Hyderabad, Nov 24: Darren Morgan of Wales regained the Masters title with ease as he outplayed defending champion Dene O’Kane 6-0 at the ONGC-IBSF World Snooker championship.
In a contest that ended close to midnight Monday, the 43-year-old Morgan, winner of the men’s title in 1987 at Bangalore when the tournament was last held in India, wore down O’Kane who showed signs of his age (46) especially after losing the first frame that lasted a little more than an hour.
KANPUR, Nov 24: Gautam Gambhir (167) and Virender Sehwag (131) were the architects of India’s unrelenting dominance as the hosts batted themselves into a position from where they can dictate terms in the second Test against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
The near-capacity Green Park witnessed a lop-sided opening day, completely dominated by the Indian batsmen and their blazing blades as the hosts cruised to a mammoth 417 for two and threatened to raise a run-mountain under which they can bury their opponents.
Arguably the most evolved batsman of recent times, Gambhir first starred in a blistering 233-run partnership with Sehwag in just 41.2 overs before forging another 137-run association with Rahul Dravid (85 not out). India’s unyielding grip over all three sessions had the islanders totally at sea.
Right from Mahendra Singh Dhoni winning the toss, India hardly put a foot wrong. Sehwag and Gambhir milked 131 runs in the 26-over morning session without being separated. The Sri Lankans did manage to cut short Sehwag’s explosive stay in the second session but they bled 176 runs in that 33-over segment as India consolidated their position.
India did not take the foot off the pedal, adding another 110 runs in the final session losing just one wicket to consolidate their position.
Dropped on zero, Sehwag earlier slammed an insouciant 122-ball 131, bejewelled with 18 delectable boundaries and two effortless sixes. In contrast, Gambhir’s was a chanceless 215-ball knock, studded with 15 boundaries.
Dravid’s unbeaten 85 came off 153 balls and had eight fours in it.
At stumps, Tendulkar (20) was giving company to Dravid who remains in sight of his 28th century.
This was the highest Indian score on any one day of a Test match, bettering the 386 runs they had scored on day three of the Chennai Test against South Africa last year. It was, however, way behind the 494 for six that Australia had registered against South Africa on the opening day of the 1910 Sydney Test.
Dhoni did not fancy batting in the fourth innings, especially when world’s highest wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan lurks in the rival camp. Besides, Dhoni predicted before the Test, batting would get easier if his batsmen can see through the early morning session when the ball tends to misbehave.
And his openers did just that. Sehwag was shaky initially and survived one spilt sitter and three vociferous LBW appeals in the first hour itself. Even when he connected, it was not the usual musical note of his willow but a jarring thud that revealed his struggle to find the meat of the bat.
For Sri Lanka, things could have been different had Mahela Jayawardene, at first slip, been able to latch on to the edge that flew off Sehwag’s blade after Chanaka Welegedara had sent down the fourth ball of the match. Jayawardene, however, can blame stumper Prasanna Jayawardene for making that unnecessary dive that blocked his view.
And the islanders were made to pay for the clinger till the 42nd over.
Ill at ease against Welegedara, Sehwag found Angelo Mathews less hostile and two fours off the all-rounder’s sixth over came as welcome relief. Sehwag did an encore of the treatment in Mathews’ next over - a copybook straight drive followed by a carbon copy of the original.
Gambhir at the other end was his composed self, immaculate in defence and controlled in his aggression. His first two fours came behind the wicket before he cover drove Welegedara for a delectable four. And when Sri Lanka captain pressed Rangana Herath into attack, Gambhir ensured the left-arm spinner was withdrawn at the earliest.
Gambhir charged out to the first ball Herath sent down, driving it through extra cover and hit two more fours before Sangakkara took off Herath and tossed the ball to Ajantha Mendis instead.
By then, Sehwag had found his feet and Gambhir’s insouciance had rubbed off on him and a Mendis full toss was summarily dispatched over deep mid-wicket ropes fort the first six. Mendis bled 42 runs in his first five-over spell as the mystery around his magic finger lay in tatters.
In the post-lunch session, Sehwag went berserk and the Lankans simply had no clue how to stem the boundary flow.
