SHILLONG: Tripura Frontier defeated TC & S Hazaribagh and South Bengal Frontier defeated Rajasthan Frontier in the first singles during the Third Force Level Inter Frontier BSF Badminton Championship at the Tirot Sing Syiem Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.
The team event was won by Gujarat Frontier whereas TC & S Hazaribagh was declared Runners-up. The final match along with the closing ceremony will be held on Friday.
Mohali: India redeemed themselves by clinching the ODI series against England by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead after a nail-biting five-wicket victory in the third cricket one-dayer here on Thursday.
After England scored a competitive 298 for four, the home side rode on Ajinkya Rahane’s 91 and a composed captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s calculated onslaught to overhaul the target of 299 with four balls to spare.
In a match that saw fortunes fluctuating from one team to the other, Dhoni (35 not out off 31) and Ravindra Jadeja (26 not out off 24) added 65 runs for the unseparated sixth-wicket stand and take the game to India’s favour at the PCA stadium.
India needed seven runs to win from the last over bowled by Tim Bresnan and Dhoni hit two consecutive fours from the first two balls to take his side to 300 for five and signal a thrilling victory and 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
The ODI series win was a sweet revenge for India, who were whitewashed in all formats of the game in the full tour of England this summer. They had lost 0-3 in the five-match ODI series in England last month.
Rahane stole the limelight with his brilliant 104-ball knock to help India chase down the target. Opener Gautam Gambhir gave the perfect support to Rahane with a 60-ball 59 before Dhoni and Jadeja played short little cameos towards the end to register the second highest run chase at Mohali.
For the tourists, Steven Finn and Tim Bresnan scalped two wickets apiece, giving away 44 and 62 runs respectively.
Earlier, Jonathan Trott scored a majestic unbeaten 98 and stitched two crucial partnerships with Kevin Pietersen and Samit Patel to guide England to a challenging 298 for four.
Trott anchored the England innings during his 116-ball unconquered knock and together with Pietersen (64) and Patel (70 not out) added 101 and unbeaten 103 runs, respectively.
Trott crafted his innings beautifully, playing cautiously initially when Pietersen was going great guns but opened up later on in Patel’s company.
Trott and Patel took the task to the opposition and sent the Indian bowlers on a leather hunt to pile up a huge 91 runs in the last 10 overs. Patel was the more aggressive of the two as he did not spare a single Indian bowler en route to his quickfire half-century that came off just 43 balls, studded with seven boundaries and two huge hits over the fence. (PTI)
Mohali: England captain Alastair Cook on Thursday admitted that his team’s close defeat to India in the ODI series was hard to swallow.
“It’s a tough defeat to take especially when the game was so close. Our fielding has been slightly below par, which is unusual for us, and today it cost us 20 to 25 runs in the field and that made the difference between the two sides,” he said.
“Six an over is always a tough chase, but credit to the way Dhoni and Jadeja finished that off,” Cook added.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni praised his top-order batsmen for taking the home side to a series-clinching five-wicket victory over England in the third one-dayer here.
“I think it was a very good performance. The middle-order did not bat so well but the upper middle order did the job for us. The openers batted really well. Ajinkya Rahane and Gautam Gambhir set the platform with their partnership,” said Dhoni after the match.
“The way Rahane batted along with Gambhir in the middle after the start was crucial. We lost wickets at the wrong time though, and we had to get another partnership going. They batted really well,” the skipper added.
After Rahane (91) and Gambhir (58) raised a solid foundation, Dhoni (35 not out off 31) and Ravindra Jadeja (26 not out off 24) provided the finishing touches, adding 65 runs for the unseparated sixth-wicket stand to seal the issue in India’s favour at the PCA stadium.
Dhoni said the bowling department still needs to improve as all the Indian bowlers bled runs today barring left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja.
“We gave away too many boundaries and an opportunity to the opposition to score near 300-plus score. We gave away a few too many boundaries with the ball. We still need to improve,” he said.
Man-of-the-match Ajinkya Rahane said he was determined to perform well in this match after failing to do much with the bat in the last few one-dayers.
“Last few games were not good for me and I was determined to do well in this game.” (PTI)
LONDON: For so long a match simply about local bragging rights, the Manchester derby suddenly has much more riding on it ahead of this season’s first Premier League clash between title contenders United and City at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Bankrolled by Abu Dhabi billionaire Sheikh Mansour since 2008, City is challenging for the English title for the first time in a generation and climbed above United into first place in the league last weekend.
With a star-studded squad and a vast array of attacking talent, Roberto Mancini’s side look to be United’s biggest threat to the defense of its title.
“In the last couple of years, they have become more intense and there’s more importance attached to them,” United manager Alex Ferguson said of the Manchester derbies.
