Friday, April 10, 2009 (Ipoh (Malaysia)):With nothing less than a win required to make the final, India will have to guard against late defensive lapses when they take on arch-rivals Pakistan in their do-or-die league encounter of the Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament on Saturday.
India has conceded late equalisers in two of the three matches they have played so far in the tournament and Sandeep Singh's men, who were runners-up here last year, cannot afford such a lapse tomorrow against Pakistan.
Pakistan, who lost two of their three league games, have suddenly jumped back into contention after beating minnows Egypt in their third match.
Pakistan thrashed the tournament-debutants 4-0 after suffering losses at the hands of Malaysia and New Zealand.
A win tomorrow might just be enough to get them a berth in the finals. India have five points from their three games, while Pakistan have three. Malaysia are at the top with six points and their opponents tomorrow, New Zealand, have five points.
India could have already made the finals had it not been for the defensive errors in the dying minutes, the first of which was against the Egyptians.
Just 40 seconds before the final hooter, India ended up conceding a goal after leading 2-1 all through the match.
After a thumping 3-0 win over hosts and table-toppers Malaysia, India looked on course
to a win over New Zealand as well, leading 2-1 but yet again, a late equaliser (63rd minute) denied them full points.
"It is not over yet and we will go all out to beat Pakistan," says coach Harendra Singh.
India will once again rely heavily on skipper and penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh to do the scoring. The in-form Sandeep has scored four of India's seven goals in the tournament.
In the other match, Malaysia would need just a draw to get through but New Zealand, like India, have to post a win to make the summit clash.
Clinical South Africa take series lead, eye World Cup
Friday, April 10, 2009 (Cape Town):Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers shared a century partnership to set up a comfortable 25-run win for South Africa in the third One-Day International against Australia at Newlands on Thursday.
Kallis (70) and De Villiers (80) laid the foundation for a South African total of 289 for six, putting on 114 off 131 balls for the third wicket. With wickets in hand, South Africa were able to score 94 off the last 10 overs.Australia made 264 for seven but were effectively out of the game after slumping to 114 for five with less than 20 overs remaining.
"It was a clinical performance," said South African captain Graeme Smith.
"We set up the innings well and had wickets in hand for the closing overs. 'Jakes' (Kallis) and AB showed a lot of skill and 289 was way above par."
Smith hailed the performance of spinners Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, who strangled the Australian batsmen in the middle overs on an unusually dry Newlands pitch.
Off-spinner Botha ended a promising innings of 20 by Australian skipper Ricky Ponting before left-armer Van der Merwe took the wickets of Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey in one over.
Van der Merwe, in his second One-Day International, took three for 37.
Part-time off-spinner JP Duminy had David Hussey caught at long-on as Australia's hopes were effectively extinguished. "The team leadership have identified slow bowling looking ahead to the World Cup in Asia in 2011," said Smith.
"We've got to back the spinners to do a good job. Johan has been doing it on his own and Roelof stepped up tonight and bowled really well in his second One-Day International." Callum Ferguson (63) and James Hopes (63 not out) gave the Australian innings respectability with a sixth wicket stand of 97.
Australia finished with 264 for seven. "They just got too many," admitted Ponting.
"Not very much went our way tonight but we got within 25 runs. We know what we need to do, especially the top three batsmen, but we need an all-round better team performance." The win gave South Africa a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, which continues in Port Elizabeth on Monday.
Kallis was solid in making his 70 off 87 balls before a powerful pull off Brett Geeves picked out James Hopes at midwicket.
De Villiers batted with flair but had some luck with three edged boundaries just wide of the wicketkeeper as he made his 80 off 87 balls before he fell to Johnson in the first over of the final power play.
South Africa had only scored 233 after 45 overs at the end of their power play but some powerful hitting by Albie Morkel and Mark Boucher enabled them to add 56 in the last five overs.
Smith ended a streak of seven successive losing tosses against opposite number Ponting. He had no hesitation in batting on a ground where the side batting second under lights has often struggled.
Fast bowler Mitchell Johnson was outstanding for Australia, taking four for 34 in his ten overs.
IPL could have been held in India in two parts: PC
Friday, April 10, 2009 (New Delhi): Home Minister P Chidambaram reckons the Indian Premier League could have been held in India in two parts if the organisers had taken into account the security concerns and not put pressure on the state governments.
"We could have done it, but only if they (IPL officials) had reflected on the concerns of the police and not try to pressurise the (state) chief ministers," Chidambaram said."I am not letting out any secret by that. If they had only listened to the concerns of the police, this tournament could have been played in two parts. First the league part and then give a break for the critical three or four week period and then the knock-out part," he told a news channel.
IPL, which coincided with the general elections in the country, was shifted to South Africa after the government expressed reservations on providing security for the tournament. BCCI President Shashank Manohar had cited "the attitude of government" as the reason for shifting the IPL to South Africa.
"But they (IPL organisers) were trying to be too clever by putting the pressure on chief ministers and ultimately the police told the chief ministers that 'sorry, we cannot provide security'," he said.
Chidambaram said the IPL organisers refused to understand the difficulties and compulsions of police forces and denied that there was any ego clash with tournament Commissioner Lalit Modi.
"Where is the ego? I am too small a person compared to Mr Modi. The point is they did not try to understand the compulsions and concerns of the police force.
"Ultimately the political buck will stop at the chief minister but the burden will have to be taken by the police. They should have understood the concerns of the police," he said.
Asked if he had any regrets of being forced to watch the IPL on television, Chidambaram said: "I will watch it on television and will be amongst the 98 per cent of the viewers who watch the IPL on television. Only two per cent of the viewers watch the IPL matches on the ground."
Gagan fetches bronze at ISSF World Cup
Friday, April 10, 2009 (New Delhi):Indian shooting star Gagan Narang on Friday won the bronze medal in the men's 10 meter air rifle event of the first ISSF World Cup of the year in Chongwon, Korea.
Narang fired an aggregate of 696.7 which included a score of 594/600 in the qualification. He entered the finals as the eighth and last shooter but made up the difference by shooting scores of 102.7 to finish on the podium.
Both gold and silver medals were clinched by China with Zho Qinan and Cao Yifei scoring 700.3 (597+103.3) and 698.6 (595+103.6) respectively.
Another Indian in the fray, Sanjeev Rajput also reached the finals at fifth place with a score of 595 but was relegated to seventh place with a poor final round of 100.4. His compatriot PT Raghunath failed to qualify for the finals after shooting only 591.
As many as 38 Indian rifle and pistol shooters are competing in the April 9-15 event. They will then travel to Beijing for the second leg of the 2009 World Cup series from April 17-23.
Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and Anjali Bhagwat have given the event a miss.
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