 Anand draws with Ivanchuk
LINARES (Spain), Mar 7 :
World
champion Viswanathan Anand played out an
easy draw with Vassily Ivanchuk of
Ukraine to maintain his slender half
point lead after the penultimate round at
the Morelia-Linares Chess tournament
underway here.
The draw
came easy for Anand as Ivanchuk could not
do much with his white pieces and when
Magnus Carlsen of Norway was also forced
to split the point with Levon Aronian of
Armenia it meant that the Indian ace goes
into the last round with a half point
cushion and white pieces to back him.
Barring a
disaster in the last round game against
former world champion Veselin Topalov of
Bulgaria, Anand is assured of at least a
shared first place in the category-21
tournament and is likely to retain the
title he won last year.
The impact
that white pieces have in high level
chess was quite evident when Anand was
asked about prospects in the event with
just one round to come, "tomorrow I
have white, and at least I got all these
games out of the way and I still keep my
lead," Anand said after drawing his
game.
While not
much happened on the leading boards,
Veselin Topalov kept his date with
destiny after scoring a hard fought
victory over tail ender Peter Leko of
Hungary.
The
Bulgarian on 7 points is a full point
behind Anand but still has a chance to
jointly win the title if he can have his
way against the Indian ace.
The other
game of the day was quite catastrophic
for Latvian turned Spaniard Alexei Shirov
who simply missed an endgame finesse in a
level position and went down to Teimour
Radjabov of Azerbaijan.
As
Radjabov has a showdown with Carlsen in
the final round, the victory helped him
bolster the confidence no matter how it
came.
With Anand
on 8 points and Carlsen a half point
behind, much speculation amongst pundit
is about who all are going to tie for the
second spot if Anand draws and Carlsen is
unable to force matters against Radjabov.
A likely scenario could be a clear second
spot for Carlsen while Aronian and
Topalov will share the third place.
Anand was
in his usual equalising mood with black
and achieved it easily against Ivanchuk
in the Sozin Variation employed by the
latter.
A couple
of pieces changed hands early in the game
and a central breakthrough was enough to
give Anand an easy game thereafter. The
peace was signed in just 23 moves.
Carlsen
played the queen’s Indian defense
and it was a forced variation till move
19th that ensured on board. Even though
the Norwegian teenager was an exchange
down, he ensured of adequate compensation
thanks to his finely placed knight in the
heart of white’s position. Aronian
tried till move 28th before finally
proposing the draw.
Radjabov
was lucky when Shirov lost track of a
well-analysed variation in the sicilian
nazdorf. Taking advantage of the blunder,
Radjabov trapped Shirov’s rook in
quick time and the rest was child’s
play.
Topalov
was quite effective with his
uncompromising style against Leko who hit
another low in the tournament after a
brief revival. Topalov was in command in
the endgame arising out of a ruy lopez
and nurtured his position well to win in
48 moves. (PTI)
Britain
beat India by 3-2
SANTIAGO (Chile) , Mar 7: India blew away an
early lead and failed to perform to the
expected levels, allowing Great Britain
to pull off a 3-2 win to virtually assure
themselves a final berth in the World
Hockey Olympic qualifying tournament here
today.
Rob Moore
scored in the last minute to guide Great
Britain to their fourth win in the league
while India remained on nine points from
three wins and now need to beat hosts
Chile tomorrow to qualify for the Sunday
final.
For India,
V Ramachandra Raghunath converted two
penalty corners in the 2nd and 64th
minutes to keep them in the game at the
Prince of Wales Country Club ground.
But
Britain, keeping their composure despite
the early reverse, hit back through
Richard Mantell (15th) and Jonty Clarke
(45th) before Moore came up with the
match-winner.
India was
lacking in discipline, especially in the
first-half during which they received two
yellow card suspensions while Britain
played a far more constructive game and
stuck to their gameplan of attacking from
the wings to wear down the defence of the
subcontinent side.
The
first-half proceedings were rather
scrappy with neither team able to get
into any sort of rhythm.
While an
early goal failed to inspire India, the
British displayed resilience to keep
chipping away at the rival defence to
eventually score the equaliser.
The Indian
team failed to show much discipline in
their overall game that was punctuated by
needless physical play leading to yellow
card suspensions to Vikram Kanth and
Shivendra Singh.
So much so
that the team could not settle down and
their game plan of using the long hits to
breach the British defence did not pay
off as more often than not, the shots
were penalised for dangerous play.