“On Sunday, it’s top of the league and second-top, and it really builds up into a fantastic prospect for everyone. I am looking forward to that.”
By drawing 1-1 at Liverpool on Saturday, United slipped two points behind City. Chelsea, which visits Queens Park Rangers on Sunday in a west London derby, is a point further back in third.
One of the Premier League’s three remaining unbeaten records could go at Old Trafford, where City was beaten 2-1 last season thanks to Wayne Rooney’s sensational overhead kick in the 78th minute.
The team from the blue half of Manchester has improved since then, earning its first taste of Champions League football and looking like a side capable of winning the club’s first English title since 1968. A winner of seven of its eight league games this season, City comes into the match on the back of a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Villarreal in the Champions League, which kept alive its hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage.
“We will go into Sunday’s game, knowing it is a massive one, with a little bit more confidence now,” City midfielder Gareth Barry said. “But it is not a place you can go and relax—we have got to go and play our best game of the season to get something out of it.”
History is against City as it takes the short trip across Manchester.
Ferguson’s men have won their past 19 league matches at home and won five of the past six Premier League meetings with their local rivals, drawing the other one. (Agencies)
Paris: A trio of European football giants headed by Chelsea gave Champions League minnows a stark lesson in the gap between them in the latest round of group matches.
Chelsea, who are yet to realise billionaire owner Roman Abramovich’s dream of winning the trophy, crushed Belgian side Genk 5-0 with Spanish striker Fernando Torres grabbing a first-half double yesterday.
Torres’ first goals in the competition in 875 minutes helped Chelsea to their biggest Champions League win since beating Galatasaray by the same scoreline in 1999.
AC Milan and Barcelona also recorded victories over two of the lesser lights though not by such large margins, Milan beating BATE Borisov 2-0, Kevin-Prince Boateng scoring a great second, while holders Barcelona edged Viktoria Plzen 2-0.
The victories, though, leave the two of them all but certain to qualify and the only question remaining is who finishes top of their Group H.
That was certainly the matter on Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri’s mind.
“It was an important win tonight to help with qualification, we still need points but our aim is to be playing Barcelona for first place, that would be an important result for the subsequent draw,” he said.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola admitted that his side’s performance had lacked the cutting edge.
“It was a good game but not an exhibition of football from us,” he said.
“It is never easy when the opposition is defending very deep but it was not just a case of the ball not going in, we were not clinical enough.”
Chelsea manager Andres Villas-Boas could afford to make six changes to the starting line-up that beat Everton last Saturday and saw his side wrap up the match in the first-half.
Torres’ double and one apiece from another former Liverpool player Raul Meireles and Branko Ivanovic left Genk reeling before Salomon Kalou added another in the second half.
“We were happy to score very early,” Villas-Boas said. “That put us in a very comfortable position.
“In a game that everyone expects you to win surprises can happen but we were able to keep our concentration and get a good result.”
Chelsea lead Group E by a point from German side Bayer Leverkusen, who showed great spirit in coming from 1-0 down at home to Valencia to win 2-1.
Two goals in three second-half minutes from Andre Schurrle and Sidney Sam getting them a crucial win.
Chelsea’s struggling Premier League rivals Arsenal – who like Chelsea have yet to capture the trophy having lost in the one final they also contested – scored a late winner through Aaron Ramsey to come away from Marseille with a 1-0 win.
The win takes Arsenal to top of Group F, a point ahead of Marseille while Greek side Olympiakos are three points behind the French outfit after recording their first win with a 3-1 victory over disappointing German champions Borussia Dortmund.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger accepted that his side had got lucky.
“We left it very late,” admitted Wenger.
“There was a bit of luck, of course, but the three points are very welcome, even though it was very difficult to swallow for Marseille.”
His Marseille counterpart Didier Deschamps tried to look on the positive side.
“It makes things difficult but we shouldn’t get too down about the standings. We still have six points, and with Olympiakos beating Dortmund, everything is possible.”
Group G looks as if it will go down to the wire for both of the knockout places as Wednesday’s matches both ended in draws.
APOEL Nicosia remain the surprise of the quartet and top the table after grabbing an impressive 1-1 draw away at Portuguese giants Porto.
Shakhtar Donetsk – quarter-finalists last year – and Zenit St Petersburg fought out an entertaining 2-2 draw in the other match, though, the Ukrainian side probably need to win their next clash of they are not so slip out of contention for the top two places. (AFP)
NEW DELHI: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal suffered a straight-game defeat against Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei in the second round to crash out of the Denmark Open Super Series at Odense on Thursday.
However, Jwala Gutta and V Diju kept India’s tri-colour fluttering after notching up a 21-16, 21-19 victory over Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier of England in the second round of the mixed doubles category.