Sehwag raced to his 16th Test century in no time and the celebration came in the form of a hat-trick of fours off Muralitharan as the Delhi dasher’s strike rate soared over the 100 mark. In the process, the Sehwag-Gambhir pair also bettered their previous highest partnership of 218 that came at the same venue against South Africa in 2004.
Finally, Sri Lanka heaved a sigh of relief in the 42nd over when Sehwag’s uppish drive found Tillakaratne Dilshan at extra cover and Muralitharan snapped the blooming partnership that yielded 233 runs and the run rate was a brisk 5.63.
An undeterred Gambhir straight drove Herath for a scorching boundary to complete his eighth Test century and with Dravid joining him to consolidate India’s position, it was a day largely spent on the leatherhunt for the Lankans.
Gambhir looked set for his second double century when Muralitharan caught his drive off his own bowling to send him back.
Dravid and Tendulkar, a whopping 51,000 international runs between them, were hardly troubled by the Lankan bowlers, who were sapped after a hard day’s toil.
Scorecard
India: Gautam Gambhir c&b Muralitharan 167; Virender Sehwag c Dilshan b Muralitharan 131; Rahul Dravid batting 85; Sachin Tendulkar batting 20
Extras (b 4, lb 7, nb 3) 14
Total (for two wickets in 90 overs) 417
Fall of wickets: 1-233 (Sehwag, 41.2 overs), 2-370 (Gambhir, 75.1 ov)
Bowling: Chanaka Welegedara 18-3-73-0 Angelo Mathews 14-2-38-0 Rangana Herath 18-0-91-0; Ajantha Mendis 19-0-87-0; Muttiah Muralitharan 18-0-100-2; Tillekaratne Dilshan 3-0-17-0 (PTI)
Kanpur, Nov 24 (PTI) India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first in the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka at the Green Park Stadium here.
India made two changes from their first Test playing eleven, bringing in S Sreesanth in place of Ishant Sharma and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha for Amit Mishra.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Pragyan Ojha, S Sreesanth.
Sri Lanka:
Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Chanaka Welegedara.
PUNE, Nov 22: Shiv Sena on Sunday unleashed another attack on Sachin Tendulkar and compared him with Sunil Gavaskar who it hailed as a “true Maharashtrian”.
The attack came in an article in party mouthpiece Saamna by Sena MP Sanjay Raut days after party supremo Bal Thackeray accused the 36-year-old cricket icon of hurting Marathi sentiments with his “Mumbai for all” remark.
Comparing Tendulkar to Gavaskar (60), Raut alleged, “There has been no instance of Sachin extending a helping hand to other Marathi cricketers. Forget others, he did not even support Vinod Kambli”.
“In contrast, Gavaskar when he captained India, had half the team drawn from Mumbai and Maharashtra. He gave Test caps to many Marathi players including Suru Naik and Zulphikar Parkar at least for one match,” he said, while also acknowledging Tendulkar’s greatness as a cricketer.
“In this context, Gavaskar is a genuine ‘Maharashtrian’ and the whole country loves him even now in the same way,” the article claimed.
“Players like Sachin have become rich because of game of cricket. Sachin’s wealth has crossed Rs 200-crore mark. We expect Sachin to be as ‘proud’ of Maharashtra as Saurav Ganguly is of Bengal,” it said. “Rahul Dravid too is a Marathi player but he is loyal to Karnataka,” Raut said.
Thackeray’s remarks on November 16 had evoked angry reactions from a host of political leaders as also the BCCI, who came down heavily on the Shiv Sena chief for criticising Tendulkar, saying his statement was just right and nobody could take objection to it. (PTI)
New Delhi, Nov 23 (PTI) After cricket, the umpire review system is set to make its debut in hockey as the International Hockey Federation has decided to put it on trial in the forthcoming Men's Champions Trophy to be held in Melbourne from November 28 to December 5.
As per the system, the teams will be allowed one referral per match if they feel the umpire's decision on goals, penalty corners and penalty strokes has gone against them. The captain would be authorised to request for a review.
If the referral goes in favour of the team asking for it, then they are allowed to request for another referral for the rest of the match.
Under the current system, match umpires can already refer decisions to the video umpire if they are not convinced about awarding or disallowing goals.
