more

State Carrom Championship
from tomorrow

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 19: The J&K Carrom Association would organise J&K State Carrom Championship from February 21 to 23 ...more

Udhampur makes clean sweep .........

Arun, Abhishek emerge winners ...........

KC Gurukul Public School celebrates Annual Day ...........

Manik, Ambedkar win bronze medals .............

India beat Lanka to revive hopes for place in final

After the islanders posted a competitive 238 for six largely built around Kumar Sangakkara’s 128, the Indian batsmen overcame some anxious moments before overhauling the target with just five balls to spare in a keenly-contested floodlit encounter at the Adelaide Oval.

The beleaguered Yuvraj Singh marked his return to form with a 70-ball 76 while captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (50 not out), Irfan Pathan (31) and Rohit Sharma (24) were the other notable performers.

The victory has consolidated India’s position for a place in the best-of-three finals and they need to win at least one of their remaining two matches to qualify for the summit showdown.

Australia were at the top of the points table with 17 points from five matches followed by India who have 12 points from as many matches. Sri Lanka were at the bottom of the table with six points from four games and need to win two of their remaining three matches to make it to the final.

India will play their next match against Australia at Sydney on February 24.

The Indian run chase began on a disastrous note as they lost Sachin Tendulkar (0), Gautam Gambhir (15) and Robin Uthappa (10) cheaply to be precariously placed at 35 for three at one stage before Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni came to the rescue of the team.

India needed three runs in Parvez Maharoof’s last over and Dhoni completed his half century by hitting the last two runs, triggering off wild celebrations in the dressing room.

The Indians owed their win to Yuvraj who turned around his disastrous tour with a sumptuous 76 off 70 balls with 10 fours and a six which pulled the team out of a messy start.

No less remarkable was the sixth wicket pair of Dhoni and Pathan who shared a 58-run stand and brought Indians closer to victory.

The Indians still found themselves slipping into a quagmire when it lost three wickets and suddenly Sri Lanka were back in the match.

Pathan attempted a wild slog off Amarasinghe to leave India 216 for 6 in the 46th over and then young Praveen Kumar (6) and Harbhajan Singh (3) left with India still three runs short in the 49th over.

Ishant Sharma blocked the last two deliveries to deny Lasith Malinga any further success. The first ball of the final over was a wide and then Dhoni steered one towards point boundary to scamper home for the required two runs.

It also completed Dhoni’s half century, a remarkable effort as the courageous youngster faced 68 balls without hitting a single four.

Chasing 239 to win under lights, India were staring at defeat at 35 for 3 before Yuvraj turned things around with an almost sublime innings.

India lost Tendulkar in the second over and dismissals of Uthappa and Gambhir within two runs of each other truly put the skids under their feet.

Tendulkar was all squared up by a swinging delivery from Lasith Malinga which pitched on the leg-stump and then swung to hit the master’s off-stump.

Uthappa and Gambhir were all nerves and edges as they put on 31 runs for the second wicket before leaving crease in quick succession.

Uthappa made a call for a single after hitting straight to short mid-off and Sanath Jayasuriya connected with a direct hit to leave him stranded at the non-striker’s end by a little margin.

Two runs later, Gambhir departed off a legside deflection though the television replays were inconclusive if the ball had gone off his bat or pads to wicketkeeper Kumara Sangakkara.

Yuvraj then took control of the proceedings with a breathtaking knock which never allowed the bowlers to get on top.

Yuvraj creamed a couple of off-drives within no time of arrival at the crease and when Muthiah Muralitharan was introduced in the 21st over, he came down the track off the third ball to hit it down the ground and before the over was out, hoisted one to the midwicket fence.

Sharma also began to find his feet and essayed a breathtaking pull off Maharoof as the 50 for the stand was raised off 51 balls.

Sharma then lost his wicket with an injudicious sweep off Muthiah Muralitharan which he connected too well for his own good. The ball went straight to the midwicket fence where the fielder made no mistake with the chance.

Earlier, Sangakkara smashed 128, his seventh ODI century, and put on 153 runs for the third wicket with his skipper Mahela Jayawardene (71) to lift Sri Lanka to 238 for 6 in their 50 overs.

Sangakkara walked on to the crease in the first over itself and stayed till the penultimate over, his knock coming off 155 balls with 12 fours.

Jayawardene, in contrast, faced 99 balls for his 71 runs and hit four fours and a six.

Jayawardene departed in the 37th over, a hard cruel dismissal, when bowler Praveen Kumar intercepted a drive from Sangakkara which then deflected on to the non-striker’s end with the Sri Lankan skipper out of his crease.

It was not the only such dismissal for Sri Lanka as opener Sanath Jayasuriya had fallen in a similar manner in the third over when he found himself out of non-striker’s crease after a delivery in his follow through was deflected by bowler Munaf Patel on to the stumps.

Sri Lanka was in dire straits at 6 for 2 in the third over when the two senior pros got together and gradually got the innings back on rails.

They two almost completely relied on protecting their wickets in the initial overs as the three powerplays of 20 overs yielded only 60 runs. The 100 of the innings was up only in the 28th over of the innings.