Fourth seed Saina lost 19-21, 13-21 to the unseeded Tai in a women’s singles match that lasted for 36 minutes at the Odense Sports Park.
Saina was slow to start and lagged behind as Tai first opened up a narrow 3-1 lead and extended it to 15-6. The Indian caught up with the Chinese Taipei player at 18-18 but Tai was unfazed as she sealed the first game.
The second game was a more intense battle as Saina and Tai were involved in a fierce battle till 10-10. But once again Tai surged ahead with short burst of points to eventually have the last laugh.
Jwala and Diju, who beat eighth seeds Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels of Germany 15-21, 24-22, 23-21 in a 56-minute match last night, held their nerves to stave off the challenge from their English counterparts.
The Indian pair moved to a 10-4 lead straight away but the English duo drew parity at 13-all before Jwala-Diju staved off their challenge to pocket the first game.
In the second game, both the parties engaged in a see-saw battle and moved neck-and-neck from 3-3 to 19-19 before the Indians surged ahead to seal the game.
On Wednesday, P Kashyap lost to world number one Chong Wei Lee 11-21, 13-21 in a 31-minute match in the men’s singles.
Saina was knocked out in the first round in the Indian Grand Prix in New Delhi early in the year. The Hyderabadi had won three Super Series titles – Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong – besides winning the Commonwealth Games and India Open Grand Prix gold last year.
However, this year, Saina has won only Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title while finishing runner-up at Malaysia and Indonesia. (PTI)
Perth: A lacklustre India conceded three early goals as they were outplayed by New Zealand 3-6 in their opening match of Lanco International Super Series Hockey 9s tournament here on Thursday.
India failed to shed off old habits of slow passing and slower goal-building moves much against the fast-paced game of their rivals and they conceded goals in regular intervals to frustrate the fairly large crowd who came to support them at the Perth Hockey Stadium on the opening day of the tournament.
The new format was put in place to play the game in a faster pace and increase the number of goals in each match but it seemed that India had a lot to do if they have to make an impact.
New Zealand were 3-0 up in no time after Stephen Jennes opened scoring in the sixth minute outsmarting otherwise alert defender Majit Kullu. Within a minute, Blair Hilton converted a half chance into a goal before Benjamin scored the best goal of the contest to put the Kiwis with three-goal cushion.
It was a reflexive backhander from the right top of the circle that took Indian captain and goalkeeper Bharat Chetri unawares. Even after taking 3-0 lead, New Zealand kept attacking and India had to thwart many surges.
Danish Mujtaba gave finishing touches to the medio Sardar Singh’s superb work in the 12th minute to score India’s first goal but they still needed to clear a two-goal deficit.
Sardar Singh, who was in fine touch, scored India’s second goal from the first penalty corner they got two minutes after the first break to give a semblance of a fight.
Substitute Ravi Pal then punched a hard one from the top of circle in the 24th minute to give India a chance to come back into the match at 3-4 scoreline.
India eves overcome Malaysia 3-1
Indian girls put up a brilliant performance to overcome a fighting Malaysia 3-1 to register the first win of the international played in the new Hockey 9s format here at the Perth Hockey Stadium.
Ritu Rani, guided the ball into the net off India’s first long corner in the 10th minute to score the first international goal of the Lanco International Super Series.
However, the goal did not last long as Malaysian captain Abdul Rahman Nadia capitalised on a loose Indian defence to soon score the equalised.
India then came out with a brief spell of attack that yielded two more goals. First one was hit by Sushila Chauhan in the 20th minute and second by Vandana Katariya three minutes from the hooter.
The game did not see penalty corner or stroke for which new rules have been devised, and the pace also did not match the projected one. If the idea behind Hockey 9s was to have more goals, it was not witnessed in the first match, at least.
The match was played on two 15-minute halves, with a goal caged a meter wider than the traditional one. (PTI)
Tripoli: Muammar Gaddafi, a maverick who held sway over Libya with an iron fist rule for 42 years, was on Thursday shot and killed by rebels in his hometown of Sirte after the revolutionary forces overran his last bastion.
“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot” were the last words of the 69-year-old dictator, who attempted to flee from a drain where he was hiding.
The rebels first shot him in his both legs and severely injured him but captured him alive. Gaddafi, whose regime was known for savage killing of dissidents, died when he was being transported in a car, reports said.
Gaddafi’s son Mutassim and Defence Minister Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr were also found dead in Sirte, the last major bastion of resistance two months after the regime fell in August, a National Transitional Council commander said.
Pan-Arabic satellite television Al-Jazeera first broke the news of his ignominious death which was later confirmed by Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril who told reporters here “Muammar Gaddafi has been killed.”