Overall,
there was little to separate the two in
the first session although Britain had
more of the ball, but they never really
came close to adding to the tally except
when Jonty Clarke found himself in front
of the goal but his deflection off a
Simon Mantell cross was just wide wide of
the mark.
At the
other end, India could have notched a
second goal had Prabhjot, gaining
possession from William Xalco’s long
hit, could not find the boards from
close. (PTI)
Revenues
from IPL to improve cricket
infrastructure: Modi
MUMBAI, Mar 7: Indian Premier
League Chairman Lalit Modi says the
revenues from the Twenty20 league will be
used by the cricket board to improve the
game’s infrastructure on a priority
basis ahead of the 2011 World Cup to be
held in the sub-continent.
"The
revenues of the DLF Indian Premier League
would go a long way in vastly improving
the on-ground cricketing infrastructure
and stadia within the country in
preparation of the 2011 World Cup,"
he told in an exclusive interview.
"The
BCCI has always maintained that
refurbishment of all of our cricketing
infrastructure and stadia prior to the
2011 World Cup is top-priority and would
be given the highest level of importance
so that we can stage a truly unique World
Cup -one that the cricketing world has
never seen," he explained. (PTI)
Lack
of discipline contributed to India’s
defeat: Coach
SANTIAGO, Mar 7: Chief coach Joaquim
Carvalho has blamed the lack of
discipline for India’s 2-3 defeat
against Great Britain in the Olympic
qualifying tournament here.
"Frankly,
I am not worried or concerned that we
lost the game today, but was rather
disappointed that the players did not
restrain themselves and we needlessly
took two yellow cards at a time when we
were in control," Carvalho said.
"Had
we been more disciplined in our game, the
result would have been different,"
he told reporters at the post-match media
conference yesterday.
Half-back
Vikram Kanth and forward Shivendra Singh
were sent out for indulging in rough
play, reducing India to 10 men.
Carvalho
asserted that India would yet make it to
Sunday’s final by defeating Chile in
the concluding league match and that it
would be a "different ball
game" when they next play Great
Britain.
"At
2-2 and a minute left, I thought we had
the situation under control, but again,
we committed a couple of mistakes and it
led to Britain’s third goal,"
Carvalho said.
Reflecting
on the positives from today’s
defeat, the coach said "at least we
now know what Britain is capable of. The
last time we played them was in Champions
Challenge when they were entered as
England. But both our teams have
undergone some changes since last year.
As such, it was important that we get to
play them, and having done so, I am now
confident that we will win on Sunday and
qualify for the Olympics."
Great
Britain coach Jason Lee felt that the
match could have gone either way, but
paid tribute to his players for keeping
their composure despite conceding an
early goal.(PTI)
Bharat
College of Education celebrates Annual
Day
Excelsior
Correspondent
KATHUA, Mar 7: Bharat College of
Education today celebrated its Annual Day
in the college premises.
Former
Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah was the
chief guest on the occasion while Aslam
Goni was the guest of honour.
A colorful
cultural programme was also presented by
the B Ed students on the occasion.
Besides
Dandia and Bhangra, Dogri and Kashmiri
dances were the main highlights of the
function.
Speaking
on the occasion, Dr Abdullah suggested
that colleges providing B Ed courses with
sound infrastructure and excellent
faculty should come up with M Ed courses.
Dr R C
Bhagat, Principal of the college
presented the annual report of the
college.
Rattandeep
Singh, Chairman of the college, Harjinder
Singh Anand, Chairperson, Mehtab
Educational Trust also present on the
occasion.
Harpreet
Singh Anand presented the vote of thanks.
Anandrathi
Corporate Cricket Tournament
JP World, Press Club seal
berth in final
Excelsior
Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 7: J P World and Press
Club have entered into the final of the
ongoing 2nd Anandrathi Corporate Cup
Twenty20 Cricket Tournament being played
at Jammu University Ground.
Both
semifinals played today. In the first
semifinal, J P World edged out JKP by 13
runs.
JP World
after winning the toss elected to bat
first. They accumulated 144 runs with
Guru Partap top scored with 48 runs.
He faced
42 balls and struck four hits to the
fence and a six. Pranav Mahajan and
Irshad also contributed useful 30 and 22
runs respectively.
For JKP,
Naresh was the pick of the bowlers with
three wickets while Rajesh Gill and Sunil
grabbed one wicket each.
