Vishal Academy bags overall Championship trophy ..........

Anandrathi Corporate Cricket Tournament
Dhruv smashes ton as SSC enter quarters ..........

Young Kathak exponents thrill audience ...........

Sportspersons honoured in Annual Sports Meet ..........

India will seek to secure berth in final

SYDNEY, Feb 23: Needing to win just one more game to ensure a berth in the cricket tri-series final, India will seek to get the job done tomorrow itself as they go into their penultimate league match against Australia with the form of some key batsmen being a concern.

A win tomorrow will almost certainly take Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men to the title round and render their game against Sri Lanka in Hobart on Tuesday of only academic interest.

"We would like to seal it tomorrow and save ourselves pressure," Dhoni said as his side prepared to take on the world champions on a slow SCG track.

Australia have already secured their place in the final, collecting 22 points from six games. India, on 12 points, has a handy six-point lead over their sub-continent rivals with one round of matches to go.

Sri Lanka need to win both their remaining matches and at the same time hope that India lose both their games to go through to the final.

India is no different than others when it comes to batting woes in the low-scoring series and, in all probability, Virender Sehwag will mark a return to the playing eleven to bolster the line-up.

It would mean India discarding its new-found preference of five bowlers. It would revert to four frontline bowlers and expect the fifth bowler’s quota to be shared between Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

Openers have been a big issue in the tri-series with the best stand of 68, so far, coming between Tendulkar and Sehwag against Sri Lanka in Brisbane in the first week of the competition. It’s an alliance which needs to be revived as runs have been at premium for all three teams.

India is relieved at the return to form of Yuvraj in the last game against Sri Lanka and it remains to be seen whether he can carry the momentum in the crucial day-night encounter against the hosts.

Dhoni alone has been the consistent Indian batsman in the series and its time the top order, including the mighty Tendulkar, start pulling their weight in.

Gautam Gambhir, after a stupendous start, is falling off a bit and Rohit Sharma has a propensity to throw away his wicket when the bowling is at his mercy.

Robin Uthappa, when he got the chance, has done nothing of note.

Australia were fine without Brett Lee in the last couple of games though there is a chances that the speedster would return to the playing eleven tomorrow.

Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds are facing the heat for obvious reasons.

The Australian captain has just 64 to his name from six outings at 10.66 and has hit just six boundaries through the tournament.

Symonds has fared worse, scoring 42 runs at 8.40 and hitting a mere couple of boundaries so far. Michael Clarke, meanwhile, has gone from strength to strength in the competition. He has 262 runs to his name from six matches at an average of 65.50 with three fifties.

He has unfailingly come to Australia’s aid after the top order has caved in.

Fielding is an area where Australia is winning most of their matches and Indians would need to be at their best if they want to seal a place in the finals tomorrow.

The home bowling has shown they give nothing away in the field.(PTI)

Indian campaign ends at SAP Open

NEW DELHI, Feb 23: Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Mark Knowles of Bahamas squandered a one set lead to crash out of the USD 436,000 ATP SAP Open in San Jose, United States.

The second seeded pair lost 6-2 6-7 (5) 8-10 to unseeded American duo of Scott Lipsky and David Martin in the quarterfinals of the the hardcourt event last night.

The winners next take on the thai duo of Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana in the semifinals.

The Indian in the fray, Rohan Bopanna had made a first round exit after he and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq-Qureshi lost to third seeds Max Mirnyi and Jamie Murray. (PTI)

Friends Club wins Tennis Ball Cricket Championship

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Feb 23: Friends Club (Udhampur) claimed District Open Tennis Ball Cricket Championship defeating Bhagat Singh Club by 32 runs in the final played at Subash Stadium today.

Bhagat Singh Club won the toss and put Friends Club to bat. They accumulated 47 runs in the allotted nine overs with Sanjeev singh was the top scored with 9 runs.

For Bhagat Singh Club, Makhan Singh grabbed three wickets.

