India beat New Zealand by an innings and 115 runs

Hyderabad: Having raised visions of a stirring fightback, New Zealand imploded for the second time in as many days to slump to an embarrassing innings and 115-run humbling in the first Test against India.



Through Brendon McCullum, playing out of character with emphasis on occupation of the crease rather than flamboyant stroke-making, and Kane Williamson, the impressive right-hand bat who once again showed great gumption and application, New Zealand were making a brave fist of thwarting India’s charge at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad.

Once the second-wicket association was terminated by Steve Davis’ finger of doom, the fight went prematurely out of New Zealand. 41 for one when the fourth day’s play began two hours behind schedule at 11.00 am due to heavy overnight and early morning rain, New Zealand were rolled over for 164 after being forced to follow on, 279 behind on the first count.

India’s bowlers had appeared a little listless and somewhat shorn of ideas when McCullum and Williamson were together. That was as much to do with the fact that the two batsmen handled the spin duo of R Ashwin, who completed his maiden ten-wicket match haul, and Pragyan Ojha with plenty of composure, as the fact that the pitch held together nicely because it had been under covers for a long time and because the effect of the roller was negating any purchase the spinners might have got.

The 90-minute session to lunch was all about McCullum and Williamson, but once Umesh Yadav, with no little help from Davis, snipped that stand in the third over on resumption, India were all over New Zealand like a bad rash.

Like in the first innings, Ashwin (6 for 54) mushroomed into a giant proposition post lunch with his great control as well as his willingness to bring his variations into play against the lower order. His second six-wicket innings haul gave him match figures of 12 for 85, thoroughly deserved, even if New Zealand didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory.

Apart from Ashwin’s incisiveness and Ojha’s relentless probing, what stood out most on Saturday was India’s excellent close-in catching. Virender Sehwag was the star with two brilliant catches at slip, the one to his right diving full length to get rid of James Franklin easily the catch of the match, while Virat Kohli wasn’t far behind.

Seldom, though, will victory come India’s way so easily again. New Zealand had promised a fight, and till McCullum and Williamson were around, it appeared as if that talk hadn’t been an empty boast. McCullum’s dismissal, adjudged leg before to Umesh Yadav when he inside-edged the ball on to his pads, sent them into an inexorable tailspin, Ross Taylor’s inexplicable shouldering of arms to a sharp Ashwin offbreak without putting up a second line of defence indicative of the turmoil and uncertainty in the New Zealand minds.

Perhaps, the New Zealand batsmen sitting in the pavilion hadn’t paid too much notice when McCullum, putting mind over matter, and Williamson were batting. The loose balls – and there weren’t many – were put away with nonchalant ease while the good ones were kept away as they both played the ball late, right under their eyes and with soft hands. After an extended stint of spin with both ends, Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned to Zaheer Khan, but well as Zaheer bowled, success wasn’t forthcoming.

Yadav wasn’t brought on until the penultimate over before lunch – the 24th of the day – and struck with his 13th delivery, ending the 72-run stand between McCullum and Williamson, even if somewhat fortuitously. The wheels then came off, the last eight wickets tumbling for just 66 in next to no time.

Taylor’s dismissal was followed by a brief period of resistance involving Williamson and Daniel Flynn. It was a phase during which Ojha was off the firing line – he didn’t bowl for nearly two hours – but when Dhoni brought his left-arm spinner back, Ojha responded immediately with an absolute beauty.

He got one to drift in towards Williamson, till then in total command, and then break away from the batsman to catch the splice and offer Sehwag at slip a very simple catch. It was a special delivery; it needed to be one to evict Williamson, given the defensive authority with which he defied India for nearly three and a half hours.

From there on, the procession continued unabated. Ashwin spun a magical web of deceit around the lower order with offbreaks, the doosra and the carrom ball all thrown in. Like in the first innings, Chris Martin was his sixth and final victim to signal victory and send upwards of 20,000 fans into delirium. 1-0 up now, with the second Test beginning in Bangalore on August 31.

ICC Under-19 World Cup 2012 Final: Unmukt slams ton, India defeat Australia by 6 wickets

Townsville (Australia): Skipper Unmukt Chand slammed an unbeaten century guiding India to their third U-19 World Cup title defeating Australia in the final on Sunday.














India chased down the target of 226 runs that the defending champions set up after being called in to bat, with six wickets remaining and 14 balls to spare. Chand played a captain’s knock he scored unbeaten 111 runs.