In reply,
JKP bowled out for 131 runs. Riaz played
a fighting knock of 31 runs followed by
Shashi (20), Rajesh Gill (19) and Bunty
(18).
For JP
World, Guru Partap took three wickets
while Irshad chipped in with two.
Pranav and
Jagtar shared a wicket each. Guru Partap
for his excellent all-round performance
was declared man of the match.
Defending
Champion Press Club survived some anxious
moments before sealing a narrow 8 run win
over Simula Sports Club (SSC).
Press Club
piled up challenging 166/8 in the
stipulated overs with Vimarsh played a
fine knock of 54 runs.
He pierced
four boundaries. Pardeep Bali with 39 off
25 was the other notable contributor.
For SSC,
Anoop and Ramdayal grabbed two wickets
apiece while Vijay and Sameer snared a
wicket each.
In reply,
SSC put up a spirited fight with Rohit
Mattu almost guided them to an improbable
win.
He played
a scintillating knock of 83 runs off just
50 balls studded with 12 delectable
strokes to the fence and two hits for
maximum.
Vijay
Sharma contributed 32. For Press Club,
Pardeep and Vijay Dogra took three and
two wickets respectively.
Raman and
Amit grabbed one wicket each.
Rohit
Mattu was adjudged man of the match. Both
semifinal were officiated by Pappu Dogra
and Santa Singh.
The scorer
was Rajeev Pakhetra.
U/14
football team finishes runners-up
Excelsior
Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 7: The State
U/14 Football team finished runners-up
behind host Goa in the recently concluded
All India Football Federation (AIFF)
Football Festival in Fair play award.
Coach Sat
Paul Singh imparted coaching to the team
from February 4 to 20.
Shafat-ul-Basheer
and Intikhab Alam accompanied the team as
Manager and Coach respectively.
Five
players have also been spotted by AIFF
selectors for their selection in the
Indian team.
The
players are Gaurav Bahadur (Jammu),
Farhan Showkat (Kashmir), Ranjit Bahadur
Rana (Jammu), Nishad Ali (Jammu) and
Dimple Bhagat (Jammu).
New
Zealand keep brakes on England run chase
HAMILTON, (New Zealand),
Mar 7: Tight New Zealand bowling
and a placid pitch strangled
England’s first innings as they
crawled to 286 for six at stumps on the
third day of the first cricket Test here
today.
Although
England had passed the follow-on mark
they were still 184 runs short of New
Zealand’s first innings 470.
With New
Zealand’s twin spinners Daniel
Vettori and Jeetan Patel in full flight,
England could only muster 199 runs for
the loss of four wickets on the third day
after resuming at 87 for two.
It was a
tough grind for runs and the batsmen were
never allowed to dominate.
England
captain Michael Vaughan who started the
day on 44 made slow progress to 63 before
he prodded at a delivery from Patel and
succeeded only in getting a thick edge,
which was taken by Brendon McCullum
behind stumps.
Andrew
Strauss struggled through to lunch, but
three balls after the resumption he
played and missed a flighted ball from
Vettori and was bowled for 43.
When the
new ball was taken, Kyle Mills struck for
New Zealand with a delivery that nipped
back from a good length and bowled Ian
Bell, putting the batsman out of his
misery after he had accumulated just 25
from 88 balls.
Kevin
Pietersen, one of cricket’s most
explosive batsmen, opened in aggressive
fashion with a six off the third ball he
faced from patel.
But if the
meagre crowd of 2,500 thought Pietersen
was going to inject some life into the
game they were soon proved otherwise as
he retreated into his shell.
For nearly
an hour while he was at the crease the
run rate was down to just one an over.
When
Pietersen was eventually caught and
bowled by Vettori after tea he had
produced an innings of 43 from 131 balls.
England
were then 245 for six, still 25 short of
the follow-on mark, and it was left to
Paul Collingwood and debutant Tim Ambrose
to steer them through to safety and
stumps.
Vettori,
who had a standout day as captain with
his subtle use of pace and spin coupled
with precision field placements, was also
the thriftiest of the New Zealand
bowlers.
He
returned the figures of two for 60 from
38 overs while his spin partner Patel has
one for 90 off 35, and the miserly Jacob
Oram conceded just 18 runs from 16 overs.
Chris
Martin, who made the initial breakthrough
with the wickets of Alastair Cook and
nightwatchman Mathew Hoggard the previous
day, has two for 53 and the other
successful wickettaker Kyle Mills has one
for 61.(AGENCIES)
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