Sangakkara had a huge slice of luck when he was caught at silly midwicket off Praveen Kumar, only the ball had been declared a beamerand thus a no ball—for a batsman to be declared not out.

SCORE BOARD

Sri Lanka:

T. Dilshan c Dhoni b Patel 4

S. Jayasuriya run out 0

Sangakkara c Kumar b Pathan 128

M. Jayawardene run out 71

C. Kapugedera run out 1

Silva c Uthappa b H. Singh 21

F. Maharoof not out 3

C. Vaas not out 1

Extras (4lb, 1nb, 4w) 9

Total (for 6 wkts, 50 overs) 238

Fall: 1-4, 2-6, 3-159, 4-161, 5-234, 6-235.

Bowling: M Patel 9-2-38-1, I. Sharma 10-0-44-0, I Pathan 10-0-44-1, P Kumar 10-0-49-0, H. Singh 10-0-54-1, Y. Singh 1-0-5-0.

India:

Gambhir c Sangakkara b Amerasinghe 15

Tendulkar b Malinga 0

Uthappa run out 10

Sharma c Silva

b Muralitahran 24

Singh b Vaas 76

Dhoni not out 50

Pathan b Amerasinghe 31

Kumar c Jayawardene b Amarasinghe 6

Singh lbw b Malinga 3

Sharma not out 0

Extras (lb-10, w-10) 24

Total (for 8 wkts, 49.1 overs) 239

Fall of Wickets: 1-2, 2-33, 3-35, 4-99, 5-158, 6-216, 7-229

Bowling: Chaminda Vaas 10-0-27-1, Lasith Malinga 10-1-37-2, Ishara Amerasinghe 10-0-49-3, Fervez Maharoof 6.1-0-43-0, Muthiah Muralitharan 10-0-44-1, Sanath Jayasuriya 2-0-14-0, T Dilshan 1-0-11-0. (PTI)

Shoaib meets Shahrukh

MUMBAI, Feb 19: Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who is on a brief visit to the city, met bollywood star Shahrukh Khan at the latter’s residence here.

Soon after his arrival, Akhtar went to Haji Ali dargah where he offered a chadar of Rs 5000 and called upon Khan last night.

Sources said Akhtar is also eager to meet Sanjay Dutt while he is in Mumbai.

However, it is not known why Akhtar met Khan, who owns the Calcutta franchise of the forthcoming Indian Premier League.

The players’ auctions for the eight franchises of the IPL is scheduled to be held here tomorrow and Akhtar is among those who is in the list of players to go under the hammer. (PTI)

13 Aussie players sign for IPL

What is considered a setback of sorts to the BCCI-backed IPL, apart from Clarke, three other Aussies — left-arm paceman Mitchell Johnson, wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and veteran fast bowler Jason Gillespie — also did not opt for the multi-million dollar event and chose to concentrate on their international careers instead.

Clarke was keen to play in the ipl in the future, but his spokesman said the timing this year made it difficult.

"He’s keen to play it over time, but with the amount of cricket he’s got on the calendar, he just wants some time to spend with his family and friends," the spokesman said. (PTI)

Sangwan’s fiver helps India beat SA KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19: Left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan dished out a fiery spell to claim five wickets as India coasted to a convincing six-wicket victory over South Africa in their Under-19 Cricket World Cup match here today. After electing to bat, South African batsmen found the going difficult and were bundled out for only 149 runs in 30.1 overs. In reply, India rode on fine knocks by opener Taruwar Kohli (54) and Tanmay Srivastava (47) to reach the winning target with eight overs to spare. Sangwan started to unravell South Africa’s innings when he trapped Pieter Malan in front off the second ball of the match with the Proteas still to open their account. In the fifth over, the Delhi pacer castled the opener Jon-Jon Smuts (3) and two overs later, scalped Reeza Hendricks (12), who was caught behind. (PTI)

