The second day of the Challenger Series belonged to Subramaniam Badrinath (82 not out) and Gautam Gambhir (73). Both played elegantly to help India Red post a commanding 303 for 7 against India Green today, and thereby help their side to an 88-run win. India Red won with a bonus point and have already qualified for the finals. That leaves the two teams meeting tomorrow— Green and Blue — to decide on the other finalist. If India Blue wins tomorrow’s encounter they will qualify, or else it will boil down to the net run rate.
Both Gambhir and Badrinath seemed to be competing against each other. Interestingly Badrinath was drafted into the Indian team in place of Gambhir during the Australia series after the southpaw got injured. Now, Badrinath would like to retain his spot, while Gambhir would want to get his berth back when the selectors meet here tomorrow to pick the squad for the Pakistan series. And both, with equally good performances, have made the task of the five wise men a bit difficult.
Gambhir was more cautious to begin with, and then slowly started to attack the bowlers, just playing according to the situation to set the platform for a big total. During his 74-ball innings, Gambhir showed his class— playing shots on all sides of the wicket through his seven boundaries.
But just when he looked set for a century, an ambitious shot brought an end to his knock. Piyush Chawla, in his second over, tossed up on the middle and off, and the batsman, looking to hit over mid-wicket, guided the ball to Manoj Tiwary.
Badrinath, batting at No. 5, seemed to be continuing from his 41-run knock yesterday — middling the ball from the start and ensuring that the team didn’t lose the initiative given by Gambhir. He was though, a shade slower than Gambhir to reach the
50-mark. The Tamil Nadu player took 62 deliveries to Gambhir’s 58 but made up for it soon after, racing to 82 from 79 balls, including seven boundaries and a last ball six off Munaf Patel to take the total past 300.
In the initial part of his innings, Badrinath was playing second fiddle to the more attacking Virat Kohli (40 off 45 balls). The duo put on 85 runs for the fifth wicket before 18-year-old Delhi batsman was stumped by Parthiv Patel off Iqbal Abdulla. Kohli hit two huge sixes and a boundary. Later Paresh Patel played a cameo 12-ball 22 to give impetus to the scoring rate.
India Green, in reply, never looked in contention as they lost wickets at regular intervals even as the required run-rate kept mounting. Only Tiwary looked capable of guiding the ship with a steady 65 but lack of support from the other end didn’t help.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Badrinath, GauthamGambhir blaze to glory
Selection is purely on merit: DILIP VENGSARKAR
Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar may be drawing criticism for being too harsh to Rahul Dravid by dropping him from the squad for the first two ODIs against Pakistan, but the man on the hot seat insisted that he picked the team "purely on merit".
"You cannot make everybody happy. Every time you have to pick the best combination, a winning combination. If we pick somebody, we are asked, 'Why did you pick him?' If we drop somebody, we are asked, 'Why did you drop him?' (But) it's how you take it.
"We pick a player on his form and fitness. And purely on merit. You watch cricket and you know how well the person is batting, whether he is in form or not,"
"When you pick a player it means you believe in him,unless he proves you wrong. But that is very rare," he said, adding "you can't put numbers to it.
For instance, say that if the player does not perform for five games, he is out. You cannot do that."
Asked if it was difficult to drop a senior player, Vengsarkar said, "there is nothing like senior, junior or middle-aged guys. Just because someone is a youngster, he won't be getting half-volleys in international cricket. Everyone has to be picked on merit, form and fitness."
On who would take the place of Rahul Dravid, who was a regular in the middle order, Vengsarkar said, "at this stage Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir are there and waiting in the wings are Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma. So we have a lot of options".
World trap shooter Manavjit Singh won the individual gold and also helped India clinch the team gold at the 2007 Asian Clay Shooting Championship in a
Manavjit won the gold in a tiebreaker, beating Khaled of Kuwait, while two other teammates, Zorawar Singh and Anwer Sultan also grabbed the gold Friday,
"In the qualifying round, Khaled was leading with 120/125 points and Manavjit was at the second place with 118 points.
"In the finals, Manavjit shot 20 and Khaled 18. In the tie shoot, Manav won the gold and Khaled the silver medal. The bronze medal went to Singapore," it said.
India won the team gold with a total of 354/375 points.
NRAI also announced in a meeting held in Manila Saturday that the Asian Clay Shooting Federation will organize the next championship in Jaipur in February 2008.
DENIS WATSON leads Charles Schwab Cup
Denis Watson shot a 4-under 68 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead over defending champion Jim Thorpe and Brad Bryant into the final round of the Champion Tour's season-ending Charles Schwab Championship.
He trailed by two strokes after 13 holes and went into No 18 a shot behind Thorpe, the 2003 and 2006 winner.
But Thorpe made a double bogey on the 412-yard, par-4 final hole to finish with a 69.
Watson had a 15-under 201 total.
Bryant, one of four players in contention for the Charles Schwab Cup race for a $1 million (euro700,000 million) annuity, matched his best round of the tournament, a 67 to close the gap behind Watson.
Bryant, who trails Loren Roberts in the Cup race by 697 points, can become just the second player to win both the season-finale and the Cup championship in the same season and needs to win on Sunday to have a chance. He will need some help.
At 6-under 210, Roberts was tied for 18th place. Jay Haas, 165 points behind Roberts, shot a 71 to reach 7 under.
Napoli beats Juventus
Maurizio Domizzi scored twice from the penalty spot on Saturday to lead Napoli over Juventus 3-1 in the Italian first division.
Walter Gargano got Napoli's other goal in the 50th, four minutes after Alessandro Del Piero put Juventus ahead 1-0.
Also on Saturday, Alessandro Rosina scored to help Torino beat Cagliari 2-0 for only its second victory in the league.
Inter Milan leads the Serie A with 20 points, followed by Juventus with 17, Fiorentina with 16, AS Roma with 15 and Napoli with 14. Torino has 11 points, three more than Cagliari.
On Sunday, Inter can extend its lead at sixth-place Palermo, while Fiorentina travels to Genoa and Roma faces a stern test at AC Milan.
Napoli conceded four goals in a 4-4 draw with AS Roma last week but it was much tighter at the back against Juventus, with a strong performance by Paolo Cannavaro - brother of Italy and Real Madrid defender Fabio Cannavaro.
"We closed down the space well," Napoli coach Eddy Reja said. "Despite playing with three forwards they had little freedom."
Sachin to be Test captain: Sources
Sachin Tendulkar has agreed to be captain for the next two test series against Pakistan and Australia, sources said.
Sachin's captaincy has been finalised but an announcement is likely only after November 8.
A debate has been raging for quite some time now, as to whether there should be different captains for the test and one day teams.
While M S Dhoni has been appreciated for the way he has captained the Twenty20 and one day teams, it really was a two horse race between Dhoni and Sachin for the test captaincy.
The 2007 India-Pakistan tennis series will be held in Pakistan next month, All India Tennis Association (AITA) announced here Saturday.
The six-day series will comprise two men's singles, one women's singles, one men's doubles and one mixed doubles match starting Nov 12. The AITA, however, did not name the venue.
The Indian team will comprise three boys - Aditya Madkekar, Vivek Shokeen and Ashutosh Singh - and two girls - Parija Maloo and Sonal Phadke.
Former India Davis Cupper Akhtar Ali is the team coach.