Batting first, Australia lost four wickets at the score of 38. It was Trevor Head and captain William Bosisto who stemmed the flow of wickets and it took a run out to break the partnership that had grown to 65.

Next to join Bosisto was Ashton Turner who scored 43 to add 93 for the sixth wicket with the Aussie skipper. Man of the series, Bosisto top scored for the hosts with 87* while for India Sandeep Singh took 4/54. Spinner Harmeet Singh kept the batsmen in check returning with figures of 1/36 in 10 overs.

Indian chase also started on a negative note as they lost the wicket of in-form Prashant Chopra (0) in the first over itself. Baba Aparajith and Unmukt Chand then steered the innings forward scoring at a brisk pace adding 73 for the second wicket before Aparajith was brilliantly caught by Turner at extra cover.

Two more quick wickets and India looked a bit shaky. The Australians had them under pressure with two consecutive maidens that eventually led to the dismissal of Vijay Zol who poked at a wide delivery edging it to the keeper. Hanuma Vihari was caught by Turner off his own bowling to leave the 2008 champions tottering.

In came Smit Patel and joined his captain to first calm things down in the middle. The run rate had climbed to over six an over.

The duo managed to keep their heads calm and cool and refrained from taking any unnecessary risk seeing the overs of seamers Joel Paris and Gurinder Sandhu who bowled with tight line and length.

Unmukt Chand was dropped by his counterpart when he was on 84 and it proved to too costly for the Australians as he went on to complete his century that turned out to be the decisive factor.

Patel, who had also reached his half-century, sealed the victory with boundary towards midwicket region as the Indian squad broke into wild celebrations.

India enter U-19 World Cup final, to face Australia next

India relied on spinners Baba Aparajith and Harmeet Singh to pull off a thrilling 9-run victory over New Zealand and cruise into the final of the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup here on Thursday.
 

Defending a modest total of 209, Indian bowlers maintained their consistency throughout as they restricted New Zealand to 200 for nine in their 50 overs to set up a title clash against Australia on Sunday.
Needing 18 off last over, medium pacer Sandeep Sharma kept his cool as he gave away only nine runs as India made it to summit clash quite comfortably in the end at the Tony Ireland stadium.
Young Tamil Nadu lad Aparajith got his second successive man-of-the-match award for his all-round show as he scored 44 before taking the important wicket of Robert O'Donell.
This is India U-19 team's fourth appearance in the final of the tournament having won the 2000 and 2008 editions while they were runners-up in 2006.
A target of 210 was never a tall-order for the Black Caps colts but all-rounder Aparajith (1/29) and the young sardar from Mumbai Harmeet (2/30) stifled the set New Zealand pair of Cam Fletcher (53) and O'Donell (29) in the middle overs to set it up for the Indians.
The duo gave away only 59 runs in the 20 overs between them and also shared three wickets. The highlight certainly were the Batting Powerplay overs where two of them gave away only 14 runs in the five overs.
While New Zealand lost the first four wickets for 63 runs, Carter-O'Donell duo put on 56 runs for the fifth wicket without much fuss. It looked as if New Zealand were cruising along towards victory before Harmeet-Aparajith applied brakes on scoring. Back to-back maidens in the 34th and 35th overs suddenly increased the pressure on the Kiwis.
As the pressure mounted, O'Donell closed the face of his bat to an off-break from Aparajith to offer a simple return catch as India made decisive inroads.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/u-19-wc-india-enter-u-19-world-cup-final/1/214328.html

VVS has looked after his God-given gifts well: Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar, who was Laxman's first Test captain, talks to Sunday MiD DAY 

Sachin Tendulkar’s two captaincy stints for India are not laced with great success. But he’ll never forget VVS Laxman’s 167 at Sydney in the final innings of that ill-fated Test series which ended 3-0 in Australia’s favour.
He will also remember Laxman’s valuable half century on debut against an Allan Donald-led pace attack in Ahmedabad 1996 which in a way helped Tendulkar win his second Test as captain.

VVS Laxman plays on the leg side during Barbados Test against the West Indies in 2011 Pic/AFP

Laxman put a full stop to his international career with immediate effect on Saturday, probably leaving the selectors flushed with embarrassment since they already picked him in the squad for the August 23-27 opening Test against New Zealand in Hyderabad.
SUNDAY MiD DAY caught up with Laxman’s first Test captain to talk about the retiring hero and the grand manner in which he played the game.