CM inaugurates Health Club Excelsior Correspondent SRINAGAR, Feb 19: Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today inaugurated Health Club cum Massage centre at Royal Spring Golf Course Srinagar. Massage Therapy Centre (Panchakarma/Regimental Centre) has been set up jointly by the Management Royal Springs Golf Course and Directorate of Indian Systems of Medicine. This Center first of its kind in Jammu and Kashmir will go a long way to develop herbal tourism in the State, keeping in view the herbal wealth of State and expertise of the specialists of Ayurveda and Unani Systems of medicines available in the State. A detailed demonstration was held and various procedures involved were briefed by Director Indian System of Medicines Dr. Abdul Kabir Dar. On the occasion Minister for Health and Medical Education, Pandit Mangat Ram Sharma, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Mehboob Iqbal, Secretary Tourism Nayeem Akhter and Director Tourism Farooq Ahmad Shah were also present. Dr. Shaheen Ahmad Mir (Panchkarma specialists) stated that such type of health clubs shall also be established at Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Patnitop, Katra, Kishtwar, Mansar and other famous tourist resorts in near future. 5th National Winter Games Army makes clean sweep in cross country GULMARG, Feb 19: Army made a clean sweep in the 15-km free style cross country race winning all the three medals while Bhubhashvari won the first gold for Himachal Pradesh (HP) and hosts Jammu and Kashmir get second and third position in the 5-km free style cross country (women) in the 5th National Winter Games-2008 here today. Army also won gold while silver went to HP and bronze by High Altitude Warfare School in the Slalom (men) race. In 15-km free style cross country (men), Army made a clean sweep when Angchuk Dorji won the gold after he completed the race in 34:10.23 minutes, followed by Tashi Lundup 34:15.69 minutes and Gupta Bhadur 34:31.59 minutes. In 5-km free style cross country (women) Bhubhashvari won the first gold for HP when she completed the race in 18.3.99 minutes. Mahjabeen and Masooda won silver and bronze after they completed the race in 19:39.3 and 21:43.46 minutes respectively for the hosts. Kashmir got second and third positions respectively. (UNI) NSK High school organises Yoga camp Excelsior Correspondent REASI, Feb 19: Narayan Shishu Kala High School organised a special Yoga camp here today under the chairmanship of Satya Sharma. Lal Singh, Retd Deputy Director, Urban Department was the chief guest on the occasion. She (Satya) hoped that Bhartiya Yog Sansthan Open Yoga Kendra in the school premises would benefit both students and people of the area. Arun Sharma, Zahida, Shashi, Romesh Banathia, Shaffi Shankar Singh, Sanjay and Samriti. The programme was organised by Santosh Handoo. Anuradha Banathia, principal presented the vote of thanks. State Carrom Championship from tomorrow Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Feb 19: The J&K Carrom Association would organise J&K State Carrom Championship from February 21 to 23 at SOS HGS School,Gole Gujral. The closing and prize distribution function will be held on February 23 at 11 am at the same venue. Udhampur makes clean sweep Excelsior Sports Correspondent UDHAMPUR, Feb 19: Udhampur prevailed over Majalta by 15-10 in the final to clinch Kho-Kho title in boys section as the inter block Rural Sports and Women Sports competition organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports concluded in collaboration with J&K State Sports Council here today. In Kabaddi final, (girls), Udhampur again proved their supremacy by defeating Ramnagar by 19-10 points. In Kho-Kho, Udhampur beat same opponent by 14-9 points to clinch the title in girls section. The competitions were organised under the supervision of District Sports Advisory Board. Bhupinder Singh Tirthi, Assistant Director, Sports Training Centre, Udhampur, Satish Sharma, Sham Saroop Kalsotra, Raj Guru, Brij Mohan Sharma and R C Sham were present on the occasion who gave away prizes to the winner and runner up athletes. B N Bhat, District Youth Services and Sports Officer, Udhampur welcomed the guests. Later, members of District Sports Advisory Board had interactive meeting with O P Kalandria, District Development Commissioner, Udhampur and Chairman, District Sports Advisory Board. The matches were officiated by Ashwani Sharma, Sanjay Sharma and Raj Kumar Gupta. Bhushan Sethi presented the vote of thanks. Arun, Abhishek emerge winners Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Feb 19: Arun Singh overcame Atul Pagyan by 2-1 frames while Abhishek Goswami beat Tarun Tandon by 2-0 frames in Snooker category today in the ongoing Triangular Snooker/Billiards Tournament being played at Rehari Colony. In the first match, Arun Singh beat Atul Pagyan by 50-28, 42-48 and 77-46 quite convincingly while Abhishek got the better of Tarun by 2-0 frames (56-38 and 54-25). In another match, Ajay Singh Jamwal beat Anshul Gupta by 2-1 frames 50-53, 72-35 and 71-24. In pool category, Anshul Gupta defeated Raja by 2-1 whereas Pankaj Mehra beat Rahul Ganjoo by 2-1 margin. In 9 ball category, Vikram Sharma, edged out Chetan Gupta by 2-0, Vidit Gawri beat Ramit Kumar Thakur and Vinit Dutta beat Vineet Anand by 3-2 in a close contest. KC Gurukul Public School celebrates Annual Day Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Feb 19: KC Gurukul Public School celebrated its 3rd Annual Day in the school premises today. Jugal Kishore, Minister for Roads and Buildings was the chief guest on the occasion while Vinay Mohan Raina, Chief Education Officer was the guest of honour. The function began with "Saraswati Vandana" followed by colourful cultural items presented by the students which enthralled the audience. Famous English skit "Pied Piper of Hamlin" was the main highlight of the function. Tej Razdan, Principal of the school read the annual report of the school. Vijay Puri, Academic Director of the school, Satish Mahajan, Patron KCGERI, Kanta Mahajan, Arun Mahajan, Director and Anil Mahajan, Chairman, KC Gurukul Public School were also present.
Manik, Ambedkar win bronze medals Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Feb 19: Manik Jandial and Ambedkar Gupta won bronze medals in 10-12 years age group and 75-80kg weight category respectively in the recently concluded 1st Seiko Kai Asia Cup Karate Championship held at New Delhi from February 14 to 17. Other karatekas who represented the J&K State included Sarooj Kumar, Jandial, Master Sahil Singh and Master Yuvraj Singh. Nine karatekas from J&K have also been selected to represent the national karate team.