“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” he said, as the Libyan TV and Al-Jazeera TV showed Gaddafi lying dead, bleeding from the head and stripped to the waist as fighters rolled him over on the pavement.
“It is a historic moment. It is the end of tyranny and dictatorship. Gaddafi has met his fate,” Abdel Hafez Ghoga, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC), said. Celebratory gunfire and cries of Allah-o-Akbar rang out across Tripoli as the news of Gaddafi’s death spread.
Gun-totting rebel fighters went around the streets firing into the sky. Cars out on the roads honked horns and people hugged and kissed each other and sang national anthem.
Gaddafi’s body was taken to a mosque in Misrata, a report said quoting an NTC official.
NATO and the US State Department said they cannot confirm the reports of Gaddafi’s death.
“We’ve seen the media reports but can’t confirm them,” US State Department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin said.
Reacting to the development, Libyan Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said, “It’s a great victory for the Libyan people.”
Gaddafi came to power in a bloodless coup against King Idris in 1969, when he was just an army captain.
He claimed to be “King of Kings,” a title he had a gathering of tribal leaders grant him in 2008. But the revolt against his rule that began in February evolved into civil war, leading to his ouster from power.
Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in the Netherlands for alleged crimes against humanity, had not been seen in public in months.
Anti-Gaddafi fighters in Sirte celebrated by firing in the air.
In Benghazi and Mistra, crowds gathered in the streets to start celebrating the death of Gaddafi. Thousands of civilians had fled Sirte. (PTI)
Islamabad: A “perturbed” Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has flayed Interior Minister Rehman Malik for his claims of uncovering an al-Qaeda plot to kidnap Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and blamed the statement for his penchant to remain in headlines.
The premier expressed his “serious reservations” at Malik’s claim about uncovering the al-Qaeda and Taliban plot to kidnap the chairman of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party. Gilani made the remarks during a recent meal with some parliamentarians, the Dawn newspaper quoted its sources as saying.
“I really cannot understand what prompted Mr Malik to pass such a statement to the media on a very sensitive issue. His only problem is that he always wants to be in headlines,” Gilani was quoted as saying by an unnamed aide.
The report said: “Anybody who is privy to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has no doubts that he does not like Interior Minister Rehman Malik mainly because of his weakness for antics.
But of late, the premier has started speaking his mind about Mr Malik with regularity”.
During a recent interaction with the media, Malik claimed al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had hatched a plot to kidnap 23-year-old Bilawal in Karachi. He said the information had come to light two weeks ago. The Taliban and al-Qaeda had designs on VIPs but the government was taking steps to pre-empt their aims, he had said.
Meanwhile, Gilani further said that Malik had been “advised to be careful while talking to media” but he did not listen to anybody.
The aide said Gilani was “perturbed” over Malik’s remarks about the plot to abduct Bilawal.
The premier hinted he would take up the issue with President Asif Ali Zardari, who is Bilawal’s father.
An unnamed parliamentarian who was present at the meeting where Gilani took a dig at Malik said this was not the first time that the premier had had questioned the Interior Minister’s behaviour.
The lawmaker said it was an open secret that a majority of PPP leaders did not like Malik but since he was considered a confidant of President Zardari, “we don’t want to confront him”.
The parliamentarian said that because of Malik’s closeness with President Zardari, it was Gilani who received complaints against the Interior Minister from the PPP rank and file.
Malik had claimed last year when an Air Blue plane crashed in the Margalla Hills that some passengers were alive and talking, the lawmaker recalled. Malik even passed on this information to Gilani, the lawmaker added.
There were no survivors in the crash and Malik faced considerable criticism and embarrassment for his comments at the time. (PTI)
London: Nicolas Sarkozy has become a father for the fourth time after wife and former supermodel Carla Bruni gave birth to a girl, the first child born to an incumbent French president.
Sarkozy, 56, spent around half hour with Italy-born Carla, 43, Wednesday before leaving for a meeting in Germany with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The baby was delivered at the private Muette Clinic in Paris Wednesday.
“She’s had the baby, it’s a little girl,” Daily Mail quoted a staff member as saying.
A government source said: “It’s true. The First Lady had a baby girl.”
While Bruni has a 10-year-old son, Aurelien, with former lover, philosopher Rafael Enthoven, Sarkozy has two sons — Pierre, 26, and Jean, 25 — from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli.
He has a third son, 14-year-old Louis, from his second wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz.
Sarkozy had met Bruni at a Paris dinner party about four years back. They married after a whirlwind 80-day romance. They are one of the most photographed couples in the world.
During her pregnancy, Carla said: “Quite frankly, I can’t stand it any more. I spend most of my time either sitting down or lying down. I can’t drink or smoke any more. I’m in a hurry to get it over with.” (IANS)
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