Sachin Tendulkar

Excerpts:

When did you first hear about VVS Laxman?
I heard about him from Amol Muzumdar since they were teammates (at the junior level) before meeting him for the first time in 1996. We were in England when he accompanied Amol, who came to visit me during the tour.

What did you feel when you first saw him play?
I thought he was really fantastic. I remember when I was his captain on the 1996-97 tour of South Africa, he got hit and broke his finger in Johannesburg. He was crying in one corner of the dressing room. I went up to him and said, ‘don’t worry. This is just the beginning and you have a long way to go.’ Now, I am really happy with whatever he has been able to achieve and his contribution has been immense. He has inspired a lot of youngsters and he’s played some unbelievable knocks — very important ones. He has also been a terrific fielder in slips; really good catcher and yes, that has probably gone a bit unnoticed. He has been a terrific catcher, he’s got  beautiful hands.

Your best VVS Laxman moment?
It has to be the 281 (against Australia at Kolkata in 2001) although he played some unbelievable knocks around that period. But 281 has to be on top of the list.

In Sydney (2000) when things were going so bad for you, he went out and scored 167 in the Test match. How did you feel as captain?
If we have to go into statistics of that series… we played three Tests and you would expect the top seven guys to contribute in 7x 6= 42 innings. In 42 innings, Sourav Ganguly scored a fifty, Laxman got a hundred and I got two fifties and a hundred. Other than that, not one scored runs. Out of 42 innings, if you are going to have only five to six 50 plus scores, you are bound to have a disastrous tour. Laxman really played well in Sydney, hit some terrific shots and that is why I requested the BCCI and the selection committee to keep him for the one-day triangular series.

A lot of people remember Dilip Vengsarkar’s three consecutive hundreds at Lord’s. But Laxman did the same at a famous venue too — the Sydney Cricket Ground with his hundreds in 2000, 2004 and 2008… 
Absolutely awesome! It is an equally big achievement because those hundreds came against top opposition as well.

If God gave you a choice and offered you VVS Laxman’s skills, which one would you pick?
That ability to use his wrists so well while batting. Many a time… 99 per cent batters would play a ball to the covers and the same ball Laxman would end up playing an on-drive. And it’s not decided…it’s just God’s gift — his natural talent and ability to find gaps and use his wrists. I am sure he has not specially worked on it. It is a gift from God and he has looked after it pretty well.

Your view on his decision to quit?
It’s HIS decision. He knows his body and mental frame of mind. Only he can talk about his mental make-up.  You can judge physical preparation; a physio can tell you what things are not right and whether one is in good shape, but if you have to judge from the mental side, he’s the only person who can answer you.

 

Fans bid tearful goodbye to Dara Singh

Bollywood celebrities and people from all walks of society gathered to pay their last respects to legendary wrestler-actor Dara Singh, who was cremated in suburban Vile Parle this afternoon.



Members of the film fraternity and thousands of fans witnessed his final journey.

His body was taken in procession in a truck decorated with flowers, from his home 'Dara Villa' to the Pawan Hans crematorium, where the last rites were performed.

Besides family members, those present from the film industry were veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, director Sajid Khan, actor-director Parmeet Sethi, actors Dheeraj Kumar, Jaspal Bhatti, Anoop Soni and Raza Murad.

Congress leader Kripashankar Singh was also present. He told reporters that he had come to pay tributes on behalf of party president Sonia Gandhi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and the Congress party.

TV actor Feroz Khan, who was with him in serial 'Mahabharat' said, "He was like a father to me...he treated me like his son. Simplicity was another name of Dara Singh."

Abhishek Bachchan, Tabu, Bobby Deol, Manoj Kumar and others went to his residence in Juhu to pay condolences.

The last rites were performed by his three sons including TV-film actor Vindu Dara Singh.

A childhood hero to many for his wrestling prowess, 83-year-old Singh, who played Hanuman in epic teleserial 'Ramayan' and also dabbled in politics, passed away at his residence in Juhu in suburban Mumbai today.

On July 7, Dara Singh was rushed to the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital by his family members following a cardiac problem. He had been in a critical condition since then. Two days later, he was put on dialysis after his kidneys stopped functioning.

Wednesday night he was shifted from the hospital to his Juhu home as it was his family's wish that he should be at home in the last stages of his life, a hospital official had told

The " Rustam-e-Hind" title holder is survived by his wife and six children - three sons and three daughters. One of his sons, Vindo Dara Singh, is a known name in showbiz.