Ahmedabad, Nov 19: India fought back gallantly in their bid to save the first cricket Test but were still not completely out of danger after Sri Lanka piled up the agony on the hosts with a record-breaking run deluge here today.
After being buried by a massive 334-run first innings lead mainly built around a world record sixth wicket partnership between Mahela Jayawardene (275) and Prasanna Jayawardene (154 not out), the Indians reached 190 for two in their second innings at stumps on the penultimate day, still trailing by 144 runs.
The hosts still have a daunting task to prevent the Lankans from recording their first Test triumph on Indian soil as they have to bat out the entire last day on a Motera track which was expected to deteriorate and assist the spinners.
AHMEDABAD, Nov 19: India coach Gary Kirsten has urged his batsmen to come up with “something special” to save the first test against Sri Lanka.
The hosts are faced with an uphill task on the final day on Friday after Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene (275) and Prasanna Jayawardene (154 not out) extended their sixth wicket stand to a world record 351 on Thursday.
The tourists, aiming to win their first test on Indian soil in 27 years, declared their first innings at 760 for seven for a first innings lead of 334.
India closed day four at 190 for two, still 144 runs behind with eight wickets in hand. Opener Gautam Gambhir led India’s fightback with an unbeaten 74.
“To be honest so far it has turned to be a fantastic batting wicket,” the former South Africa opener said.
Kolkata, Nov 20 (PTI) Indian compound archers made history by clinching their first ever gold medal in the Asian archery championship at Bali today.
On the penultimate day of the 16th edition of the championship, India also bagged two silver medals in the men's recurve and women's compound sections, according to the Archery Association of India (AAI).
The Indian trio of C Srither, Kh Ratan Singh and Isiah R Sanam edged past Iran 231-230 in a nerve-wrecking contest to reign supreme in the compound section.
The Indian men's recurve team, comprising Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia lost to Korea 219-222 in the summit clash to settle for a silver medal.
In the women's compound team final India once again were beaten by Korea as the trio of Jhanu Hansdah, Namita Yadav and Manjudha Soy had to be content with a silver medal. They lost 215-223.
Ahmedabad, Nov 20 (PTI) Sri Lankan pacer Dammika Prasad is a doubtful starter for the second cricket Test against India starting in Kanpur from November 24 due to a hamstring injury, captain Kumar Sangakkara said today.
"I don't think he (Dammika) would play as it seems right now he may not be available," Sangakkara said at the post-match press conference after the first Test ended in a draw here.
Prasad bowled just four overs today out of the wicketless 13 overs he sent down in India's second innings before a hamstring problem forced him to leave the field.
The 30-year-old right arm pacer scalped two wickets during India's first innings, giving away 106 runs from his 22 overs.
Prasad has so far represented Sri Lanka in only four Tests and five One-Day Internationals and scalped 13 and five wickets respectively.
New Delhi, Nov 18: A rattled Hockey India (HI) president A K Mattoo is flying down to Pune following a reported revolt by senior players spearheaded by deposed captain Sandeep Singh against coach Jose Brasa.
The seniors are apparently unhappy with the way the Spanish coach is going about his job. Sandeep, who has pulled out of the camp complaining a back problem, seems to differ with Brasa over drag-flicking.
Ahmedabad, Nov 18: Mahela Jayawardene gave a fine exhibition of skill and temparament to score a crafty unbeaten 204 as Sri Lanka took tight control of the first cricket Test by taking a commanding 165-run first innings lead against a defensive India here today.
Jayawardene anchored the innings brilliantly to notch up his 27th Test century and his sixth double ton, and found an able partner in Prasanna Jayawardene (84 not out) as the visitors pushed the hosts on the backfoot by reaching a mammoth 591 for five at close on the third day.
It turned out to be a hard grind for the Indians as the Lankans capitalised on a good batting strip at the Motera stadium to consolidate the position on a day which again saw more than 300 runs being scored. Resuming at the overnight score of 275 for three in reply to India’s 426, the islanders lost the wicket of Thilan Samaraweera (70) and Angelo Mathews (17) in the pre-lunch session but the two Jayawardenes put on a marathon undefeated 216-run partnership to put Sri Lanka on course for their first Test triumph on Indian soil.