In reply, Bhagat Singh Club was perished for 15 runs. For Friends Club, Vicky and Sunny took two wickets apiece.

Makhan Singh was declared man of the match.

Tanya Gupta and Nidhi Goswami who participated in the Federation Cup held at Coimbatore (Kerala) were also honoured.

Ashok Kumar, Assistant Director, Youth Services and Sports was the chief guest on the occasion who gave away prizes to the winner and runner up teams.

B N Bhat, DYSSO, Udhampur, Sham Saroop Kalsotra, Raj Guru, Satish Sharma, Bhushan Sethi, Rajan Singh, Romesh Goswami and Vikram Slathia, President, District Tennis Ball Association.

Ashwani Sharma presented the vote of thanks.

State Carrom Championship begins

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: The J&K State Carrom Championship organised by J&K Carrom Association got underway at SOS (HGS) School, Gole Gujral today.

In all 25 boys and 16 girls are participating in the said tournament.

In the matches played today, Vimal Bhat outclassed Navleen Singh while M M Ayub got the better of Rahul Abrol.

Vimal would lock horns with Mohd Ayub for summit clash.

Meanwhile in girls section, the semifinal lineup has been drawn.

Mehak Pandita will cross swords against Rashi Wali in the first semifinal whereas Anita will meet Sonali Pandita in the second semifinal.

Earlier, Ravinder Gupta, Secretary, J&K State Sports Council declared open the championship.

Paramjit Singh and Vimal Kour were the guests of honour.

The finals will be played on February 25 at 2pm followed by prize distribution function.

Sunrise Nursery School celebrates Annual Day

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: Sunrise Nursery School, B D Bari today celebrated its 20th Annual Day.

Gitanjali Koshal, vice president, Tiger Division Army Wives Welfare Association was the chief guest on the occasion.

Kavita Belliappa, Principal of the school presented the annual report.

Various cultural and entertainment programmes were also performed by the students.

Later, the chief guest gave away prizes to outstanding children.

A large number of parents, guests and distinguished civilian and military dignitaries were also present.

KC Gurukul celebrates Annual Day

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: KC Gurukul Public School celebrated its 3rd Annual Day at Abhinav Theatre today.

Babu Singh, Minister of PDD was the chief guest on the occasion while Janak Raj Gupta, political advisor to Chief Minister was the guest of honour.

The function began with the traditional lighting of lamp by the chief guest followed by cultural items presented by the students.

Vijay Puri, Academic Director read out the annual report.

On this occasion, third issue of the Annual News Letter Gurukul KC Macrocosm was also released by Babu Singh, Janak Raj Gupta and Arvind Mahajan.

Farewell function organised

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: Army School Kaluchak today held a farewell function to bid good bye to 12th standard students.

The students of 11th standard organised an entertainment programme followed by announcement of various titles given to the students of 12th standard.

School football team captain Romil Bhakuniwas was declared as Mr Army School Kaluchak while Swati Shahi was adjudged Miss Army School Kaluchak.

The Principal of the school in her farewell speech exhorted the students of excel in their chose fields.

DPS organises Annual Athletic Meet

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: Delhi Public School (DPS) celebrated its Annual Athletic Meet in the school premises here today.

Students of different houses of classes I to IV participated in different events which included 100mts, 200mts, three legged race, shuttle run, 4x100mts relay race, long jump, shot put and roll ball.

Students of class VI performed different gymnastic exercises, yoga asanas besides cultural items.

Earlier, D Joseph, Principal of the school declared open the meet.

She later distributed prizes to the meritorious athletes and participants.

Vishal Academy bags overall Championship trophy

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: Vishal Academy of Taekwondo bagged the overall championship trophy as the day-long 1st Kulbushan Handa Memorial Taekwondo Championship organised by Kulbushan Handa Educational Trust concluded in the premises of Tiny Tots Higher Secondary School, Lower Roop Nagar today.

Host Tiny Tots School finished first runner up while St Xavier School stood second runner up.

About 200 players drawn from different schools and clubs participated in the said championship declared open by Veena Handa, Chairperson of the Trust.

Ex- Minister Harshdev was the chief guest on the occasion while Corporator Rajni Bala and P C Sharma, Add Advocate General were the guests of honour.

Dr Vikram Handa, Gurpreet Handa, Deepak Handa and Deepali Handa were also present.

The championship was played under the supervision of Deepali Handa, Principal of the school.

Deepak Handa presented the vote of thanks. Atul Pangotra was the organising secretary of the tournament.

The bouts were officiated by Gurvinder, Vivek Padha, Sanjeev Jasrotia, Arjun, Arvind, Rakesh and Kamal.

Results:

Girls (Below 20kg): Sakshi (1st), Mehak (2nd), Sofia and Vidhi (3rd).

Below 25kg: Shabnam (1st), Basvi (2nd), Payal and Ambreen (3rd).

Below 35kg: Zifat Iqbal (1st), Shahnaz Parveen (2nd), Akshita Pandita and Urmi Koul (3rd).

Above 40kg: Sadaf (1st), Shazia (2nd), Vishali and Arshi (3rd).

Boys (Below 21kg): Aditya (1st), Tushant (2nd), Harjot Singh and Aryan (3rd).

Below 23kg: Lakshay (1st), Tushar (2nd), Divander and Momin (3rd).

Below 25kg: Mohd Hanifa (1st), Keshav (2nd), Rahul Bhardwaj and Noman (3rd).

Below 27kg: Shoaib Iqbal (1st), Hardeep Singh (2nd), Rishab Sharma and Mandeep Singh (3rd).

Below 29kg: Pankaj (1st), Abhay (2nd), Ayushman and Ambar (3rd).

Below 32kg: Sahil (1st), Yudhveer (2nd), Tashi Tundu and Gagandeep (3rd).

Below 35kg: Abhishek Razdan (1st), Amit Sharma (2nd), Ritin Raina and Aditya Sharma (3rd).

Below 38kg: Paras Chopra (1st), Vipal Dev (2nd), Rajat and Sandeep Singh (3rd).

Below 41kg: Rakesh Kumar (1st), Ankush (2nd), Shakawat and Lakshay (3rd).

Below 44kg: Rohit Sharma (1st), Saqib (2nd), Irfan and Afaq (3rd).

Below 48kg: Lakshmi (1st), Kulveer Sharma (2nd), Srahul Sharma and Sahil Dhar (3rd).

Below 51kg: Govind Gopal (1st), Vipul Kumar (2nd), Hassan Nain and Varun (3rd).

Below 55kg: Deepak (1st), Riyaz Gil (2nd), Amru and Shabir Hussain (3rd).

Below 55kg: Manmihan Singh (1st) and Fida Hassan (2nd).

Below 58kg: Ankush (1st), Gulzar Hassan (2nd), Sunil Kumar and Vijay Kumar (3rd).

Open: Zohaib Khan (1st), Anil Parihar (2nd), Waseem and Atul Suri (3rd).

Charak declares Annual Sports Meet open

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: Dogra College of Education started its week long Annual Sports Meet here today. Minister for Higher Education Gulchain Singh Charak was the Chief Guest on the occasion who declared the 14th Annual Sports Meet open in the college premises. A few exhibition matches were played which included basket ball, shuttle race and Tug-of-War in both boys and girls section

Earlier, the programme started with the lighting of the traditional lamp followed by the welcome address by the principal of the College Dr. Kiran Luthra.

Vote of thanks was presented by Prof. B. D. Damral, Member, Advisory Committee, Dogra College of Education.

Anandrathi Corporate Cricket Tournament
Dhruv smashes ton as SSC enter quarters

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: Dhruv Mahajan slammed an unbeaten 119 from 55 balls to help Simula Sports Club (SSC) edged out Coca Cola by 58 runs today in the ongoing 2nd Anandrathi Corporate Cup Twenty20 Cricket Tournament being played at Jammu University Ground.

With this win, SSC has secured a berth in the quarterfinal.

SSC’s decision to bat first after winning the toss yielded dividends as they amassed 215/5 in the stipulated 20 overs.

Dhruv Mahajan was the star performer for the club who played a stunning knock of 119 runs containing 12 hits to the fence and as many as seven monster hits for maximum.

He pulverised the Coca Cola bowlers from the word go thereby exhibiting brutal stroke display.

Coca Cola bowlers on the other hand had a torrid day in the field who had no answer to his (Dhruv’s) onslaught.

Apart from Dhruv, Azhar had a notable contribution of 58 runs off 42 balls.

For Coca Cola, Vipin took two wickets while Danny and Asif scalped one wicket.

In reply, Coca Cola skittled for 157 runs with Asif was the top scorer with 49 runs (3x4, 4x6).

For SSC, Hilal Rather, Dhruv Mahajan and Varun snared two wickets while Mohit Puri chipped in with a wicket.

In the second match, Jammu University produced a clinical performance to prevail over Anandrathi by 8 wickets.

Anandrathi won the toss and decided to bat first. They bowled out for 88 runs.

Dhawal and Anshuman were the top scorers with 18 and 13 runs respectively.

For Jammu University, Pankaj was the most successful bowler with four scalps whereas Prikshit took three wickets.

Vivek, Pawan and Shiv grabbed one wicket each.

Jammu University cruised to victory losing just two wickets in the process.

Pankaj and Vivek top scored with 42 and 30 (not out) runs respectively.

For Anandrathi, King took the only wicket. The umpires in both matches were Rajesh Dogra and Santa Singh. The scorer was Rajeev Pakhetra.

Young Kathak exponents thrill audience

Excelsior Corespondent

JAMMU, Feb 23: In a live concert of solo Kathak dance held at Sai International Auditorium, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, Tanvi Raina and Nitya Raina made scintillating performance leaving the audience mesmerised.

Renownend Santoor maestro, Pandit Bhajan Sopori was the chief guest on the occassion.

The Kathak dance recital was much appreciated by the audience which included several prominent personalities like former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir, Justice BA Khan, former Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Secretary Academy for Art Culture and Languages, Rafeeq Masoodi.

Going by the very theme of Kathak dance: 'Taking birth as a beautiful flowers and then showering their fragnance all around,' both the child artists displayed maturity in their moves as well as body language during the dance rendition.

Tanvi and Nitya, daughters of Captain, Kapil Raina who has been recently nominated as president of Indian Commercial Pilot Association, are students of class 7th and 4th respectively in Convent of Jesus and Mary, New Delhi.

Sportspersons honoured in Annual Sports Meet

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

UDHAMPUR, Feb 23: The veteran sports persons of Udhampur were felicitated today at Mahatma Gandhi Stadium, Happy Model Higher Secondary School during its Annual Sports Meet.

Ashok Kumar, Assistant Director, (Admn) Department of Youth Services and Sports was the chief guest on the occasion alongwith M L Gulati, Retd Major who honoured the sportspersons for their achievements in different disciplines.

Those who honoured with "Sports Persons-Pride of the Nation" included Pradeep Chopra (Athletics), Sham Swaroop Kalsotra (Cricket), Raj Guru (Volleyball), Rajan Singh (Mountaineering), Bhushan Sethi (Football and Volleyball), Champa Devi (Volleyball and Physical Education), and Kanchan Sharma (Athletics and Kabaddi).

Earlier, the Annual Day function commenced with the colourful March Past by the students followed by track and field events.

Special Yoga show by the students under the supervision of Yoga teacher Suman Lata and Raj Guru was the highlight of the function.

Principal of the school Kamal Gulati was also present.