Injured Mark Boucher retires from international cricket

London: South Africa's Mark Boucher retired from international cricket with immediate effect on Tuesday after being struck in the eye a day earlier. The prolific wicket-keeper had a surgery on his eye in England and has flown back home.



Boucher, who has played in 147 Tests and 295 ODIs, was struck by a bail during his team's tour opener against English county Somerset. "It is with sadness, and in some pain, that I make this announcement. Due to the severity of my eye injury, I will not be able to play International cricket again," a statement on his behalf said. The third Test of the series - at Lords - would have been the 150th appearance for the player who will retire with 999 international dismissals. His 555 dismissals in Tests is a record.

Team manager Mohammed Moosajee had earlier said that the extent of Boucher's injury was severe and that it was "difficult to determine the extent of the long-term damage."

The 35-year-old player has been a solid performer for the Proteas and his brilliant skills behind the stumps was matched only by his ability with the bat.

Boucher made his international Test debut against Pakistan in 1997 and has since been a permanent part of the national side.
On Tuesday, Boucher in his statement issued his thanks for the wishes. "I am deeply touched by all the well wishes. I wish the team well in the UK, as I head home and onto a road of uncertain recovery."
South African Test skipper Graeme Smith who read out Boucher's statement, expressed his sadness at the announcement and called the player 'a patriotic South African and a fighter.'
"Bouch, we have walked a long road together, and we are saddened to part under these circumstances. For the 14years of your International career, you have been a true Proteas warrior, a patriotic South African, a fighter who asks nothing and gives everything," he said in a personal message.

Sachin opts out; Sehwag, Zaheer return to squad

Opener Virender Sehwag and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan on Wednesday returned to a 15-member Indian cricket squad after recovering from injuries even as senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar decided to skip the limited overs tour of Sri Lanka starting July 21. Sehwag, Zaheer, along with young pacer Umesh Yadav, had sat out of the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in March due to fitness issues. While Sehwag was nursing back spasms and a shoulder injury, Zaheer and Umesh too had niggles.

Tendulkar, who has played only two ODI series since 2011 World Cup and is now a Rajya Sabha MP, made himself unavailable for selection for the Lanka tour which will have five ODIs and a Twenty20 International.
Young Mumbai batsman Ajinkya Rahane has replaced Tendulkar in the side. The other change from the Asia Cup side is the inclusion of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in place of out-of-form all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
The committee, which picked the squad in a meeting here, also decided to include Umesh at the expense of Praveen Kumar.
"We have the best available team. Sachin is not available. I think it is a very good side which has very strong batting line-up and good bowlers and we are confident that it will do well in Sri Lanka," chairman of selection committee Krishnamachari Srikkanth told reporters after announcing the squad.
There was no place for feisty off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who endured indifferent form during the IPL and has now signed up with English county side Essex, as the selectors continued to ignore him while Rahul Sahrma was retained in the side. The team will thus have three spinners on low-bouncing and spinning tracks in Sri Lanka.
The team will also have seven specialist batsmen, four seamers and a wicketkeeper in captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The team has endured poor results since the second half of last year, having been whitewashed in the Test series in England and Australia before failing to make the finals of the Asia Cup.
"It is a long season ahead and I think we will come back to winning ways. Sachin wants to extend his career. He must be aiming at England and Australia (series later this year). He is spacing it out very well," said Srikkanth.
"I don't really want to dwell on whys, they are difficult. We should look at what has been selected," he said.
The rest of the squad remains the same with the selectors retaining Virat Kohli as vice-captain, a position that the Delhi youngster took from opener Gautam Gambhir during the Asia Cup.
"Virat Kohli has been appointed vice-captain, the idea is continuity. Virat got brilliant hundreds after becoming vice captain which shows that he likes responsibility," explained Srikkanth.
Aggressive but inconsistent all-rounder Yusuf Pathan was ignored after failing to make an impact in the IPL, along with his brother Irfan.
In Sri Lanka, India will play a five-match ODI series between July 21 and August 4 followed by a one-off Twenty20 International on August 7.
A little over a month separates the Sri Lanka tour and the Twenty20 World Cup, which will be played in the same country.
Team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virat Kohli (vice-capt), Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Ashok Dinda, Suresh Raina, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma.